I am reading The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes-A Scandal In Bohemia. I came across the term ‘Boot Slitting.’ Please explain ‘Boot Slitting’.
I am reading The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes-A Scandal In Bohemia. I came across the term ‘Boot Slitting.’ Please explain ‘Boot Slitting’.
3 Answers
It was a common a block of solid material, esp wood or metal, that is shaped like a narrow V in cross section, and was used to get the clay and soil off your boots. Like a scraper. In Victorian times, the paving on London Streets was not as waterproof as intended and mud was a chronic problem. Also, with horses the main beast of burden, horse droppings were a constant menace. Homes (as opposed to Holmes) therefore had these wedges outside the main doors to keep the mud and muck out of the living areas.
Hope that helps.
Watson wanted to know how Holmes could deduce from his appearance that he, Watson, has “a most clumsy and careless servant girl?” [Watson had moved out of Baker Street upon his marriage, and had come to visit him.]
Holmes replied, “It is simplicity itself,” said he; “my eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey.
Holmes may have exaggerated the depth of the cuts on Watson’s shoe when he said his servant girl was a boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey. Watson didn’t notice, so the leather was not cut clear through, but the lowly housemaid was not careful when she scraped off the mud.
There’s a great series of books, “The Annotated Sherlock Holmes,” that contains detailed explanations of all sorts of unusual things that occur in the books, probably including an explanation of this. Most libraries have these books; see if you can look it up there.