’Tis plain that no one takes a plane
 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—

I’m in everyone’s way,
 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—

Take five from five, and then
 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—

When Jacky Barrett, learned Don,
 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—

No quail will quail before the wind,
 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

We seem to sound a note of lavish bounty;
 Reverse us, and we indicate a county—

is solved by X S—S X.

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109

The cryptogram—

FTHNMLKBRNGSLLCTTN
 LLSKMTMXTTLLTSTHN!

is solved by inserting the letter “I” throughout, when this rhyming couplet is formed—

If thin milk brings illicit tin,
 I’ll skim it, mix it, till it’s thin!

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110

The buried proverb in—

Yet I see them all! on golden wings that fly
 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

My dear Mr Bird,
 We are giving a ball;
 First second we third,
 Pray give us your all.

is solved by attendance.

Second, I did my first and last,
 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—

My whole, industrious, wends his way
 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—

“’Tis an absurdity to say
 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—

“Women should try for a B.A.,
 To College honours forward looking;
 ’Tis an absurdity to say
 They’d best confine themselves to cooking!”

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115

The enigma—

Eight letters (start with b)
 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—

Dies slowly fading day, winds mournful sigh,
 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—

No man at all am I,
 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—

How can our sailors fare the best
 When times are harder?
 How do they greet with merry jest
 An empty larder?

is solved thus—

FOWL IS FARE.

Wind that blows foul and chops about,
 With lighter puffs,
 And finds the thirsty sailor stout,
 Brings food enough!

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121

The enigma—

I lose my head when I am here,
 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

Jack did declaim that he could square
 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—

My father is my son,
 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—

Catch my first with nimble wit,
 Add a simple word;
 Then my whole may help a bit
 Opportunely heard.

is solved by Catchword.

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125

The paradox—

My mate and I from home did start,
 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—

A monument all men agree
 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—

I’m known to the poorest and worst,
 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

My first without its head and tail
 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—

His sister played the piano while we sang.
 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

When they found that catacomb
 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 first is pretence,
 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

Use all your wits to guess my all,
 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—

Let my second cut my first
 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 mars a land so sadly as a war?
 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—

To me when whole, for I am sweet,
 The moon fresh brightness brings;
 Cut off my tail, I’m blunt, but meet
 To sharpen other things.
Behead me twice, and I have led
 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—

We start when the ninth hour is past,
 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—

When on charades intent I take my pen,
 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—

Tell me, Ben, who tore it.
 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—

I have no form, I have no friend,
 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 first is a cover,
 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—

She is as deaf as any post,
 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

Kate gathers me where children three,
 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 first we all do when we fail;
 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’m but a little letter, still
 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—

Says Tom to Bill, “Pray tell me, sir,
 Why is it that the devil,
 In spite of all his naughty ways
 Can never be uncivil?”
Says Bill to Tom, “The answer’s plain
 To any mind that’s bright;
 Because the imp o’ darkness, sir,
 Cannot be imp o’ light!”

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161