The hearts of Arthur Conan Doyle fans will have skipped a beat today when reading of the discovery of a new of type of rat – five times the size of its verminous city brethren!

The cause of their palpitations was an aside, Sherlock Holmes to trusty sidekick Dr Watson, in the short story The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.

“Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson,” the sometimes stern, though never dour, 19th century super-detective says.

“It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra story for which the world is not yet prepared.”

Now, Holmes was hinting at something all the more hideous, or fascinating, than the humble Sundamys infraluteus, as the Mountain Giant Sunda Rat tends to grow up to twice the size of your average Rattus novegicus.

Did Conan Doyle pick the wrong end of the archipelago now called Indonesia for the beast’s home? We may never know. But the thought of a rodent – Mallomys wooly rat – the size of a large spaniel climbing, paw over paw, up a ship’s hawser or anchor chain would cause many a seafarer to seek landside employ.