Windmill

Can you divide a square into 15 parts, which can be built up into this windmill?

Solution

8. THRICE BEHEADED

Untouched I tell of budding growth and life;
 Beheaded I lead upward more or less;
 Again—with varied fragrance I am rife;
 Again—but little value I express.

Solution

No. XIV.—A NEST OF RECTANGLES

In this nest of 49 squares it is possible to count a great number of distinct and interlacing figures, whose opposite sides are equal, and whose angles are all right angles.

             
             
             
             
             
             
             

Image

Can you decide exactly the number of these rectangles, and say how many of them are square?

Solution

9. AN ENIGMA

Search Holy Writ and you will see
 A victory was won by me.
 Behead me, and I may be found
 In water or on hilly ground.
 Behead again, and then transpose,
 A snare my letters now disclose.
 If yet again my head you sever,
 No matter how sharp-set or clever
 ’Tis all in vain you look about,
 For no one yet has found me out.

Solution

No. XV.—ANOTHER DOMINO MAGIC SQUARE

Can you, using all the dominoes except double five, five-six, and double six, construct with the twenty-five stones a magic square that adds up in all rows, columns, and diagonals to 27, and in which the stones in the cells marked by the same figures in this diagram also add up to that number?

2   1   2
  4 3 4  
1 3   3 1
  4 3 4  
2   1   2

Image

Solution

No. XVI.—DOMINO PATIENCE

The problem is to construct, with all the twenty-eight stones, a domino pyramid of seven stages, starting with a single stone, and adding one stone on each successive stage.

The stones must be so arranged that the number of pips in any row or column are in all cases exactly three times the number of half-dominoes of which that line or column is composed. There are many solutions to exercise the solver’s patience.

Solution

10. LEGAL PLEASANTRIES

Said a lawyer aside to his friend in the court,
 “Now I’d bet, were we not in this place,
 That my first is my second a bottle of port,”
 Then bright with my whole shone his face.

Solution

11. RIVALS ON THE ROAD

Six horse buses and four motor buses travel each hour from Temple Bar to the Bank. The horses take 15 minutes, and the motors 10 minutes on the journey.

If I come to Temple Bar, and wish to reach the Bank as soon as possible, shall I take the first horse bus that turns up, or wait for a motor? It must be assumed that I can only see a bus as it actually passes me.

Solution

No. XVII.—A FRIENDLY HINT

The father of this venturesome lad, who was on the point of breaking out of bounds, came on the scene just in time to warn him in a sentence of nine words, five of which were “Never throw a leg, lad.”

Venturesome lad

Can you supply the other four words, which are spelt with exactly the same letters?

Solution

No. XVIII.—CATASTROPHE

In this picture we see that a cat has sprung upon the table to interview the parrot.

The interview

The title “Catastrophe” recast by anagram, tells the parrot’s happy thought at this critical moment, and the appropriate sentence,

“New parrot-stand in a house,”

tells, also by anagram, how he put this into instant operation.

Solution

12. A HISTORICAL CHARADE

My first, if foolishly or rashly taken,
 May mar the future prospects of your life.
 My second, by her fickle lord forsaken
 (Sad type of many a gentle, patient wife),
 May toil and moil to feed his many babies,
 While he goes flirting off with other ladies.
 The thrifty monarch of a former age
 My whole a place in Britain’s history fills.
 Immortalised in Shakespeare’s magic pages
 As one who’d fain reform his tailor’s bills!

Solution

No. XIX.—A PRECOCIOUS BOY

This is the picture of the first prize boy at a baby show. The judge, noticing the position of one chubby fist, said to the proud mother, “Your lad Tommy likes such tit-bits.”

Baby

To his amazement the baby, removing the comforting hand, replied in eight words composed of exactly the same letters, “So to-day, sir, . .... .. ...... .....” Can you complete the sentence?

Solution

No. XX.—AGAINST THE COLLAR

The lady who is sitting at the back of this overloaded waggonette cries out, in her sympathy with the struggling horse, “This big load quite hinders his pull.”

Wagonette

Her husband, full of holiday spirits and energy, answers her in a sentence of mingled reproof and determination, which forms a perfect anagram of the words of his wife, and describes his feelings and action. Can you recast the letters?

Solution

No. XXI.—IN A BILLIARD-ROOM

At the moment when a burly and keen player was in this strange and striking attitude,

Burly player

a bystander whispered to the marker, “Eh! what a stout player is striking!”

Can you, using exactly the same letters, put into the mouth of the marker a reply appropriate to the position?

Solution

13. A SAUCY MAIDEN

My second, worn with pompous pride,
My first had dangling at his side,
On chain securely hooked.
My first he came from o’er the sea,
A bundle of conceit looked he,
And he was all he looked.
She led him to the village green,
Where in desponding mood was seen
My whole, with drooping head.
“Behold,” she said, “a perfect, true,
And striking likeness, sir, of you!”
And, laughing, gaily fled.

Solution

No. XXII.—EVOLVING A PAINTER

There are two English words which are appropriate to this picture—

Transformation and evolutions

One of them has as its anagram the very apposite sentence, “Or not a man first;” the other treated in similar fashion becomes, “O I love nuts!” What are the two words?

Solution

14. DOUBLETS

Who can turn WHEAT into BREAD with six links, changing one letter each time, and preserving the general order of the letters throughout?

Solution

No. XXIII.—THE PICK OF THE PACK

How can we decide by anagram whether this is a fancy portrait of “William or dear Jack?”

Ye Joker

Shake up and recast the words in inverted commas.

Solution

15. AN OLD ENIGMA

Can our readers solve this enigma, which was published in 1811, and to which no answer seems to be known?

I’m one among a numerous host,
 And very useful in my post;
 There’s not a house in all the land
 Without me properly can stand.
 Though men disputed long ago
 Whether I did exist or no,
 Once more some thousands have been slain
 Because they could not me attain.

Solution

No. XXIV.—A PICTURE PUZZLE

Take this picture in connection with the lines below it, and find out what it represents.

Ponderous guest
Begin with the end of my first,
 then you will find out the rest;
 For it all will appeal to your thirst,
 Or point to a ponderous guest.

Solution

No. XXV.—AN ANXIOUS POSE

His wife, who chanced to see Jiggers at the trying moment here depicted, said that he seemed to be in a “sad pet.”

Jiggers

How was this literally true?

Solution

No. XXVI.—TOSS NEITHER HEAD NOR TAIL

Never was a cow so troublesome at milking-time.

Hayseed's cow

Our picture was taken at the moment when Farmer Hayseed was exclaiming, as he held on behind, “See, we hold this cow’s horns and tail!”

The same letters, recast by anagram, form this sentence spoken by his foreman—

“She cannot toss, ... .... .... .. ..”

Can you fill in the five missing words?

Solution

16. ANAGRAM PROVERBS

These grave lips chatter no ill.
or
Elephants, all to richest giver!

Can you recast the letters of these sentences so that either of them forms the same homely proverb, to which the first anagram is most akin?

Solution

No. XXVII.—ACTION AND PASSION

This very resolute horse and his anxious driver take quite different views of the situation shown in this picture.

Carriage

We can fancy that the fast trotter, if he could be endowed with speech, would say, “I’m a train’d stepper!”

Can you take these same letters, and recast them into a sentence which would seem to express the driver’s point of view?

Solution

17. A SHORT CHARADE

My first of rudeness has a sound;
 The rest is in a city found;
 My whole to win its way is bound.

Solution

No. XXVIII.—A FEAT WITHOUT ARMS

In this picture a clever artist who has no arms is seen calmly painting with his feet.

Armless painter

One onlooker says to another, “Why, now I see this fine artist has no hand!” The other replies in a sentence which contains exactly the same letters:

“He draws in any fashion .... ... ... ... .”

Can you fill in the four missing words?

Solution

No. XXIX.—NOT TAKING ANY

“This is a wine bottle, dear, on a lure,” said a crafty fisher of men to his better half, who was helping him, as he showed her this illustration of their aims.

Fisher

1834
PORT

She knew, however, that the fish he sought to catch was not to be tempted in this way, and she replied in words spelt with exactly the same letters, “And see, he will not .... .. ... ....!”

Can you fill in the four missing words?

Solution

No. XXX.—MUSIC HATH CHARMS

This sturdy musical enthusiast, as he settled himself upon his chair, said, “What shall I play?” and some one replied, “Any strains of Beethoven, he charms all!”

Cello player

This suggestion, however, was not acceptable, and he, as he struck up a piece after his own heart, exclaimed, in a sentence composed of exactly the same letters—

“Nay, for this ’cello ...... .... . ......!”

Can you supply the missing words?

Solution

No. XXXI

This picture represents a parsnip lying across a sturdy swede.

Parsnip and swede

Can you so readjust them that they seem to suggest a successful dramatist of the day? We give this broad hint by anagram—

“Here is our parsnip on swede.”
ANAGRAM
Wise and superior person he!

Solution

No. XXXII.—A GOOD LETTER PUZZLE

Can you fill the places of these 21 asterisks with only three different letters, arranging them so that they spell a common English word in twelve different directions?

● ● ● ● ●
● ●   ● ●
●   ●   ●
● ●   ● ●
● ● ● ● ●

Image

Solution

18. A BURIED POTENTATE

My first is in cake, but not in bun;
 My second in light, but not in sun;
 My third is in night, but not in day;
 My fourth is in game, but not in play;
 My fifth is in head, but not in tail,
 My sixth is in wind, but not in sail;
 My seventh in wrong, but not in right,
 My eighth is in battle, but not in fight;
 My ninth is in sword, but not in knife,
 My tenth is in lady, but not in wife;
 My whole is a monarch at war with strife.

Solution

No. XXXIII.—ANAGRAM ARITHMETIC

First form a short sentence with the ten letters that are above the line in this diagram:—

  S B
  R E
  Y D
  O T
  U O
O E E

Image

Next number the letters of the sentence consecutively 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, and then work out a sum in addition with these numbers substituted for the letters with which they correspond.

Solution

No. XXXIV.—A BUNCH OF FLOWERS

Find within these borders twelve specimens of flowers and foliage:—

1L 2L 3B 4H 5P 6E 7F
8L 9Y 10E 11L 12O 13R 14N
15I 16V 17B 18R 19I 20V 21K
22A 23L 24E 25T 26O 27N 28I
29C 30N 31A 32S 33U 34L 35P

Image

Move in any direction one square at a time, and so spell out their names, using the same square only once in each case.

Solution

19. A CHARADE

My first except when it is old
 Is never seen or heard;
 When it is heard the sound is tolled
 Out of a Jewish beard.
 My next was in Imperial Rome,
 It was her power and might;
 Then you had but to write you wish,
 And straightway ’twas in sight.
My whole was Frank
 Of royal rank.

Solution

No. XXXV.—ON A BLACKBOARD

To test the powers of his young pupils, Dr Puzzlewitz set the following little problem on his blackboard:—

     
A - B = 4
A ÷ B = 4
 

Image

What are the values of A and of B, when 4 is the result of dividing A by B, or of subtracting B from A?

Solution

20. RECAST

How great in olden days my power!
 Oft have I saved a castle tower
 From war’s invading tide.
 Transpose me, and how great my fall!
 I am then the smallest of the small,
 That nothing can divide.

Solution

21. WORD-BUILDING

This compact Enigma take,
 All apart its letters shake.
 Let your 6, 3, 5 be high,
 Like 5, 1, 2 do or die.
 Who 4, 6, 5, 1 enjoys
 More than 5, 6, 2 by boys?
 While 5, 3, 2, 1 are mine,
 May 4, 6, 3, 2 be thine.
 4, 1, 5 is rich and rare,
 6, 5, 1, 2 ends my prayer.

The figures indicate the position of the letters, which spell new words, in the original six-letter word.

Solution

No. XXXVI.—SQUARING A DIAMOND

Can you fill in the empty cells with letters, so that they form English words which read alike from top to bottom and from left to right?

  s  
         
             
s     u     s
             
         
  s  

Image

Solution

22. AN ENIGMA

“Charles the First walked and talked,
 Half an hour after his head was cut off.”

Old Couplet.

Cut off my head, I’m every inch a King,
 A warrior formed to deal a heavy blow.
 Halve what remains, my second is a thing
 Which nothing but my third can e’er make go.
 My third will vary as you take your line.
 This less than human, that way all divine!

Solution

No. XXXVII.

Taking the letters as arranged on this diagram for a starting point, can you place in some of the unoccupied cells five more of A, five of E, five of I, and five of O, making eight in all of each letter, so that in no case shall the same vowel be in the same row, column, or diagonal?

               
               
    A I E O    
    O     A    
    I     E    
    E O A I    
               
               

Image

Each vowel is to be regarded without any reference to the other vowels, and, of course, only one may be placed in a cell.

Solution

No. XXXVIII.—AN ANAGRAM SQUARE

Mix together the letters which form the eight words on this draught board—

  V   O   T   E
W   O   V   E  
  P   R   O   W
C   A   L   L  
  S   T   E   W
N   E   W   S  
  C   O   R   E
N   A   P   E  

Image

and recast them so that they form eight fresh words, which when placed in proper order on the white squares, are a word square in which each word reads alike from left to right, or from top to bottom. The first of the fresh words is CROW.

Solution

No. XXXIX.—ARITHMETIC BY ANAGRAM

Form a short sentence with the letters above the line in this diagram:—

  D U
  E H
  E D
  A P
  S T
D E A

Image

Number the letters consecutively 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, and then work a sum in addition, substituting these numbers for the letter with which they correspond.

Solution

23. A LOGOGRAPH