A few months after they moved into their cottage in Sussex, Holmes was sorting through one of the boxes containing his commonplace books and found an envelope, which was bulging with various small pieces of paper. He read the verse which had been written on the envelope and gave one of his barks of laughter. He remembered the occasion when he’d upset a pile of tickets all over the floor and Watson had carefully gathered them up and stored them inside an envelope so they wouldn’t get lost. It seemed Watson had also written a poem to commemorate the occasion.

T is for Ticket

T is for trains, for taking us into the country and back home
I is for inclement weather, lost property and umbrellas which roam
C is for concerts, as distractions, giving Holmes time to think
K is for kicks at rugby matches, bringing my team back from the brink
E is for entertainment and using the cloakroom for coat and for hat
T is for tombola but never the winning one and thus that’s that