“The Rite of the House of Mesgrave” ( eng. The Adventure of Musgrave Ritual ) is one of the 56 stories by the English writer Arthur Conan Doyle about the detective Sherlock Holmes. Included in the collection of stories " Sherlock Holmes Memories " (another title - "Notes on Sherlock Holmes"), published in 1894. Conan Doyle included this story in the best 12 stories about Sherlock Holmes, putting him in eleventh place [2] .
| The Rite of the House of Mesgrave | |
|---|---|
| The Adventure of Musgrave Ritual | |
| Genre | detective |
| Author | Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Original language | English |
| Date of writing | 1893 |
| Cycle | and |
Play media fileOther titles: “Family ritual”, “The Musgrave Ritual”.
Content
Story
A former acquaintance of Holmes in college Mesgrave turns to him about the mysterious events taking place in his castle. The other day, his butler Brunton was seen looking through a family document called the "Rite of the House of Mesgrave." The angry owner wants to fire the butler immediately, but the latter asks for a month to give him voluntary leave in order to avoid a major shame. Mesgrave allows Brunton to stay for a week, but on the third day the criminal disappears under very strange circumstances: both things and the butler’s money remained in their places. The maid, who had a romance with the missing in the past, behaves very strangely and seems to be moved by her mind.
Arriving at the house of Mesgrave, Holmes learns that the crazy maid is also gone, and her tracks are cut off at the lake. Having carefully checked the lake, the detective discovers a bag with fragments of old and rusty, which has lost any kind of metal. Holmes believes that the document, which the butler was interested in, has an important relation to this case, since the latter risked a good job when he went to crime.
Examining the document, Holmes saw in it an encrypted indication of a place. Going to this place, Holmes, Mesgrave and two policemen see a heavy stone slab in the basement of the house. Pushing it aside, they discover the empty chest and the dead Branton. After this, Holmes builds a chain of reasoning. Branton was engaged to a maid, but when he met another woman, he left the maid. Having learned about the treasures, the butler wanted to get them and he needed help. As an assistant, the butler chose a servant, as his current party was very weak after an illness. At the time of the crime, the log supporting the stone slab jumps out for some reason, and the unfortunate butler is immured in a stone bag. Unable to lift the stone slab alone, he dies from asphyxiation . Holmes suggests that the maid servant who had harbored a grievance for the past knocked out the supporting log, but, nevertheless, does not exclude the fact of the accidental slamming of the trap. Trying to hide the crime, the maid put the contents of the chest in a bag, threw it into the lake and fled.
Holmes asks to show him the bag that was found in the lake. He pulls out a scattering of old coins, precious stones, and a bent dull hoop. This turns out to be the ancient crown of the English kings, deposited by the ancestor of Mesgrave after the execution of King Charles I.
| - What is it? he asked, terribly agitated. - No more no less, like the ancient crown of English kings.A. Doyle "The Rite of the House of Mesgray" (translated by D. Lifshits) |
Screenshots
In 1986, as part of the television series "The Return of Sherlock Holmes," a film based on the story was released. The plot was different, since Dr. Watson was brought into the investigation, and the action from Holmes’s youth was postponed to 1894.
In 2013, based on the story was filmed one of the series of the Russian TV series " Sherlock Holmes " with the same name. However, this is not a strict film adaptation, but a mixture of the story with the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles , and the culprit in the final is the butler Brunton, who was a descendant of the rivals of Mesgrave.
Elements of the story contains a series of "Last Case" of the fourth season of the British TV series "Sherlock" [3] .
Notes
- ↑ Doyle A. C. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - George Newnes , 1894.
- ↑ A. Conan Doyle. How I Made My List (English) // The Strand Magazine . - 1927. - June. - P. 611-612.
- ↑ Jones, Paul What is Sherlock's Musgrave Ritual? Radio Times (15 January 2017). The date of circulation is January 15, 2017.