"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches", one of the 56 short
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
stories written by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
, is the last of the twelve collected in ''
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, w ...
''. It was first published in ''
The Strand Magazine
''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...
'' in June 1892.
Plot summary
Violet Hunter visits Holmes, asking whether she should accept a job as
governess
A governess is a largely obsolete term for a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, th ...
—a job with extraordinary conditions. She is enticed by the phenomenal salary which, as originally offered, is £100 a year, later increased to £120 when Miss Hunter balks at having to cut her long
copper-coloured hair short (her previous position paid £48 a year). This is only one of many peculiar provisos to which she must agree. The employer, Jephro Rucastle, seems pleasant enough, yet Miss Hunter obviously has her suspicions.
She announces to Holmes, after the raised salary offer, that she will take the job, and Holmes suggests that if he is needed, a telegram will bring him to
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
, where Mr. Rucastle's country estate, the Copper Beeches, is situated.
After a fortnight, Holmes receives such a message, beseeching him to come and see her in
Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
. Miss Hunter tells them one of the most singular stories that they have ever heard. Mr. Rucastle would sometimes have Miss Hunter wear a particular
electric blue dress and sit in the front room reading, with her back to the front window. She began to suspect that she was not supposed to see something outside the window, and a small mirror shard hidden in her handkerchief showed her that she was right: a man was standing there on the road looking towards the house.
At another such session, Mr. Rucastle told a series of funny stories that made Miss Hunter laugh until she was quite weary. The one astonishing thing about this was that Mrs. Rucastle not only did not laugh but did not even smile.
There were other unsavoury things about the household. The six-year-old child that she was supposed to look after was astonishingly cruel to small animals. The servants, Mr. and Mrs. Toller, were quite a sour pair. A great
mastiff
A mastiff is a large and powerful type of dog. Mastiffs are among the largest dogs, and typically have a short coat, a long low-set tail and large feet; the skull is large and bulky, the muzzle broad and short (brachycephalic) and the ears dro ...
was kept on the property and always kept hungry. It was let out to prowl the grounds at night, and Miss Hunter was warned not to cross the threshold after dark. Also, Mr. Toller, who was quite often drunk, was the only one who had control over the dog.
There was also the odd discovery by Miss Hunter of what appeared to be her own tresses in a locked drawer. Upon checking her own luggage, however, they turned out to be another woman's, but identical in every way to Miss Hunter's, even to the unusual colour.
However, the most disturbing thing of all about the household was the mystery wing. Miss Hunter had observed a part of the house that did not seem to be used. The windows were either dirty or shuttered, and once she saw Mr. Rucastle coming out of the door leading into the wing looking most perturbed. Later, he explained that he used the rooms as a
photographic darkroom
A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and pho ...
, but Miss Hunter was not convinced.
When he is drunk, Mr. Toller leaves the keys in the door to the mystery wing. Miss Hunter sneaks in. She finds the place spooky, and when she spots a shadow moving on the other side of a locked door, she panics and runs out into Mr. Rucastle's waiting arms. Mr. Rucastle does not reproach her; instead, he pretends to comfort her. However, he overdoes his act and alerts her suspicions, causing her to claim that she saw nothing. In an instant, his expression changes from comfort to rage.
With the great detective's aid, it is discovered that someone has been kept a prisoner in the forbidden wing. The purpose of hiring Miss Hunter becomes clear: her presence is to convince the man watching from the road that Rucastle's daughter Alice, previously unknown to Miss Hunter and whom she resembles, is no longer interested in seeing him.
Holmes, Watson, and Miss Hunter find Miss Rucastle's secret room empty; Rucastle arrives and thinks the trio has helped his daughter escape and goes to fetch the mastiff to set upon the trespassers. Unfortunately for Rucastle, the dog has been accidentally starved for longer than usual and attacks him instead. Watson shoots the dog with his
revolver
A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
. Later, Mrs. Toller confirms Holmes' theory about Rucastle's daughter and reveals that when Alice came of age, she was to receive an annuity from her late mother's will; Rucastle tried to force his daughter to sign control of the inheritance over to him, which only resulted in Alice becoming ill with
brain fever
Brain fever describes a medical condition where a part of the brain becomes inflamed and causes symptoms that present as fever. The terminology is dated and is encountered most often in Victorian literature, where it typically describes a potential ...
; hence, the cut hair. Rucastle then tried to keep Alice away from her fiancé by locking her up in the mystery wing and hiring Miss Hunter to impersonate Alice.
Rucastle's daughter escapes with her fiancé, and they marry soon after. Watson notes that Holmes appears to have been drawn to Miss Hunter. However, to his disappointment, Holmes does not show any interest in Miss Hunter after the mystery has been solved, which was the real force behind his feelings. Rucastle survives as an invalid, kept alive solely by his second wife. Miss Hunter later becomes principal of a girls' school, where she meets with "considerable success."
Publication history
"The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" was first published in the UK in ''
The Strand Magazine
''The Strand Magazine'' was a monthly British magazine founded by George Newnes, composed of short fiction and general interest articles. It was published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950, running to 711 issues, though the ...
'' in June 1892, and in the United States in the US edition of the ''Strand'' in July 1892. The story was published with nine illustrations by
Sidney Paget
Sidney Edward Paget () (4 October 1860 – 28 January 1908) was a British artist of the Victorian era, best known for his illustrations that accompanied Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories in ''The Strand Magazine''.
Life
Sidne ...
in ''The Strand Magazine''.
[Cawthorne (2011), p. 72.] It was included in the short story collection ''
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, w ...
'',
which was published in October 1892.
Adaptations
Film and television
The story was adapted as the short film ''The Copper Beeches'' (1912), starring
Georges Tréville
Georges Tréville (28 July 1875 – 30 May 1944) was a French actor and film director.
Born as Georges Troly, during the silent era, he played the gentlemen thief Arsène Lupin in several short films. He also went to Britain to direct and star i ...
and directed, though uncredited, by
Adrien Caillard
Adrien is a given name and surname, and the French spelling for the name Adrian. It is also the masculine form of the feminine name Adrienne. It may refer to:
People Given name
* Adrien Auzout (1622–1691), French astronomer
* Adrien Baillet (1 ...
, as part of the
Éclair film series. ''The Copper Beeches'' (1912) was one of a series of eight silent film adaptations of the Holmes stories that were actually supervised by Conan Doyle. It is the only one that has survived. It is altered in several respects. Instead of beginning with Ms Hunter's visit to Baker Street to tell her story, it starts with Rucastle trying to force his daughter to sign away her rights to her fortune, and then ordering her fiance off his property. Rucastle subsequently locks up his daughter. The film only has Holmes (no Watson), and there is no appearance of Mrs Rucastle nor the servants. Nor is there any mastiff hound. The scheme of why Rucastle wants Ms Hunter to trim her hair and stand by the window is the same, but the motive is different: Rucastle seeking to lure the fiance back so he can pretend he shot him as a trespasser. In the end Holmes and the police capture Rucastle, and the daughter and her fiance are united.
Another short film adaptation, ''The Copper Beeches'' (1921), was released as part of the
Stoll film series starring
Eille Norwood
Eille Norwood (born Anthony Edward Brett; 11 October 1861 – 24 December 1948) was an English stage actor, director, and playwright best known today for playing Sherlock Holmes in a series of silent films.
Early life
He was born 11 October 1 ...
.
The story was adapted as "The Copper Beeches", a 1965 episode of ''
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
'' starring
Douglas Wilmer
Douglas Wilmer (8 January 1920 – 31 March 2016) was an English actor, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in the 1965 TV series ''Sherlock Holmes''.
Early life
Wilmer was born in Brentford, Middlesex, and received his education at King' ...
as Holmes,
Nigel Stock as Watson,
Suzanne Neve
Suzanne may refer to:
People
* Suzanne (given name), a feminine given name (including a list of people with the name)
* S. U. Zanne, pen name of August Vandekerkhove (1838–1923), Belgian writer and inventor
* Suzanne, pen name of Renée Méndez ...
as Violet Hunter and
Patrick Wymark
Patrick Wymark (11 July 192620 October 1970) was an English stage, film and television actor.
Early life
Wymark was born Patrick Carl Cheeseman in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. He was brought up in neighbouring Grimsby and frequently revisited th ...
as Jephro Rucastle.
"The Copper Beeches" is a 1985 episode of ''
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, w ...
'' starring
Jeremy Brett
Peter Jeremy William Huggins (3 November 1933 – 12 September 1995), known professionally as Jeremy Brett, was an English actor. He played fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in four Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV series), Granada TV series from 1984 ...
as Sherlock Holmes, with
Natasha Richardson
Natasha Jane Richardson (11 May 1963 – 18 March 2009) was an English actress of stage and screen. A member of the Redgrave family, Richardson was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and director/producer Tony Richardson and the granddaugh ...
as Miss Hunter and
Joss Ackland
Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland CBE (born 29 February 1928) is an English retired actor who has appeared in more than 130 film and television roles. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for portraying Jock Del ...
as Rucastle.
Radio
"The Copper Beeches" was adapted by
Edith Meiser
Edith Meiser (May 9, 1898 – September 26, 1993) was an American author and actress, who wrote mystery novels, stage plays, and numerous radio dramas. She is perhaps best known for bringing adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories to radio in the ...
as an episode of the radio series ''
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a collection of twelve short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, first published on 14 October 1892. It contains the earliest short stories featuring the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, w ...
''. The episode aired on 17 November 1930, with
Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson. Another radio dramatisation of the story aired on 5 May 1935 (with
Louis Hector
Louis Hector (March 19, 1883 – October 1968) was an American radio, theater, film, and television actor. He is best known for his roles of Sherlock Holmes in the 1937 broadcast of ''The Three Garridebs'' (the first US televised portrayal of Sir ...
as Holmes and Lovell as Watson). Meiser also adapted the story as an episode of ''
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
''The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' is a radio drama series which aired in the USA from 1939 to 1950, it ran for 374 episodes, with many of the later episodes considered lost media. The series was based on the Sherlock Holmes stories by Art ...
'' with
Basil Rathbone
Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African-born English actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume ...
as Holmes and
Nigel Bruce
William Nigel Ernle Bruce (4 February 1895 – 8 October 1953) was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in a series of films and in the radio series ''The New Adventures of Sherlock H ...
as Watson. The episode aired on 6 October 1940. Other dramatisations of the story aired on 7 May 1943 (again with Rathbone and Bruce) and in November 1947 (with John Stanley as Holmes and Alfred Shirley as Watson).
The story was adapted by
Felix Felton
Robert Forbes Felton (12 August 1911 – 21 October 1972), known professionally as Felix Felton, was a British film, television, stage and voice actor as well as a radio director, composer and author.
Radio work
In his earlier years Felton cons ...
as a radio production that aired on the
BBC Light Programme
The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
in 1955, as part of the
1952–1969 radio series starring
Carleton Hobbs
Carleton Percy Hobbs, OBE (18 June 1898 – 31 July 1978) was an English actor with many film, radio and television appearances. He portrayed Sherlock Holmes in 80 radio adaptations in a series of Sherlock Holmes radio dramas (1952–1969), ...
as Holmes and
Norman Shelley
Norman Shelley (16 February 1903 – 21 August 1980) was a British actor, best known for his work in radio, in particular for the BBC's '' Children's Hour''. He also had a recurring role as Colonel Danby in the long-running radio soap opera ''T ...
as Watson.
An adaptation aired on BBC radio in 1978, starring
Barry Foster as Holmes and
David Buck
David Keith Rodney Buck (17 October 1933 – 27 January 1989) was an English actor.
Buck was born in London, the son of Joseph Buck and Enid Marguerite (née Webb). He starred in many television productions from 1959 until 1989. One of his ea ...
as Watson. It was adapted by
Michael Bakewell
Michael Bakewell (born 1931) is a British television producer.
Bakewell was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire in England.
He is best known for his work during the 1960s, when he was the first Head of Plays at the BBC, after Sydney Newman divid ...
.
"The Copper Beeches" was dramatised by Peter Mackie for
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
in 1991 as an episode of the
1989–1998 radio series starring
Clive Merrison
Clive Merrison (born 15 September 1945) is a British actor of film, television, stage and radio. He trained at Rose Bruford College. He is best known for his long running BBC Radio portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, having played the part in all 64 ...
as Holmes and
Michael Williams as Watson. It featured
Roger Hammond as Jephro Rucastle and
Imogen Stubbs
Imogen Stubbs (born 20 February 1961) is an English actress and writer.
Her first leading part was in '' Privileged'' (1982), followed by ''A Summer Story'' (1988).
Her first play, ''We Happy Few'', was produced in 2004. In 2008 she joined '' ...
as Violet Hunter.
The story was adapted as a 2015 episode of the radio series ''
The Classic Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
''Imagination Theatre'' is an American syndicated radio drama program airing on FM and AM radio stations across the United States. It features modern radio dramas. The program first aired in 1996. Originally produced by Jim French Productions, t ...
'', with
John Patrick Lowrie
John Patrick Lowrie (born June 28, 1952) is an American actor, musician and author best known for voicing the Sniper in ''Team Fortress 2'' and various characters in '' Dota 2''. He has played Sherlock Holmes in the radio series ''The Further A ...
as Holmes and Lawrence Albert as Watson.
Print
Peter Cannon
Peter H. Cannon (born 1951 in California) is an H. P. Lovecraft scholar and an author of Cthulhu Mythos fiction. Cannon works as an editor for ''Publishers Weekly'', specializing in thrillers and mystery. He lives in New York City and is married ...
has pointed to parallels between "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" and
H. P. Lovecraft's story "
The Picture in the House
"The Picture in the House" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft. It was written on December 12, 1920, and first published in the July issue of ''The National Amateur'' ".
[Peter Cannon, ''Lovecraft Studies'' No. 1 (Fall 1979); cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 207.]
In ''
Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds
''Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds'' is a sequel to H. G. Wells's science fiction novel ''The War of the Worlds'', written by Manly Wade Wellman and his son Wade Wellman, and published in 1975. It is a pastiche crossover which combines H. G. ...
'', Violet Hunter becomes the second wife of
Dr. Watson
John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1887). The last work by Doyle f ...
mentioned in "
The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier
"The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" (1926) is one of 12 Sherlock Holmes short stories by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, include in '' The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes''; it was first published in the US in ''Liberty'' in October 1926, ...
". Hunter was said to have been married to the first mate on .
References
;Notes
;Sources
*
*
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adventure Of The Copper Beeches
1892 short stories
Copper Beeches
Works originally published in The Strand Magazine
Articles containing video clips
Short stories adapted into films