"" was written over a hundred years
ago. Doctors knew very little about such things as "nervous disorders," "mental
disorders," and "psychological disorders." There were no tranquilizers available,
and doctors were hardly likely to prescribe liquor, opium or morphine. It was safe and
commonplace to prescribe an ocean voyage or a stay in the country. There are several Sherlock
Holmes tales in which the brilliant but eccentric and hypersensitive detective has left London
seeking a rest-cure in the English countryside. One of the best of these is "The Adventure
of the Devil's Foot."
Framton Nuttel is staying in the English
countryside because several London doctors have suggested it, which shows how much doctors
thought alike in 's time and how little they really knew about what we would now call neurosis.
Framton appears to be a gentleman of leisure who can afford to consult multiple doctors and to
travel anywhere he pleases and stay as long as he likes. It certainly seems logical that a
vacation in a peaceful country setting would be good for anyone's frazzled nerves. Framton is
probably suffering from too much of the kind of stress common to big cities, including noise,
traffic, overcrowding, air pollution, and crime. He expects to meet a family of sedate,
church-going country people but couldn't have entered a more unnerving environment if he had
gone into a lunatic asylum. It is because he expects this family to be so humdrum that he is
taken in by Vera's wild tale about the three men getting sucked into a bog and her aunt
expecting them to return to life after being dead for three years.
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