Here's the clues, finally, for a couple of boxes that actually went in
somewhere back in November: good luck!

Sherlock's Home

Difficulty: two letterboxes on an easy 2-3 miles along very scenic
Connecticut River cliffs.

Location: Gillette Castle State Park, East Haddam Connecticut, on Rte.
148. Accessible from Routes 9, 2, 156, and I-95. William Gillette,
famous for his Broadway portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, built this 24
room fieldstone house in 1919, and surrounded it with a miniature
railroad. Some of the old railways are now hiking trails. At the time
these letterboxes were placed, the trails and castle itself were
undergoing renovation. The trails are open to hikers without a fee, but
when renovations to the castle are complete there will be a fee to
visit. Sorry, no dogs or bikes, but we highly recommend it!

"Mrs Houston? Oh Mrs Houston," called Mr Gillette. It was a quiet
evening in our study at the big fieldstone house on the Connecticut
River. William had spent the day in New York, getting ready to portray
Sherlock Holmes on stage for the first time, and he was tired. He had
disagreed with his director over acting styles, and now he wanted a
pipe by the fire and a glass of wine from
our housekeeper.

"Mrs Houston!"

221B Baker Street seemed a million miles away. Gillette kicked off his
Persian slippers and pulled on his deerstalker cap, and headed out for
a walk. He needed some new elements to bring his Sherlock to life. He
went out behind the Castle to walk his railroad tracks, where he did
his bestthinking. Facing the house, he found that the setting sun was
in his eyes, so he turned left and
walked downhill on the road "to the river." As the road bent right,
William turned left onto one of his favorite trails, and followed it
down until it wrapped to the left. A short way before the trail
regained the road, William stepped to the left and sat down on a flat
waist high boulder, one of his
favorite places to think. He lit a pipe, his favorite Calabash, and it
came to him! He would give Sherlock Holmes a pipe onstage! Unnoticed,
his box of tobacco dropped behind him and wedged under the boulder, for
future fans to discover.

He ran back uphill with his lanky gait, holding onto his cap. He met me
behind the castle, and when I asked if he had any inspiration, he
happily cried, "It's elementary, my dear Woodson!" This favorite phrase
of his was also to become a part of Sherlockian lore. Desiring to check
on the progress of his railroad bridges, we walked to the right of the
Castle, under his new archway and onto the tracks. His "Grand Central
Station" was still under construction, but we followed the main tracks
over a footbridge and then north and down closer to the river. He
showed me an area of ledge with old mortared walls and a defunct
bridge, and then cut left down to the trail. We walked southwards a
short way to a bench over the river at an intersection, and I sat while
William paced back and forth. There were two small arched stone bridges
along the trail which led to another closed, wooden bridge. Just at the
southeast abutment of the western arched bridge, William's deerslayer
cap got lodged in the low stone wall. He was so busily pacing that I
forgot to mention it to him, and it is probably there to this day.

But that calabash pipe and that deerslayer hat were one day to become
synonymous with Sherlock Holmes, as William's incorporation of them
into Sherlock's persona became well known.