Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save
upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated
at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the
stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a
fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as
a aPenang lawyer.a Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly
an inch across. aTo James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the
C.C.H.,a was engraved upon it, with the date a1884.a It was just such a
stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used to carry--dignified,
solid, and reassuring.