WORD AND LETTER PUZZLES
1.
The word square is completed thus:—
| M | E | A | D |
| E | D | G | E |
| A | G | U | E |
| D | E | E | D |
2.
The word square filled in is:—
| C | I | R | C | L | E |
| I | N | U | R | E | S |
| R | U | D | E | S | T |
| C | R | E | A | S | E |
| L | E | S | S | E | E |
| E | S | T | E | E | M |
Notice the curious diagonal of E’s.
3.
In the incomplete sentence,
SO * * * * AG * * * * LATI * * * * X * * * * ITH
the duplicate letters are filled in thus:—
SOME MEAGRE RELATIVE VEXED EDITH
The two last letters of each word are repeated as the two first of the word that follows.
4.
The word square is completed thus:—
| W | A | S | T | E |
| A | C | T | O | R |
| S | T | O | N | E |
| T | O | N | I | C |
| E | R | E | C | T |
5.
By twice building up two Ds into a B we make BULBOUS.
6.
The question put on paper to the love-lorn youth, “Loruve?” is, when interpreted, “Are you in love?” and the advice given to him on another slip, “Prove L A FD and ensure success,” reads into, “Prove a fond lover, and ensure success” (a f on d l over).
7. DOUBLE ACROSTIC
ST. JAMES’ GAZETTE
| S | prin | G |
| T | ar | A |
| J | abe | Z |
| A | t | E |
| M | omen | T |
| E | mme | T |
| S | trik | E |
8.
The completed word square is—
| A | M | E | N | D | S |
| M | I | N | I | O | N |
| E | N | A | B | L | E |
| N | I | B | B | L | E |
| D | O | L | L | A | R |
| S | N | E | E | R | S |
9.
The oracular response to a young Frenchman at a fête, who inquired how he could best please the ladies—
MEC DO BIC
conceals this sage advice—
Aimez, cédez, obéissez!
Love, yield, obey!
10.
The solution to our Letter Fraction Problem is of a verbal character. The original statement
m ot y = mo
is dealt with thus:—
m on ot on y = mo not on y, and so the word monotony solves the equation.
11.
The buried beasts are chamois, buffalo, heifer, and leopard; and when the Oxford athlete cries—
“Though I jump and row and run,
Cap or cup I never won”
he introduces us to a porcupine.
12.
The lines—
Fourteen letters here we fix,
Vowels only two are spoken;
All together these we mix
Into what can not be broken—
is solved by indivisibility, which has many an i, like a peacock’s tail.
13.
The English word of thirteen letters in which the same vowel occurs four times, the same consonant six times, another twice, and another once, is Senselessness.
14.
The condensed proverb “WE IS DO” reads at its full length as “Well begun is half done.”
15.
This is the completed word square:—
| W | A | S | H | E | S |
| A | R | T | E | R | Y |
| S | T | O | R | M | S |
| H | E | R | M | I | T |
| E | R | M | I | N | E |
| S | Y | S | T | E | M |
16.
Dr Whewell’s puzzle lines—
| O | O | N | O | O. | ||||||
| U | O | A | O | O | I | O | U | |||
| O | N | O | O | O | O | M | E | T | O | O. |
| U | O | A | O | I | D | O | S | O | ||
| I | O | N | O | O | I | O | U | T | O | O! |
read thus:—
OH SIGH FOR NO CIPHER
You sigh for a cipher, O, I sigh for you,
Sigh for no cipher, O sigh for me too.
You sigh for a cipher, I decipher so,
I sigh for no cipher, I sigh for you too!
17.
This is the completed diamond:—
| P | ||||||||
| P | O | R | ||||||
| C | O | R | E | S | ||||
| F | O | R | C | E | P | S | ||
| P | O | R | C | E | L | A | I | N |
| R | E | F | L | E | C | T | ||
| S | P | A | C | E | ||||
| S | I | T | ||||||
| N | ||||||||
18.
The medley—
Tan HE Edsa VEN in
It N Gja SmeTs AsgN
aD Az Rett De
is read by taking first the capitals in their order, and then the small type. It comes put out as “The Evening Standard and Saint James’s Gazette.”
19.
The statement, I can travel first-class on the G.E.R. from 2222222244444500, reads into—from 22 to 2 to 22 to 4 for 44 4d; or, in plain terms, from 1.38 to 3.38 for 14s. 8d. This works out at about 3d. a mile, the usual allowance for first-class, for two hours, at about 29 miles an hour.
20. A CURIOUS OLD INSCRIPTION
Read the inscription backwards, and it resolves itself into the lines familiar to us in our childhood:—
Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady ride on a grey horse.
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
She shall have music wherever she goes!
21.
The reason why the invitation to Jack to sample the Irish stew at Simpson’s was to be kept in mind by the catch words—
Join me at and
Join me at ai
Join me at as
is because if you join me and at, and note that and is on i, which is on s, you arrive at the suggestive sentence—meat and onions.
22.
The labourer’s quaint letter, which ran “Cepatomtogoatatrin,” was, in plainer English, “Kept at home to go a tatering.”
23.
Our double acrostic comes out thus:—
Problem—Puzzles
| P | a | P |
| (T) R | U (E) | |
| O | Z | |
| B | o | Z |
| L | eve | L |
| E | v | E |
| M | S |
24.
The Hidden Proverb is—
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
25.
The “deed done” in our Will puzzle is the making in Roman numerals of “Codicil.” The lawyer was to set down, a hundred, to add nothing, to set down five hundred, then one, then another hundred, and then one more, and, finally, fifty, and accordingly he wrote upon the parchment the one word CODICIL.
26.
The word square is—
| E | D | I | T | O | R |
| D | E | S | I | R | E |
| I | S | L | A | N | D |
| T | I | A | R | A | S |
| O | R | N | A | T | E |
| R | E | D | S | E | A |
27.
The notes of music A. G. A. E. A. over the grave of a French musician, who was choked by a fish bone, are in the French notation, “La sol la mi la,” which reads into “La sole l’a mis 1à.”
Similarly the inscription over the porch of Gustave Doré’s house C. E. B. A. C. D. is equivalent to “Do, mi, si, la, do, re,” which may be taken to represent “Domicile à Doré.”
28.
When his best girl said to Jack Spooner, “We can go to-morrow at 222222222222 LEY STREET,” he understood her to mean, “We can go to-morrow, at two minutes to two, to two twenty-two, to 222 Tooley Street.”
29
CT T T T T T T T T T spells contents (c on ten ts!).
30.
We can treat the word disused so as to affirm or to disallow the use of its initial or final d, for we can write it d is used, or disuse d!
31.
The title of the book shaken up into
E I O O O U
B C N N R R S S
is “Robinson Crusoe.”
32.
If the letter M only is inserted in the proper places in the line—
A DEN I I CAN DOCK
it will read: Madmen mimic and mock.
33.
The quotation from Shakespeare—
OXXU8 MAAULGIHCTE
NOR
is by interpretation:—“Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.”
34.
The phonetic nightmare—
Ieukngheaurrhphthewempeighghteaps—
is merely the word unfortunates. It can be justified thus by English spelling of similar sound taken letter by letter:—
u—iew in view; n—kn in know; f—gh in tough; o—eau in beau; r—rrh in myrrh; t—phth in phthisis; u—ewe; n—mp in comptroller; a—eigh in neigh; t—ght in light; e—ea in tea; and s—ps in psalm.
35.
The word square is completed thus:—
| F | A | R | M |
| A | R | E | A |
| R | E | N | T |
| M | A | T | E |
36. A QUAINT INSCRIPTION
The millers leave the mill,
The wherrymen lower their sail;
The maltsters leave the kiln,
For a drop of the White Swan’s ale.
37. A POET’S PI
TONDEBNIOTOCHUMFOARYHUR
OTDIRECTTHAWHOTERSOFKLSYA;
TIKATESTUBALIGHTSTILLETRUFLYR
OTBOWLALLNFESLEAVARFWYAA
is disentangled thus:—
Don’t be in too much of a hurry
To credit what other folks say;
It takes but a slight little flurry
To blow fallen leaves far away.
38. BURIED PLACES
The five buried places are Deal, London, Esk, Perth, and Baden. The word is Ourangoutang.
39.
It is no offence to conspire in the evening, because what is treasonable is reasonable after t!
40.
The bit of botany—
Inscribe an m above a line,
And write an e below,
This woodland flower is hung so fine
It bends when zephyrs blow—
is solved by, me, an em on e, the delicately hung wind-flower.
41. A PIED PROVERB
The pied proverb, is “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”
42.
The Drop Letter Proverb—
E..t. .e.s..s .a.e .h. .o.. ..i.e, is—Empty vessels make the most noise.
43.
The English word of five syllables, which has eight letters, five of them vowels—namely an a, an e, twice i, and y—is Ideality.
44.
TORMENT may be turned into RAPTURE, using four links, changing only one letter each time, and varying the order of the letters, thus: TORMENT, portent, protest, pratest, praters, RAPTURE.
45.
The pied sentence—
a a c e e e f f h h i i i i i m n n o o o p r r s s t t t t t
can be cast into the proverb—
“Procrastination is the thief of time.”
46.
The English sentence, when the letter o is added, reads:—
“Good old port for orthodox Oxford dons.”
47
One vowel in an English word is found,
Which by eight consonants is hedged around—
is solved by Strengths.
48.
The letters AAAAABBNNIIRSSTT form the word Antisabbatarians.
49.
The quotation from Shakespeare,
KINI
stands for “A little more than kin, and less than kind.”
50.
The two English words which have the first six letters of the alphabet among their ten letters are fabricated and bifurcated.
51. SHIFTING NUMBERS
The letter A stands at the head of the letters of the alphabet. For bed 3 of these are used; for goal, 4; for prison, 6; for six, 3; for three, 5. The letter A is not used in the spelling of the name of any number from 1 to 100, but it makes up, with the other vowels, the number 6.
52.
The prodigal’s letter to his father, “Dear Dad, keep 1000050,” in reply to a suggestion for safeguarding some of his prospects, was written in playful impudence; and its interpretation is, “Dear Dad, keep cool!” for the figures in Roman numerals are COOL.
53. BURIED POETS
The poets’ names buried in the lines—
The sun is darting rays of gold
Upon the moor, enchanting spot;
Whose purpled heights, by Ronald loved,
Up open to his Shepherd cot.
And sundry denizens of air
Are flying, aye, each to his nest;
And eager make at such an hour
All haste to reach the mansions blest.
are Gray, Moore, Byron, Pope, Dryden, Gay, Keats, and Hemans.
54.
When A. B. gave up the reins of government, and C.B. took office in his place, the two verbs, similar in all respects, except that the one is longer by one letter than the other, which expressed the change, were resigns—reigns.
55
Underdone mutton and onion make between you and me,
A glutton a little seedy after a capital tea.
56
First a c and a t, last a c and a t,
With a couple of letters between,
Form a sight that our eyes are delighted to see,
Unless in their sight it is seen—
is solved by Cataract. The first line reads, First a c and a t, last a c and a t, that is cat and act.
57.
Cuba.
58.
The Rebus T S is solved by the words tones and tans, t before one s, or t before an s.
59.
The phonetic phrase—
INXINXIN—
is, Ink sinks in!
A GOOD END
60. Finis (F IN IS).