Sherlock Holmes and The Musgrave Ritual Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. At the beginning of the adventure Watson mentions that Holmes has used Mrs Hudson's wall for target practice. Sherlock left the wall adorned with (Mrs. Hudson would have said marred by) a set of initials. What were the initials?

Answer: V. R.

V. R. - For Victoria Regina of course! If you missed that, We are not amused. Holmes is always the patriot.
H. A. - Hilda Adair was the sister of the Honorable Ronald Adair killed by the ruthless Col. Moran in "The Adventure of the Empty House".
I. A. - Irene Adler who will always be "The Woman" appeared in "A Scandal in Bohemia".
S. H. - You knew he would not use his own initials!

2. If you know Sherlock you can probably complete this sentence even if you hadn't read Watson's tale. Holmes said, "There are cases enough here, Watson," looking at me with mischievous eyes. "I think that if you knew all that I had in this box you would ask me to...

Answer: pull some out instead of putting others in.

Holmes well knew the curiosity of Watson regarding early cases. Holmes' orders were "on no account (were his notes) to be burned".
Holmes had a passion that no one should put his papers away but himself.
Holmes often played his Stradivarius but this was not one of the occasions.

3. At Watson's urging, Holmes brought out a box to tidy up some of his collection of papers that were strewn around the lounge room. He mentioned that the box contained the relics and notes of some of his early cases. Which case listed below is NOT a Sherlock Holmes case?

Answer: The Gold Bug

"The Gold Bug" is a small puzzle presented by Edgar Allen Poe.
The other choices are three of the over 70 cases that are mentioned but not chronicled by Watson. These three are mentioned in "The Musgrave Ritual". The spelling "aluminum" comes from the Doubleday edition of "The Complete Sherlock Holmes". I apologise to those of you who use the Queen's English properly.

4. Sherlock mentioned where he lived before moving into 221b Baker St. Can you detect the correct venue listed below?

Answer: Montague Street

Montague Street is around the corner from the British Museum where Holmes studied many of the sciences that would help his career.
Camden House is across the street from 221b Baker St in "The Adventure of the Empty House".
Pope's Court, Fleet Street is the venue of the Redheaded League in an Adventure of that name.
Park Lane at Number 427 is the address of Ronald Adair in "The Adventure of the Empty House."

5. "The Musgrave Ritual" is one of the cases that can be specifically placed in order of Holmes' career even if not dated. Which number did Holmes place this case as?

Answer: third

Holmes states that "The Musgrave Ritual" is the third case in his career.
His first case was "The Gloria Scott".
Sherlock's second case is never verified in the Arthur Conan Doyle stories.
Holmes' last case was "His Last Bow".

6. The Manor House in which Reginald Musgrave grew up had which of the following names?

Answer: Hurlstone

The Musgrave line established itself in "western Sussex, where the Manor House of Hurlstone is perhaps the oldest inhabited building in the county".
Abbey Grange is the venue and title of another Holmes adventure.
Grantleigh Manor is the ancestral home of Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in the TV series "To The Manor Born". Audrey was appalled when Richard de Vere took possession of it.
Merripit House was the home of the Stapletons in "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

7. The Musgrave household was, until shortly before the adventure begins, kept running smoothly with the help of a very accomplished butler. Can you recall his name?

Answer: Brunton

Richard Brunton, the Musgrave butler, was quite the ladies' man and an accomplished man in many arts.
Barrymore is the suspicious retainer of Baskerville Hall.
Lal Rao was the butler to the Sholtos in "The Sign of Four". This is sometimes titled "The Sign of the Four" in the US.
Old Ralph was the faithful servant at Tuxbury Old Hall in "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier".

8. Holmes used fishing rods to calculate the shadow of the old elm tree. Musgrave remembered that the tree was 64 feet tall. Holmes measured that shadow of his 6 feet of fishing rods and the shadow was 9 feet long. Now using your memory of the story, or by applying mathematics, how long was the shadow of the elm tree?

Answer: 96 feet

96 feet the maths say it all.
40 feet. From "The Valley of Fear" the Manor House's inner moat lay forty feet in breadth, though now only a few feet in depth, around the whole house.
50 feet. "The creature radiated almost invisible filaments to the distance of fifty feet, and anyone within that circumference from the deadly centre was in danger of death". From the Holmes story "The Lion's Mane".
74 feet. The height of the Sholto family home was seventy-four feet in "The Sign of Four".

9. Here is a quote from the tale; "a small chamber about seven feet deep and four feet square lay open to us." Which of the following was NOT found in that chamber?

Answer: Six fine pearls

The six fine pearls were received by Mary Watson (nee Morstan) from an anonymous source and led to "The Sign of Four" mystery.
The rest of the choices are directly from the story:
At one side of this was a squat, brass-bound wooden box.
Several discs of metal, old coins apparently (granted they were in the box but they had to be in the chamber to be in the box).
It was the figure of a man; he had been dead some days.

10. A royal personage is an integral feature in the story. Which of the following is the noble head that was mentioned in this adventure?

Answer: King Charles

Charles the First and Charles the Second were both mentioned. King Charles covers both quite adequately.
Boadicea was the warrior Queen of the Iceni. It's also the middle name of Geraldine Granger in "The Vicar of Dibley".
Queen Victoria was the reigning monarch at the time of the adventure but she is not mentioned in the story.
The Earl of Maynooth is the brave and good looking governor of an Australian colony in Watson's "The Adventure of the Empty House".

Source: Author maynooth

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Bruyere before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

I highly recommend that you read the Holmes story "The Musgrave Ritual" before attempting this quiz. "The Musgrave Ritual" was first published in "The Strand" magazine May 1893 with 7 illustrations by Sidney Paget. Come along, the game's afoot!

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