Transcriber’s Notes
Inconsistent spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, etcetera have been retained, unless listed under Changes below.
Unless listed below, the riddles, puzzles and tricks and their solutions are given here as printed in the source document, even though some of them arguably contain ambiguities, errors and/or misprints. Inconsistencies in lay-out between the puzzles and their solutions have not been standardised.
The source document has several pages that contain a Pictured Puzzle at the top (Roman numerals) and one or more Word Play puzzles or jokes (Latin numerals). This has been retained in this text; any auto-generated Tables of Contents may therefore look jumbled up with intermixed Roman and Latin numerals.
Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text and on their settings, not all elements may display as intended. The larger diagrams may be illegible on small screens or in small windows.
Where possible and relevant, illustrations have been “transcribed”, occasionally discarding some of the ornamentation. For reference and for the sake of completeness, images of the transcribed illustrations have been provided at the end of this e-book, with hyperlinks (“Image”) pointing to them. Hyperlinks from these images point back to the riddle, puzzle, etc. (“Return to description”) or to its solution (“Return to solution”). In addition, hyperlinks are provided from the puzzles etc. to their solutions (“Solution”) and from the solutions back to the puzzle etc. (“Return to description”).
Table of Contents, page 130: The Enigmas, Charades, Puzzles, &c., &c. do not actually start on this page (they start on page 2), but there are no more Pictured Puzzles and Word Play from this page on.
Page 49, Se Pierot or Lun: possibly an error for See Pierot or L’un or Le Pierot or L’un.
Page 60, No. LX: the description is confusing, as the puzzle consists of drawing the four dotted lines, and they are therefore not given.
Page 89 and 263, Pictured puzzle LXXXIX and solution: either the puzzle or the solution has been printed upside-down in the source document.
Page 114, ... as nearly as possible of the size and pattern ...: based on the size of the physical book (around 7″ or 18 cm tall), the boomerang’s width would be some 3″ or 7.5 cm.
Page 149, ... six single words: the solution provided gives five single words.
Page 205, Solution IX: the table as printed lacks values for Opposite pairs of short diagonals (of which there are four) and Such combinations as 482, 484, 472, 470 (of which there ought to be two in order to reach the given total).
Changes made
In the source document, jokes, riddles and puzzles may be split over multiple pages (for example, Word Play 5 may be found on page 7 (first part) and page 9 (second part)). In this e-text, the second part has been re-combined with the first, and references to the separate first and second parts have been deleted.
Some minor obvious typographical errors have been corrected silently. Similarly, minor discrepancies (such as the number of blanks or periods) have been rectified silently. Fractions (the forms x⁄y, xy and x-y all occur in the source document) have (bar a single exception) been standardised to x⁄y.
Unless they fitted better within the text paragraphs, illustrations, verses, diagrams, etc. have been moved out of the text paragraphs. The footnote has been moved to directly underneath the Word Play in which it is referenced.
Texts in a dashed box has been transcribed from the accompanying diagram or illustration, and does not appear as text in the source document.
Page 10: ... cut of my head; changed to ... cut off my head;
Page 62: ... thought myself happy to win her ... changed to ... I thought myself happy to win her ... (cf. solution).
Page 89: ... indentations do not effect ... changed to ... indentations do not affect ....
Page 93: the logogriph has been laid out as in the solution on page 305.
Page 110-111: Word Play 92 in this text (Missing Words) was erroneously numbered 93 (first part) and 39 (second part) in the source document.
Page 130: “Tis an absurdity to say ... changed to ’Tis an absurdity to say ....
Page 139: !” inserted after the dots cf. solution.
Page 144, Nr. 176, last line: space inserted between F and R in R FR H; H T G changed to H T N G.
Page 152: ... his destination from these words.” changed to ... his destination from these words?
Page 196: ... sa Majéste impériale ... changed to ...sa Majesté impériale ...; ... a jamais! changed to ... à jamais!
Page 197-198: Odds and Ends 38 appears twice; the second one has been renamed 38a.
Page 201: ... a flock of sheep in a fold enclosed by 10 hurdles ... changed to ... a flock of sheep in a fold enclosed by 100 hurdles ....
Page 294: Number 34 inserted before first solution.
Page 309: The Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey changed to The Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.
Page 310: The words italics are spelt ... changed to The words in italics are spelt ....
Page 379: vis inertiœ changed to vis inertiæ.