The British Museum and Sherlock Holmes

That's a statue of the Egyptian god Horus, not the Maltese Falcon

Most people probably think that Britain's great treasures are in the Tower of London, but I think the greatest are in the vast British Museum. But we were so fascinated by the Egyptian section on our recent trip to London that we never saw anything else. Ann was especially fascinated by the Rosetta Stone.

Almost anything in London that is Victorian or older has some Sherlockian connections, and so it is with the British Museum. I've already noted the Museum Tavern across the street, which seems to have been the model for the Alpha where Mr. Henry Baker apparently spent too much of his time. Mr. Baker's days were spent in the museum itself.


When Holmes first set up as a consulting detective, he tells Watson in "The Musgrave Ritual," he had rooms in Montague Street, "just round the corner from the British Museum." In later years, Holmes investigated Stapleton (HOUN) and voodooism (WIST) at the British Museum.


We investigated Egypt, with delightful results.