If you've been wondering who Lord Peter was talking about in Busman's Honeymoon: "Dear me! what a shocking sound--like Nell Cook under the paving-stone!" (BH 72), the answer is in the Ingoldsby Legends and can be found here:

'There is a heavy paving-stone fast by the Canon's door,
Of granite grey, and it may weigh some half a ton or more,
And it is laid deep in the shade within that Entry dark,
Where sun or moon-beam never play'd, or e'en one starry spark.
*
'That heavy granite stone was moved that night, 'twas darkly said,
And the mortar round its sides next morn seem'd fresh and newly laid,
But what within the narrow vault beneath that stone doth lie,
Or if that there be vault or no -- I cannot tell -- not I!
*
'But I've been told that moan and groan, and fearful wail and shriek
Came from beneath that paving-stone for nearly half a week --
For three long days and three long nights came forth those sounds of fear;
Then all was o'er -- they never more fell on the listening ear.


My gift to you all on a slow Friday afternoon.

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, and Ralph Lynn, the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot, Miss Katharine Alexandra Climpson, media whimsies, music, aspidistra & ampelopsis, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1 & 2, Strong Poison, The Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors 1, 2, & 3, Gaudy Night 1 & 2.

Spoilers.

( MARRIAGES / WIMSEY-VANE. )

---
WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. Busman's Honeymoon. 1937. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, n.d.

Sayers, Dorothy L., and Muriel St. Clare Byrne. Busman's Honeymoon. 1936. Love All and Busman's Honeymoon. Ed. Alzina Stone Dale. N.p.: The Kent State University Press, 1984.

And you thought I'd never do it.

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, and Ralph Lynn, the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot, Miss Katharine Alexandra Climpson, media whimsies, music, aspidistra & ampelopsis, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1 & 2, Strong Poison, The Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors 1, 2, & 3, Gaudy Night.

Spoilers.

( Harriet's looking at Mecklenburg Square. I can't be bothered to get up and find the book for the exact quote. )

There will be a post on Busman's Honeymoon, because I at least want to talk about some of the difference between the novel and the play. Suggestions of other topics are, as always, welcome--either for BH or GN.

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, and Ralph Lynn, the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot, Miss Katharine Alexandra Climpson, media whimsies, music, aspidistra & ampelopsis, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1 & 2, Strong Poison, The Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors 1, 2, & 3.

Still feeling ill, headachy, and fretful. Need a break from George Eliot. But I've finally figured out where to start talking about Gaudy Night. I don't know how coherent or insightful this is going to be, but it gives me something to do.

Spoilers for the whole book.

( Harriet Vane sat at her writing-table and stared out into Mecklenburg Square. )

I am open to suggestions for other topics in relation to GN. I feel like I've only scratched the surface.

---
WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. 1936. New York: Perennial Library-Harper & Row, Publishers, n.d.

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, and Ralph Lynn, the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot, Miss Katharine Alexandra Climpson, media whimsies, music, aspidistra & ampelopsis, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1 & 2, Strong Poison, The Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors 1 & 2.

At long last, the third Nine Tailors post, in which we will discuss religion, realism, and anything else that happens to cross my mind. Discussion inspired from the replies to this post, with much gratitude!

Spoilers abounding.

( 'That's torn it!' said Lord Peter Wimsey. )

---
WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. The Nine Tailors. 1934. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., n.d.

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, and Ralph Lynn, the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot, Miss Katharine Alexandra Climpson, media whimsies, music, aspidistra & ampelopsis, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1 & 2, Strong Poison, The Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors 1.

I've really fallen behind with these (the last installment was on the seventh). I apologize. I've been fretting about things, and that's not a state conducive to either reading or thinking constructively about The Nine Tailors.

However, I do have this idea that's been buzzing around my head like a mosquito, and it doesn't fit anywhere into a logical progression of analysis, so I'm going to inflict it on you here.

Warning: spoilers for T9T. ALL of it.

( 'That's torn it!' said Lord Peter Wimsey. )

I shall press onward with T9T, hopefully soon.

---
WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. The Nine Tailors. 1934. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., n.d.

Photographs of aspidistras: 1, 2, and 3. Close-up of an aspidistra leaf.

There also is (or was) a racehorse named Aspidistra.

And whatever the plural of ampelopsis is: 1, 2 (scroll down to find the ampelopsis its own self), 4, 5, 6 and 7 (all over the shop, indeed).

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, and Ralph Lynn, the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot, Miss Katharine Alexandra Climpson, media whimsies, music, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1 & 2, Strong Poison, The Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7, Murder Must Advertise.

I've decided I want to do The Nine Tailors in very small increments, because it's not terribly long, but it is extremely dense. So this post will cover "A Short Touch of Kent Treble Bob Major: Two Courses."

( 'That's torn it!' said Lord Peter Wimsey. )

Next, The Nine Tailors 2.

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WORKS CITED
Kenney, Catherine. The Remarkable Case of Dorothy L. Sayers. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1990.

Sayers, Dorothy L. The Nine Tailors: Changes Rung on an Old Theme in Two Short Touches and Two Full Peals. 1934. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., n.d.

Previous DLS posts: Concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, and Ralph Lynn, the Hon. Freddy Arbuthnot, Miss Katharine Alexandra Climpson, the media, Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club 1 & 2, Strong Poison, The Five Red Herrings, Have His Carcase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7, Murder Must Advertise.

Think about literature as a shameless way to avoid ... thinking about literature.

Some days I suspect that my life is ever so slightly fucked up.

In any event, this is the post about music in the canon. I don't know that I have any great insights to come to, but we shall see. Canon-wide spoilers.

( Music's his line. )

Onward, then, to The Nine Tailors.

---
WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. 1936. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, n.d.

---. The Nine Tailors. 1934. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., n.d.

---. Strong Poison. 1930. New York: Perennial Library-Harper & Row, Publishers, 1987.

---. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. 1928. New York: HarperPaperbacks, 1995.

---. Whose Body? 1923. New York: Avon Books, 1961.

If you've ever wondered what Ralph Lynn looked like, and why Peter always gets compared to him, check out these pictures.

a jigsaw puzzle ad (Ralph Lynn and Glennis Lorimer)

still from Chance of a Night-Time (Ralph Lynn and Winifred Shotter)

Two South African tobacco cards, here and here (Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls). The site also features Rudolph Valentino in a powdered wig and a really stunning picture of Fay Wray. (Have I mentioned my passion for black-and-white portraiture?)

According to the IMDb, Ralph Lynn (1882-1962) appeared in twenty-two films between 1929 and 1937 (the second of the two South African tobacco cards is from his last film, For Valour). Their biography/trivia page adds that he was a stage actor who made his career playing "monocled 'silly ass' twits." And, as I thought, his first name was pronounced "Rafe."

This post is oracne's fault, for posting a reference to Rupert Brooke (and based on this portrait--which makes me think of the SCR in Gaudy Night drooling over Viscount Saint-George--you can see what the women of Bryn Mawr '17 were on about). I don't have the least idea how I got from Rupert Brooke to Ralph Lynn, but such are the mysterious inner workings of my mind.