Mystery’s History 007: Mystery in the Queen’s Dollhouse

Watch Mystery’s History 007: Mystery in the Queen’s Dollhouse and follow along with the transcript below.

Transcript:

Welcome to Mystery’s History, interesting facts behind intriguing stories.

Today, we’re traveling back to 1924 to Wembley, just slightly northwest of London, to view the unveiling of the most famous dollhouse in the world, Queen Mary’s dollhouse.

Why, you may ask?

Because, shelved in the library of that dollhouse, is a professionally-bound original short story written specifically for the library of the Queen’s Dollhouse by, none other than, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is a replica of that book.

It is a Sherlock Holmes story titled How Watson Learned the Trick. Now, it’s only 503 words, handwritten, and there’s a good reason for that.

You see, when the Queen’s cousin, Princess Marie Louise, came up with the idea of the dollhouse, she sent out tiny blank books, about 1.5” by 1.25”, to many of her contacts in the literary world, asking them to contribute to the library. Now, many responded along with Doyle, including such names as AA Milne, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, and others filling the Queen’s Library with great literature.

Check out How Watson Learned the Trick by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle online. It’s a fun story.

For Mystery’s History, until next time, I’m Donald Jay.

Links:

Link to How Watson Learned the Trick:
https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/How_Watson_Learned_the_Trick

Credits:

Photo Credit (Queen’s Doll’s House): The Royal Collection Trust & Candlewick Press 
Photo Credit: (Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein): National Portrait Gallery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons