🎧🍃The Musgrave Ritual | Sherlock Holmes | Conan Doyle | Mystery stories | English short stories

"The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The story was originally published in The Strand Magazine in the United Kingdom in May 1893, and in Harper's Weekly in the United States on 13 May 1893. It was collected in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

Unlike the majority of Holmes stories, the main narrator is not Doctor Watson, but Sherlock Holmes himself. With Watson providing an introduction, the story within a story is a classic example of a frame tale. It is one of the earliest recorded cases investigated by Holmes, and establishes his problem solving skills.

"The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" shares elements with two Edgar Allan Poe tales: "The Gold-Bug" and "The Cask of Amontillado".

In 1927, Conan Doyle ranked the story at 11th place on his top 12 Holmes stories list. The story did better in a 1999 chart produced by The Baker Street Journal, ranking 6th out of 10.

The memoires of Sherlock Holmes | Conan Doyle | detective stories | Sherlock Holmes | mysteries | Crime fiction | Murder mystery | Victorian detective | Psychological thriller

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Plot
In a frame story, Holmes goes through some of his old records, and recounts to Watson the events of one of his earliest cases.

Holmes is visited by Reginald Musgrave, a former acquaintance from university, who has had some strange events at Hurlstone, his ancient family manor house. Musgraves have dwelt at Hurlstone since before the English Civil War; since that time period, it is a tradition that each eldest son of the house memorize and recite a strange poem upon coming of age:

'Whose was it?'
'His who is gone.'
'Who shall have it?'
'He who will come.'
('What was the month?'
'The sixth from the first.')[4]
'Where was the sun?'
'Over the oak.'
'Where was the shadow?'
'Under the elm.'
'How was it stepped?'
'North by ten and by ten, east by five and by five, south by two and by two, west by one and by one, and so under.'
'What shall we give for it?'
'All that is ours.'
'Why should we give it?'
'For the sake of the trust.'


Brunton studying the ritual, 1893 illustration by W. H. Hyde in Harper's Weekly
One night, Musgrave was unable to sleep, heard a noise about 2 in the morning, and caught his longtime butler, Brunton, studying the ritual and other private papers in secret. Disgusted by this breach of confidence, Musgrave ordered Brunton to leave the house at once. Brunton begged for a little time so he could leave as if of his own accord, and avoid public disgrace. Musgrave begrudgingly granted him a week, but a few days later, Brunton disappeared, leaving behind all his belongings. His bed had not been slept in, and no one had seen him leave. When questioned, one of the maids, Rachel Howells, burst out in a fit of hysterical laughter and weeping. She was confined to a sickbed still raving, and a nurse was hired to watch over her, but Rachel managed to escape in the dead of night. Trying to follow Rachel's trail, Musgrave and the police discovered a satchel she had thrown into the manor lake, containing nothing but twisted metal and a few dirt-covered coloured stones.....

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