Where does "The Resident Patient" reside?

[Brontodon]

I'm trying to figure out the floor plan of Dr. Trevelyan's practice in "The Resident Patient."  In the story, Mr. Blessington sets up Dr. Trevelyan in practice in a house on Brook Street in London.  Blessington lives there as the Resident Patient:

>> He turned the two best rooms of the first floor into a sitting-room and bedroom for himself. <<

OK, so what does "the first floor" mean?  I assumed it meant the ground floor; in other words, at street level.  But there are repeated references in the story to Blessington's rooms being upstairs:

>> Some weeks ago Mr. Blessington came down to me  <<

>> Mr. Blessington generally chose this hour of the day for his exercise. He came in shortly afterwards and passed upstairs. An instant later I heard him running down <<

>> “The police are already upstairs. <<

>> “‘Who has been in my room?’ he cried.

“‘No one,’ said I.

“‘It’s a lie! He yelled. ‘Come up and look!’... When I went upstairs with him... <<

>> A small page admitted us, and we began at once to ascend the broad, well-carpeted stair. <<

So it seems that Blessington's rooms are one level above the doctor's consulting room.  Where is the consulting room?  I now thought that it was on the ground floor, but then there is this passage:

>>  My page who admits patients is a new boy and by no means quick. He waits downstairs, and runs up to show patients out when I ring the consulting-room bell. <<

So now it seems there is a level below the doctor's office level -- which would seem to place Blessington's rooms two floors above ground level.  But then how would that level be called the "first floor"?

Can anyone clear this up for me?  (I realize that this seems a rather nitpicky topic, but then, what is the purpose of this forum if not to nitpick?)

Edited January 3 by Carol the Dabbler
Set entire post to Automatic color

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yes, indeed, we exist to nitpick!

You are apparently a speaker of American English, like me, so to us the "first" floor is basically the ground floor or street level.  Arthur Conan Doyle, however, was Scottish born, of Irish descent, and on that side of the Atlantic the "first" floor is one level higher, what we'd call the "second" floor.  I believe that clears up your first question.

As for your last bit, however, I'm puzzled too.  Even though the author could be using "downstairs" as a synonym for street level (which is one meaning given by both British and American dictionaries), that doesn't explain the page "running up" to the doctor's consulting room from there.  Maybe the house is one of those with its "ground" floor half a level above the street, and another floor half a level lower than the street, and perhaps the page's quarters (where he waits) are on that lower level.  Hopefully one of our British members can shed some light on the matter.

P.S.:  You apparently posted using the default dark theme, so you had no way of knowing that the majority of it was hard to read, sometimes bordering on invisible, to anyone who has chosen the light theme.  I have taken the liberty of substituting a wider left margin for the red text you used to denote quotes.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I was having a brief look at the story in my father's annotated edition, skimming the text.  At one point the doctor is (quite explicitly) "in my consulting-room" when he needs to get something which is (just as explicitly) "downstairs in my laboratory."

There's no annotation (nor a paragraph or two later, is there any annotation for the pageboy waiting "downstairs") -- BUT the laboratory being "downstairs" does substantiate the idea that there's some sort of quasi-basement where the page waits for the doctor to summon him.  It may well be one of those half-below-the-street levels that occur quite commonly in city houses of a certain era on both side of the Atlantic.

I believe this one is in New York City, but I've seen the same sort of thing in London, with the main floor being a half-flight up from the street.

[Brontodon]

On 12/29/2024 at 5:25 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

P.S.:  You apparently posted using the default dark theme, so you had no way of knowing that the majority of it was hard to read, sometimes bordering on invisible, to anyone who has chosen the light theme.  I have taken the liberty of substituting a wider left margin for the red text you used to denote quotes.

 

I noticed that even as I was typing the text was black on a dark gray background.  At first I tried to see if there was a different theme, but I couldn't find one in the settings, so I tried using white text for my comments and orange for my quotes.  But I see that about half of it came out black on gray.  How do I change the theme?

[Carol the Dabbler]

I rarely use the Dark Theme, so am not familiar with its habits, but -- regardless of which theme you use, and no matter what the text looks like as you type it - as long as you use the default colors, the results will be the same.  What each reader sees will depend on which theme s/he chooses.  People using a dark theme will see lighter text on a darker background, and people using a light theme will see darker text on a lighter background, providing good contrast in either case, regardless of which theme the poster used.  (In general, it's best to leave the colors on the default setting, because what looks great on the theme you're using may be invisible on a different theme.)

That said, sometimes things don't work as advertised.  The software manufacturer makes periodic changes to the software, and as with any large software package there are sometimes unintended effects.  Our Administrators (Undead Medic, AKA Tim, and Banshee) do their best to keep things working for us, but they need time to catch up whenever changes are made by the software company.  By all means, if you notice something goofy, let us know -- in the Bugs & Problems section and/or in the thread where you encountered the problem -- because we Moderators may not encounter it ourselves, and the Admins can't fix what they don't know about.

You can change your theme (i.e., the way you see the forum) by clicking on "Theme" at the bottom of any page, then choosing one from the drop-down menu.  Bear in mind, though that this changes only how *you* see the forum.  It has no effect on what anyone else sees.

ADDED:  I just noticed that the last portion of your first post was invisible again, so I changed all the text to the "default" setting.  I can see it all just fine now -- but can you?

 

[Brontodon]

I noticed the same thing, so I tried to correct it again.  Then I found the control to switch to the light theme, and I saw why you couldn't read the light text on the white background.  I just changed it to a middle gray, so it would be readable with either background, but I'm not sure this is the best solution.

I'm also trying to figure out how to insert an image from my computer (not a URL) into my posts -- any suggestions?

 

[Brontodon]

I've changed the theme on my desktop computer to the light theme (MUCH nicer!), but I can't see any way to do that on my Android phone or tablet.

[Carol the Dabbler]

4 hours ago, Brontodon said:

I noticed the same thing, so I tried to correct it again.  Then I found the control to switch to the light theme, and I saw why you couldn't read the light text on the white background.  I just changed it to a middle gray, so it would be readable with either background, but I'm not sure this is the best solution.

It's readable, yes, but as you say, not ideal.  I'm going to switch everything back to Default.  If you notice that it's become invisible again, please don't change anything, just mention it in a new post, and the staff can try to figure out why.

4 hours ago, Brontodon said:

I've changed the theme on my desktop computer to the light theme (MUCH nicer!), but I can't see any way to do that on my Android phone or tablet.

I use the same theme on my Android.  If you call it up directly from a browser (rather than as an app or from um, whatever the name of that forum-management software is), it should be at the bottom just like on a laptop, though you may need to clear that part of the screen first by responding to a request for cookie permission.

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

6 hours ago, Brontodon said:

I'm also trying to figure out how to insert an image from my computer (not a URL) into my posts -- any suggestions?

Sorry, breezed right past that question.

In addition to hot-linking an image from a URL on another site, there's also -- or at least has been in the past -- a way to embed images directly into posts.  There's a limit to the total number of bytes you can embed, but as long as you stick to fairly small images (i.e., the fewer pixels the better), you should be able to do several images this way.  Been a while since I did this myself, though, so I'll need to check how it's done.  If any other staff member happens to wander in here before I get back, they may feel more than free to answer (assuming that they remember).

 

[Brontodon]

OK, after I was able to change the theme on my desktop browser, it automatically changed on my phone!  (I use the same desktop and mobile browser, and they are synchronized.)  So that solves that problem.

I'm still looking for a way to insert an image into a message, as you did above.

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Brontodon said:

after I was able to change the theme on my desktop browser, it automatically changed on my phone!

Convenient -- albeit a bit creepy.  

21 hours ago, Brontodon said:

I'm also trying to figure out how to insert an image from my computer (not a URL) into my posts

2 hours ago, Brontodon said:

I'm still looking for a way to insert an image into a message, as you did above.

That image of NYC brownstones resides on the internet and I hot-linked to it (by simply putting its URL into my post).  If you're wanting a way to display an image that's stored on your own computer, there are basically two ways to do it:

1.  Copy he image to an image-hosting site and hot-link to it there.  People on this forum use a number of such sites, including Imgur.  Others post the image on a social-media site that provides its own image hosting, and then link to it there.  Note: We formerly recommended the image-hosting site Photobucket, till it started holding our images for ransom (see this thread for details), so (unless you're independently wealthy and/or need to host a huge number of images) we now *strongly* advise against using that site.

2.  Embed the image.  Last time I did this, it may have been an option from the Other Media drop-down (at the lower right of where I'm typing right now), but I'm not sure that such an option currently exists.  When I click there now, I get two options, "Insert image from URL" (in other words, hot-linking) and "Insert existing attachment" (which apparently -- yup, when I click on that, it brings up a menu of images that I've embedded in the past.)  I'll ask the Admins if there's still a way to embed new images, and will get back to you.

 

[Brontodon]

I thank you for your efforts on this issue.  I participate in a number of other forum-type sites, and none of them have this difficulty.  I can link to a URL, insert my own picture, and even drag-and-drop a picture into the typing field -- all will place the image into the post.  I'm surprised to find that it's not as easy here.

What do you make of it, Watson?  😉

[Carol the Dabbler]

It may be a while before I have a definitive answer to your image-embedding question.  What say we revert to your original topic in the meantime?