You “Downton Abbey†enthusiasts who express your dedication to that show by gathering at parties, enjoying finger sandwiches and engaging in drinking rituals will have to step up your game, because the Sherlock Holmes fans have got you beat. BBC News caught up with 70 members of the Sherlock Holmes Society (a group that claims more than 1,200 members worldwide) who celebrated the 125th anniversary of the novel in which Arthur Conan Doyle introduced his famous fictional consulting detective by traveling â€" in costume â€" to the waterfall in Switzerland where Holmes was believed, for a time, to have met his demise.
“A Study in Scarlet,†the first Holmes mystery, was originally published in 1887, but it is “The Final Problem,†from 1893, that the Holmes Society members come to re-enact at the Reichenbach Falls in Meiringen, Switzerland. Dressed as characters like Dr. Watson, Inspector Lestrade and Queen Victoria, they watched as Holmes (played by David Jones, a retired headmaster ) and his archrival, Professor Moriarty (actually Peter Horrocks, a lawyer), fought it out at the edge of the falls. (As all good Holmesians know, “The Final Problem†strongly suggested that Holmes and Moriarty both perished by falling down the gorge, but Conan Doyle was persuaded to bring his detective back in further adventures.)
As the society's president, Guy Marriott (a retired lawyer who also plays the King of Bohemia), told the BBC, “The conclusion of the struggle is that two bodies are seen tumbling down into the water.â€
“But,†Mr. Marriott continued, “it probably won't be the characters who had the struggle. We have dummies that we keep for this occasio n.â€
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