Hats Off to Sherlock Holmes

Our dear Austrian daughter, Kerstin Strohmeyer, sent us this beautiful photo of her trying on a hat in London. She was recalling the wonderful time we all had together in the British capital last year -- notably including visits to Baker Street and to the Sherlock Holmes Pub. That's where I researched The Disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore. 

And who does that chapeau remind you of?

Isn't it fascinating that the headgear known as a deerstalker has come to universally represent not only the world's first consulting detective but the very idea of a detective? In the library at our grandchildren's elementary school, for example, mysteries carry a little label with a deerstalker image. Amelia thought that meant they were all about Sherlock Holmes!

As Sherlockian know, Holmes really did wear a deerstalker on occasion, although Dr. Watson never used the word. The good doctor called it "his ear-flapped travelling cap" in "Silver Blaze" and a "close-fitting cloth cap" in "The Adventure of the Boscombe Valley Mystery." Only one kind of hat fits both descriptions -- the deerstalker that Sidney Paget showed in his original illustrations of both stories.

It's also true that a deerstalker cap is country attire, and Paget depicted Holmes far more often in a top hat as he strolled down London streets. But William Gillette and most of his successors in playing Holmes on stage and screened donned the deerstalker. Perhaps that's just as well, otherwise I might have to have two top hats in my library instead of two deerstalkers.

How many deerstalkers do you own?