LONDON -- A Scottish historian has discovered a lost Sherlock Holmes story in his attic, over 80 years after it was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Walter Elliot found the 1,300-word tale featuring the famous detective - played on TV by Benedict Cumberbatch - in a collection of stories he was given over 50 years ago. It's called Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar.
Elliot was given the 48-page pamphlet half a century ago by a friend, but forgot all about it until he was rooting around in his attic recently. It's believed to be the first unseen Holmes story by Doyle since the last was published over 80 years ago.
The story is now available to read online.
Revealed for the first time, read the lost Sherlock Holmes story found in an attic: http://t.co/Six6heqeSY pic.twitter.com/g8vZUg9g5d— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) February 20, 2015
The booklet of stories, entitled The Book o' the Brig, was initially created in 1904 as part of a three-day fundraising event to help save a town bridge in Selkirk, southeast Scotland, that was destroyed by a flood two years earlier.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle opened the event on the Saturday, helping to raise £560 for the bridge replacement, an iron structure that still stands today.
"He really must have thought enough of the town to come down and take part and contribute a story to the book. It's a great little story," Elliot said.