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"I Keep A Bull Pup"

Originally posted by Escargot
Another of Holmes' vices was smoking tobacco soaked in laudanum. If I found that out about my flatmate I'd wish I had a bullpup/gun too.
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Let's not forget the old 7% solution of intravenous cocaine as well.

Although I believe it made it easier to get along with him when he wasn't working.
 
naitaka said:
Presumably he didn't have one of these.
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In the Fred Saberhagen version of Holmes and Watson, he may well have done...

In terms of the fact that Holmes wound up keeping Watson's Cheque book, it may have been a fighting dog for gaming purposes. Ah, those quaint country pastimes that were such a money spinner...
 
Something like this?

Edit: Keeping fighting dogs was a popular working class hobby, especially in London. And not just dog on dog either, 'ratting', where a dog is put into a pit with rats and bets were placed on the number killed in a certain amount of time, was a favourite sport in East End pubs during the late 19th cent. All could be very lucrative.
 
reminds me of a story from a Victorian Cornish Newspaper i read.A local "character" had been arested... he had been a rat catcher for ratting dogs, but had become obsessed with the rat as the Saviour of mankind. lately he had made a rat skin coat, turned his terraced cottage into a rat breeding farm and had been arrested drunk and disorderly, in a pub while doing his party trick. Holding bets in a pub as to how long he would take to kill a rat on a bar table...useing only his TEETH!
 
I've just come across this thread by accident, for some reason it came up on a search for the Doyle thylacine film, anyway, I read it because I thought it was some sort of confession or something juicy.

But the answer is, if anyone still cares, Watson's 'bull pup' is definitely his old service revolver. It was a type briefly used by the British Army in the late 1800's and was utter crap. I know this because my father, a bore on the subject of guns and militaria would deliver a set lecture on the subject everytime he saw Bruce/Rathbone with their Colt revolvers.
 
Actually, I Googled it after posting that, and looks like I was wrong about most of the details. I wonder why I ever listened to a word my old man ever said.
 
oldrover said:
That's in the modern sense though, there was a revolver called a'Bulldog' back then.
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The modern sense of the term didn't arise until the mid-20th century, and the firearm configuration it denotes was first patented in 1901 (too late to have informed the Holmes story).

'Bull dog' / 'Bull pup' were supposedly 19th century American slang terms for a pistol one carried for personal protection.

More specifically, the name 'Bull Dog' was given to a relatively compact Webley revolver, manufactured from the 1870's onward, and widely known among military circles beyond the UK (e.g., Custer purportedly carried a pair of Bull Dogs at the Little Big Horn). The Bull Dog was designed to be carried in a pocket.

The name 'Bull Dog' was engraved on the larger caliber (.40 - .45) versions. However, Webley also made smaller caliber versions (.320 - .380) that were not engraved as 'Bull Dog' models. It's entirely conceivable that 'Bull Pup' was contemporary slang for one of these smaller-caliber variants. It's also conceivable that Conan Doyle (never one for exacting details) used 'bull pup' to connote one of the better-known large-caliber Webleys.

As time goes on, I find the pistol theory less and less satisfying. Watson says "I keep a bull pup" in response to Holmes' request to list any characteristics that may prove to be issues in their sharing quarters. "I have a handgun" doesn't strike me as a negative factor Watson would have mentioned in this context, and the use of "keep" is just as appropriate for two other explanations:

(a) The obvious - i.e., Watson was keeping a bulldog pup. This could have been a potential problem in relation to Mrs. Hudson's terrier, so it would have been something worthy of mention in response to Holmes' query.

(b) I've seen claims that "keep a bull pup" was 19th century Anglo-Indian military / colonial slang for "have a short / notable temper." However, I've never seen a specific source confirming this alleged usage. This, too, would fit in the context of listing a potential roommate's down sides.
 
I'd be inclined to apply Occam's Razor here. "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." I think he kept a dog, and the dog simply never figured in any of the cases Watson chose to document. Since their association began in 1881, and lasted nearly 40n years, it's likely the dog died fairly early in the canon anyway.
 
Anonymous said:
I think you'll find that Nigel Bruce got flustered. Watson, the narrator, played the foil...
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I think I had in mind the Hound of the Baskervilles scene in which Watson discovers that Holmes has deceived him into thinking that he has remained in London when in fact he is living rough in one of the huts on the moors.

If I recall correctly, he gets a little wifey with Holmes and laments that his old friend has lost faith in him.

And is it in at the start of The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle where Holmes basically humiliates Watson by allowing him to admit that he cannot find a single clue before himself 'deducing' all kinds of probabilities from a plain-looking hat?

Similarly, at the start of Sign of Four he goes a bit wet when Holmes teases him about how obvious it is that he has been to the post office.

Perhaps 'flustered' was not the best choice of word.
 
Doc. Sharpe said:
I'd be inclined to apply Occam's Razor here. "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." I think he kept a dog, and the dog simply never figured in any of the cases Watson chose to document. Since their association began in 1881, and lasted nearly 40n years, it's likely the dog died fairly early in the canon anyway.
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In "A Study in Scarlet", a very ill dog, inferred to be resident at 221B, is put down using the poison pills the murderer uses, as a test. As Watson said, he kept a bull-pup, and later on Holmes then asked him if he has any weapons, something he would have know, had the 'bull-pup' reference been to a revolver. I'm inclined to think the dog in question never made it past the end of of 'A study...'
 
That's a spaniel isn't it? (I could go and look, but it'll probably take ages to find the right page!)
 
I have just come across the term Bullpup to refer to a type of modern rifle and thought of this thread. So I have looked through A Study in Scarlet and noticed something. A little later in the book (chapter 5), after Watson has already mentioned his famous bull pup, Holmes asks him if he has a weapon.

"Oh you can leave me to deal with him then. Have you any arms?"

"I have my old service revolver and a few cartridges."
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If Watson had already told Holmes he had a firearm, Holmes would have absolutely remembered it as it would be relevant to his work.

I think we have ruled out dog due to practical reasons (Watson was living in a hotel prior to meeting Holmes and a dog is never again mentioned). So from context, I think the short temper is the best explanation as the full quote is this and refers only to personality:-

"I keep a bull pup," I said "and I object to rows because my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy. I have another set of vices when I'm well but those are the principal ones at present."
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Fluttermoth said:
That's a spaniel isn't it? (I could go and look, but it'll probably take ages to find the right page!)
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Definitely a terrier if you are still wondering after 6 years.:chuckle:
 
I found this recently published article on the subject, which comes down heavily on the dog side of the theory - i.e. Doyle used 'bull pup' to refer to dogs several times in his writings, and the claim that it was Anglo-Indian slang for a short temper seems to have been invented out of the whole cloth by Jack Tracy in the 1970s and doesn't appear in any other sources.

https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2022/09/the-bull-pup-canine-gun-or-something.html#.ZFcRh-xBwe0
 
PeniG said:
Watson? Flustered? Oh, no no no, didn't happen. Watson was much too solid for that.
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I might now, nineteen years later, favour another word, but I think this scene was foremost in my mind when I wrote of Watson getting 'flustered'.

"Well, I am glad from my heart that you are here, for indeed the responsibility and the mystery were both becoming too much for my nerves. But how in the name of wonder did you come here, and what have you been doing? I thought that you were in Baker Street working out that case of blackmailing."

"That was what I wished you to think."

"Then you use me, and yet do not trust me!" I cried with some bitterness. "I think that I have deserved better at your hands, Holmes."

"My dear fellow, you have been invaluable to me in this as in many other cases, and I beg that you will forgive me if I have seemed to play a trick upon you. In truth, it was partly for your own sake that I did it, and it was my appreciation of the danger which you ran which led me to come down and examine the matter for myself. Had I been with Sir Henry and you it is confident that my point of view would have been the same as yours, and my presence would have warned our very formidable opponents to be on their guard. As it is, I have been able to get about as I could not possibly have done had I been living in the Hall, and I remain an unknown factor in the business, ready to throw in all my weight at a critical moment."

"But why keep me in the dark?"

"For you to know could not have helped us and might possibly have led to my discovery. You would have wished to tell me something, or in your kindness you would have brought me out some comfort or other, and so an unnecessary risk would be run. I brought Cartwright down with me — you remember the little chap at the express office — and he has seen after my simple wants: a loaf of bread and a clean collar. What does man want more? He has given me an extra pair of eyes upon a very active pair of feet, and both have been invaluable."

"Then my reports have all been wasted!" — My voice trembled as I recalled the pains and the pride with which I had composed them.

Edit: I now find I addressed this point in 2017!
 
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