The Musgrave Ritual

The Adventure of the The Musgrave Ritual is attributed to 1879. It is one of 11 short stories in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and was first published in The Strand Magazine in 1893. It predates Watson’s meeting with Holmes and so the story takes the form of Holmes reminiscing and telling Watson of the case, as he does in the Gloria Scott. Holmes is visited in his rooms in Montague Street, London by an old college acquaintance Reginald Musgrave, scion of an ancient family, who resides at Hurlstone in western Sussex where he is the MP. Musgrave has dismissed his erudite butler who seemed to be undertaking some unauthorised research into Musgrave’s family that involved a document called ‘The Musgrave Ritual’. The butler begged to be allowed to stay for a period of time and Musgrave had agreed to let him stay another week, only for him to disappear sooner, as has one of his maids. Holmes solves the riddle in the document, uncovers a Royal Crown and discovers a body.