"he was a fine creature"

Dr Watson was never much one for blowing his own trumpet, but more biographical data would have been welcome. No doubt he thought we wouldn't be interested (how wrong he was!). There is the physical description he (inadvertently?) allows via the description of a 'suspect' in the break-in at Appledore Towers ('Charles Augustus Milverton'). But I wonder if another description didn't slip past his conscious inner editor:

"He was a fine creature, this man of the old English soil - simple, straight, and gentle, with his great, earnest blue eyes and broad, comely face. His love for his wife and his trust in her shone in his features."
('The Dancing Men')

The description given here by Watson is actually that of Holmes' client, Hilton Cubitt.. but it is well known that like attracts like. Is it fanciful to consider that in his appreciation of this other man's qualities Watson was also describing... himself? (the mention of Cubbitt's love for his wife may also had him reflecting on his own "sad bereavement", EMPT).

*

Speaking of DANC, Holmes' "blank melancholy" when he finds out that tragedy has befallen his client must have been a moment of real psychic torment for him. Thankfully he was able to detect the real murderer (and exonerate Cubitt's wife) - but the situation must surely have reminded him of his similar failure in FIVE, where John Openshaw was actually done away with not long after leaving 221b.

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