The Musgrave Ritual

Holmes and Watson are staying with Sir Reginald Musgrave at the family seat in Sussex when the butler, Brunton, disappears. Brunton was a man of odd parts: highly educated, something of a ladykiller, and lately very interested in an ancient family tradition called the Musgrave Ritual, a rhyme that reads like nonsense and centres on a Carolingian riddle. A second member of the household vanishes soon after, and what looked like a servant running off starts to look like something else entirely.

The Ritual turns out to be a set of directions, and the directions lead to treasure, and the treasure turns out to be the crown jewels lost during the English Civil War. That is the size of the prize Brunton was after, and the size of the hole he dug for himself. And as so often in these cases, it is a matter of cherchez la femme: the women of the household know more than the men would like.

David Carson directed, from Conan Doyle, John Hawkesworth and Jeremy Paul. James Hazeldine gives Brunton a restless, clever menace, Michael Culver is every inch the head of an ancient family, and Johanna Kirby's Rachel Howells keeps her own counsel throughout. Teresa Banham, Ian Marter and Patrick Blackwell fill out the household and the local force.

The pleasure here is in the puzzle's shape. A family rhyme nobody has taken seriously for centuries turns out to be a map, and the body found at the end of it is proof that Brunton took the old words very seriously. The treasure is a king's ransom, the setting is a great house full of servants and secrets, and the episode lets the story breathe. It is also one of the early cases, from before the two men ever met, and Holmes plainly enjoys telling it.