1. “ We talked about the delights of a swim in the lake. At least he did. For he had been in Lucerne several days, and once each day, at least, had courted its cool embrace. ”
—
Silas Hocking, “A Holiday with Conan Doyle” New Age, 24/01/1895 [retourner à la page “De Lucerne à Zermatt”]

2. “ This is a sight ! The Lake of Lucerne !! I am sitting in a bedroom writing, and looking out of window alternately at one of the most beautiful views that can be concieved. We are on the very edge of the Lake, and are surrounded by Mountains, the moon is shining on the water, picturesque towers and churches rise here and there, the celebrated Regi [sic] is over the way immediately, and an awful mountain of singularly wild and rugged appearance – Monti Pilata, where Pontius Pilate is said to have drowned himself in a lake at the summit – rises on the right-hand side. The beauty of this whole business overwhelms me with feelings of joy and wonder, and I feel as if I must sit down here and defy Nature (or any other person) to bring or produce any landscape or view that could put the nose of this landscape or view out of joint. Hurrah ! I have not lived in vain. Here are real blue mountains, and as we saw it on arriving two hours ago, real blue sky and water. This is the seat of the exploits of William Tell. Tomorrow morning at four o’clock we start by steamboat up the Lake, en route for the Alps, and we will see the sun rise upon the Lake. ”
—
 Lettre de Richard Doyle, sans destinataire, sans date, d’après retranscription BCU-Lausanne IS 4314/3/1/2 [retourner à la page “De Lucerne à Zermatt”]

3. “ What a delightful week of it we spent on this glorious eminence, with the lonely peak of the Matterhorn towering thousands of feet above still, and the strangely impressive glaciers almost completely encircling us. ”
—
 Silas Hocking, “A Holiday with Conan Doyle” New Age, 24/01/1895 [retourner à la page “De Lucerne à Zermatt”]

4. “ It was upon the 3rd of May that we reached the little village of Meiringen, where we put up at the Englischer Hof, then kept by Peter Steiler the elder. Our landlord was an intelligent man, and spoke excellent English, having served for three years as waiter at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. At his advice, upon the afternoon of the 4th we set off together with the intention of crossing the hills and spending the night at the hamlet of Rosenlaui. We had strict injunctions, however, on no account to pass the falls of Reichenbach, which are about half-way up the hill, without making a small detour to see them. ”
—
Arthur Conan Doye, The Adventure of the Final Problem, décembre 1893 [retourner à la page “De Lucerne à Zermatt”]

5. “ It is, indeed, a fearful place. The torrent, swollen by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke from a burning house. „
—
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Final Problem, décembre 1893) [Retourner à la page “Drame aux chutes du Reichenbach”]

6. “ I am in the middle of the last Holmes story, after which the gentleman vanishes, never never to reappear. I am weary of his name. ”
—
 Lettre d’Arthur Conan Doyle à sa mère, avril 1893 [Retourner à la page “Drame aux chutes du Reichenbach”]

7. “ I was in Switzerland for the purpose of giving a lecture at the time when I was thinking out the details of the final story. I was taking a walking tour through the country, and I came to a waterfall. I thought if a man wanted to meet a gaudy kind of death that was a fine romantic place for the purpose. ”
—
 Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Gaudy Death. Conan Doyle tells the True Story of Sherlock Holmes’s end”, Tit-Bits, 15/12/1900 [Retourner à la page “Drame aux chutes du Reichenbach”]

8. “ The news of the death of Sherlock Holmes has been received with most widespread regret, and readers have implored us to useour influence with Mr. Conan Doyle to prevent the tragedy being consummated. We can only reply that we pleaded for his life in the most urgent, earnest, and constant manner. Like hundreds of correspondents,we feel as if we had lost an old friend whom we could ill spare. ”
—
 “The Death of Sherlock Holmes”, Tit-bits, 06/01/1894 [Retourner à la page “Drame aux chutes du Reichenbach”]

9. “ I fear I was utterly callous myself, and only glad to have a chance of opening out into new fields of imagination. ”
—
 Arthur Conan Doyle, Memories and Adventures, 1924 [Retourner à la page “Drame aux chutes du Reichenbach”]

10. “ I have been much blamed for doing that gentleman to death, but I hold that it was not murder, but justifiable homicide in self defense, since, if I had not killed him, he would certainly have killed me. ”
—
 Arthur Conan Doyle (discours), The Conan Doyle Banquet at the Authors’ Club, 04/07/1896 [Retourner à la page “Drame aux chutes du Reichenbach”]

11. “ This is a most glorious place – such a blue sky + bright sun, although 5000 feet up. The air too so exiliarating ! It is a rare place to work. ”
—
 Lettre d’Arthur Conan Doyle à Sir John Robinson, 20/12/1893 [Retourner à la page “Séjour à Davos”]

12. “ There is nothing peculiarly malignant in the appearance of a pair of ski. […] No one, to look at them, would guess at the possibilities which lurk in them. ”
—
 Arthur Conan Doyle, “An Alpine Pass on ‘Ski’”, Strand Magazine, décembre 1894 [Retourner à la page “Un exploit sportif”]

13. “ Yesterday, I performed a small feat by crossing a chain of mountains on snow-shoes (Norwegian Ski) and coming down to Arosa. Two Swiss accompanied me. I am the first Englishman who has ever crossed an Alpine pass in winter on snow-shoes – at least I think so. We left at 4 in the morning and were in Arosa at 11.30. It has created quite a little excitement. ”
—
 Arthur Conan Doyle, lettre à sa mère, 24/03/1894 [Retourner à la page “Un exploit sportif”]

14. “ In that great untrodden waste, with snow-fields bounding our vision on every side and no marks of life save the track of chamois and of foxes, it was glorious to whizz along in this easy fashion. A short zig-zag at the bottom of the slope brought us, at half-past nine, into the mouth of the pass, and we could see the little toy hotels of Arosa away down among the fir woods, thousands of feet beneath us. ”
—
 Arthur Conan Doyle, “An Alpine Pass on ‘Ski’”, Strand Magazine, décembre 1894 [Retourner à la page “Un exploit sportif”]

15. “ Fletcher Robinson came here with me and we are going to do a small book together ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ – a real Creeper.  »
—
 Lettre d’Arthur Conan Doyle à sa mère, Royal Links Hotel, Cromer, mars 1901 [Retourner à la page “Le retour de Sherlock Holmes”]

16. “ It was as we suspected. That fall over the cliff did not make an end of Sherlock Holmes. ”
—
 The St. James’s Gazette, 16/05/1903 [Retourner à la page “Le retour de Sherlock Holmes”]

17. “ Dear Sir,I remember reading that Dr. Moriarty died some years ago in Switzerland. But only last night I was having a very quiet drink in Freddies’ Bar in Damascus and a person arrived who introduced himself as the famous Dr. Moriarty. How can this be and is my new friend an imposter ? ”
—
 Lettre adressée à Sherlock Holmes, 1956 [Retourner à la page “Le retour de Sherlock Holmes”]