I had not seen Holmes in better humour for many weeks than upon the morning he received Sir George Bramshaw's telegram from Hampshire. "A locked-room shooting in a country house, Watson," he said, tossing the form across the table. "And a country house with a conservatory — by which I mean a glass-walled room, the most difficult of all sealed enclosures to make truly sealed. Sir George is a man of sense and asks for us by the noon train. We had better take it." Bramshaw Hall, when we reached it that afternoon, proved to be a substantial Georgian house of red brick, set in some forty acres of park-land near Winchester. Sir George, a tall, careful man of fifty, met us at the station and laid the matter before us as we drove. The dead man was Mr Aubrey Pelling, a younger cousin of Sir George's wife, who had been a guest at the Hall since the previous Saturday. Pelling had been found dead at half past seven on the morning of the murder — that is to say, the previous day — in the conservatory which adjoined the morning-room. He had been shot at close range through the heart with a small bullet from a revolver of an uncommon Belgian pattern. The conservatory had two means of access: the door from the morning-room, which had been locked from the inside (the key was on the floor near the body), and a glazed door to the garden, which had been bolted at top and bottom from the inside (the bolts being undamaged and the glazing-bars unbroken). Two of the conservatory's many panes of glass were open as ventilators, but each was no more than nine inches square and set ten feet above the floor.
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Saturday, 2 May 2026 | Difficulty V
The Conservatory at Bramshaw Hall
A guest shot through the heart in a glass conservatory. Both doors bolted from the inside. The only ventilators are nine inches square and ten feet up.
Sidney Paget · The Strand Magazine, February 1893 · Public Domain
Watson’s account
Section I
The Scene
- Setting
- Bramshaw Hall, near Winchester, Hampshire — the conservatory adjoining the morning-room
- Time
- Saturday afternoon and evening, 9 May 1896 (the murder having been the previous day)
- Weather
- A clear, mild May; the gardens in early bloom
- Atmosphere
- A respectable country house in a settled mood of horror, the family gathered in the drawing-room, the doctor and the local inspector come and gone.
Section II
The Suspects
-
Sir George Bramshaw
Master of the house, the client
A tall, careful gentleman of fifty, much occupied with the management of his estate. He had been at his desk in the library from seven o'clock on the morning in question, his secretary present from a quarter past, and had not left the library before the alarm.
-
Lady Maud Bramshaw
Sir George's wife of twenty-two years, cousin of the deceased
A handsome, composed woman of forty-five, who had been at her toilet from a quarter past seven and had been attended throughout by her maid. She had loved her cousin in childhood, and was much shaken by his death.
-
Mr Roderick Bramshaw
Sir George's elder son, twenty-three, lately of Magdalene College, Cambridge
A heavy, fair young man, much occupied with field sports. He had risen at half past six on the morning in question and had walked, by his own account, in the south plantation with his dogs. He had returned to the house at a quarter to eight and had heard the alarm raised in the morning-room as he reached the lower landing.
-
Miss Helena Bramshaw
Sir George's daughter of nineteen
A quiet, reserved young lady. She had been in the schoolroom with her governess from seven o'clock until the alarm, the governess being present throughout.
-
Captain Maurice Pelling
Brother of the dead man, retired naval officer
A grey-bearded man of fifty, who had been a guest at the Hall for the same week as his brother. The two had been on cordial terms. He had been at the breakfast-table from twenty past seven, in company with the chaplain, the butler, and (by the butler's evidence) Lady Bramshaw's maid bringing down a tray.
-
Mr Reuben Trace
Pelling's man of business, an attorney from London, present at Bramshaw on Pelling's invitation
A small, sharp-eyed man of forty, who had been transacting some private business with Pelling on the Friday afternoon and was to have caught the morning train for London. He was at his window dressing when the alarm was raised; the window of his room overlooks the conservatory.
Section III
The Evidence
-
The locked door from the morning-room
The door from the conservatory to the morning-room was locked, the key lying on the conservatory floor near the body. Holmes examined the lock, the key, and the door for signs of the well-known string-and-pencil dodge by which keys can be turned from the wrong side. He found no such marks. The lock was old, the key heavy and unmistakably original.
-
The bolted glazed door to the garden
The glazed door to the garden was bolted at top and bottom from the inside. The bolts had not been disturbed. The glazing was intact. The door's frame was firmly set in the brickwork.
-
The Belgian revolver
The bullet was identified by the local doctor as being of a calibre and pattern peculiar to a small Belgian revolver. No such revolver had been found about the body, nor in the conservatory, nor anywhere in the immediate vicinity. The Bramshaw gun-room contained nothing of the kind.
-
The ventilator panes
Two small panes of glass, set ten feet above the conservatory floor in the south wall, were open as ventilators on a hinge. Each pane was nine inches by nine inches. The earth in the bed below the south wall, freshly raked, showed no print of any ladder's foot.
-
Roderick's morning walk
Roderick claimed to have walked in the south plantation with his two dogs from a quarter past seven until twenty to eight. The footman, who had been at the south stable cleaning a stall from twenty past seven, had heard the dogs but not seen Roderick himself.
-
Pelling's hand
Pelling's right hand was found loosely closed about a small green silk thread, perhaps two inches in length. The thread did not match any item in the dead man's clothing. The conservatory contained no green silk.
-
Trace's contracts
Trace's open dispatch-case in his bedroom contained a settlement which Pelling had been to sign on the Saturday morning, transferring some five hundred pounds of Pelling's interest in a tin venture to a syndicate of which Trace was the secretary. The signature line was blank.
-
The captain's old quarrel
The captain and the dead man had quarrelled, some years earlier, over a small inheritance from an aunt. The quarrel had since been mended; the captain had nothing now to gain by his brother's death.
Section IV
Statements & Testimony
-
Sir George Bramshaw Reliable
Master of the house, the client
“"My secretary will swear I did not leave my desk between seven and the moment the housemaid came in shrieking. I had a settled mind to clear my correspondence by the breakfast-bell."”
-
Mr Frederick Murch Reliable
Sir George's secretary
“"Sir George was at his desk continuously from a quarter past seven. The library has but the one door, which gives upon the great hall."”
-
Mr Reuben Trace Partial
Pelling's attorney
“"I was dressing at my window when the housemaid screamed. I saw nothing of the conservatory below — the angle of the wing prevents it — until I came down at the alarm."”
-
Mr James Howse Reliable
Footman, on duty at the south stable
“"I heard the young master's dogs in the plantation a little after the half-hour, sir. I did not see Mr Roderick himself. The dogs were unmistakably his, but as to the master himself, that I could not say."”
Section V