“A woman is a foreign land which, even if he settles there young, a man will never fully understand. . . » Patmore – “A Foreign Land” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” is much more than just another episode of beloved detective Sherlock Holmes using his incredible deductive reasoning to solve a case. It is also a way of examining the accepted practice of degradation of women and the xenophobic attitudes that were prevalent in Victorian England. The importance of this examination lies in its relevance to understanding the attitudes and practices that were not only accepted but expected during the Victorian era. The text shows that women have been just as disrespected and dehumanized as their foreign counterparts throughout history. “The implications of Conan Doyle's construction of foreign and feminine subjects should not be underestimated. . . the story communicates a “type” that tells the reader how to perceive the stranger [and the woman]” (Favor). There are too many parallels between the perceptions of the two to ignore and so our review is ongoing. Like the “wandering gypsies” camped “on a few acres of bramble-covered land,” Helen Stoner is hidden from genteel English society. (752) She arrived at Baker Street "clad in black and heavily veiled", implying that strict Victorian social protocol forced her to conceal her true identity and seek help from Sherlock Holmes in a cloak of darkness. (750) Holmes himself emphasizes the seemingly irregular and therefore despairing nature of his arrival as he tells Dr. Watson, "Now when young girls walk about the metropolis at this hour in the morning and strike the sleeping people... ... middle of paper ......” rs in the text and any further communication about his reactions seems unnecessary to Watson (Hall) Both foreigners and women were marginalized, dehumanized and considered inferior to their counterparts. For the woman, the fact of being English herself was not enough to guarantee her close to equal treatment. The mistreatment inflicted by her father-in-law echoes the attitudes and treatment of the gypsies themselves. His fiancée's refusal to take his concerns and feelings seriously underscores the insensitivity directed not only toward gypsies but toward anything considered un-English throughout The Stranger and the Woman. live hidden lives, overshadowed and controlled by the implicit and implied domination of the English man, including the beloved character, Sherlock Holmes..