My first, when skilfully performed
(Its doer by applauses warmed),
Bespeaks both skill and vigour.
When with my whole, so soft and light,
I saw my second gay bedight,
She made a splendid figure.
is solved by Feather.
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333
The man who rates the common tares
Above the aster chaste.
Stare as he may, the world declares
Is not a man of taste.
And, though my sympathy he shares,
No tears on him I’ll waste.
The words in italics have the same letters.
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334
When a monk in old times, unexpectedly heated,
Endangered the peace of his soul,
To atone for my second my first he repeated
Quite ten times a day on my whole.
is solved by Average.
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335
An insect small and fell
Makes a weird sound,
If, as its name you spell,
You turn it round.
One letter cast, and still
Shift what remains,
Another insect will
Reward your pains.
is solved by Gnat, tang, ant.
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336
Where head and body duly meet
I am as slender as a bee;
Whether I stand on head or feet
My figure shows its symmetry.
But when my head is cut away
The metamorphosis is strange;
Though both of them unaltered stay,
Body and head to nothing change.
is solved by The figure 8.
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337
First is in coast, second in ghost,
Third must be reckoned part of second;
Fourth in boat, fifth in float,
Sixth you will find within your mind.
Seventh in blue, eighth in true,
These letters tell a fruit that they spell.
is solved by Cocoanut.
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338
The hunter and his steed are known
My first to see.
Though men may call my next a stone,
Wood it may be.
My whole, an exile from his home,
Is doomed from place to place to roam.
is solved by Runagate.
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339
My first expresses power to do,
My next that it is done.
To be my whole belongs to few,
And perfectly to none.
is solved by Candid.
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340
In my first, as in a shell,
All the sweetest sounds may dwell;
In my second, shells abound
That can catch no sort of sound;
In my whole securely rest
Those who neither jeer nor jest.
is solved by Earnest.
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341
My first, though of the feathered kind,
Is never known to fly;
My next all who improve their mind
Seize as it passes by.
My whole may much occasion find
To make the truthful lie.
is solved by Bed-time.
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342
Divide a piece of beef or pork
Without the aid of knife and fork;
It gives a shelf, rejoined with skill,
Where you may set this if you will.
Strike off instead the end, its place
Is plain as nose upon your face.
Cut this asunder in your mind,
And what is first put now behind;
Part of our foot you thus discover,
And in a measure all is over.
is solved by Chine, niche, chin, inch.
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343
Seen as a whole, my form is now
Akin to strife and malice;
Split, it may grace a princely brow,
Or crown the curls of Alice.
Recast my letters, and I tell
That nourishment is lacking;
Stir them afresh until they spell
The needle’s help in tacking.
is solved by Hatred, hat red, dearth, thread.
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344
If I write with my first in my second
My whole you can never find out;
Add a letter, and all will be reckoned
A patron of water devout.
is solved by Within, Swithin.
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345
After officers’ mess, when cigars were well
alight, the old conundrum was propounded,
“What is most like a cornet of horse?” A
sharp sub. was ready with the reply, “A
hornet, of course”; it was presently capped by
this variant which occurred to a married captain,
“a corset of horn”; and yet another reading
was suggested by the deaf old colonel, “How
much did you say the ‘horse ate of corn’?”
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346
Loss of love between us
Never can be nice;
Yet we live where Venus
Changes us to ice.
is solved by Venice (Venus changes to Venice).
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347
The very prosaic reply to the dainty lines—
“Tell me, my sweet,
Why are your feet
Like fairy-tales?”
is: Because they are leg ends (legends)!
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348
Our parson detains every man who has leisure
To study stained windows, the glory of fanes;
And instead of devoting his income to pleasure,
Our sainted dean spends his money on panes.
The words in italics have the same letters.
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349
Though much attached to merriment,
Or crime for a variety,
To prison I am never sent,
But sparkle in society.
is solved by The letter E.
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350
Without my first and second’s aid
No pudding worth its sauce is made.
Take on my third, my fourth I am,
My fifth includes myself and Sam.
My whole describes the royal fiddler Nero,
And shows him as an unheroic hero.
is solved by Suetonius.
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351
The geographical names buried in the
sentences—
He has my R.N. as a monogram on all his
paper.
I am her stupid sister.
The calmest man is sometimes made irate—
are Smyrna; Amherst; and Madeira.
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352
My first’s a fruit of foreign clime,
Sweet to the taste, in price not dear;
My second does my first produce,
And yet my whole my first doth bear.
is solved by Date-palm.
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353
A thing of beauty, scattered by a breath,
My firm embrace is harbinger of death;
Not made by hands, a work of wondrous art,
Complete and perfected in every part;
Crush me to-day with all-determined care,
Then look to-morrow, and I shall be there!
is solved by A spider’s web.
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354
Six letters in my name are found.
Though only three we see and sound;
The shepherd by the running river
May hear me where the rushes quiver;
And should a stroke my whole divide,
Leaving but half on either side,
These, backward read, will surely tell
What many a toper loves too well.
is solved by Murmur.
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355
Upon a battle-field of learned men
Hundred and fifty were by none divided.
“Now,” said the bishop, “add two-thirds of ten
And so you’ll guess the riddle just as I did.”
is solved by Colenso.
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356
Though the stations of mortals are many
And the last is the head of his race;
Yet he, just as often as any,
Is won by my first’s fell embrace;
Yet we most of us apt are to fall,
When our heads cease our hearts to control,
Let us hope that not one of us all
May be e’er in the state of my whole.
is solved by Sinking.
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357
My whole is no matter,
And light as the air,
Yet it is good on the platter,
And excellent fare.
Curtail and transpose,
And a lady you see,
Who will flatter and pose,
And with many do me.
is solved by trifle, flirt.
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358
My first, for ages out of mind
All men have always worn behind,
And yet alike by sea and land
They carry it upon their hand.
My second, carefully matur’d,
Is never ill but often cured.
My whole, within unchanging lines,
Black men and white alike confines.
is solved by Backgammon.
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359
The Rebus—“We westand fall,”—is solved by
United we stand, divided we fall.
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360
My second is pressed tightly round
To guard from any ill;
And when preparing to engage
Men find it useful still.
My first against attraction set
Will neutralise its power;
Aided by it, with bargains, some
May spend a happy hour.
You find my whole by careful search,
Which must not be forsaken;
It stands before what comes beyond,
Which may from it be taken.
is solved by Counterfoil.
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362
Scorned by the meek and humble mind,
And often by the vain possessed,
Heard by the deaf, seen by the blind,
I give the troubled spirit rest.
is solved by Nothing.
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