Here is an interesting word that Sherlock Holmes used to describe Dr Watson in The Valley of Fear, one of the The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I wasn’t fully able to grasp the meaning of the word by the context, so I had to look it up. Now I find the context that much more enlightening and certainly more humorous.

Pawky – having a mocking or cynical sense of humor

Usage: Holmes says to Watson, “You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humor, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself.”

Here is a word that sounds as gross as its definition. It is one of the words Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used to describe the Grimpen Mire in The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Watson and Holmes chase the villain into the mire on a dark and foggy night. It was very dangerous for them all.

Miasmatic – a vapor from decaying organic matter

Usage: “Rank weeds and lush, slimy water-plants sent an odor of decay and a heavy miasmatic vapor onto our faces, while a false step plunged us more than once thigh-deep into the dark, quivering mire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around our feet.”

I came across this quote in The Valley of Fear, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. As an amateur gardener, I wondered if “pollarded” might mean how the elms were pruned or cut back. That was exactly what I found. Here is a great article about Pollarding from The Daily Garden.

According to the article, pollarding is a type of pruning where all new growth is cut back, leaving the trees with a short, post-like trunk with many smaller branches that grow upwards. Some of the benefits of pollarding are short trees that won’t blow over in wind storms and less large limbs that may fall on power lines and roofs.

Here are some pictures from The Daily Garden:

Here is a flower that Dr Watson alludes to when he is describing the beauty of a woman he meets in The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I looked it up to find a picture, and it really is a pretty flower.

Usage: “Her eyes and hair were of the same rich hazel color, and her cheeks, though considerably freckled, were flushed with the exquisite bloom of the brunette, the dainty pink which lurks at the heart of the sulphur rose.”