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Hi. Of the letters, D stands for Demosthenes, so D is the first letter of the last word of the name of one of Thomas Anson's garden follies: the Choragic Lanthorn of Demosthenes: this is one part of the key. After deciphering the remaining letters, each letter is the first letter of the last word of each of Thomas Anson's garden and parkland follies. The dots are geometric alignment points. Combined with the carving of Poussin's Et in Arcadia Ego, the Shepherd's Monument represents a map of Shugborough estate. But these are just three of the 43 steps required to solve the mystery. A hint or three never hurts. Best wishes, Frank. PS: I think SH is great, but is that Sherlock Holmes or Shugborough Hall? Certainly the former. 🤠

This was WILD! I've dreamed that I was in the White House and said something about how I would be able to paint a portrait of DJT. Unfortunately, he somehow heard this and wanted me to make one. 😱 I thought about refusing, but for some reason I felt threatened. Then suddenly, there were other painters, and we had a competition: a written test with one question being something like "What is the meaning of life?" The rest of the dream was the usual school test nightmare of trying to write on impossible material instead of paper, having no seat or table, etc. Isn't it enough that my first thought every morning is: "What has he done this time?"

Hi. So I'm completely ignorant of 'games' unless it's Space Invaders (1980s). However, the 'Jesus had children' theory is from the book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which uses the Et in Arcadia Ego painting: so yes, the game was likely inspired by the book, and therefore yes, it is all the same Et In Arcadia Ego mystery. 🤠

The game is called Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (https://www.gog.com/de/game/gabriel_knight_3_blood_of_the_sacred_blood_of_the_damned). It’s the plot that refers to the painting and that Jesus Had Kids theory.

This may be irrelevant, but I just reread the second article that Enigma posted above. It's got a nice close-up shot of the inscription, and now I'm not so sure that the final "dot" isn't just a natural freckle in the stone. It's a bit further away from its letter than any of the others (even though that M is the widest letter of the bunch), plus it's right next to a cluster of smaller freckles.

Hi. This mystery has in deed been solved. Please read, Secrets of the Shepherd's Monument, by F E Robson (that'll be me). It is not easy to understand, but that does not make it wrong. It took 20,000 hours over the course of 16 years, but it is correct and will stand up to any amount of scrutiny. Best wishes, Frank.

The character Gregory House in the TV show "House, M.D." is based in part on Sherlock Holmes. My wife and I are watching our way through this series and I noticed some very interesting Holmes references in the episode "Joy to the World" (season 5, episode 11). House receives as a Christmas gift a copy of the book "A Manual of the Operations of Surgery," by Joseph Bell, M.D. Bell, of course, was Arthur Conan Doyle's inspiration for the character of Sherlock Holmes. This is the real title of a book that Bell actually wrote. In the same episode Dr. Wilson also mentions a patient that House once fell for: a woman named Irene Adler. She had some sort of disease that House could not diagnose. She turned out to be fake, as it happens, but the Adler reference was delicious!

Came here to post some news and coincidentally happened upon that post, which I had completely forgotten about. Well, they're apparently back to considering a "bridge movie." Don't offhand recall where I heard about it, but here's the IMDb page. It's said to cover "Aragorn's quest to capture Gollum between The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring ... to keep the Ring's location [a secret] from Sauron," Philippa Boyens is listed among the writers, and so far, looks like they also have Andy Serkis onboard (as both Gollum and Director), plus Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood (yes, as Frodo) -- but no mention of Viggo Mortensen. They also say "The film explores Aragorn's early adventures as a ranger," so maybe they're hoping to avoid the dreaded Elrond-Legolas Syndrome, where a character looks older as you go back in time. Mortensen hasn't been in a Tolkien movie since 2003's Return of the King, and has meanwhile aged from his mid-40s to to his late 60s, a bit old to be playing a "young" Aragorn. I'd guess they're looking to cast a Mortensen-type actor who's somewhere around 30. As for the three actors listed, Serkis will doubtless be doing Gollum via motion-capture again, McKellen can simply forgo some of the aging makeup he used last time -- and I have absolutely no idea what Frodo would be doing in this story.

Then again, I recall when Brett was being compared to Rathbone. And presumably Rathbone started out being compared to somebody before that. But as you say, maybe in a few more years. Well, I could probably imagine it, but Moffat & Gatiss have been quite adamant that they would never recast either Cumberbatch or Freeman. If when you say "them" however you mean "somebody" in the relatively distant future -- who knows? I guess if the original show (hopefully as typified by the first couple of seasons) has made a sufficiently positive impression on the current younger generations, the concept might well outlive Cumberbatch & Co. So do I. Wasn't McKellen's Holmes struggling with the early stages of dementia? Barring the imminent development of a cure (yes, please!), I don't see how they could explain him being able to remember the case long enough to investigate it. Though -- hmm -- I'm pretty sure they "aged" him with makeup for that movie. If so, then perhaps (without the "old" makeup) they could do a prequel. He's only in his mid-80s and according to IMDb, currently has several projects lined up (including something called The Hunt for Gollum). Now that you mention it, so am I. (Though according to Wikipedia, "In 2000, Monica Dolan starred as Russell in a 4-part BBC Radio drama of The Beekeeper's Apprentice, with James Fox playing Holmes.") Apparently King is continuing to write the books (with the most recent one published just six months ago, in June 2025). A while back I did sort through several boxes of attic books, and now have one large boxful that I probably wouldn't mind giving away (but I want to look through once more, just to be sure), just need to grit my teeth and follow through. Then I can triage some more boxfuls. Fortunately I don't seem to be acquiring books very often nowadays (and I do hope that Alexander McCall Smith will wrap up his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series pretty soon). My big quandary is finding a good home for the books that I don't keep. When Mom died, I took several boxes of perfectly good, interesting books to the local used-book chain, but they were interested in only two (!) of the newer books. The charity shops and the library book sales are a lot more open-minded, I think, but I wish I knew how many donated books they actually find new homes for -- vs. how many they umm, don't.

The series might be a good one and I certainly shouldn’t pre-judge. It’s more a case of “how many different ‘angles’ can there be?” I loved House so there’s no reason why this one couldn’t be good too. I imagine that I’ll eventually get around to watching an episode at some point. I can’t see a traditional series coming any time soon either Carol. Things like the Watson series don’t have the baggage that a traditional series carries because there’s nothing for the viewers to compare it to so it’s judged as a standalone work, as it should be; individuals either like it or they don’t. A trad series is always going to be compared to the Granada series and anyone playing Holmes would be compared to Brett so I really don’t see anyone attempting it….not for a few years anyway. There’s certainly more chance of a new Sherlock at some point but, as you say, we may have a few years to wait. Here’s a hypothetical one for you Carol (and anyone else) could you imagine them doing a Sherlock at some point with someone other than Cumberbatch playing him?🤔 I always hoped that they might do another ‘older Holmes’ movie with McKellen but I doubt it. Talking of ‘older Holmes,’ I’m surprised that, as yet, we’ve seen no Mary Russell/ Holmes movie based on the Laurie King books. A few years ago it was said that an adaptation was being looked at and planned but there’s been nothing yet. It’s difficult to imagine why it’s such a difficult prospect. I’ve been moving books on over the past few years out of necessity Carol. I’d have loved to have had a proper library room but I just don’t have that kind of space so the local charity shops have been getting regular donations from me. It’s impossible to estimate how many books I’ve given away although it’s well over a 1000. I’ve probably got no more than 1000 left now (with around 330 being on the subject of Jack the Ripper) Do you know where I can buy a TARDIS cheap?😁

Hello Jedothek and welcome! Presumably those are among the cases Watson never writes about. The Adventure of the Three-Hour Consultation might make for rather dull reading.

That is thought out and convincing. The code cracker even states that he tried to convince himself that he is wrong which is more than what some can say.