One of the things about taking a long hiatus from a great forum is you miss threads you'd love to comment on.
I thought I'd resurrect this one. I'm a big Holmes fan and for a while I had pursued a tobacco that fit the description of what Holmes would've smoked. I settled on two commercial blends.
Gawith and Hoggarth's Kendal Dark
Gawith and Hoggarth's Dark Flake
Kendal Dark is probably most representative. Holmes wasn't a tobacco afficionado, he was just in it for the nicotine. These two have the exact same recipe, the only difference is the cut. I prefer the flake to the shag cut Kendal dark, but both pack a pretty big punch. Its amazing how much difference the cut makes. If you get a sample of these and replicate the ingredients with your homegrown I think you'll have something close. Then you can begin smoking it in a clay, as he did -- but it will take a lot of bowls to get it to appear oily and black. It was probably 50+ bowls before my clay began to look greasy on the inside and begin to change color on the outside.
As for the McClelland black shag -- I don't think Holmes would've touched it, and after a few tins I won't pick it up again either. It's a bit bland and boring -- and mild. The stoved VA is used in St. James Woods, which is an excellent blend -- one of my favorite commercial VA/perique blends.