I've just returned from holiday in the States, where I managed to read (and finish) Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. To my surprise Phileas Fogg catches the Charing Cross train for Dover and:
"
Just as the train was whirling through Sydenham, Passepartout suddenly uttered a cry of despair.
"What's the matter?" asked Mr. Fogg.
"Alas! In my hurry-I-I forgot-"
"What?"
"To turn off the gas in my room!"
"Very well, young man," returned Mr. Fogg, coolly, "it will burn-at your very expense." "
Has anyone else recently had the mention of Sydenham pop up in a book?
References to Sydenham in literature
See this thread from a while back:
http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... d47dcd2866
There was also that article by Graham Swift in the New York Times that someone linked to a few weeks ago that referred to Sydenham.
Anyone know of anything else?
http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic. ... d47dcd2866
There was also that article by Graham Swift in the New York Times that someone linked to a few weeks ago that referred to Sydenham.
Anyone know of anything else?
Re Sherlock - Sydenham is mentioned here:
http://www.sherlockholmesweb.com/library/sh1051.html
Then there is this:
http://www.lulu.com/content/5405454
And from next week we can add numerous reference to SE26 in this text:
http://www.spontaneousproductions.co.uk/
Stuart
http://www.sherlockholmesweb.com/library/sh1051.html
Then there is this:
http://www.lulu.com/content/5405454
And from next week we can add numerous reference to SE26 in this text:
http://www.spontaneousproductions.co.uk/
Stuart
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fitzhewitt
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- Location: Tanygrisiau, Gwynedd
Re: References to Sydenham in literature
In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Abbey Grange", Sydenham is mentioned as the location of a burglary by the three Randalls (father and two sons) who are erroneously identified by Lady Brackenstall as the murderers of her brutish husband Sir Eustace. The Abbey Grange is located near Chiselhurst, but on returning to London from their first visit, Holmes and Watson leave the London-bound train in order to return to the scene of the crime and follow up a sudden realization by Holmes that he has been lied to by the lady and her maid. Soon their train appears from the direction of London, but Holmes unaccountably calls out "...here, Watson, is the Sydenham train".
This is surely a slip of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's pen. The two sleuths are not heading for Sydenham but in the opposite direction, so Holmes would most likely have said "...here, Watson, is the Chiselhurst train". Trains to Chiselhurst and beyond would in those days (as stated at the start of the story) have departed from Charing Cross, so Holmes could not have meant "the train COMING FROM Sydenham as there is no record of train services STARTING from Sydenham.
Other locations in Sherlock Holmes stories near Sydenham are Lower Norwood (transposed from Upper Norwood) in "The Norwood Builder" and Norbury in "The Yellow Face".
This is surely a slip of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's pen. The two sleuths are not heading for Sydenham but in the opposite direction, so Holmes would most likely have said "...here, Watson, is the Chiselhurst train". Trains to Chiselhurst and beyond would in those days (as stated at the start of the story) have departed from Charing Cross, so Holmes could not have meant "the train COMING FROM Sydenham as there is no record of train services STARTING from Sydenham.
Other locations in Sherlock Holmes stories near Sydenham are Lower Norwood (transposed from Upper Norwood) in "The Norwood Builder" and Norbury in "The Yellow Face".