Introduction

Indian Diamonds 147
wants to test Holmes’ abilities of deduction and presents a watch (128). Just by
examining it, Holmes infers that it is an heirloom which has come down to Watson
from his father through the death of his older brother. “Jewellery usually descends
to the eldest son,” (128) he concludes alongside other observations on the
brother’s character and habits, which are all inscribed on the watch.
With these heirlooms, Franklin’s and Harry’s money and Watson’s watch,
wealth and memory are passed on in a regulated and official manner. They provide
stability and continuity over many generations. In the case of Franklin, being
denied the inheritance of the dukedom and his ensuing exile, the destabilising
effect of the denial shows in his unstable identity, as described by Betteredge. In
The Moonstone and The Sign of Four these inheritances are juxtaposed with the Indian
diamonds which are also passed on as bequests. Yet they do not function in the
same stabilising manner.
The Moonstone is left to Rachel by her uncle John Herncastle, and it is made
clear that it is intended as a revenge on her mother. Franklin Blake pointedly questions
“the Colonel’s motive in leaving this legacy to his niece, for my aunt’s sake”
(Collins, Moonstone 49). The diamond and the will are used to wreak vengeance on
the relatives as John Herncastle knew well that the possession of the diamond is
dangerous (44). The diamond also threatens the Verinder’s property in that it
upsets Lady Julia’s provisions in her own will. Rachel is only entitled to a life-long
interest in her property to avert fortune-hunting suitors like Godfrey Ablewhite
who would squander the property. Through the inheritance of the Moonstone,
she is again exposed to the risk her mother wanted to avert and whose legal precautions
are nullified (Dolin 78). Thus the inheritance of the Moonstone confers
both an alleged Oriental curse and social and economic vulnerability.
The same danger of prosecution impends on the owner and heir of the Great
Agra Treasure. Bartholomew and Thaddeus Sholto inherit the treasure from their
father John Sholto. One half of the treasure was supposed to go to his accomplice
Arthur Morstan, but is withheld from his daughter, Mary Morstan. The recovery
of the treasure would make her “the richest heiress in England” (Doyle, Sign 150).
As in The Moonstone the owner of the diamonds is threatened by a mysterious third
party that follows it. In The Sign of Four it is Jonathan Small and Tonga, who are
responsible for the deaths of John and Thaddeus Sholto. They go where the
treasure is and represent the inheritance’s threatening side.
Anthony Trollope’s The Eustace Diamonds is another example of Indian diamonds
bequeathed in England and a young woman claiming them. The emphasis
is on the legal status of the diamonds, and the question of ownership is paramount
as Lizzie refuses to give them up. The legal battle which is fought over the
diamonds concerns the possibility of their status as an heirloom of the Eustace
family, which would force Lizzie to give them back to her husband’s family. Their
great value is cited as an argument to the negative which actually confirms Lizzie’s
claim that they are paraphernalia, but this information is withheld from her. The