Baker Street By-ways. By James Edward Hol- royd. (Allen and
Unwin, 15s.) Another of those spoof-scholarly excursions into Holmesiana by an author who not only lacks the wit and style of such precursors as Ronald Knox, but is arch enough to refer to his wife as 'her ladyship.' Although Mr. Holroyd is harsh on illustrators' inaccuracies, and comments in his last sentence on Watson's being 'actually made to misspell his wife's maiden name,' he has himself by then misspelled the names of Aubrey Beardsley (as `Audrey% A. G. Macdonell (as 'A. C. McDonell'), the de Reszkes (as 'the de Reskes'), the Nonpareil Club (as the `Nonpariell'), 'carroty' as 'carrotty,' 'pietistic' as `pietic' and, outstanding among—no doubt—a number of others (for I mention only those that strike the eye and need no checking), Conan Doyle as Conan Coyle. If a spoof-scholar can't read bis own proofs, what research can he be trusted with?
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