To pare a pair of pears;
A rake may often take a rake
To tear away the tares.
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105
The queer obstacle—
Yet no one I stop.
My four horns each day
Horizontally play,
And my head is nailed on at the top.
is A turnstile.
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106
The old enigma—
Put fifty in the middle;
Twice ten times five times ten
Will finish off my riddle,
And bring it to your ken
As fit as any fiddle!
is solved thus—
Composed his famous riddle,
His thoughts, perhaps, were resting on
The strings of his old FIDDLE.
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107
The phonetic gaps are filled thus—
A bough will bow before it;
We cannot rein the rain, or find
That earthly powers reign o’er it.
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108
Reverse us, and we indicate a county—
is solved by X S—S X.
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109
The cryptogram—
LLSKMTMXTTLLTSTHN!
is solved by inserting the letter “I” throughout, when this rhyming couplet is formed—
I’ll skim it, mix it, till it’s thin!
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110
The buried proverb in—
Old memories steal anew;
With a tear, with a sigh, with an old, old cry
They return in ghostly hue!
is ’Tis a long lane that has no turning.
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111
Lewis Carroll’s doublet, which changes ELM into OAK by seven links, introducing the name of another tree as one of them, is solved thus by him—
ELM, ELL, ALL, AIL, AIR, FIR, FAR, OAR, OAK.
A shorter solution is by these six links—Ely, sly, say, bay, bat, oat; and one of these (bay) is also a tree, as was fir, so that the conditions given are fulfilled.
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112
We are giving a ball;
First second we third,
Pray give us your all.
is solved by attendance.
Till I became my whole,
And told the tale of my repast,
A sad and greedy soul.
is solved by satiate.
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113
The charade—
His daily task to meet;
Behead, transpose a, lo! a sound
Of music soft and sweet;
Behead again, I make my way
With swiftness past belief;
Again, and where the fields are gay
My bounty brings relief.
is solved by Artisan, strain, train, rain.
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114
The lines by an old Oxbridge don—
Women should try for a B.A.
To College honours forward looking;
They’d best confine themselves to cooking!”
can be happily met by this retort in the same words, recast by a Girton girl—
To College honours forward looking;
’Tis an absurdity to say
They’d best confine themselves to cooking!”
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115
The enigma—
Three syllables contain;
Take one away, and see
Four syllables remain!
is solved by Beautify, Beatify.
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116
The beasts buried in the lines—
Ireland’s lot heals slowly. Troubles came long ago—at times in battalions—to attack and harass her. Ambitious democrats now countermine famous enthusiasts nearly akin to heroes. Anarchy enables cowards to sow hot terror and all amazement, are—
eland, sloth, camel, goat, bat, lion, stoat, ass, ram, fat, ermine, mouse, yak, roe, hyena, cow, sow, otter and llama.
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117
This is the palindrome verse that reads and rhymes from either end—
Brightly stars are waking;
Flies owlet hooting, holding revel high,
Nightly silence breaking.
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118
The anagram recast from “The Observatory at Greenwich in England” is completed thus—
On landing here begin to watch every star.
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119
The enigma—
And, if you turn me round,
To hear my warning cry
Not any men are found.
is solved by Nemo, omen, o men.
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120
The question—
When times are harder?
How do they greet with merry jest
An empty larder?
is solved thus—
FOWL IS FARE.
With lighter puffs,
And finds the thirsty sailor stout,
Brings food enough!
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121
The enigma—
Transpose me I am three;
Look in a book, you find me there,
And with me her and he—
is solved by There.
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122
The circle to a decimal;
His friends claimed that a brain so rare
Required attention medical.
The words in italics are spelt with the same letters.
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123
A Mr Harwood had two daughters by his first wife, the elder of these was married to John Coshick. This Coshick had a daughter by his first wife, whom old Harwood married. Thus Harwood’s daughter could say—
And I’m my mother’s mother;
My daughter and sister are one,
I’m grandam to my brother!
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124
The charade—
Add a simple word;
Then my whole may help a bit
Opportunely heard.
is solved by Catchword.
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125
The paradox—
Some little space we were apart.
When we had run a mile or more
We kept our distance, as before;
Shade of Colenso! could this be,
When twice as fast as I ran he?
is solved by the fact that the lines apply to the large and small wheels of a bicycle.
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126
The enigma from Lewis Carroll’s Papers—
Am I in all sincerity,
Half cat, half hindrance made.
If head and tail removed should be,
Then most of all you strengthen me.
Replace my head, the stand you see
On which my tail is laid.
is solved by Tablet.
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127
The charade—
And my worth by a child may be reckoned;
The least thing in nature is double my first,
And my whole is just half of my second.
is solved by Halfpenny.
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128
Is one and undivided;
My second shows its teeth, is frail,
And as a rule one-sided.
The two to hold my first avail,
By busy toil provided.
is solved by Honeycomb.
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129
The towns buried in the sentences—
I saw Nell out here last evening.
The general rode a large black mare.
I have ordered a cab at half-past one.
Meet me in the lane at half-past nine.
are Lewes, Louth, Deal, Bath and Neath.
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130
The anagram on “The leaning tower of Pisa, in Tuscany, Italy,” is completed thus—
A funny spot in a sweet city; I o’erhang it all.
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131
Near the Capitol at Rome
’Twas the topical discussion of the season;
But the optical effect
Of the skeletons select
Deprived the poor Professor of his reason!
The words in italics are spelt with the same letters.
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132
The charade—
My second a dandy;
When fogs are most dense
My whole will be handy.
is solved by Flambeau.
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133
If we adopt the old spelling of the final word, we can prove by anagram that Bacon had no hand at anyrate in Shakespeare’s play “Much Ado About Nothinge,” for the same letters exactly spell “Bacon? O, naught due to him!”
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134
Can any guess it right?
Transposed, and never seen at all,
It still is felt in sight.
Behead, transpose, then let it be,
And you at last a clue may see.
is solved by Left, felt, let.
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135
“Insanitary” and “sanitary reform” are very happily recast by anagram thus—In nasty air; Former air nasty.
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136
The charade—
When I come to table;
Though I cannot quench your thirst
Eat me—you are able.
is solved by Cutlet.
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137
These are the completed lines—
What days as dark as days that wars alarm?
Alas! ask any, ask at hand, afar,
All shall call war a harass and a harm.
Why call, as ballads talk, that ghastly art
All gallant acts—a grand and manly part?
It will be seen that “a” was the only missing letter.
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138
The charade—
The moon fresh brightness brings;
Cut off my tail, I’m blunt, but meet
To sharpen other things.
Soldiers to face the foe;
Headless and tailless, one remains
Though all the rest may go.
is solved by Honey (honey-moon; hone; Ney; one).
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139
The enigma—
Then there’s an end of you.
A vengeful goddess shows at last
What Antifat will do.
is solved by Attenuate:—at ten, u, Ate, goddess of Revenge.
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140
The charade—
To seek some hidden goal,
Over my first my second comes, and then
Quite overcomes my whole.
is solved by Overcomes.
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141
The cryptogram which was sent as a reliable tip before a race in which Petronel was to run—
Seek a plant for it, see Bob.
is deciphered thus—
Take every third letter, and you arrive at Lenortepnoteb. Read this backwards, and you have the tip, “Bet on Petronel!”
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142
The enigma—
From me all come, in me all end.
And it is strange but very true
That I am here and nowhere too—
is solved by Nothing.
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143
The broken sentence—
A sed end ought eat ease ain.
is thus filled in to describe a curse and to proclaim its cure—
A cursed fiend brought death, disease and pain;
A blessed friend brought breath and ease again.
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144
The charade—
My second a city;
The whole you discover
With this if you’re witty.
is solved by Capacity.
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145
The four rivers buried in the sentence—
The deaf and dumb girl began gesticulating with a message, and her delivery was ever neat, with graceful pose in every attitude.
are Ganges, Thames, Severn and Seine.
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146
If the “shingle” on the Brighton beach could speak, it might boast by anagram, “I am English!”
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147
The enigma—
Incurable I fear;
She is my guest, I am her host,
How can I make her hear?
is solved by adding an a to her, which becomes hear.
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148
The missing words in the “Plaint of the Rejected” are—The R.A., hater, heart, earth, Herat.
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149
The man who could attach a phonetic meaning to the words “Beta in Greek means letter B,” could in another fashion invite others to beat his wife by merely calling them and saying, “Hither!” (hit her).
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150
The rebus—
| storm? a th |
an umbrella me who |
with alls |
all mud |
is solved thus—Who follows me under an umbrella, with overalls all over mud, after a thunderstorm?
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151
This is the completed palindrome:—
Nor I nor Emma had level’d a hammer on iron.
It reads alike from either end.
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152
The tutor came to the conclusion that there is nothing in Ecclesiastical Law to prevent the Pope from burying the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the undergraduate who had proposed the question demurred to this reply; pressed for his reason he said, as his face broke into a smile, “He cannot do so, because the Archbishop is not dead!”
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153
The proverb buried in the sentence, “While there are very many as kind as this, they know no task unkind,” is, “Let every man skin his own skunk.”
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154
Tom, Jane, and Mary, chatter;
He leads the way and then we see
The other two come at her!
is solved by Heather (he, at her).
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155
The quotation from Shakespeare buried in—
Strange weather! What could equal it? Yesterday sunshine and soft breezes, to-day a summer cyclone raging noisily; then other changes, as floods of fiercest rain eddy beneath the blast.
is “The quality of mercy is not strained.”
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156
The beetroot palindrome, which reads alike from either end is—
RED ROOT PUT UP TO ORDER
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157
My next is heard in rain or hail;
My fourth a sheep of gender male;
My third is one without its tail;
My whole for foreign countries sail.
is solved by Missionaries.
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158
The words written on the walls of a Western college gained their ambiguous sense from the three final words, printed in italics—“Young women should set a good example, for young men will follow them!”
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159
The enigma—
I have my duties to fulfil;
If off you take
My tail, and make
An alteration in my lot,
Though I seem shorter I am not.
is solved by Note.
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160
This is the full text—
Why is it that the devil,
In spite of all his naughty ways
Can never be uncivil?”
To any mind that’s bright;
Because the imp o’ darkness, sir,
Cannot be imp o’ light!”
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