The Case of the Locked Rose-Garden

It was the morning of the third Thursday of July 1894 when a telegram from Sir Hugo Trant of Marlow Hall, Berkshire, summoned us by the early train.

Marlow Hall lay an hour west of Maidenhead, a long, low house of warm brick set among well-tended gardens. Sir Hugo's head gardener, Mr Bayle, had been found at first light by the under-gardener — sprawled in the gravel-walk between the rose-beds, his medical bag open beside him, a single empty space among the row of small chemist's vials. The garden's iron gate was bolted upon its inner side. The walls of the rose-garden were nine feet high and the brick crowned with broken glass. There was no other way in or out.

We travelled down. A hansom waited at the village rank, dark green and freshly varnished, its driver a heavy-shouldered man with a port-wine stain on his left temple, who touched his whip-handle to the brim of a hat with a green band as we passed. Sir Hugo's brougham took us up to the house through an avenue of limes, and from the house we walked round to the rose-garden's outer gate, where Sir Hugo himself awaited us — pale, composed, and oddly hesitant before a question he could not have anticipated.

The Scene

Hand-drawn case map for The Case of the Locked Rose-Garden, showing The walled rose-garden at Marlow Hall, Berkshire. — The ground in question.

Setting: The walled rose-garden at Marlow Hall, Berkshire
Time: Thursday morning, third week of July 1894
Weather: A heavy summer dawn lifting; the dew not yet off the grass
Atmosphere: Walls of warm brick crowned with broken glass; rows of dark-red and pale-pink roses; the iron gate cool to the touch and bolted from within.

The Suspects

Sir Hugo Trant

Master of Marlow Hall, the client

A grave, soft-spoken gentleman of fifty-five, who had owned the estate twelve years. He had little visible motive: the gardener's quiet land-rights upon a half-acre orchard adjoining the home farm would have come to the estate by clause in two years' time, with Mr Bayle's retirement.
Mr Tarn

Under-gardener, three years' service

A nervous boy of twenty, who had found the body and could not give a clear account of his movements between four and five o'clock that morning. He had reason to dread suspicion: he had been gathered up by a Maidenhead constable two months before for a public-house brawl.
Mr Roe

Apothecary in the village

A spare, white-bearded chemist, who had dispensed to Mr Bayle the previous Friday a small quantity of a strong cardiac compound — at the gardener's own request, and for, he had said, his old condition.
Mr Bayle

The gardener's estranged son, arrived from London two days before

A thin, sharp-mannered young man of twenty-eight, who had returned from a long absence with little affection and a small ambition: a share of his father's modest savings. He had quarrelled with his father at supper on the Tuesday and slept in the home-farm cottage.

The Evidence

The bolted gate

The rose-garden's iron gate was found, by the under-gardener, bolted from within. The bolt was of solid brass, run home at full length; no wire, twine, or improvised mechanism could have set it from outside. The gardener's left thumbprint, in dirt from his own bedding-out work of the previous evening, was visible upon the inner face of the bolt-handle.
Mr Tarn's missing hour

The under-gardener could not account for his whereabouts between four and five that morning beyond saying he had walked across the home-farm. He had no witness; he was visibly agitated.
The empty vial-row

The medical bag, found open at the body, contained eight small chemist's vials of cardiac compound — Mr Roe's dispensing, dated the Friday — and a ninth space, empty, where a vial had stood. No vial was upon the body or in the gravel of the walk.
The son's bedside-watch

On the night-stand of the home-farm cottage where the gardener's son had slept, a folded letter from his father, dated three months before, hoping for the son's return and offering him a year's wages to read for an articled clerk's place.
Sir Hugo's pocket

When Holmes asked, with quiet courtesy, what Sir Hugo carried with him that morning, Sir Hugo set out upon the gravel his cigar-case, his pocket-knife, his pocket-book, and a small unlabelled vial of dark glass — which he confessed he had found upon the gardener and had set, upon impulse, into his own coat.

Statements & Testimony

Mr Tarn Partial

Under-gardener

“"I came up to the rose-garden at five, sir, as ever. The gate was bolted; I called and got no answer; I climbed the gardener's ladder from the kitchen-yard and looked over and saw him there. I went round to the house. I — I cannot say where I was at four, only that I was walking. I had been a fool the night before with two pints, and I was clearing my head."”
Mr Roe Reliable

Village apothecary

“"Mr Bayle had a heart, sir, this many a year. I dispensed him the cardiac compound on Friday afternoon, three drachms in nine vials, against the old trouble. He was particular as to dose. He took two from the box on Friday night and a third on Tuesday — he sent the boy down to renew. He should not have died of his trouble: he would have known the warning."”

The Scene

The Suspects

The Evidence

The bolted gate

Mr Tarn's missing hour

The empty vial-row

The son's bedside-watch

Sir Hugo's pocket

Statements & Testimony

Your Verdict