AN ELEMENTARY ATTRIBUTION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27047, 23 May 1953, Page 3

AN ELEMENTARY ATTRIBUTION

[A Fourth Leader tn "The Times"] Some of the most famous and familiar sayings when run to earth in books of reference are found to bear the stigma of being “attributed.” The Duke of Wellington’s remark about the playing fields of Eton is, to say the least of it, suspect and there seems little doubt that he never said “Up, Guards, and at ’em” although in his own words he “must have said and probably did say ‘Stand up, Guards.’ ” Regarding a more peaceful battlefield another and a bitter blow has lately fallen; George Hirst has broken all our hearts by declaring that he did not say “Wilfred, we’ll get them by singles.” He has pointed out that no batsman would thus deliberately deny himself the chance of a boundary, though we certainly have heard of Yorkshire doing so before lunch on the first day of the Lancashire match. Yet will all our [cherished quotations being “debunked” one by one we had held fast to "Elementary, my dear Watson.” And now there comes along an iconoclastic and disenchanting gentleman (writing in The Spectator from the scene of The Adventure of the Stockbroker’s Clerk) who roundly asserts that Sherlock Holmes never used those words. What is worse, a hurried and imperfect search seems to show that he is right. “My dear Watson” is easy; as the two men grew better acquainted it gradually superseded “My dear Doctor.” 'Die component parts of the desiderated phrase can nearly but, alas, not quite be found together in The Crooked Man. "I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson,” said Holmes and deduced that the practice justified a hansom. “Excellent!” I cried. “Elementary,” said he. „ This exclamation of “Excellent! produced a particular reaction so nearly identical, that students capable of a decent second class might well fall into error. In The Reigate Squires after a demonstration as to handwriting "Excellent!” cried Mr Acton. “But very superficial,” said Holmes. Again, in A Study in Scarlet, the earliest of all the writings, is the passage “Wonderful” I ejaculated. “Commonplace,” said Holmes. That is the best that can be made of a bad job on the spur of the moment. Heaven forbid that we should absolutely deny that those now almost sacred words can be discovered but they do not seem to be there. Holmes often used far more unkind expressions towards his friend as when (in The Sussex Vampire) he tartly observed in response to a suggestion “We must not let him think this Agency is a home for the weak-minded.” So too “Good old Watson” implied a certain derision not to be found in “My dear Watson." But that peculiarly galling epithet “elementary” appears to occur but once. It is a little sad; it would have been better, if the expression be permissible, to let sleeping attributions lie. And yet «11 but the most scholarly of us will soon get over the blow and will go on happily misquoting to the end of time.