I've always thought that as bees live in a very formalised and structured society that perhaps this is why Sherlock was fascinated by their study. It is described as beekeeping but it involves so much more than that. He also retired to write a treatise on deduction.

Oh, heavens. No slight to beekeepers intended. The work on colony collapse here in the states is worthy of the great one indeed. No, it was just that I expected a more "active" retirement than the ACD one presented. Perhaps he developed emphysema from all that smoking and was far more physically passive in retirement. After all, Mycroft's physical limitations (certainly not seen on the agile Mark Gatiss) was what prevented HIM from being the greatest detective.   

more "active"

lol, you try moving some hives around, putting those weird dresses on and off, kneeling down to observe at close quarter etc - I was smashed after half a day!

For an excellent discussion on Sherlock Holmes as lemon beekeeper, check out Sherlockian extraordinaire Susan Rice's little volume Compound of Excelsior which is still available from one of the finest purveyors of Sherlockian books (and other Victorian era Detectives) - George Vanderburgh's Battered Silicon Dispatch Box.



And don't forget that even though Holmes retired to the Sussex Down in 1903, he was back in action at least from 1912 - 1914 for the events leading up to and including "His Last Bow". LAST occurred of course in August 1914 but Holmes had to go undercover starting in 1912 in Chicago, through Buffalo and finally ending up back in England in order to crack a German spy ring while posing as a radical Irish-American named Altamont. Holmes must have kept himself in pretty fantastic shape (mentally, physically and detectively) during his 'retirement' in order to defeat Von Bork's spy network.

Last edited by always1895 (August 15, 2012 9:35 pm)

John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson - Beekeeping

Well ACD tried to do a bit of a haphazard fix with The Empty House and The Valley of Fear in extending the hand of Moriarty a bit.

Well, unlike the canon, the series appears to be chronological, so we most likely won't have to see Holmes retirement until much later and, even then, it may not be as developed as it was in The Lion's Mane.

For anyone who,  inspired by the great consulting detective, wants to know more about beekeeping:

kazza474 wrote:

" I took up beekeeping because I love Sherlock"

*loves hysterically*

awesome!