The Adventure of Exham Priory

"The Adventure of Exham Priory" is a short story about Sherlock Holmes written by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre. It was originally published in "Shadows Over Baker Street", a 2003 anthology edited by Michael Reaves and John Pelan for Del Rey Books (ISBN 0 345 45528 2 and ISBN 978 0 345 45528 4).

The story is set in April 1901, shortly after the death of Queen Victoria, and ten years after Holmes's seeming death at Reichenbach Falls. Doctor Watson maintains a medical practice in Harley Street while continuing to share rooms with Holmes at 221B Baker Street.

Holmes has received, from a mysterious correspondent, a curved fragment of black basalt incised with weird runic symbols and stained with coagulated blood. Holmes and Watson have barely examined this before the correspondent himself arrives: he is Jephson Norrys, landholder of Exham Priory at Anchester in the Welsh Marches. Norrys has incurred a bizarre medical condition which appears to be transforming him into a fish-like creature.

The mystery deepens when Holmes reveals to Watson and Norrys another piece of black basalt: hexagonal, but incised with the same runic symbols and likewise stained with coagulated blood. Although Watson has never seen this object before, Holmes explains that it has been in his possession for the past ten years ... ever since the occasion of his alleged death. "Perhaps it is time that I told you, Watson," he remarks, "of my encounter with the Reichenbach Horror."

"The Adventure of Exham Priory" is filled with historic detail on topics including British railways of the time, and firearms and ammunition. (Watson arms himself with a Webley "Bull Dog" revolver and some 6.25-grain cordite cartridges, only recently invented as of 1901.) Also mentioned are scientists of this period who postulated a fourth dimension of space, including Henri Bergson and Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky. Holmes reveals his knowledge of the ancient Chaldean tongue, as well as pre-dynastic Chinese. There are subtle references to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" and to several H. P. Lovecraft stories, including "At the Mountains of Madness", "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", "The Rats in the Walls" and "The Shadow Out of Time". Even Professor Moriarty and Watson's deceased first wife Mary Morstan make appearances at the story's climax.