When I look at the three massive manuscript volumes which
contain our work for the year 1894, I confess that it is very
difficult for me, out of such a wealth of material, to select the
cases which are most interesting in themselves, and at the same
time most conducive to a display of those peculiar powers for
which my friend was famous. As I turn over the pages, I see my
notes upon the repulsive story of the red leech and the terrible
death of Crosby, the banker. Here also I find an account of the
Addleton tragedy, and the singular contents of the ancient British
barrow. The famous Smith-Mortimer succession case comes also
within this period, and so does the tracking and arrest of Huret,
the Boulevard assassin -- an exploit which won for Holmes an
autograph letter of thanks from the French President and the
Order of the Legion of Honour. Each of these would furnish a
narrative, but on the whole I am of opinion that none of them
unites so many singular points of interest as the episode of
Yoxley Old Place, which includes not only the lamentable death
of young Willoughby Smith, but also those subsequent develop-
ments which threw so curious a light upon the causes of the
crime.