page 138
seventh what-you-may-call-it of bliss
Well, what do you call it? This doesn't suggest anything to me (or to Bartlett or the illustrious LPWC).
scurvy-ridden rodents
Lord Peter was speaking loosely here; rats, the only rodents mentioned in this story, don't get scurvy. Guinea pigs and certain fruit-eating bats are, I believe, the only mammals other than primates that can develop that deficiency. Maybe the rats had beri-beri.
page 141
Little grey books all my respected grandmother!
Little grey books? A menace to society managed to find the explanation, in a letter of Ludwig Wittgenstein, no less. According to a synopsis, he "found [Pelmanism] useful for the organisation of thought, little grey books have made it possible to 'card index' his mind." Pelman was the creator of a mnemonic system, presented in Mind and Memory Training: The Pelman System, 1914. Hence I assume that the little grey books are a device Pelman used. Can anyone run this down further? (A library search would be in order; the book currently goes for $125 in the open market.)
page 149
the ghost of Hamilton Tighe
The star of one of the Ingoldsby Legends, whose head was shot off by a cannonball. As a ghost he wanders the world, carrying his head.
I thought as much, / It was a little -- window-cleaner.
In the song from Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience it was a little boy.
page 151
Dear Brutus
According to the LPWC, a play by James Barrie, from 1917. The title, of course, is from Julius Caesar; for an amazing compendium of other works with titles from the same source, see http://www.barbarapaul.com/shake/julius.html
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