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agreeable to the public, which soon beeai to evince an mtense mterest in them, and expectantly watched and waited for cvery new mvstery which the famous detective underiook to solve But TTolmes—so 1o speak—vas put back tor a time

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remember that 1T was still following medi- cine. Novel writing was in a great measure a congenial pastime, a pastime that 1 el would inevitably become converted into a profession, T devoted two years to the study of fourteenth-century Tife in Engaland Sdward TI1s reien - when the country was at its height. The period has hardly been treated in hction at all, and 1T had to

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no back to carly authorities for everything. l set mysell to reconstruct the archer, who has alw ayvs scemed to me to be thc most

striking figure in - English history. Of course, Seott has done him fincly and mimitably in his outlaw aspect. But it

was not as an outlaw that he was famous. He was primarily a soldier, one of the finest that the world has cver seer 1—rough, hard-drinking, hard-swe caring, but full of pluck and animal SPITILs, Fh(, archers must have been exta aordinary fellows, The French, who hayve always heen aallant sol- diers, gave up trving to fight them at t last, and Ll\ul to allow 14 11011\11 aArmies to

unchecked through the country. It was the same in Spun and in Scotland. Then the knights T think, were much more

human-kind of pcoplu than they have usually been depicted. Strength had little to do with their l\mohtl\ qulltlu Somc of the most famous of them were very weak M, ph\ sically. Chandos was looked upon as the first knight in FEurope when he was over cighty. 1\[) study of the period ended in- myv owriting, * The White Company,’ which has, | bL.l]L‘\ c, gone through a fair number of cditions already.,

" made up oy mind to abandon my practice at Southsca, come to London, and start as an cye spumh\t—q branch of the profession of which 1 was peculiarly tond. T studicd at Paris and Vienna, and, whilst in the latter city, wrote * The Doings of Raflle Tlaws" On my return to London T took rooms in Wimpole- strecty hied a brass plate put on the door, and started. But orders for stories bunm to come 1, and at the expiration of th]cc months T forsook medicine altogether, came to- Norwood, and started writing for T STRAND Mac, AZINI

I Tearnt 2 number of intercsting facts recarding * The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Dr. Dovle invariably conceives the end of his story first, and writes up to it. e gets the climax,and his art Hes in the mgenious way in which he conceals it from his readers. A stmg—\nmlku to those which have dppunul m these p”um\—ouu- pies about a week in writing, and the ideas have come at all manner of times—when out walking, cricketing, tricycling, or plaving tennis, ]IL\\Oll\\btl\\LLl]lhth()lll\()fb]ull\- fastand lunch;and again in the evening from fiive to cight, writing some three thousand words a dav. e reccives many suggcs- tions from the public. On the morning of my visit the particulars of a poisoning casce