From the introduction: A classic detective story, the Chinese tribulations of Sherlock Holmes Edward Oxford is a name that's stuck to the lore of England ever since his showy attempt at the regicide of Queen Victoria in the year 1840, soon after the young queen's wedding. Oxford had shot at the royal carriage with two pistols; while the prosecution was later unable to prove that the pistols were loaded, the distressed Mr. Oxford promptly confessed to his guilt. At the house of the bachelor Oxford were recovered a number of guns as well as correspondence of a militant revolutionary organization called “Young England,” later deemed to be entirely the product of Oxford's over-stressed imagination. Oxford was released from charges and remanded to permanent psychiatric care, one of the first cases of his kind.