Sherlock Holmes wakes up Dr. Watson early one winter morning to rush to a murder scene at the Abbey Grange near Chislehurst, Kent.

At Abbey Grange, Lady Brackenstall tells Holmes that her marriage was not happy; Sir Eustace was a violent, abusive drunkard.

Hopkins tells Holmes some unsavoury things about Sir Eustace: that he poured petroleum over his wife's dog and set it alight, and once threw a decanter at her maid Theresa.

Examining the bellrope, Holmes notes that if it was tugged hard enough to tear it down, the bell would have rung in the kitchen, and asks why nobody heard it.

Annoyed at being called to investigate a case that apparently has a ready-made solution, Holmes decides to catch the train back to London.

However, after having mulled things over during the journey, Holmes thinks that Lady Brackenstall's story has too many holes in it and that probably she and Theresa have lied deliberately, staging a false crime scene.

Upon returning to the Abbey Grange, Holmes, after examining again the supposed crime scene, reaches this conclusion: the killer cut the bellrope with a knife, and frayed the loose end to make it look broken.

Holmes searches for the killer: almost certainly a sailor (indicated by the knots and the active physique) who was previously acquainted with Lady Brackenstall, and whom she and Theresa would protect.

He cut down the bellrope exactly as Holmes deduced; he opened the wine bottle with his pocket knife's corkscrew; he took some silver plate and dropped it in the pond.

The episode was adapted by Edith Meiser and aired on 15 June 1931, with Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr.

[8] Michael Hardwick adapted the story for the BBC Light Programme, as part of the 1952–1969 radio series starring Carleton Hobbs as Holmes and Norman Shelley as Watson.

[9] An adaptation of the story aired on BBC radio in 1978, starring Barry Foster as Holmes and David Buck as Watson.

[12] In 2014, Frogwares released a video game titled Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, the fourth case of which, "The Abbey Grange Affair", adapts the elements of this story.