Discovering Sherlock Holmes - A Community Reading Project From Stanford University

"This small clump of buildings here is the hamlet of Grimpen, where our friend Dr. Mortimer has his headquarters."
The town of Grimpen and all the landmarks on the moor pointed out by Holmes are fictional.

Out of the envelope he took a half-sheet of foolscap paper folded into four.
Common paper, so named because in the 18^th century it used to be imprinted with the image of a fool's cap.

"The differences are obvious. The supra-orbital crest, the facial angle, the maxillary curve, the—"
The "supra-orbital crest" is the protruding bone above the eye; "facial angles" are measured between the forehead and upper jaw and the jaw to the ear; the "maxillary curve" is the curve of the upper jaw. Phrenologists claimed to be able to read temperament, intelligence, and character through the shape of the skull, and used their pseudo-science to reinforce racial stereotypes, as Mortimer does.