"I have my revolver!"

A lot has been written about Watson's revolver, for has with any area of Canonical interest, firearms enthusiasts among us do their research. I've even contributed to the literature myself, thanks to an old friend who took me out in the woods for a bit of Watsonian target practice with the appropriate antique. Watson has been often seen as Holmes's muscle, his gun-toting man of action, and we see that from the very first in A Study in Scarlet.

"Have you any arms?"

"I have my old service revolver and a few cartridges."

At that point, they sound more like souvenirs than anything Watson was planning to have some use for. Holmes wisely advises Watson to clean the pistol as his very next statement. 

There have been those over the years who consider an even earlier statement to be Watson talking about his gun. Holmes asks if Watson has any vices when they first meet.

"I keep a bull pup," Watson replies.

Now, calling either a puppy or a pistol a vice seems a little odd, unless you have some unnatural affinity or use for either one. Which brings me back to something that bothered me last week: Watson shoots more dogs than humans in his Canonical records. But let's not dwell on that.

Holmes really doesn't think of Watson as his gun-guy, as he's forgotten whether or not Watson has a pistol between A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four.

"Have you a pistol, Watson?"

"I have my old service-revolver in my desk."

And yet, in 1893, Holmes knows exactly what model of revolver Watson has when he asks the doctor to slip his Eley's Number 2 into his pocket before they head for Stoke Moran in "The Speckled Band."

By autumn 1890 and "The Red-Headed League," Watson takes his revolver with him unprompted. It isn't mentioned at all in the following spring for "The Final Problem," but we can guess it was probably along for the ride (and hopefully not in Watson's disappearing luggage). Since Watson has his pistol in his pocket again for "Empty House" and going to catch Moran, we can pretty well assume it was not. By 1895, Watson is quite comfortable putting his pistol barrel to a sailor's temple to keep him docile in "Black Peter."

"I was right glad to feel the revolver in my pocket," Watson says upon meeting Reuben Hayes in the early 1900s. Age has plainly left Watson with concerns about his abilities as a man-handler in a fight, and likes that metal equalizer a bit more than in the early 1800s when it was more of a souvenir from his mililtary days. Holmes is still suggesting Watson take it along in cases like "Six Napoleons."

But in June of 1902, Sherlock Holmes is pulling one of his own pistols from a drawer to hand to Watson, a real change from past behaviors. Has the wife that Watson deserted Holmes for around that time gotten rid of the old army piece? One has to wonder.

One of the things I enjoy about Sherlockian chronology is the way it brings to life the habits of our friends Holmes and Watson over time and the little insights that can be drawn from a fourth-dimensional perspective.  This blog-glance is just a morning's wander through the tales, and even that light a look provides some points of interest that I hope some student of weaponry takes up one day. Me, I'll be on to some other topic tomorrow.