By the sa m e A ut/z or

A M U SE M E NT S IN M AT H E M A T I C S "

3 s 6d
. .
 TH E
AN T ER BU R Y PU Z Z L E S
AND O TH E R CU R I O U S P R O BL E M S

H E N R Y E R N E ST D U D E N E Y
AU T H O R O F
“A M U SE ME NTS I N M ATH E M ATI C S , E TC .

S E C ON D ED ITI ON
(With So me Fulle r So lutio n s an d Addi tional No te s)

TH O M A S N E L SO N AN D S O N S, L T D .

LO ND O N E D I N BU R G H
, ,
AN D N E W YO R K
I 919
 C O N TE N TS

PR E FA C E
I N T R O D U C TI ON
TH E C AN TE R BU R Y P UZZ LES
P UZZ LI N G TI M E S A T SO LVAM H ALL C A STLE
TH E M E RR Y M ON K S O F R I D D LE W E LL
TH E STR AN G E E S C A P E O F TH E K I N G S JESTE R
’

TH E S Q U I R E S C H R IST M AS P UZZ LE P A R T Y
’

AD V E N T U R ES O F TH E P UZZ LE C L U B
TH E PR O FE SS O R S P UZZ LES
’
.

M IS C ELL AN E OU S P UZZ LES

S O L U TI ON S
I N D E!
 P R E F AC E

WH E N prep aring this new edition for the press m y first inclin a ,

tion was to withdr aw a few puz z les that appe ared to be o f in

fe ri o r interest an d to substit ute others for them
, But on second .
,

thoughts I decided to let the book st and in its origin al form an d

,

add extended sol utions an d some short note s to cert ain problems

th at h ave in the p ast involved me in corre spondence with inter

e ste d re aders who desired addition al inform ation .

I h ave also provided— wh at was cle arly needed for reference

an index Th e very n ature an d form of the book p re vented an y
.

sep aration of the p uz z les into cl asse s b ut a c ert ain amount o f

,

cl ass ific ation will be fo und in the index Th us for ex ample if the
.
, ,

re ader h as a predilection fo r problems with Moving Co unters or for ,

Magi c Sq u are s or for Combin ation an d Gro up P uz z les he will find

, ,

th at in the index the se are bro ught together for his c onvenience .

Though the proble ms are q ui t e di fferent with the exc eption ,

of j ust one or two little v ari ations o r extensions from tho se in ,

my book A musements i n M athemati cs e ac h work being c omplete

,

in it s elf I h ave tho ught it wo uld help the re ader who h appens
,

to h ave both books before him if I m ade o c casion al references

t h at wo uld dire c t him to s ol utions an d an aly se s in the l ater book
c al c ul ated to el ucid ate m atter in thes e p ages Thi s c ourse h as .

al so obvi ated t h e nece s sity of my repe ating my s elf F o r the s ake .

of brevity Amusements i n M athemati cs is th ro ugho ut referred to

,

as A in M
. .

HE NRY E . DU DE NE Y .

THE AU TH O R S
’
C L U B,
J u ly 2, 1 9 1 9 .
 I N T R O D U C TI O N

R E AD E R S of The M i ll on will remember that when

the F loss
ever Mr Tullive r found himself confronted b y an y little diffic ult y
.

he was accustomed to m ake the trite rem ark It s a p uz z ling ,

’

world .
”
There c an be no denying the fact th at we are surrounded
on every h and by posers some of which the intellec t of man h as
,

m astered an d m any of which may be s aid to be impossible of

,

solution Solomon himself who may be suppos ed to h ave been

.
,

as sh arp as most men at solving a pu z z le h ad to a dmit there

,

be three things whi ch are too wonderful for m e yea four which ,

I know not the way of an e agle in the air the way o f a serpent
upon a n ick the way o f a ship in the midst o f the se a and the
way o f a man with a m aid
”
.

P robing into the secrets o f N ature is a p as sion with all m en

only we se lect diff erent lines o f rese arch Me n h ave spent long .

lives in such attempts as to turn the b aser met als into gold to ,

discover perpetu al motion to find a c ure for cert ain m align ant
,

dise ases an d to n avigate the air

, .

F rom morning to night we are being perpetually bro ught face

to face with puz z les But there are p uz z les an d puz z les
. Those .

th at are usu ally devised for recre ation an d p astime m ay be roughly

divided into two cl asses : P uz z les th at are b uilt up on some inter
esting or informing little principle ; an d puz z les th at conce al no
principle wh atever— s uch as a picture c ut at random into little
bits to be put together again or the j uvenile imbecilit y kn own as
,

the rebus or pict ure puz z le

, Th e former species may be
.

s aid to be ad apte d to the amusement of the sane man o r wom an ;

the l atter c an be confidently recommen de d to the feeble minded -
.

n
12 I N T R O D U CT I O N
Th e curious propen s ity for propoun di ng p uz z les is not peculi ar
to an y r ace or to an y period of h i story It is simply inn a te in .

every intelligent m an wom an an d child th at h as ever lived tho ugh

, , ,

it is always showing it self in di fferent forms ; whether the indi

vid ual be a Sphinx of Egypt a S am son of Hebrew lore an Indi an
, ,

f akir a Chi nese philosopher a m ah atm a of Tibet or a Europe an

, , ,

m athem atici an m ake s little di fference .

Theologi an scienti s t an d artis an are perpet ually eng aged in

, ,

attempting to solve p uz z les while every g ame sport an d p astime

, , ,

is built U p of problems of gre ater or les s di ffic ul ty Th e spon tane .

o us q u estion asked b y the C hi ld of his p arent by one c yclist of ,

another while t aking a brief rest on a stile by a cricketer d u ring ,

the luncheon hour or b y a y achtsm an l az ily sc an ning the hori z on

, ,

is freq uently a problem of considerable d i ffi culty In S hort we .

,

are all propo unding p uz z les to one another every d ay of o ur lives

withou t always knowing it .

A good puz z le S ho uld dem and the exercise of o ur best wit and
ingenuit y an d although a knowledge of m athem atic s an d a cert ain
,

fam i li ari t y with the methods of logic are often of gre a t servi c e
in the sol ution of these things y et it sometimes h appen s th at a ,

kind of n at ur al c unning an d s agacity is of c on s ider able val ue .

F o r m any of th e best problems c annot be s olved by an y f amili ar

schol astic methods b ut mus t be att ac ked on entirel y origin al
,

lines This is wh y after a long an d wide experience one find s

.
, ,

th at p arti c ul ar pu z z les will sometimes be solved more re adily by

persons poss ess ing only n at ural ly alert fac ul ties th an by the better
ed uc ated Th e be st pl ayers of s uc h p uz z le g ames as c he ss an d
.

dr aughts are not m athem atici ans tho ugh it i s j ust po ss ible th at ,

often they m ay h ave undevelope d m at hem ati c al mind s .

It is extraordin ary wh at fas c in ation a good p uz z le h as for a

gre at m any people We know the t h ing to be of trivi al i mpor
.

t ance yet we are impelled to m aster it an d when we h ave s uc ceeded

,

the re is a ple as ure an d a sense of s at i sfaction th at are a q uite su f

ficien t rew ard fo r o ur trouble even when there is no priz e to be
,

wo n . Wh at is thi s mysterious ch arm t hat m an y find irresistible

 I N TR O D U C T I O N 1
3
Wh y do we like to be pu z z led The curious thing is th at direct ly
the enigm a is solved the in terest generally vanishes We have .

done it and that is en ough But why did we ever attempt to

, .

Th e nswer is s imply th at it gave us ple asure to see k the solution

a
— that the pleasure was all in the s e e ldng an d finding for their own
sak es A good puz z le like virtue is it s own reward Man loves
.
, , .

to be confronted by a mystery an d he is not entirely h appy u ntil ,

he h as solved it We never like to feel o ur ment al inferiority to

.

those around us Th e s pirit of rivalry i s inn ate in man ; it stim u

.

l ates the s m allest c hi ld in pl ay or ed uc ation to keep level with his

, ,

fellows an d in l ater life it t urns men into gre at di scoverers in v e n

, ,

tors orators heroes artists an d (if they have more m ateri al aims)
, , , ,

In st art ing o n a tour through the wide re al m of Pu z z ledom we

do well to remember th at we s h all meet with points of interest of
a very v aried ch ar acter I sh all t ake adv ant age of this v ariety
’

. .

P eople often m ake the mi st ake o f confining themselves to one

”

little corner of the re al m an d thereby mis s opport uni ties of new ,

ple as ures th at lie within t heir re ac h around them On e person .

will keep to acrostic s an d other word p uz z les another to m athe ,

m atic al br ain racke rs an o t h e r to C hess p roblems (which are merely

-
,
_

p uz z les on the ches s bo ard an d h ave little practic al rel ation to the
-
,

game o f ches s) an d so on This is a mist ake bec ause it restricts

, .
,

one s pleasures an d neglects th at v ariety whi ch is so good for the

’

brain .

And there is re ally a practic al utility in p uz z le solving R e g -

.

ul ar exercise i s s uppo s ed to be as nec e s sary for the brain as for the

body an d in both c ases it is not so m u c h wh at we do as the doing
,

of it from whi c h we derive benefit Th e d aily wal k rec ommended .

by the doctor for the good of t h e body or the d aily exerci se for ,

the brain m ay in it s elf appe ar to be so much was te of time b ut

,

it i s the tru e st econom y in the end Albert Smith in one of his .

,

am using novels de scribes a wom an wh o was convin c ed th at she

,

suff ered from co bwigs o n the brain This may be a very rare .
14 I N T R O D U C TI ON
complaint but in a more met aphoric al sense m an y of us are very
,

apt to suffer from ment al cobwebs an d there is nothing equ al to ,

the solvin g of puz z les and problems for sweeping them away They .

keep the brain al ert stimul ate the im agin ation and develop the
, ,

reasoning fac ulties And not only are they useful in this indirect
.

way b ut they often directly h elp us by te aching us some little tricks

,

an d wrinkles that can be applied in the affairs o f life at the most

unexpected tiIn es an d in the most unexpected ways .

There is an interesting p as sage in praise of pu z z les in the qu aint

letters o f F itz osbo rn e Here is an extract . The ingenio us
st udy o f m aking an d solving puz z les is a science undoubtedly o f
most necessary acquirement an d deserves to m ak e a p art in the
,

m edit ation o f both sexes It is an art indeed th at I would re c o m

.
, ,

mend to the encouragement of both the Universities as it aff ords ,

the easiest and shortest method of conveying som e o f the most

useful principles o f logic It was the m axi m of a very wise prince
.

th at he who knows not how to di ssemble knows not how to reign

an d I desire yo u to receive it as mine th at he who knows no t how ,

to riddle knows not how to live .

’

How are good puz z les invented I am not referring to acrostics ,

an agr am s ch ar ades an d th at sort of thing but to puz z les th at

, , ,

cont ain an origin al ide a Well you c annot invent a good pu z z le

.
,

to order anymore th an you c an invent anything else in that m anner

, .

Notions for p uz z les c ome at strange times an d in strange w ays .

The y are suggested by something we se e or hear an d are led up ,

to b y other pu z z les that come under o ur notice It is useless to .

s ay , I will s it down an d invent an origin al puz z le bec ause there ,

”

i s no way of cre ating an ide a you can onl y m ake use of it when
it comes Yo u may think this is wrong bec ause an expert in
.
,

these things will m ake scores of puz z les while another person ,

equal l y clever c annot invent o n e to s ave his life as we s ay

, , .

Th e expl an ation is very simple The expert knows an ide a when

.

he sees one an d is able by long experience to j udge of its val ue

, .

F ertility like facilit y comes b y practice

, , .

Sometimes a new an d most interesting ide a is suggested by the

 I N T R O D U CTIO N 15

blunder o f somebody over another pu z z le A b oy was given a .

pu z z le to solve by a friend but he misunderstood what he h ad to

do and set abo ut attempt i ng wh at mos t likely everybod y would
,

have told him was impossible But he was a bo y with a will and
.
,

he stu c k at it for s ix months o ff and on until he act ually succeeded

, , .

When his friend s aw the sol ution he said This is not the puz z le
, ,

—
I intended you misunderstood me—b ut you h ave found out
so mething m uch gre ater l And the pu z z le which that boy acci
dent ally discovered is now in all the old pu z z le books .

P uz z les c an be m ade o ut of al mo st an ything in the h ands o f ,

the ingenious person with an idea Coins m atches c ards counters

.
, , , ,

bits of re or string al l come in useful An immense number of

°

ghb
.
,

p uz z l
i s re been m ade o ut O f the letters of the alph abet an d from ,

those nine little digits an d cipher I z 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 an d o, , , , , , , , , , .

It S hould always be remembered th at a very simple person may

propound problem th at can only be solved by clever he ads if
a —
at all .A chi ld asked Can God do everyt hing P
, On receiving
an affirmfl i ve reply s h e at once s aid :
, Then can He m ake a
stone so heavy th at He c an t lift it Man y wide awake grown
’
-

up people do not at onc e see a s atisfactory answer Yet the diffi .

cult y lies merely in the absurd though cunning form of the ques
, ,

tion which reall y am o unts to asking Can the Almight y destroy

, ,

His o wn o mnipotence ? It is somewhat simil ar to the other ques

tion , Wh at would h appen if an irresistible moving bod y c ame
in cont act with an immovable body ? Here we have siIn ply a
contradiction in terms for if there existed such a thing as an im
,

movable body there could not at the s ame tiin e exist a moving
,

body that nothing could resist .

P rofessor Tynd all used to invite children to ask him puz z lin g
q ue stions an d some of them were very h ard n uts to crac k On e
,
.

child asked him why th at p art of a towel that was dipped in water
was of a d arker colour th an the dr y p art How m any readers .

co uld give the correct reply ? Many people are s atisfied with the
most ridiculo us answers to p uz z ling que stions If you as k Why .
,

c an we s ee thro ugh gl ass ? nine people o ut o f ten will reply ,

I 6 I N T R O D U CT I O N Q

B ec ause it is tr ansp arent ; which is of c ourse simply another , ,

Way o f s aying Bec ause we c an s e e thro ugh it ”

.
,

P uz z les h ave such an infinite variety th at it is sometimes very

diffi cu lt to divide them into distinct clas ses They often so merge .

in ch aracter th at the best we c an do is to sort them into a few

bro ad types Let us t ake three o r four ex amples in illustration
.

o f wh at I me an .

First there is the ancient R iddle th at draws upon the im agin a

,

tion an d pl ay o f fancy R eaders will remember the riddle of the

.

Sphinx the monster o f B oeoti a wh o propo unded enigm as to the

,

inh abit ants an d devo ured them if they failed to solve them It .

was s aid th at the Sp hinx would destroy herself if one of her riddles
was ever corre c tly answered It was this. Wh at anim al walks
o n four legs in the morning two at noon an d three in the evening
, ,

It was expl ained by (Edipus who po inted o ut th at man walked o n

,

his h ands an d feet in the morning of life at the noon o f life he ,

walked erect an d in the evening of h i s d ay s he s upported his

,

i nfirm i ties with a stic k When the Sphi nx he ard this expl an ation
.
,

sh e d ashed her he ad against a rock an d immedi atel y expired This .

shows th at p uz z le solvers m ay be re ally us eful on occ asion .

Then there i s the riddle propo unded by S am son It i s perh aps .

the first pri z e competition in thi s line on record the pri z e being ,

thirt y sheets and thirty c h anges of g arments for a correct sol ution .

The riddle was this Out of the e ater c ame forth me at an d o ut ,

o f the strong c ame forth sweetness Th e answer was A honey

”
.
,

comb in the body of a de ad lion To d ay t hi s sort of riddle s ur

.
”
-

vives in s uch a form as Why does a c hicken cross the ro ad ?

,

to whi ch most people give the an swer To get to the other side ;
,

though the corre ct reply is To worry the ch au ffe ur

, It h as .

degenerated into the con undrum whi c h i s usually b ased on a mere

,

pun F o r ex ample we h ave been asked from o ur infancy When

.
, ,

is a door not a door an d here ag ain the answer us u ally f urni shed

When it is a j ar is not the correct one It sho uld be When

-
.
,

it is a negress (an
There is the l arge class o f Letter P u z z les which are b ased on ,
 I N TR O D U C T I O N 17

the little peculi ariti es o f the langu age in which they are written
such as an agr ams acrostics word squares an d ch arades I n this
, ,
-
, .

class we also find p alindromes o r words an d sentences th at re ad

,

b ac kwards an d forwards alik e Thes e m ust be very ancient indeed

.
,

if it be tru e th at Ad am introd uced himself to Eve (in the Englis h

l angu age be it noted) with the palindromic words Madam I m
’

, , ,

Adam to which his consort replied with th e m odest pal indrome

,
”

Eve .
”

Then we h ave Arithmetic al P uz z l e s an immense cl ass full o f , ,

diversity These range fro m the puz z le th at the al gebr ai st fin ds to

.

be nothing but a simple equ ation quite easy o f di rect solution ,

”
,

up to the profoundest problems in the elegant dom ain of the theory

o f numbers .

Next we h ave the Geometric al P uz z le a favourite and very ,

an cient br an ch o f which is the p uz z le in dissection req uiring some ,

pl ane figure to be c ut into a cert ain number of pieces that will

fit together and form anoth er figure Mos t o f the wire p uz z les sold
.

in the streets and to y shops are concerned with the geometry of

-

po sition .

But the se classes do not nearly embrace all k inds of puz z les
even when we allow for those th at belong at once to several of the
cl asses There are m an y in genious mech anical pu z z les th at you
.

cannot cl assi fy as they st and quite alone : there are pu z z les in

logic in ches s I n draughts in c ards an d in dominoes while every
, , , , ,

conj urin g trick is nothing b ut a pu z z le the solution to whi ch the ,

performer tries to keep to himself .

There are puz z les th at loo k e as y an d are e asy puz z les th at loo k ,

e asy an d are di ffi cult puz z les th at loo k di fii cult an d are di ffic ult
, ,

an d puz z les th at look difficult an d are e asy an d in e ach cl ass we ,

may o f course h ave degrees of e asine ss an d diffi c ult y Bu t it does .

not follow th at a p uz z le that h as conditions th at are e asily under

st ood b y the merest chi ld is in it self e asy Such a p uz z le might . ,

however look simple to the uninformed an d only prove to be a

, ,

very h ard nut to him after he h ad act ually t ackled it .

if we write down nin et e en ones to form the number

2
I 8 I N T R O D UCTIO N
then ask fo r a n umber (other th an
an d

I o r itself) th at will divi de it witho ut rem ainder the conditions ,

are perfectly simple but the t as k is terribl y di fficult

, Nobody in .

the world knows yet whether that number h as a divisor o r not .

If yo u c an find one you will h ave succeeded in doing somethi ng

,

th at nobody else h as ever done !

.

Th e n umber composed o f seventeen ones ,

111 h as onl y these two divisors

, an d ,

and their discovery is an exceedingl y he avy t as k Th e only .

number compo sed only o f ones th at we know with cert ainty to

h ave n o divi s or is I I Such a number is o f course c alled a prime
.
, ,

number .

Th e m axim th at there are al way s a right way an d a wrong way

o f doin g anyt hi ng applies in a very m arked degree to the solving

o f puz z les Here the wrong way consists in m aki ng aimles s tri al s
.

without method hoping to hit on the answer by accident a proces s

,
—
th at general ly results in our getting hopelessly ent angled in the trap
th at h as been artful ly l aid for us .

Occ as ion ally however a p roblem is o f such a character th at

, , ,

though it may be solved immedi atel y by tri al it is very difficult ,

t o do b y a process o f p ure re ason But in most c ases the latter

.

method is the only one that gives an y real pleasure .

When we sit down to solve a pu z z le the first thing to d o is to ,

m ake sure as far as we can that we underst and the conditions

, ,
.

F o r if we do not underst and wh at it is we h ave to d o we are not ,

very li kely t o succeed i n doing it We al l know the story o f the

.

man who was asked the question If a herring and a half cost
,

three halfpence how much wifl a do z en herrings cost ?

-
, After
several uns uccessful attempts he gave it up when the propo under ,

expl ained to him that a doz en herrings wo uld cost a shilling .

He rri ngs l excl aimed the other apologetic al l y ; I was worki ng

it o ut in h addoc k s l
‘

It sometimes requires more care than the reader might Suppose

so to word the conditions of a new pu z z le th at they are at once

See foo tn o te o n pag 1 9 8 e .

20 I N TRO D U CTIO N
He then amended his defini tion by s ayin g th at the actu al see ing
all sides was not essenti al but yo u went in such a wa th t given
, y a ,

S ight y ou co uld see all sides Upon which it was suggested that
, .

con sequently y ou could not walk around a man who h ad b e en shut

up in a bo x ! And so o n Th e whole thi ng is am us ingly stupid
.
,

an d if at the st art y ou very properly , decline to admit any but ,

a simple an d correct definition of to go around there i s no ”

,

puz z le left an d yo u prevent an idle and often he ated argument

, , , .

When y ou have gras ped your conditions always se e if you cannot ,

simplify them for a lot o f c o nfusio n is got rid of in this way Man y
’

, .

people are pu z z led over the old question o f the man wh o whi le ,

pointing at a portrai t s ays Brothers an d sisters h ave I none but

, , ,

th at m an s father is m y father s son

’
Wh at rel ation did the man ’
.
”

in the picture bear to the speaker Here you simplify by s aying

th at m y father s so n must be either myself o r my brother
’
.
”

But since the spe aker h as no b rother it is cle arl y m yself Th e

”
, , .

st atement simplified is thus nothing m ore th an Th at m an s father ,

’

is myself and it was obviousl y his son s portrait Yet people fight
,
’
.

over t hi s question b y the hour

There are m y steries th at h ave never been solved in m any bran ches
of Pu z z ledom Let us consider a few in the world of numbers
.

little t hi ngs the conditions o f which a c hi ld c an underst and though ,

the gre atest minds c annot m aster Everybody h as he ard the t e .

m ark ,
It is as h ard as squ aring a circle though m an y people ,
”

h ave a very h az y notion o f what it me ans If you have a circle of .

given di ameter and wish to find the side o f a squ are th at sh all con
t ain ex actly the s ame are a y ou are confronted with the problem
,

o f sq u aring the circle Well it c annot be done with exactitude

.
,

(tho ugh we c an get an answer ne ar enough for all pr acti c al purposes ) ,

bec au se it is not possible to say in exact n umbers wh at is the ratio

o f the di ameter to the circumference But it is only in recent times .

th at it h as been proved to be impossible for it is o ne t hi ng no t to ,

be able to perform a c ert ain fe at but q uite another to prove that ,

it c annot be done O nl y uni nstructed cranks now waste their tim e

.

in trying to s quare the Circle .

 I NT R O D U C T I O N 21

Again we c an never me as ure ex actly in n um bers the di agon al of

,

a squ are If you h ave a window p ane ex actly a foot on every s ide
.
,

there is the dist ance from c orner to corner st arin g yo u in the face ,

yet yo u c an never s ay in ex act n umbers wh at is the length of th at

di agon al Th e simple person will at once suggest th at we might
.

t ake our di agon al firs t s ay an exact foot an d then construct o ur

, ,

s q uare. Yes y ou c an do thi s but then you can never s ay exactly

, ,

wh at is the length of the side You c an h ave it whi ch way y ou

.

like but yo u c annot h ave it both ways

,
.

All my re aders know wh at a m agic squ are is Th e numbers .

I to 9 c an be arr an ged in a squ are o f nine cells so th at all the

.
,

columns and rows and e ach of the di agonals will add up 1 5 It is .

quite e asy ; an d there is only one wayof doing it for we do not count ,

as di fferent the arr angements obt ained by merely turning round the

square an d reflecting it in a mirror Now if we wish to m ake a

.

m agic squ are of the I 6 numbers 1 to 1 6 there are j ust 880 di fferent
, ,

ways of doing it again not counting revers al s an d reflections This

,
.

h as been fin ally proved of recent ye ars But how m any m agic .

squ are s may be formed with the 2 5 numbers I to 25 nobody knows , , ,

an d we sh all h ave to extend o ur knowledge in cert ain directions

before we c an hope to solve the pu z z le But it is surprising to find

.

th at ex actly such squ ares may be formed of one p artic ul ar

restricted kind only— th e bordered square in which the inner square ,

of nine cells is itself m agic And I h ave S hown how thi s number
.

may be at once doubled b y merely c onverting every bordered squ are

—b y a simple ru le— into a non bordered one -
.

Then v ain attempt s h ave been m ade to construct a m agic squ are
by wh at i s c alled a knight s tour over the c hes sbo ard numbering
’
-
,

e ac h squ are th at the knight vi sits in succession 1 2 3 4 etc an d , , , , ,

it h as been done with the exception o f the two di agon als whi ch so
,

far h ave b affled all e fforts But it is not cert ain th at I t c annot
.

be done .

Though the contents o f the present volume are in the m ain

entirely origin al some very few old frien ds will be found ; but these
,

will not I trust prove unwelcome in the new dress th at they h ave
, ,
22 I N TRO D U CTIO N
received The pu z z les are o f every degree o f d iffi cult y and so
.
,

varied in ch ar acter th at perh aps it is not too m uch to hope th at

—
every true pu z z le lover will find ample m ateri al to interest and
po s sibly instruct In some c ases I h ave de alt with the methods of
.

solution at considerable lengt h b ut at other times I h ave reluct antly

,

felt obliged to restrict myself to giving the b are answers Had the
.

f ull solutions an d proofs been given in the c ase of every puz z le ,

either h alf the problems would h ave h ad to be omitted or the si z e

,

o f the book gre atl y incre ased

. And the pl an th atll h ave adopted
has its adv ant ages for it le aves scope for the m athem atic al e u
,

th us iast to work out his o wn an al y sis

. Even in those c ases where
I h ave given a general formul a for the solution o f a puz z le he will,

find great interest in verifying it for himsel f.

 CHANCE GATH E R ED -
comp any of pilgrims o n their way to ,

the shri ne of S aint Thom as aBecket at Canterb ury met at the ,

o ld Tab ard I nn l ater c alled the Talbot in So uthw ark an d the host
, , ,

proposed th at they should beguile the ride by e ach telling a t al e

to hi s fellow pilgrim s This we all know was the origin of the
-
.

immort al Canterbury Tales of o ur gre at fourteenth c entury poet -

,

Geoffrey Ch aucer Unfort un at ely the t al es were never completed

.
, ,

an d perh aps th at i s why the q u ain t an d c urious Cante rb ury

P u z z les
, devised and propo unded by the s ame body of pilgrim s
”
,

were not also recorded b y the poet s pen This is gre atly to be ’
.

regretted since Ch auc er who as Lel and tells us was an ingenio us

, , , ,

m athem atici an an d the author of a learned tre atise on the astro

labe was pec uli arly fitted for the p ropo undi ng o f problem s
, In .

pre senting for the first time some of thes e old world posers I will -
,

not stop to expl ain the S ingul ar m anner in which they c ame into
my posse ssion b ut proceed at once witho ut unnece ss ary pre amble
, , ,

to give my re aders an Opportunity of solving them an d testing

their quality There are cert ai nly far more di fficult p uz z le s ext ant
. ,

b ut di ffi culty an d in terest are two qu alities o f p uz z ledom that d o

not necessarily go together .
24 T HE CA N TE R B URY P U ZZ L E S

I .
—The Reve
’
s P uz z le .

The R eve was wily m an and something o f a schol ar As

a .

Ch aucer tells us There was n o auditor could o f hi m win

”
, an d ,

there could n o man bring hi m in arre ar The poe t also noticed .

” '

th at ever he rode the hindermost o f the route This he did that .

”

he might the better without interruption work o ut the fanciful

, ,

problems and ide as that p assed through his active brai n Wh en the .

pilgrims were stopping at a wayside t avern ,a number of cheeses of ,

vary ing siz es c aught his alert eye ; and c alling for four stools he told ,

the comp an y th at he wo uld Show them a p uz z le o f his o wn th at

would k eep them amused during their rest He then pl aced eight .

chees es o f gr aduating si z es on one of the end stools the sm allest ,

C heese being at the top as cle arly s hown in the illustr ation
, Thi s .

is a riddle q uoth he th at I did once set before my fellow town s

,
”
,

men at Baldeswe ll th at is in Norfolk an d by S aint Jo c e there was

, , , ,
 T HE C A N T ER B U R Y P U ZZLES 25

no in an am ong them that could rede it aright And yet it is withal .

full eas y for all th at I do desire is th at by the moving of one cheese

, ,

at a ti me from o ne stool u nto another y e S h all remove all the cheese s

,

to the stool at the other end without ever putting an y cheese o n one
that is sm aller th an itself To him th at will perform this feat in the
.

least num be r o f moves that be pos s ible will I give a dr aught o f

the best that o ur good host can provide To solve this p uz z le in
”
.

th e fewes t possible moves first with 8 then with I O an d aft erw ards
, , ,

with 2 1 cheeses is an interesting rec reation

, .

The gentle P ardoner th at straight was come from the court

,

o f Ro m e begged to be excused ; but the company would no t sp are

”
,

hi m . F riends and fellow pil grims said he -

o f a truth the, ,

riddle that I h ave m ade is but a poor thing but it is the best that ,

I able to devise Bl ame my l ack of knowledge of such

.

m atters if it be not to your liking But hi s invention was very

.
”

well received He prod uced the accompanying pl an and said that

. ,

it represented sixt y four towns through which he had to pass

-
26 THE C AN T E R B U R Y PUZZ L ES
d uring some o f his pilgrim ages and the lines conn e cting them were
,

roads He expl ained th at the pu z z le was to st art from the l arge

.

black town an d visit all the other towns once an d once only in , ,

fift e e n straight pilgrim ages Try to trace the route in fifteen

.

strai ght li nes with your pencil You may end where you like but
.
,

note th at the omission of a little ro ad at the bottom is intentio nal ,

as it s ee ms th at it was impossible to go tha t way .

3 .
—The M i ller s ’
P uz z le .

Th e Miller next took the comp any aside and showed them
nin e s ac ks of flour th at we re st anding as depicted in the sketch .

No w hearken all an d some

, , s aid he while that I do se t ye
, ,

the riddle o f the nine s ac ks of flour And m ark y e m y lords and .

,

m asters th at there be single s ac ks o n the out side p airs next unto

, ,

them an d three together in the middl e thereof B y S aint Benedict

,
.
,

it doth so h appen th at if we do b ut multiply the p air 28 by the , ,

sing le on e 7 the answer is 1 96 which is o f a truth the number

, , ,

shown by the sa c ks in the middle Yet it be not tru e th at the other

.

p air 34 when so multiplied by its neighbour 5 will also m ake 1 96

, , , , .

Wherefore I do beg y ou gentle sirs so to pl ace anew the nine sac ks

, ,

wit h as little trouble as possible that e ach pair when thus multi
plied by its sin gle neighbo ur sh all m ake the n umber in the middle .
"

As the Miller h as stipul ated in e ffect th at as few b ags as possible

s h all be moved there is only one answer to this pu z z le which e v ery
, ,

body sho uld be able to solve .

4
—Th
. e K night s P uz z le
’
.

worthy man was as Ch aucer tells us

This , , a very perfect ,

gentle knight and In m any a noble arm y

, h ad he been : At
28 THE C A N TER B U RY PUZZLES
remembered one o f hi s riddles th at might be new to her fellow
“
pilgrims : Why is a b ung th at h ath been m ade fast in a barrel
like unto another bung th at is j ust f alling out of a b arrel ? As
the compan y promptly answered t hi s e as y conundrum the l ady ,

went o n to say th at when sh e was one d ay se ated sewing in her

”
private ch amber her so n entered Upon receiving s aith she
.
, ,

the p arent al comm and D ep art my so n an d do not disturb me I

, , ,

he did reply I am of a truth thy so n but thou art not m y mother

, , , ,

and un til thou h ast shown m e how this maybe I sh all not go forth
’
.

Thi s perplexed the comp any a go od deal b ut it is not lik el y to give

,

th e reader much diffi cult y .

6,
— Th e H ost s P uz z le
’
.

P erh aps puz z le o f the whole collection c aused more j ollity o r

no

was found more entert aining than that produced b y the Host o f
 T HE C A N TE R BU RY P U ZZLES 29

the Tab ard who accompanied the part y all the way He
, .

called the pilgrim s together an d spoke as follows My merry

m as t ers all no w th at it be m y turn to give your brains a twist
, ,

will S how ye a little piece of craft that will try your wits to their
{ull bent . And y et methinks it is but a simple m atter when the
doing o f it is m ade clear Here h e a c ask of fine London al e and
.
,

in m y hands do I hold two measures—o ne of five pints an d the ,

other o f three pints P ray show how it is possible for me to put a

.

true pint into e ach o f the me asures Of course no other vessel or

.
,

article is to be used an d no m ar king of the me as ures is allowed

, .

It is a knott y little problem and a fascin ating one A good m an y .

persons to d ay will find it by no means an e asy t ask Yet it c an

-
.

be done .

7
—
T he C
. lerk of Oxe nf ord s P uz z le
’
.

Th e silent an d tho ughtful Clerk of Oxenford of whom it is re ,

corded th at Every fart hi ng th at his friends e er lent In books an d

’

learni ng was it always spent was prevailed upon to give his

,
”

pu z z le He said
a O ft times of late h ave I given
.
,

m uch thought to the study o f thos e strange t alism ans to ward o ff

th e plag ue an d such evils th at are y clept m agic squares an d the ,

secret o f such thi ngs is very deep an d the numb er o f such squ ares
3 0 T HE C A N TE R B U R Y P UZZ L ES

trul y great But the sm all riddle th at I did mak e y ester eve for
.

the purpose o f this comp any is not so h ard th at any may n ot fin d

it o ut with a little p atience He then prod uced the squ are shown
.
”
}

in the illustration and s aid th at it was desired s o to cut it into fo ll l

pieces (b y cuts al ong the lines ) th at they would fit together ag ain '
an d f orm a perfect m agi c sq u are in which the four columns the , ,

four rows an d the two long di agon al s S ho uld ad d up 3 4 It will

, .

be found that this is a j ust sufficiently e asy puz z le for most people s ’

t astes.

8 .
—The Tapi s er s P uz z le
’
.

Then c ame forward the Tapiser who was o f course a m aker o f , , ,

t apestry an d must no t be confounde d with a t apster who draws

, ,

an d sells ale .

He produced a be autiful piece of t apestry worked in a simple ,

ch equered p attern as shown in the di agr am

, This piece o f .

tapestry ,quoth he hath one hundred an d sixt y nine sm all

sirs , ,
-

squares an d I do desire yo u to tell me the m anner o f cutti ng the

,

t apestry into three pieces that shall fit together and m ake o ne

whole piece in sh ape of a perfect square .

More over sin ce there b e d i v ers way s o f so doi ng I do wis h to

, ,
 T HE CA N TE R B URY P UZZLES 3 :

know that way wherein two of the pie ces s h all together cont ain as
m uch as possible of the rich fabric It is clear that the Tapiser .
”

intended the cuts to be m ade al ong the lines di viding the squares
onl y an d as the m ateri al was not bo th sides alike no piece may be
, , ,

reversed but c are must be observed that the chequered pattern

,

matches properly .

9.
—Tlie Carpeuter s P uz z le
’
.

Th e Carpenter produced the c arved wooden pill ar that he is

seen holding in the ill ustration wherein the knight is propo unding
,

his knotty problem to the goodly company (No an d s poke a s .

follows There dwelleth in the city of London a cert ain schol ar

that is le arned in astrology an d other st range arts Some few d ays .

gone he did bring unto me a piece of wood th at h ad three feet in

length one foot in bre adth an d one fo ot in depth an d did desire
, ,

that it be c arved an d m ade into the pi ll ar th at you do now behold .

Also did he promise cert ain p ayment for every c ubic inch of wood
c ut away by the carving the reof .

Now I did at first weigh the block and found it truly to cont ain ,

thirty po unds where as the pillar doth now weigh b ut twenty po unds
, .

Of a truth I have therefore c ut a way o n e c ubic foot (which is

to say one t hi rd) of th e three cubic feet of the block ; b ut
-

this scholar with al doth hold th at payment m ay not thu s be fairly

m ade by weight since the he art of the block m ay be heavier or
, ,

perch an c e m ay be more light th an the outside How then m ay

, .

I with ea se satisfy the schol ar as to the quantity of wood th at hath

been cut away This at fir st sight looks a di ffi c ult question b ut ,

it is so absurdly simple th at the method employed by the carpenter

should be known to everybody to d ay for it is a very useful little -
,

wrinkle .

10 —The P uz z le of the S quire s Yeoman

.
’
.

Ch aucer says of the Squire s Yeoman who formed one o f hi s ’

party of pilgrims A forester was he t ruly as I guess an d tell s us

, ,
”

that Hi s arrows droo ped not with feathers low And in his h and ,

he b are a mighty bow When a h alt was made one day at a

.
”
3 2 T HE CA N TER BU RY P U ZZLES
wayside inn be arin g the old sign o f the Chequers this yeom an
, ,

consented to give the company an exhi bition of his skill Selecting .

nine good arrows he said Mark ye good sirs how that I shall
, , , ,

shoo t these nin e arrows in such m anner that e ach o f them sh all
lodge in the mi ddl e o f o ne o f the squ ares that b e upon the sig n o f
the Chequers an d yet o f a truth sh all no arrow be in line with
,
’

Th e di agr am will show ex actly how he did

”
an y other arrow .

this an d no two arrows will be fo und in line horiz ont ally vertically
, , , ,

or di agon ally the Yeoman sai d

. Then Here then is a riddle for
ye R emove three of the arrows each to o ne of its neighbouring
.

s qu ares so th at the ni ne sh all yet be so pl a ced th at none there of

,

m ay be in line with another By a neighbouri ng squ are is .

”

me ant o ne th at adj oins either l ater ally or di agon all y

, .

The Nuu s P uz z le
’
11 .
-
.

I trow there be n ot o n e among ye quoth the N un o n a later , ,

oc casion th at doth not know th at m any monks do oft pass the

,

time in play at cert ain g ames albeit they be not lawful for them , .

These games such as cards an d the g ame o f Chess d o they cun

, ,

nin gly hide from the abbot s e y e by p utting them away in holes
’
 T HE CA N TE R BU R Y PUZZ L E S 33
th at they have c ut o ut o f the very hearts o f gre at books that be
upon their shelves Shall the nun therefore be gre atl y blamed if
.

she do likewise ? I will show a little riddle game that we do

sometimes pl ay among ourselves when the good abbess doth h ap
to be away .

Th e Nun then produ ced the eighteen c ards that are shown in
the illustration She expl ained that the puz z le was so to arrange
.

the cards in a p ack that by pl acing the uppermost one o n the t able
, ,

p l acing the next one at the bottom o f the pa ck the n ext o ne on the ,

t able the next at the bottom of the pack an d so on until all are
, , ,

on the t able the eighteen cards sh all then read CANTE R BURY
P I LG R I MS
. Of course e ach card must be pl aced o n the t able
to the immedi ate ri ght o f the o ne that preceded it It is easy .

enough if you work b ackwards but the rea der shoul d try to arrive
,

a t the required order without doing this o r u sing an y actu al cards , .

The M erckant s P uz z le
’
12 .
-
.

Of the Merch ant the poet writes F orsooth he was a worth y

,

man withal He was thoughtful f ull o f schemes and a good

”
.
, ,

m anipul ator of figures His reaso ns spake he eke full solemnly

.
,

Sounding alway the increase of hi s winning On e morning when .

”
,

they were on the ro ad the Knight an d the Squire who were

, ,

ri di ng beside him reminded the Merchant th at he h ad not yet

,

propo unded the pu z z le th at he owed the company He thereupon .

said Be it so
, Here then is a riddle in numbers that I will set
before this merry compan y when next we do m ake a halt There .

be thi rty of us in all ridin g over the common t hi s morn Tru y we

é
.
34 T H E C A N TER BU R Y P UZZ L ES

m ay ride one an d one in wh at they do call the Single file o r two an d

, ,

two or three an d th ree or five an d five or six an d six o r ten an d

, , , ,

t en o r fifteen an d fifteen or all thirty in a row

, , In no other way .

m ay we ride so th at there be no l ac k of equ al n umbers in the rows .

Now a p art y of pilgrims were able thu s to ride in as m any as sixty

,

four different ways P rithee tell me how m any there must perfore
.

have been in the comp an y Th e Merchant Cle arly re

”
.

sm allest number o f persons th at could so ride in the sixt

ways .

1 3 — The M an of Law s P uz z le
’
. .

Th e Sergeant of the Law was full ri c h of excellence Di screet .

he was an d o f gre at reverenc e

, He was a very busy man b ut
.
”
, ,

like m any o f us to d ay he seemed bu sier th an he was

, He was .
”

t alki ng o ne evening of prisons an d prisoners and at len gth m ade the,

following rem arks : And that which I have been sayin g doth
3 6 T HE CA N TER BU R Y PUZZLES
of cloth m ay be cut into four several pieces each o f the same siz e ,

an d S h ape an d e ach piece be aring a lion an d a c astle It is not ”

.
,

recorded that an ybod y m astered this puz z le though it is quite ,

possible o f solution in a satisfacto ry m ann er No cut may p ass .

through any p art o f a lion o r a castle .

15 .
—
The Cook s P uz z le
’
.

We fin d th at there was a coo k among the comp any ; and his

se rvices were no doubt at times in gre at request F o r he co uld ,

roast and seethe an d broil an d fry And m ak e a mortress and well

, ,

b ake a pie . One night when the pilgrims were seated at a country
”

hostelry about to begin their repast the coo k presented himself

, ,

at the he ad o f the t able th at was presided over b y the F r anklin and ,

s aid Listen awhile my m asters whi le that I do ask ye a riddle

, , , ,

an d b y S aint Moden it is o n e th at I c annot answer m y self with al .

There be eleven pilgrims se ated at this board o n which is se t a

warden pie an d a ve nison past y ea ch o f which may truly be divided
,

into four parts an d no more Now m ar k y e five o ut o f the eleven

.
, ,

pi lgrims c an e at the pie b ut will no t touch the p ast y while four

, ,
 T HE CA N TER BU RY P UZZLES 3 7
will eat the p asty b ut turn away from the pie Moreover the two
.
,

th at do rem ain be able an d willing to e at o f either By m y hal i .

dame is there any th at c an tell me in how m an y different ways the

,

good F ranklin may choose whom he will serve I j ust

c aution the re ader th at if he is not c areful he wi ll find when he sees ,

t h e ans wer th at he h as m ade a mist ake of fort y as all the comp any
, ,

did with the exception of the Cler k of Oxenford wh o got it right

, ,

by accident thro ugh p utting down a wrong figure

, .

Strange to s ay while the company perplexed their wits about

,

this riddle the cook pl ayed upo n them a merry j est In the midst .

of their deep thinking an d hot disp ute wh at should the cunning

kn ave do but stealt hi ly t ake away both the pie an d the past y .

Then when hunger m ade them desire to go on wi t h the rep ast

, ,

fin din g there was nought upon the t able they c alled cl amorously
,

for the cook .

My m ast ers he explained

,
seeing you were so deep se t in
,

t h e riddle I did t ake them to the next room where others did eat
, ,

them with relish e re they h ad grown cold There be e xcellent

.

bread and cheese in the p antry .

”
3 8 T HE CA N TE R B URY P U ZZ L ES

16 .
—The S ompn our s P uz z le
’
.

Sompnour or Summoner who according to Ch aucer

Th e , , , ,

j oined the p art y of pilgrims was an officer whose dut y was to

,

summon delinquents to appe ar in ecclesi astic al co urts In l ater .

times he bec ame known as the app aritor Our particul ar indi.

vidual was a somewh at q uaint though worthy man He was .

a hireling and a kind ; A better fellow should a m an not

find . In order that the re ader may underst and his appe arance
in the picture it must be expl ain ed th at his peculiar he adge ar is
,

duly recorded b y the poet . A garl and h ad he set upo n hi s head ,

As gre at as if it were for an ale st ake-

.

One e v ening te n o f the comp any stop p ed at a vill age i nn and

 T HE C A N T E R B U R Y P UZZ LE S 39
r equested to be put up for the night b ut mine host could only
,

a ccommoda te five of them Th e Sompnour s ugge sted that they

.

sho uld draw lots an d as he h ad h ad experien c e in such m atters in

,

the s ummoning of j uries an d in other ways he arranged the comp any ,

in a circle an d propo sed a count o ut Being of a chivalro us

.
”

n at ure his little plot was s o to arr ange th at the men s ho uld all fall
,

o ut an d le ave the l adies in po ss e s s i on He therefore gave the Wife

.

of B ath a number an d di rected her to co unt ro und an d ro und the

circ le in a clockwise di rec tion an d the pers on on whom th at number
, ,

fell was immedi ately to step o ut of the ring Th e c ount then began .

afres h at the next person But the l ady mi sunderst o od her i n

.

stru cti o n s an d selected in mist ake the n umber eleven an d st arted

,

the count at herself As wi ll be found this resulted in all the

.
,

women falling out in turn inste ad of the men for every eleventh ,

pe rson withdr awn from the ci r c le i s a l ady .

Of a truth it was no fault of mine said the Sompno ur next

”
,

d ay to the compan y , an d herein i s methi nks a rid dl e Can a n y .

tell me what n umber the good Wife s ho uld h ave used with al and at ,

whi c h pilgrim s h e sho ul d h ave begun her count s o th at no other

th an the five men s ho uld h ave been co unted o ut ? Of cours e ,

t h e point is to find the sm alles t n umber th at wi ll h ave the desired

effect.

17 .
—The M ouk s ’
P uz z le .

Th e Monk that went with the p art y was a gre at lover o f sport .

Greyhounds he h ad as swift as fowl of flight Of riding an d of

hunting for the h are Was all hi s love for no cost would he S pare
, .
”

O n e d ay he addre ssed the pilgrim s as follows

There i s a little m atter th at h ath at times perplexed m e greatly ,

though certes it i s of no great weight ; yet m ay it serve to try the

wits of some th at be c unning in s uch things Nine kennels h ave I .

for the use of my do gs and they be put in the form of a square ;

,

though the one in the middle I do never use it not being of a useful ,

nat ure Now the riddle is t o find in how m any different ways I
.

m ay place m y dogs in all or an y of the o utside kennels s o th at the

40 T HE C A N TE R B U RY P UZZLES
number o f dogs o n e v ery side o f the square m ay be j ust ten The .

sm all di agrams show fo ur ways o f doin g it an d though the fourth

,

way is me rel y re ve rs al o f the third it coun ts as different An y

a , ,

kennels may be le ft e m pt y This p uz z le was e vidently a variation

.

o f the an cient o n e o f t h e Abbes s and her N u ns .

18.
—The S hfl
mzau s P uz z le
’
.

Of thi s person we are told He knew well all the havens as

, ,

they were F rom G o thland to the Cape o f F inisterre And every

, ,

cree k in Britt any an d Sp ai n : His b ar que yclep ed was the M ag

dalen . Th e strange p uz z le i n n avi gatio n th at he prop oun ded
was as follows .

Here be a chart q uoth the S hipm an o f five isl ands with

, , ,

the inhabit ants o f whi ch I do trade In e ach ye ar m y good shi p

.

doth s ail over e very o ne o f the ten courses depicted thereo n b ut ,

never may she p ass along the same course twice in any y e ar I s .

t he re any among the comp any who can t ell me in how m an y dif
feront ways I m ay direct the M agdalen s ten yearly v oy ages
’

always setting o ut from the s ame isl and P

 T HE C A NTE R B U R Y P UZZLES 4 1

19 . The P uz z le of the P ri oress

-
.

Th e Prioress who went by the n ame o f Egl antine is be st

, ,

remembered on account o f Ch aucer s rem ark ’

And Fren ch she
,

sp ake full fair an d properly After the school of Strat ford att e
,
-

Bow Fo r F rench of P aris was to her unknow

, But o ur puz z le
.

h as to do less with her ch aracter an d educ atio n than wi th her

dress . And thereon hung a brooch of gold full sheen On which ,

was written first a crown ed A It i s with the brooch th at we are

.

concerned for when asked to give a pu z z le she showe d t hi s j ewel

,

to the c omp any an d sa id : A le arned man from Norm andy did

once give me thi s brooch as a ch arm s aying stran ge an d mystic
,

things anent it how th at it h ath an affinity for the squ are and such
, ,

other wise words th at were too s ubtle for me But the good Abbot
.

of Chertsey did on c e t ell me that the cross may be so cunningly cu t

into four pieces th at they will j oin an d m ake a perfect squ are ;
t ho ugh o n my faith I know not the m anner o f doing it
”
.

“
It is recorded th at the pilgrims did fin d n o answer to the riddle ,
42 T HE C A N TER B U R Y P UZZ L ES
an d the Clerk o f O xenford thought th at the P rioress ha d been
d ece ived in the m atter thereof ; whereupon the lady was sore vexed ,

though the gentle did flout and gibe at the poor clerk be
c ause o f his l ac k o f underst andin g over other o f the riddles w hich ,

did fill him with shame and m ake m erry the compan y .
”

20 .
—
The P uz z le
f the D octor of P hysic
o .

This Doctor learned though he was for In all this world to

, ,

him there was none like To spe ak o f phys io and of surgery an d ,

”

He knew the c ause of every m al ady yet was he not indi fferent
,

to the more m aterial side of life Gold in physic is a cordi al

.

Th erefore he lov ed gold in speci al Th e problem th at the D octor

.

propounded to the assembled pilgrims was this He produced two .

spheric al phi als as shown in o ur illustration an d pointed o ut th at

, ,

o n e phi al was exa ctly a foot in circumference an d the other two ,

feet in circumference .

I do wish sai d the D octor addressing the compan y

,
”
, to ,

have the e xact me asures o f two other phi al s of a like sh ape but
,

di fferent in siz e that m ay together cont ain j ust as much liquid as

,

is cont ain ed b y these two To find ex act dimensio ns in the

.
44 T HE C A N TER B URY P U ZZLES

would S how the good pilgrims if they willed it one that he h ad

, ,

frequently he ard cert ain Clever folk in hi s o wn neighbourhood dis

cuss . Th e lord o f th e m an o r in the p ar t of Sussex whence I
,

come h ath a pl a t ation of sixt e en fair o ak trees an d they be so

fl
,

se t o ut th at the y m ake twelve rows with four trees in every ro w .

Once o n a ti m e a man o f deep le arning wh o h appened to be travel

,

ling i n those parts did say th at the S ixteen trees might h ave been
,

so pl anted th at they would m ake so m any as fifteen straight rows ,

with four trees in every row thereof Can ye S how me how this.

might be Man y h ave doubted that twere possible t o be done

’ ”
.

Th e illustration show s one of m any ways of forming the twelve

rows How c an we m ake fi fteen
.

22 .
—The F raukli u
’
s P uz z le .

A F r an klin was in this comp any White was his b eard as is

the d aisy . We are told by Ch aucer th at he was a great hons
”

holde r an d an Without baked me at never was

house Of fish and flesh and th at so plenteous It snowed in
.
, ,

house o f m e at and drink Of every d aint y th at men co uld bethin k

, .

He was a hospit ab le and gen erous man His t able dorm ant in .

his h all alway Stood rea dy covered all throughout the d ay At .

”
 T HE CA N TER B U R Y PUZZLES 45

the re pasts o f the Pilgrims he usually presided at o ne o f the t ables ,

as we fo und him doing on the occ asion when the coo k p ro poun ded

his problem of the two pies .

On e d ay at an inn j ust outside Canterbury the compan y c al led

, ,

on him to produce the puz z le required of him ; whereupon he pl aced

on the t able S ixteen bottles numbered 1 2 3 up to 1 5 with the , , , ,

las t one m arked o Now m y m asters quoth he

. it will be
, , ,

fresh in your memories how th at the good Clerk o f Oxen ford di d

S how us a riddl e touching wh at hath been c alled the m agic s qu are .

Of a truth will I se t before ye another th at may see m to be some

wh at o f a like kind albeit there be little in com mon betwixt them
, .

Here be se t out s ixt een bottles in form o f a squ are and I pray yo u ,

so pl ace them afresh th at they sh all form a m agic sq uare adding ,

up to thirty in all the ten straight ways But m ark well th at ye .

may not remove more th an ten of the bottles from their present
pl aces for therein l ay eth the s ubtlet y of the riddle
, This is a .

little pu z z le th at may be conveniently tried with sixteen numbere d

counters .

23 .
—Tke S qui re s ’
P uz z le .

youn g Squire twenty ye ars of age was the so n o f the

Th e , ,

Knight th at accomp anied him on the historic pilgrim age He .

Was undo ubt edly wh at in l ater times we should c all a d an dy for , ,

Embroider ed was he as is a me ad All full of fresh flowers white , ,

an d red Singi ng he was or fluting all the d ay He was as fresh

.
,

as i s the month of May As will be seen in the illustration to

”
.

No 2 6 while the H aberdasher was propo unding his problem o f

.
,

t h e tri angle this yo ung Squire was st anding in the b ackgroun d

,

ma king a dr awing of some kind ; for He could songs m ak e and

well in di te Jo ust an d eke d ance an d well portray and write
”
, , .

Th e K night turned to hi m after a while an d s aid My so n , ,

what i s it over whi ch thou dost t ake so great p ains with al P an d

the Squire an swered I h ave bethought me how I might po rtray
,

in one only s troke a picture of our l ate sovereign lord King Edward
th e Third who h ath bee n dead these te n ye ars
‘
, Ti s a riddle t o .
46 T HE CA N TER B URY P UZZ L ES
fin d where the stroke doth b egin and where it doth also e n d . To
him who first shall S how it u nto me will I give the portraiture .

I ab le to p rese n t a f acsimile o f the ori g in al drawin g ,

won by the Man o f Law It m ay be here rem arked that

.

‘
the p ilgrim age set o ut from Southwar k o n 1 7th Ap ril 1 3 87 and ,

Edward the Third died in 1 3 77 .

Tke F ri ar s P uz z le
’
24
.
-
.

The F ri ar was a merry fellow with a sweet tongu e and twin

,

kling e y es . Courteous he was an d lowly o f service There was .

a m an nowhere so virtuous Yet he was the b est begg ar in all

”
.

his house an d gave re asons why Therefore i nstead of weeping

,
”
,

an d much pr ayer Me n must give silver to the needy fri ar He ”

.
,

went by the n ame o f Hube rt One day he produced four mone y

.

b ags and spo ke as follows I f the n eedy friar doth receive in ai ms

five hundred silver pe nnies prithee t ell in
, ho w man y differ e nt
 T HE C A N TE R B U RY PU Z ZLES 47

ways they may be placed in the four b ags Th e good man e x

.

pl ai ned th at order m ade no di fference (so that the di stribution 50 ,

1 00 1 50 2 00 would be the s ame as 1 0 0 50 2 00 1 5 0 o r 200 50

, , , , , , , ,

1 00
, and one two or three b ags m ay at an y time be empt y
, , .

25 .
—
The P ars on
’
s P uz z le .

The P arson was a re ally devo ut an d good man A be tter .

priest I trow there nowhere is His virt ues an d ch arit y made

.
”

him beloved by all his flock to whom he presented his teachin g

,

wi t h patience an d s impli cit y ; but first he followed it himself .

”

Now Ch aucer is c areful to tell us th at Wide was his p arish an d

, ,
4 8 T HE C AN TER BU R Y PUZ Z LE S

houses far asunder But he neglect ed nought for i ain o r thunder

,
'

an d it is with hi s p arochi al vi sit ations th at the P arson s pu z z le

’

a ctually de al t He produced a pl an o f part of his p arish through

.
,

whi ch a sm all river ran th at j oined the se a some hundreds o f miles

to the south I give a facsimi le o f the pl an
. .

Here m y worthy Pi lgrims is a strange riddle quoth the

, , ,

P ar son . Behold how at the branchi ng o f the river is an isl and .

Upon this isl and doth st an d my o wn poor p arson age an d y e m ay ,

all see the whereabouts o f the vill age church Mar k y e also th at
.
, ,
‘

there be e ight bridges and no more ove r the river in my p arish .

On m y way to church it is m y wont to visit sundry of m y flock an d ,

in the doing thereo f I do p as s over every o n e of the eight bridges

once and no more Can any o f ye find the path after this m anner
.
, ,

from the house to the church without going out o f the parish ?
,

Nay n ay m y friends I do never cross the river in an y bo at neither

, , , ,

by swimming no r wading nor do I go underground like unto the

,

m ole nor fly in th e air as doth the eag le ; b ut onl y p ass over b y the
,
 T HE C A NT E R B U R Y P UZZLES 49

bridges. There is a way in which the P arson might h ave made

t h is curious j ourney Can the re ader discover it ? At first it
.

seems immss ible but the conditions offer a loophole

, .

26 .
—
The H aberllas her s P uz z le
’
.

Man y ttem pts were m ade to induce the H aberdasher who

a ,

was o f the p arty to propound a puz z le of some kind but for a

, ,

long ti me without success At l ast at one o f the P ilgrim s stop

.
,
’

h e s ai d that he would show them something that

would put their brai ns into a twist like unto bell rope As a
a -
.

m atter o f fact he was really playing o ff a prac tic al j oke o n the

,

comp an y for he was quite ignorant o f any answer to the p l z z le

i
,
5 0 T HE C AN TE R B U R Y P U ZZLES
th at he set them He produced a piece of cloth in the sh ape o f a
.

perfect equil at e r al tri angle as shown in the illustration and s aid

, , ,

Be there any among ye full wise in the true cuttin g of cloth I

trow not Every m an to his trade and the scholar m ay le arn
. ,

from the varlet an d the wise m an from the fool Show me then .
, ,

if y e c an in wh at m anner thi s piece of cloth m ay be cut into four

,

sever al piec es th at m ay be put together to m ake a perfect squ are .

”

Now some o f the more le arned of the comp any fo und a way of
doing it in five pieces but not in fo ur But when the y pressed
, .

the H aberd asher for the correct answer he was forced to admit ,

a fter m uch be ating abo ut the bush th at he knew no way o f doing ,

it in any number of piece s B y S aint F rancis s aith he. any ,

”
,

kn ave c an m ake a riddle methinks but it is for them th at m ay ,

to rede it aright F o r this he n arrowl y esc aped a sound be ating

. .

But the c u rio u s point of the puz z le is th at I h ave found th at the

feat may re ally be performed in so few as four pieces an d with
'

out turni ng over any piece when pl acing them together The .

method o f doing this is subtle but I thin k the re ader will find t ,

problem a most interesting one .

27 — The
. Dyer s P uz z le
’
.

One the pilgrims was a D yer but Ch aucer tells us nothi

of ,

about him the Tal es being incomplete Time after time

, .

company h ad pressed thi s individual to produce a pu z z le

kind but without effect The poor fellow tried hi
, .

the examples of his friends the Tapiser the We aver , ,

d asher but the necessary

he would All .

persevere—and one morning he announced in a st ate ,

able excitement th at he h ad a poser to set before them

, He .

o ut a sq u are piece of silk on which were embroidered a nu

fieurs de lys in rows as shown in our illustration

- -
,
.

Lordings said the Dy er ”

he arken anon unto my ,

—
,

Since I was awakened at d awn by the crowin g o f coc ks fo r

52 THE C A N T E R B U R Y P UZZ LE S
temporary pe ace Unfortun ately trouble broke
. but g in o v er
a a a

very curious dispute in thi s way .

At one point o f the j ourney the ro ad lay along two sides of a

squ are field an d some of the pilgrims persisted i n spite of trespa ss
, , ,

in cutting across from corner to corner as the y are seen to be

,

doing in the ill ustration N ow the F ri ar st artled the company by

. ,

st ating th at there was no need for the tresp ass since o n e way ,

was exactly the same dist ance as the other ! On my faith ,

then excl aimed the Sompnour thou art a very fool

,
”
, Nay ,
”

repli ed the F ri a r
,
if the comp any will b ut listen with p atience I ,

shall presently Show how th at thou art the fool for tho u h ast not
,

wit enough in thy poor brain to prove th at the di agonal of any

sq u are is l e ss th an two of the sides
”
.

If the rea der will refer to the di agrams that we h ave given he ,

will be able to follow the F ri ar s argumen t I f we suppose the

’
.
 T HE C A N T ER B U R Y P UZZ L ES 53
side o f the field to be 1 00 yards then the dist ance along the two
,
‘

sides A to B and B to C is 2 00 yard s He undertook to prove

, , , .

th at the di agon al di st ance di rect from A to C i s al so 200 yards .

Now if we t ake the di agona l p ath shown in F ig 1 it is evident

, .
,

th at we go the same di st ance for every o ne o f the eight straight

,

portions of this p ath me asures ex actly 2 5 yards Simil arly in Fig . .

2 the Zigz ag cont ains ten straight portions e ach 2 0 yards long
, ,

th at path is al so the same length 200 yards No m atter how m any

-
.

steps we m ake in o ur z igz ag p ath the result is most cert ai nly

,

always the s ame Thus in F ig 3 the steps are very sm all yet the
.
, . ,

dist ance must be 200 yards ; as i s al so the case in F ig 4 an d wo uld .

,

yet be if we needed a microscope to detect the steps In this way .

,

the F ri ar argu ed we m ay go on straightening o ut th at Zigz ag path

,

until we ultim ately re ac h a perfectly straight line an d it therefore ,

follows th at the di agon al of a squ are is of ex actly the same length

,

as two of the sides .

N o w in the face o f it thi s must b e wro ng ; and it is in f act

, ,

absurdly so as we can at once prove by actu al m easuremen t if we

,
54 T HE CA N TER BU R Y PUZZLES

have any doubt Yet the Sompnour could not fo r the li fe of him
.

poin t o ut the fall acy an d so upset the F ri ar s re asoning It was

,
’
.

this th at so exasperated him an d consequentl y like m an y o f us

, ,

to d ay whe n we get ent angled in an argument he utterl y lost his

-
,

tempe r an d resorted t o abuse In fact if some o f the other pil

.
,

grims h ad no t interposed the two would h ave undoubtedl y come

to blows Th e re ader will perh ap s at once see the fl
. aw in the

F ri ar s argument
’
.

29 .
—Chaucer s
’
P uz z le .

Ch aucerhimself accom panied the pilgrims Being a m athe ma .

tici an and a m an o f a thoughtful h abit the Host m ade fun o f him

, ,

he tells us s ayi ng
, Thou lookest as thou wouldst find a h are
, ,

Fo r ever o n the grou n d I see thee st are Th e poet replied to the

.

re quest for a t ale b y l aun chin g in to a long spun out and ridiculous - -

poem intended to ridi cule the popular roman ces of the day after
, ,

twent y two stanz as o f which the comp an y refused to he ar any

-

more and induced him to st art another tale in prose It is an

, .

in teresti ng fact th at i n the P arson s Prologue Chaucer actu all y

’
 T HE C A N TE R B U R Y P UZZ L ES 55
introduces a little astronomic al problem In modern E ng lish this .

rea ds somewhat as follows

The sun from the south line was descended so low that it was
not to my sight more than twenty nine degrees I calcul ate that -
.

it was fo ur o clock for assuming my height to be six feet my

’

, , ,

sh adow was eleven feet a little more or le ss At the same mo

, .

ment the moon s altit ude (she being in mid Libra) was ste adily
’
-

increasi ng as we entered at the west end o f the vi llage A cor .

”

re spondent has t aken the tro uble to work this o ut an d finds th at ,

the local time was p m correct to a min u te an d th at the d ay ,

o f the ye ar was the 2 2 n d or 2 3 rd of April modern style This , .

Speaks well for Chaucer s accuracy for the first line o f the Tales
’

tells us th at the pilgrim age was in April they are supposed to -

h ave set o ut o n 1 7th April 1 3 87 as st ated in NO 2 3 , . .

Though Ch aucer m ade this little p uz z le an d recorded it fo r

the interest of his re aders he did not vent ure to propound it to
,

his fellow pilgrims The puz z le th at he gave them was of a simpler

-
.

kind altogether : it m ay be c alled a geographic al o ne When .

,

in the year 1 3 72 I did go into It aly as the envoy o f o ur sovereign

,

lo rd King Edward the Thi rd an d while there did visit F ran cesco ,

P etrarch that le arned poet did t ake me to the top o f a cert ain
,

mount ain in his country Of a truth as he did Show me a mug

.
, ,

will hold less liquor at th e top of this mount ain than in the valley
beneath Pryt hee tell me wh at mount ain this m ay be that h as
.

so strange a propert y w ithal A very element ary knowledge of ”

.

geograph y will suffi ce for arriving at the correct answer .

f Yeoman
’

3o .
-
The P uz z le o the C anon s .

This person j oined the part y o n the road God save ’

.
,

quoth he this j olly company ! F ast have I ridden saith he

, ,
’
,

‘
for your sake Because I would I might you overt ake To ride
, ,

among this merry comp any Of course he was asked to enter

’
.
,

t ain the pilgrims with a puz z le and the one he propounded was ,

the following He showed them the di amond shaped arrangement

.
-
56 T HE C A N T E R B U R Y P UZZLES
ofletters presented in the accomp anyin g ill ustration and said , ,

I do call it the rat c atcher s riddle In how m any di fferent

-
’
.

ways can st re ad the words Was it a rat I saw ? , You

may g o i n any direction b ackwards and forwards or ,

down wards only the successive lette rs in any re adi ng must alway s
,

adj oin o n e an oth e r

.

31 .
—The M anciple s P uz z le
’
.

The Manciple was an offi cer who h ad the c are o f b uying victu als
—
for an Inn o f Court like the Temple Th e p articul ar indi vidu al
.

who accomp anied the p arty was a wily m an who had more th an
t hi rty m asters an d m ade fools of them all Yet he was a m an
, .

whom purch asers might t ake as an e x am ple How to be wi se in

buying of their victu al .
”

It h appened th at at a cert ain st age o f the journey the Miller an d

the We aver sat down to a light rep ast Th e Miller produced five
.

loav es an d the We aver three Th e Manciple coming upon the

.

scene asked permission to e at with them to which the y ag reed , .

Wh en the Manciple h ad fed he l aid down eight pieces of mone y

an d said with a sly smile Settle betwixt yourselves how the
,

money shall be fairly di vided Tis a riddle for thy wits

.
’
.
 T HE C A N TE R B U R Y P UZZ LE S 57

A discussion followed an d many of the pilgrims j oined in it

, .

Th e Reve an d the Sompno ur held th at the Miller sh o uld receive

five pieces an d the Weaver three the simple P lo ughm an was
,

ridic uled for sugg esting th at the Mi ller should receive se ven an d

the Weaver only one while the Carpe nter the Monk an d the Cook
, , ,

sted th at the mon ey should be divided equ ally between the two
Various other Opinions were urged with con siderable vigo u r ,

it was fin ally decided th at the Manciple as an expert in such

,

e rs
,
should himself settle the point His deci sion was quite
.

Wh at was it P Of c ourse all three are supposed to have

,

ual sh ares of the bre ad

.
EVE RYBODY th at h as he ard of Solvam hall Castle and o f the qu aint ,

c ustoms an d ceremonies th at obt ained there in the olde n times is ,

famili ar with the fact th at Sir H ugh de F o rtibus was a lover o f all
kinds o f puz z les an d enigm as Sir R obert de R id dle sd ale hi mself
.

declared o n one occ asion By the bones of S aint Jingo this Sir
, ,

Hugh h ath a sh arp wit Certes I wot not the riddle th at he may
.
,

not rede withal .

”
It is therefore a source o f p art icul ar s atisfaction
, ,

that the recent discovery of s ome ancient rolls an d

rel ating m ainly to the family of D e
before m y re aders a few o f the posers t
the good old d ays The selec tion h as been m ade to suit all t astes
.
,

and while the m aj ority will be found s u fficientl y e as y to interest

those who like a puz z le th at i s a puz z le but well within the scope .
,

o f all two th at I h ave incl uded may perh aps be found worthy o f
,

engaging the attention o f the more advanced student o f these

things .

3 2 — Th e G
. ame of B andy B a ll -
.

B an dy b all c ambuc o r goff (the g ame so well known to day by

-
, ,
-

the nam e of golf ) is o f great antiquit y and was a sp eci al favourite

, ,
68
60 T HE C A N T E R B U RY P UZZ L ES
a dvent ure as a yout h in rescuing from c aptivit ya noble
wh o was l ang ui sh ing in the d ungeon of the c astle belon
f ather s gre ate st enem y Th e story was a thrillin g
’
.

he rel ated the fin al esc ape

gre at D e ath s he ad D ungeon with the fair b ut unc o nsc io u
’
-

in hi s arms all exc l aimed

, Twas m arvello us v al i an t l
,
’

H ugh said I would never have turned from m y purpose not

, ,

to s ave m y body from the berni c les .

”

Sir H ugh then prod uced a pl an of the thirt y five cells in -

dungeon an d asked hi s com p anions to di scover the p artic ul ar

th at the demoiselle occupied He s aid that if yo u st arted at
.

of the out side cells an d p as sed thro ugh every doorway once ,

once only you were bound to end at the cell th at was

,

Can yo u find the cell ? Unless yo u st art at the c orrect

c ell it i s impos s ible to p as s thro ugh al l the doorway s once an d 0

only Try tracing o u t the route with your pencil

. .

3 5 —.The Archery Butt

.

Th ebutt or t arget used in archery at So lvamh all was not m arked

o ut in concentric ri ngs as at the present day b ut was prep ared in
,
P UZZ L I N G TI M ES AT SO LV AM HALL C ASTLE 61

an c i fuldes igns In the ill ustration is shown a numbered t arget

.

ire arc d by Sir H ugh himself It is someth i ng of a curiosity

p .
,

bec aus e it will be fo und th at he h as s o cleverly arr anged the num

bers th at every one of the twelve lines of three adds up to exactly

we nty two
-
.

On e d ay when the archers were a little tired of their sport

, ,

de F o rtib us sa id Wh at ho merry arc hers

, , Of a truth
a fool s bolt is soon shot but by my f aith I kn ow
’

, , ,

an y m an mong yo u who sh all do that whi c h I will now put

a

Let these n umbers that are upon the b utt be se t down

so th at the twelve lines thereof sh all m ak e twenty and

of twenty an d two .

e the n umbers one to nineteen so that all the

add up to twent y three will be found a fascin a
-

the lines are of course on the S ides an d the

, , ,
62 T HE CA N TE R BU R Y PUZZLES

36
.
—Thc Wi ndow D onion K eep .

On o ne occ asion Sir Hugh gre atly perplexed his chie f builder . .

He took t hi s worthy man to the walls o f the donj on keep an d

pointed to a window there .

Methinks s ai d he yon window is square an d me asures

”
, , , ,

on the i nside one foot every way an d is divided b y the n arrow

, ,

b ars into fo ur lights me as uring h alf a foot on every side

, .
”

Of a truth th at is so Sir H ugh

”
.
,

Then I desire that another window be m ade hi gher

fo ur sides sh all also be e ach o ne foot but it shall be divided by b ars 1 ,

into eigh t lights whose sides sh all be all equ al

, .
”

Truly Sir Hugh s aid the bewildered chief b uilder I know

”
, , ,

not ho w it may be done .

”

By m y h alid ame excl aim ed De Fo rtibus in pretended rage ,

let it be done forthwith I trow thou art but a sorry cr aftsm an

.

if thou c anst not forsooth s e t such a window in a kee p wall

, , .

It will be noticed that Sir Hug h i gnores the thic kn ess o f the bars .
 PUZZLI N G T IM ES AT SO LV AM HALL C AST L E 63

37 .
-
The Crescent and the Cross .

When Sir Hugh s kinsm an Sir John de Collingh am c ame b ac k

’

, ,

from the Holy Land he brought with him a flag be aring the S ign
,

of a crescent as shown in the illustration It was noticed th at

, .

De F o rti b us spent much time in ex amining this crescent an d

comp aring it with the cross borne by the Crus aders on their o wn
b anners One d ay in the presence of a goodly comp any he m ade
.
, ,

the following striking announcement

I h ave thought m uch of l ate friends an d m asters o f the
, ,

conversion of the crescent to the cross an d this has led me to the

,

fin di ng of m atters at which I m arvel gre atly for that which I shall ,

no w m ak e known is m y stic al an d deep Trul y it was shown to me

.

in a dream that this crescent of the enem y m ay be exactly converted

into the cross o f our own b anner Herein is a sign that bodes goo d
.

for o ur wars in the Holy Land .

”

Sir Hugh de Fo rtib us then expl ained that the crescent in o ne

b anner might be c ut into pieces th at would exactly form the perfect
cross in the o th eré fit is cert ainly rather curious ; an d I Show
how the con version from crescent to cross m ay be made in ten
64 T HE C AN T E R B U R Y P UZZLES

pieces u si ng every p art of the c rescent The flag was

,
. ik e on
al

both sides so pieces m ay be t urned over where required

,
.

3 8 — Th.e A m u le t .

A strange m an was one d ay found loitering in the courtyard of

the castle an d the ret ainers noticing th at hi s speech h ad a foreign
, ,

a ccent s uspe c ted him of being a spy

,
So the fellow was brought .

before Sir H ugh who could m ake nothing of him He o rd e re d l

, .

the varlet to be removed an d ex amined in order to di scover whether ,

an y secret lette rs were conce aled abo u t him All they found was : .

a piece o f p archment securely su spended from the neck be ari ng ,

thi s mysterious inscription

To d ay -
we know th at Abrac adabra was the s upreme deity o f
the Assyri ans an d this c uri ou s arr angement of the letters o f the
,

word was commonly worn in Eu rope as an am ulet o r ch arm agai nst

dise ases But Sir H ugh h ad never he ard of it and regarding the
.
, ,

doc ument rather seriously he sent for a le arned priest , .

I pray yo u Sir Clerk said he S how me the true intent

, , ,

thi s strange writing .

”

Sir H ugh replied the holy m an after he had spoken in

,
”

forei gn tongu e with the str anger it is b ut an am ulet th at ,

poor wight doth wear upon hi s breast to ward o ff the ague ,

too thache an d such other afflictions of the body

, .
”

Then give the v arlet food an d rairne n t an d se t him o n

way sai d Sir H ugh Meanwhile Sir Clerk c anst
”
, .
, ,
 P UZZLI N G TI M ES AT SO LV AM HALL C AS T L E 65

how many ways this word Abracadabra m ay be re ad on the

amulet always st arting from the A at the top thereof
,

P l ace your pencil on the A at the top an d co unt in h o w m any

different ways you c an tr ace o ut the word downwards always ,

passing from a letter to an adjoining one .

39.
—The S n ai l on the F lagstafi
'

would often be interesting if we could trace b ack to their

m any of the best known puz z les Some of them would be
.

to h ave been first propo unded in very ancient times and ,

c an be very little do ubt th at while a cert ain n umber m ay

improved with age others will have deteriorated and even

,

their origin al point an d bearin g It is curious to find in the

.

records o ur famili ar friend the climbing sn ail puz z le ,

be seen that in its modern form it h as lost its ori gin al

occasion of some great rej oicin g s i ugh

g
at the Castle , Sir
66 T HE C A NT E R B U R Y P UZZ L ES
was superintending the flying of fl ags an d b anners when somebody
,

pointed o ut th at a wandering sn ail was Climbing up the fl agst aff .

On e wise old fellow said

They do say Sir K night albeit I hold such stories as mere
, ,

fables that the sn ail doth Climb upwards three feet in the d aytime
, ,

b ut slippeth back two feet b y night

”
.

Then , replied Sir Hugh tell us how m any day s it will t ake
,

this snail to get from the bottom to the top o f the pole .

By bread and water I m uch m arv el if the same can be done

,

unl ess we t ake down an d me asure the st aff .

Credit me , replied the kn ight there is no n eed to meas ure

,

the st aff.
”

Can the reader give the an swer to thi s version o f a pu z z le that

we all kn ow so well
 FR I AR A ND RE W quoth the Lord Abbot as he a dying lay -

methinks I co uld now rede thee the riddle of riddles—an I had

, , ,

the time—a n d The good fri ar put his e ar close to the holy
Abbot s lips but al as they were silenced for ever Thu s p assed
’

,
.

away the life of the jovi a l an d gre atly beloved Abbot o f the o ld

mon astery of Riddle we ll .

Th e monk s o f Ri d dl e we ll Abbey were noted in their d ay for

the quaint enigm as an d p uz z les th at they were in the h abit o f
propoundi ng Th e Abbe y was b uilt in the fourteenth century
.
,

near a sacred spring known as the Re d hill Well This became -

.

in the vern ac ul ar R e d dle well an d Ri d dle we ll an d under the Lord

,

Abbot David the monks evidently tried to j u stify the l atter form
by the riddles they propo unded so well The solving of puz z les
.

became the favourite re c re ation no m atter whether they h appened 1

,

to be o f a met aphysic al philosophic al m athem atic al or mech anical

, , ,

kind It grew into an absorbing p assion with them an d as I h ave

.
,

shown above in the c ase of the Abbot this passion was

,

even in death .

It would seem th at the words pu z z le problem,

”
,

etc did not occ ur in their voc ab ul ary They were accustomed
.

c all every poser a riddle no m atter whether it took the form

,

Where was Moses when the light went o ut or the Squ aring
the Circle On o ne of the walls in the refectory we
.

08
 T HE M E RR Y M ON KS O F RI D D LEW ELL 69

the words of S amson , I will now put fo rth a riddle to you to ,

remind the brethren of wh at was expected of them an d the rule ,

was that e ach monk in t u rn should propose some riddle weekly to the
comm unity the others being always free to c ap it with another if
,

disposed to do so Abbot D avid was undoubtedly the puz z le

.
, ,

geni u s of the mon astery an d everybody n at urally bowed to his

,

decision Only a few of the Abbey riddles h ave been preserved

.
,

an d I propose to sel e ct those th at seem most interesti ng I sh all .

try to make the conditions o f the p uz z les perfectly cle ar so that ,

the mod ern re ader m ay fully underst and them and be amused ,

in trying to find some of the sol utions .

R iddle f
o the F i sh -
pond .

At the bottom of the Abbe y me ds a sm all fish po n d W here

a was -

the mon ks used to spend m any a contempl ative ho ur with rod an d

On e d ay, when they h ad h ad very bad luck an d only Caught

fish e s amongst them Brother Jonathan suddenly declared
,
7 9 T HE C A N TE R B URY PUZZLES
th at as there was n o sport that d ay he wo uld put forth a ri ddle
fo r their entert ai nment He thereupon took twelve fish b asket s
.

an d pla ced them at equ al di st anc e s round the pond as sho wn in ,

o ur ill ustr ation with o n e fish in e ach b asket

,
.

Now gentle an glers s aid he

,
rede me thi s riddle o f the
,
”
,

Twelve F ishes St art at any basket yo u like an d always going in

. , ,

o n e direction round the pond t ake up one fish p ass i t o ve r two

, ,
f

other fis hes and pl ace it in the next b asket Go on again t ake up

,
.

anothe r sin gle fish an d h aving p assed th at also over two fishes
, , ,

pl ace it in a b as ket an d so continue y our j ourney Six fishes only .

are to be removed an d whe n th ese h ave been pl aced there should

, ,

be two fishes in e ach of s ix b askets an d six b askets empty Which ,

.

o f you merr y wights will do this in such a m anner th at yo u sh all go

round the pond as few times as possible

I will expl ain to the re ader th at it does not m atter whether the
two fishes th at are p assed over are in o ne o r two b as k ets nor ho w ,

m an y empty b askets you p as s And as B rother Jon ath an said .

, ,

y o u m us t a lw ays go in o ne direction round the pond (without any

doubling b ac k) and end at the S pot fro m which y ou set o ut .

42f—The . Ri ddle o the P ilgrims .

One d ay when the monks were se ated at their repast th e Abbot

, ,

announced that a messenger h ad th at morning brought news th a t

a number o f pil grims were o n the ro ad an d would require their

hospit ality .

You will put them he s aid in the square dormitory that

, ,

h as two floors with eight rooms o n e ac h floor There m ust be .

eleven persons sleeping on e ach side of the building and twice as ,

m any o n the upper floor as on the lower floor Of course every .

room must be occupied an d y ou kn ow m y rule th at not more

,

than three pe rsons may occupy the s ame room .

I give a plan of the two floors from which it will be ,

the s ixt een rooms are approached by a well st airc ase in t

 T HE M ER R Y M O N KS O F RI D D LEW ELL 7:
the ccommod ation the pilgrims arrived when it was foun d th at
a , ,

they were three more in number th an was at first st ated This .

necessit at e d a reco nsid eration of the question but the wily monks ,

P LAN OF D O R M IT O R Y .

E igh t R m oo s on U pp Fl oo
er r. E igh t R moo s on Lo w e Fl
r oo r.

succeeded in getting over the new diffi cult y without bre aking the
Abbot s rules Th e c urious point of this puz z le is to discover the
’
.

t ot al num be r o f pil grims .

43.
—Th
fe Ri ddle o the Ti led H earth .

It seems th at it was F ri ar Andrew wh o first m an aged to rede

the riddle of the Tile d He arth Yet it was a simple enough little .

puz z le The squ are he arth where they burnt their Yule logs an d
.
,

round which they h ad such merry c aro usings was floored with ,

sixteen large orn ament al tiles When thes e bec ame cracked an d .

burnt with the he at of the gre at fire it was decided to put down ,

new tiles W hi c h h ad to be select ed from four di fferent p atterns

,

(the C ross the F leur

,
de lys the Lion a -
n d the
-
St ar ) b u
,t pl ain tiles ,

were al so avail able Th e Abbot proposed th at they s hould be

.

laid as shown in o ur sketch without any pl ain tiles at all ; b ut ,

Brother R ichard broke in ,

I trow my Lord Abbot that a riddl e is req uired of me thi s

, ,

day Listen then to that whi ch I sh all put forth

.
, , Let thes e .
7 2 T HE C AN T E R B U R Y P UZZ L ES
sixt een ti l e s be so pl aced that no tile sh al l be in line with another of
the same design —(he me ant of course not in line hori z ont ally
, , ,

v e rtic al ly o r di agon ally) an d in such m anner th at as few plai n

,

tiles as possible be required When the monks h anded in their

.

pl ans it was found th at only F ri ar Andrew h ad hit upon the correc t

answer , even F ri ar Rich ard himself being wrong All had used .

too m an y pl ain tiles .

44
—T
.he f W
R i ddlei ne o the S ack .

O ne evening when se ated at t able Brother Benj amin was c all e d

, ,

upon by the Abbot to give the riddle th at was th at d ay dem anded

F orsooth s aid he I am no good at the making of riddles

, , ,

as thou kn owest full well but I h ave been te asing my poor brain
over a m atter th at I trust some among yo u will expound to me ,

fo r I c annot rede it m y self It is this Mark me t ake a glass o f

. .

sack from thi s bottle that cont ains a pint of wine and pour it int o
that j ug which cont ains a pint o f water Now I fill the gl ass with
.
,

th e m ixture from the j ug an d pour it b ack into the bottle holdi ng

 T H E M E R RY M O N KS O F R I D D LEW E LL . 73
the sack P r ay tell me h ave I t aken m ore wine from the bottle
O r h ave I t aken m ore water fro mt he
.
,

than water from the j ug

jug th an Wine from the bot tle
I gather th at the monks got ne arer to a gre at qu arrel over this
little poser th an h ad ever h appened before One brother so far .

forgot himself as to tell his neighbour th at more wine h ad got into

his pate than wit c ame o ut of it Whi le another noisily insisted th at
,
”

it all depended o n the sh ape of the gl ass and the age o f the wine .

But the Lord Abbot intervene d showed them what a simple

,

quest ion it really was and restored good feeling all rou nd
, .

45 —T
.he f Ri ddle o the C ellarer;

Then Abbot D avid looked gr ave an d said th at t his incident

,

to his mind the p ainful fact th at J ohn the Cellarer had

been c aught robbing the c as k o f best Malvoisie that was rese rved
for speci al occ asions He ordered him t o be brought in
. .

Now varlet sai d the Abbot as the ruddy faced

, , ,
-
Cellarer
74 T HE CA N TE R B U R Y P U ZZLES
ca m e be fore him thou knowest th at thou wast t aken this morn
,

ing in the ac t o f steal ing good wine th at was forbidden thee What .

has t thou to say fo r thy self

P rith ee m y Lo rd Abbot forgive me !
,
he cried falli ng on
, ,

his knee s . Of a truth the Evil One did come an d tempt me

, ,

an d the cas k was so h andy an d the wine was so good withal an d

—and I had drunk o f it Ofttimes without be ing found out and
, ,

Rasc al ! that but m ak eth thy fault the worse ! How m uch
wine h ast thou t ak en
Al ac k a day l There were a hundred pint s in t h e c ask at the
- -

s t art and I h ave t aken me a pint every d ay this month o f Jun e

—
,

it be ing tod ay the t h irtieth there f an d if my Lord Abbot c an

o

t e ll me t o a nicet y h o w much good wine I h ave t ak en in all let ,

him punish me as he will

”
.

Why kn ave th at is thirt y pints

, ,
.

Nay nay fo r each time I drew a pint o ut o f the c as k I put

, ,

in a pin t o f water in its stead I

It is a c urious fact th at this is the only riddle in the o ld rec ord
t hat is n o t accomp anied by its solution Is it possible th at it prove d
.

to o h ard a nut fo r the mon ks There is merel y the n ote J ohn ,

suffere d no punishment for hi s sad f ault

”
.

On nother o cc asion a cert ai n knight Sir R alph de Bohun was

a , ,

a gu es t o f the monks at R i ddle we ll Abbe y Towards the close o f .

a sum pt uous re past he spoke as follows

My Lord Abbot knowi ng full W ell th at ridd les are greatl y to

,

thy liking I will by y our le ave put forth one th at was told unto
, , ,

me in foreign lands A body o f Crus aders went forth to fight the

.

good cause and s uch was t heir number that the y were able to
, .

form them selves into a sq uare But o n the way a stranger too k .

up arms an d j oin ed them an d they were then able to form ex actly

,

thirtee n sma ller squ ares P ray tell me merry mo nks ho w m any
.
, ,

men we nt forth to battle P

76 THE C A NTE R B U R Y PU Z Z LES
Methinks killed the lot sai d Brother Benj amin
o n e cat , .

Out upon thee brother 1 I said c ats

’
.
,

Well then persisted Benj amin

, ,
pe rch ance , c ats
each killed o n e mo use
”
.

No, replied F ather P eter after the monks j ovi al l aughter

,
’

had ende d
“
I,said ‘
mice ; a n d all I need ad d is thi s —th at e ach
ca t killed more mice th an there were c ats They told me it was .

merely a question of the di vision of numbers but I know n ot the ,

answer to the ri ddle .

The correct answer is recorde d b ut it is not shown how the y

,

arrived at it .

48 —The
.
f R i ng
o the F rogs
’
.

One Chri stmas the Abbot o ffered a pri z e o f a l rg e b l k j c k

a ac a
mo un ted in silver to be engraved with the n ame of the mon k who
,

sh ould put forth the best n e w ridd e

l This tourn amen t of wit was
.

won by Brother
Benedict who curiously enough never before or
, , ,
 T HE M E R R Y M O N KS O F RI D DLEW ELL 77
a fter gave o ut anything th at did no t excite the ridicule o f his
brethren It was c alle d th e Frogs R ing
.
' ’
.

A ring was m ade with ch alk on the floo r of the h all an d divided ,

into thirteen comp artments in which twelve di scs of wood (c alled

,

frogs were placed in the order shown in o ur ill ustration one ,

pl ace being left vacant Th e n umbers 1 to 6 were painted white

.

an d the n umbers 7 to 1 2 bl ack Th e p uz z le was to get all the

.

whi te n umbers where the bl ack ones were an d vice versa The , .

white frogs move round in one direction an d the bl ack ones the
,

Opposite way They m ay move in any order o ne step at a time or

.
,

j umping over one of the Opposite colo ur to the pl ace beyond j ust as ,

we play draughts to day~

Th e only other condition is that when
.

all the frogs h ave ch anged sides the 1 mu st be where the 1 2 now is
,

an d the 1 2 in the pl ace now occupied by 1 The p uz z le was to

.

perform the feat in as few moves as possible Ho w m an y moves .

are ne c essary

I will concl ude in the words of the old writer : These be some o f
the riddles whi ch the monks of Ri d dle we ll did set forth an d expound
e ach to the others in the merry d ays of the good Abbot David .
"
 TH E STR ANG E E SCAP E O F TH E
KI NG S E ST E R
’

J .

A P U ZZLI NG AD VE N TURE .

AT time I was greatly in favour with the kin g and his

o ne ,

Majesty never seemed to we ary of the companionship of the court

fool I had a gift for making ri ddles an d qu aint p uz z les which
.

Oft times caused great sport for albeit the king never found the right
answer o f o n e o f these things in all his life yet would he make
,

merry at the bewilderment o f those about him .

But let every cobbler stick unto his l ast ; for when I di d set o ut
to lea rn the art o f performing str ange tricks in the m agic wherein ,

the hand doth ever deceive the eye the king was affrighted an d
, ,

did accuse me o f being a wi z ard even comm an d in g th at I should

,

be put to de ath Luckily my wit di d save my life I begged th at

. .

I mi ght be slain by the royal h and an d not b y that o f the e xe cu

the saints said his Majesty

By , wh at di fference can it
,

make unto thee ? But since it is th y wish thou sh alt have thy
,

c ho ice whether I kill thee o r the e x ec utioner .

Your Maj esty I answered

, I accept the choice that thou
,

hast so gr aciously o ffered to me I prefer that your Maj est y should

kill the executioner .

Yet is the life of a royal je ster beset with gre at dangers and the ,

ki ng having once gotten it into hi s royal he ad th at I was a wiz ard ,

it was no t long before I again fell into trouble from which m y wi t

,

did no t a se cond time in a like way save me I was ca st into the

.

18
 S T R A N G E ES C A PE O F T HE KI N G S JESTE R ’
79
dungeon to await my death How by the help of my gift in
.
,

answering riddles an d p u z z les I did escape from captivity I will

,

now set forth ; an d in ca se it doth perplex an y to know how some

of the strange fe ats were performed I will hereaft er make the,

m anner thereof pl ain to all .

49
—l M ysteri ous Rope .

My dungeon did not lie bene ath the mo at but was in ,

one of the
mo st hi gh p arts of the castle So stout was the door
. , an d so well
locked an d secured withal th at escape th at
,

way was no t to be found By h ard work I

.

did after m any d ays remove one o f the b ars

, ,

from the n arrow window an d was able to

,

crush my body thro ugh the Opening ; but the

dist ance to the courtyard below was so ex
ce e di n g great that it was cert ain de ath to drop

thereto Yet by gre at good fort une did I find

.

in the corner o f the cell a rope th at h ad been

there left an d lay hid in the gre at d arkn ess .

But this rope h ad not length enough an d to ,

drop in safety from the end was nowise po s

sible Then did I remember how the wise
.

man from Ireland di d lengthen the bl anket

that was too short for him by cutting a yard
o ff the bottom of the same an d j oining it on

to the top 5 0 I m ade h aste to divide the

.

rope in h alf an d to tie the two p arts thereo f

together ag ai n It was th e n full long and did
. /
,

reach the ground an d I went down in safety

, .

Ho w could this h ave been

The only way out of the yard that I no w was in was to d escend
a few st airs t hat led up mto the centre (A) o f an un derground
80 T HE C A N TE R B U R Y PU ZZ LES

maz e th
,
o
r u gh t h e wi n di ng o f which I must p a ss before I could
ta ke m y le a ve by th e door B
( ) .B ut I knew f ull well th at in th e

grea t darkness o f this dreadful pl ace I might well wander fo r hours

and y e t return t o th e pl ace from which I set o ut How w a
. s I then

to reach the door with certai nty P With a plan of the m az e it is

bu t a simple m atter to tr ace out the route but ho w was the way
,

to be foun d in the pl ac e itself in utter d arkness ?

51 .
—The S ecret Lock
.

When I did at l ast reach the door it was fast closed and o n ,

sliding a p anel se t before a gr ating the light th at ca me in thereb y

showed unto me th at m y p ass age was b arred by the king s secret

’

lock Before the handle of the door might be turned it was need
.
,

ful to pl ace the hands o f three several di al s in their proper places .

If yo u but knew the proper letter for e ach di al the secret was of a ,

truth to your h and ; b ut as ten letters were upon the face of every
di al yo u might try nine hundred an d ninety nine times an d onl y
,
-

succee d o n the thou sandth attempt with al If I was indeed to

.

e scape I must waste not a moment .

Now once had I heard the learned mon k wh o did invent the
,

lock say that he feared that the king s serv ants h aving such b ad
'

,
 ST R A N G E ES C A PE O F T HE KI N G S J ESTE R ’
81

memories would m ayh ap forget the right letters ; so perch ance

, ,

thought I he h ad on thi s account devised some way to ai d their

,

memories And wh at more n atur al than to m ake the letters

.

form some word I soon found a word that was E nglish m ade o f ,

—
three letters o ne letter being o n each o f the three di als After .

th at I h ad pointed the han ds properly to the letters the doo r o pened

an d I p assed o ut .Wh at was the secret word

52 .
—Crossing the M oat
.

I was now face to face with the c astle moat which was indee d
, , ,

very wide an d very deep Alas I could not swim an d my c hance

. ,

o f esc ape seemed of a truth hopeless as doub tless it would have

, , ,

been h ad I not espied a boat tied to the wall b y a rope But aft er .

I had got into it I did fin d th at the oars had be en t aken away and ,

(A077) 6
quite there being no stre am o r current to
then did I yet t ake the bo at across the mo at
,

53 .
-
The Royal Gardens .

It was no w daylight and still had I to pas s through the ro yal

,

ga rd e ns o u ts ide o f th e c astle w all s These

. g ardens h ad once b ee n

laid o ut by an o ld kin g s gardener who h ad becom e bere ft o f his

’

se nse s, but was allowed to amuse himself therei n They were .

sq uare and di vided into 1 6 p arts by high w al ls as shown in th e

, ,

plan there of so that th e re we re ope nin gs from o ne garden to an

,
84 T HE C A NTE RBU R Y PU ZZ LES

fo und eight narrow planks o f wood lyi ng togetherm a he ap .

the se alone and the pl an ks were each no more th an 9 feet

,

I did at las t m an age to m ake a bridge across the di tch How .

this done
Being now free I did h asten to the house of a friend who

vid e d me with a horse and a disguise with which I soon succ

,

in placing myself o ut o f all fe ar o f c apture

.

’
Through the goodly offices of divers persons at the king s
I did at lengt h obt ain the royal p ardon though indeed I was never
, , ,

rest ored t o that full favour th at was once my j oy an d pride .

Oft ti mes h ave I been asked b y m any th at do know me t

set forth to them the str ange m anner of my esc ape which m
,

t han o ne hath deemed to be o f a truth wonderful albeit the feat “

,

was nothing asto nis hing with al if we do b ut remember that

my youth upwards I had tr ained my wit to the m aki ng an d an
ing o f cunni ng enigm as And I do hold that the study o f
.

cr aft y matters is good not alone for the pleasure th at i s

,

t he re by b ut because a m an ma y never be sure th at in some

,

and untoward di ffi c ulty t hat ma beset him in p ss

y a

life o f ours su
and m ay hap help him o ut o f many diffic ulties
, , .

I am no w
 ST R A N G E ES C A PE O F T HE K IN G S JESTE R ’
85

fo r qu aintpuz z les an d conceits ; b ut of a truth n ever h ave I found

, ,

gre ater ple asure in m aking o ut the answers to an y of these things

than I h ad in m astering them th at did en able me as the kin g s
,
’

jester in di sgrace to gain my freedo m from the ca stle dungeo n and

,

so save my life .
 TH E SQ U I RE S C H R I ST M AS P U ZZ L E PAR T Y
’

A F INE specimen o f the o ld English country gentlem an was

Sq uire Davidge of Stoke Courcy H all in Somerset When the
, , .

las t century was yet in its youth there were few men in the west
,

co untry more widely known an d more gener ally respected an d

beloved th an he A born sportsm an his fame extended to Exmoor

. ,

itself where hi s dari ng an d splendid riding in pursuit o f the red

,

deer had excited the adm iration and envy o f innumerable you nge r
huntsmen But it was in his o wn p arish and p articul arly in his
.
,

o wn home th at his geni al hospit alit y generosit y an d r are j ovi al

, , ,

a —
humour m de him the idol o f his friends and eve n o f his rel ations ,

which sometimes me ans a good deal .

At Christmas it was always an open house at Sto k e Courcy

H all fo r if the re was o ne thing more th an another upon which
,

Sq uire Davidge h ad very prono unced views it was on the question ,

o f kee ping up in a ro yal fashion the gre at festiv al o f Yule tide -

.

H ark ye m y lads he would say to his sons : o ur country wi ll

, ,

be gin to fall on evil d ays if ever we grow indi fferent to the cl aims of
thos e Christm as festivities th at h ave helped to win us the proud
nam e o f Merrie Engl and Therefore when I say th at Christm as
.
”
,

at S toke Co urcy was kept up in the good old h appy rollicking , ,

fes tive style that o ur gr andfathers and gre at gr andfathers so de arly

-

loved it wi ll be unneces s ary for me to attempt a description We

, .

have a faithful pict ure o f these merry scenes in the Bracebri dge
Hall o f Washington Irv ing I must confine m yself in this sketch
.

to o ne spe cial feature in th e Squire s round o f o llificatio n during

’

j
t he seaso n of peace and good will .

86
 T HE S Q U I RE S C H RIST M AS PUZZL E PA RTY
’
87

He too k a curious and intelligent interest i n puz z les o f e very

kind an d there was always o ne night devoted to what was known
,

as Squire D avi dge s P uz z le P arty’

Every guest was expected
.
”

t o come arm ed with some riddle or puz z le fo r the be wilderment an d

pos sible delect ation o f the company The o ld gentlem an always.

presented a new watch to the gues t who was mos t successful in his
answers It is a pit y that all the puz z les were n ot preserved ; but I
.

propose to present t o my re aders a few selected from a number th at

h ave p assed down to a survivi ng m ember o f the famil y who has ,

kin dly allowed m e to use them on this occ asion There are some .

very easy ones a few t hat are m oderately difficult and o ne hard
, ,

brain racker so all should be able to find something to their t aste

-
, .

The little record is written in the ne at angul ar h and o f a y ou ng

l ady o f that day and the puz z les the conditions o f which I think it
, ,

best to give mai nly in my o wn words fo r the sake of great e r clearn ess ,

ap pe ar to have b ee n all propounded o n o ne oc casion .

On e young lady—o f whom o ur fair histori an re cords with

delight ful inco nsequence This Miss Charit y Loc kyer has since
b ee n married to a c urat e from Taunton Vale —placed three empt y

teacups o n a t able an d challenged anybody to put ten lumps o f

,

sugar in the m so that there would be an odd number o f lumps in

every cup One young m an who has been to Oxford Un iversit y
.
, ,

and is studying the law decl ared with some heat that beyond a
, ,

doubt there was n o possible way of doing it and he o ffered to give

, ,

proof o f the fact to the compan y

. It m ust have been interesting
.

to se e his face when he was shown Miss Ch arity s correct answer ’

.
88 T H E C ANTE R B U RY PUZZLES

5 6 — The
. E leven P enni es .

A gue st asked some one to favour hi m with eleven pennies and ,

he passed the coins to the company as depicted in o ur illustration

,
.

Th e writer says He then req u ested us to remove fi ve coins from

t he eleven ,
four coins and le ave nine We could not but think
ad d .

there must needs be ten pennies left We were a good de al am used

.

at the answer h e reof

”
.

57t— The Chri stmas Geese

. .

—
Squire Hemb ow from Weston Zoylan d wherever that may
r
—
,

be proposed the following little arithmetic al pu z z le from which,

i t is probable that se veral somewh at simil ar modern ones h ave been

derived : Farmer R ouse sent his m an to m arket with a flock of
g e tellin g him th at he mi ght sell all or any o f them as he con
ees
, ,

sid ered bes t for he was s ure the m an knew how to m ake a good
,

bargain Thi s is the report th at Jabe z m ade though I h ave t aken

.
,

it out o f the old Somerset di alect which might p uz z le some re aders

,
 T HE S Q U I RE S C H RIST M AS PUZZL E PA RTY
’
89

in a way not desired . Well first o f all I sold Mr Jasper Tyler

, .

h alf of the flock and h al f a goose over then I sold Farmer Avent
a thi rd o f wh at rem ained an d a third o f a goose over then I sold
’

Widow F oster a quarter of wh at rem ained an d three quarters of -

a goose over ; an d as I was co ming home whom S hould I meet

,

b ut Ned Collier : so we h ad a mug o f cider together at the B arley

Mo w where I sold him exactly a fifth of wh at I h ad left an d g ave
, ,

him a fifth o f a goose over for the missus These nin eteen th at
.

I h ave brought b ack I co ul dn t get rid of at any price

’
Now how
.
”
,

m any geese di d F armer R o use send to market P My hum ane

readers may be relieved to know that no goose was divi ded o r put
to any i nconve nience wh atever by the sales .

58 .
-
The Chalked

We l aughed greatly at a pretty j est o n the p art o f Maj or

Trench ard a merry friend of the Squire s With a piece o f chal k
’
.
,
90 T HE C A N TE RB U R Y PUZZLES

he marke d a different n umber o n the b acks o f eight lads wh o were

’

at th e part y Then it see ms he divided them in two groups as

”
.
, , ,

sh own in t h e illus tration 1 2 3 4 bein g on o n e side an d 5 7 8

, , , , , , , ,

th o t her It will be s een th at the numbers o f the left h an d

9 n e -
o .

‘
g ro u p ad d u p t o 1 0 ,while the numbers in the other group ad d up to
Th e Major s p uz z le was to re arr ange the eight bo y s in two new
'
29 .

g roup s, so th a t the fo ur numbers in e ach group should ad d up alike .

The Squire s niece asked if the 5 should not be a 6 ; but the Maj or
'

e xpla ined th at the numbers were quite correct if properly reg arded .
9 2 T HE C A N T ER B U R Y PUZZL ES

an d boys an d ten m aiden s an d little girls No w everybody was

,
.
,

foun d to have ki ssed everybody else with the following exceptions

,

and additions : No m ale of co urse kissed a m ale No m arri ed

, , .

man kisse d a m arried wom an except his own wife , All the .

bachelors and boys kissed all the m aidens an d girls twice The .
'

widower did not kiss anybody an d the Widows did not kiss each
,

other The puz z le was to ascert ain j ust how m an y kisses had bee n
.

thus given under the mistletoe bo ugh assumin g as it is ch t ble

ari a
th t every ki ss was return ed—the double act bei ng coun ted
, ,
to d o a
,

as one ki ss .

61 .
—The S ilver C ubes .

The last extract th at I will gi ve is o ne that will I thi nk inte e t

r s
h
, ,
se ea e s who ma
t o r d r y fin d some o f the abo ve p uz z les too easy .
 THE S Q UI RE S C H RIST M AS PU ZZ LE
’
PA RTY 93
It is a h ard nut an d should only be attempted by those who fl atter
,

themselves that they posse ss strong in tellec t ual teeth

,
.

Master Herbert Spe aring the son o f a Widow l ady in o ur

,

p arish propo sed a p uz z le in arithmetic that loo ks si mple but

, ,

nobo dy present was able to solve it Of a truth I did not vent u re

.

to attempt it myself a fter the young l awyer from Oxford wh o

, ,

they say is very learne d in the m athem ati c s an d a gre at schol ar ,

f ailed to show us the an swer He di d assure us th at he believed

.

it co uld not be done b ut I h ave since been tol d th at it is possible

, ,

though o f a cert ainty I m ay not vou ch for it Master Herbert

, , .

brought with him two c ubes of solid silver th at belonged to his

mother He showed t hat as they me as ured two inches every way

. , ,

each cont ained eight c ubic inches of silver an d therefore the two
,

cont ained together sixteen c ubic inches That which he wanted

.

to know was Co uld anybo dy give him ex act dimensions for two
cubes th at sho u ld together cont ain j ust seventeen cubic inche s o f
silver ? Of course the c ube s m ay be of di fferent si z es .

Th e idea of a Christmas Pu z z le P arty as devised by the o ld

,

Squire seems to have been excellent an d it might well be revived

, ,

at the present d ay by people wh o are fond of puz z les an d who h a ve

grown tired of Book Teas an d Simil ar recent introd uctions for the
amusement o f evening p arties P ri z es could be awarded to the
.

best solvers o f the pu z z les propounded by the guests .

WHE N it re ce ntly became known th at the bewilderi ng mystery o f
the Pri nce an d the Lost Ba lloon was really solved b y the members
o f the Puz z le Cl ub the gener al pub lic was quite un aware th at an y
,

such cl ub existed . Th e fact is that the members always deprec ated

publicity but since they have been dragged into the lig ht in con
n ec tio n with this celebrated c ase so m any absurd an d u ntrue sto ries
,

have become c urrent respecting their doings th at I have been per

mitted to p ublish a correct acco unt o f some of their more interest
ing achievements . It was however decided that the re al n ames o f
, ,

the members should not be gi ven .

‘
The cl ub was starte d a few ye ars ago to bring together those
interest ed in the solution o f pu z z les of all kinds an d it cont ain s ,

so me o f the p rofo undest m athem atici ans an d some o f the most

subtle thinke rs resident in London These h ave done some excel

.

lent work o f a high an d dry kind But the m ain body soon took.

to investig ating the problems o f re al life th at are perpetually

cropping up .

It is only ri ght to say that they t ake no interest in crimes as

such b ut onl y investig ate a c ase when it possesses fe at ures of a
,

distinctl y puz z ling char acter They seek perplexity fo r its o wn

sake—
.

s omethi ng to unr avel As often as not the circ umst ances

.

are o f no impo rt an ce to anybody but the y j u st form a little pu z z le

,

in real life and that is sufficient

, .

62 .
—The Ambiguo us P hotograph .

A g ood e xample o f the lighter kind of problem th at occ asion ally

co mes be fore them is th at which is kn own amongst them b y the
94
 A DV E N TU RE S O F T HE PU ZZL E C LU B 95
n ame o f The Ambiguous P hotogr aph Though it is perplexing .

to the inexperienced it is reg arded in the club as quite a trivi al

,

thi ng Yet it serv es to show the close observ ation o f these sh arp
.

witted fellows The origin al photograph hangs o n the club wall

.
,

an d h as b affled eve ry g uest who h as ex amined it Yet any child .

should be able to solve the mystery I will give the reader an .

Opportunity of tryi ng his wits at it .

Some of the members were one evening se ated togeth er in their

clubhouse in the Adelphi Those present were : Henry Melville .
,

a b arrister not overburdened with briefs who was disc ussin g ,

a problem with E rnest Ru ssell a be arded man o f middle age

, ,

who held some easy post in Somerset House an d was a Senior ,

Wrangler an d one of the most subtle thinkers of the club ; F red

Wilson a j ourn alist o f very buoyant spirits wh o had more re al
, ,

cap acity th an one would at first suspect ; John Macdon ald a ,

Scotsm an whose record was th at he h ad never solved a p uz z le

,

himself since the club was formed though frequen tl y he had put ,

others o n the tr ack of a deep solution Tim Churton a b ank clerk , ,

full o f cranky unorthodox ideas as to perpe tual motion ; also

,

H arold Tomkin s a prosperous account ant remarkably famili ar

with the e l e gant bran ch o f m at h ematics—the the o ry of n umbe rs
, ,

S uddenly Herbert B aynes entered the room and everybody ,

saw at o n ce from his f ace th at he had something inte re sti ng to

comm unicate B ayn es was a man of private mean s with n o

.
,

occup ation .

Here s a qu ai nt little poser for you all said B ayn es

’
I ,
.

have received it to d ay from D ovey -

.
”

Dove y was proprietor of o ne o f the m any private detective

agencies th at fo und it to their advant age to keep in touch with the

Cl ub
.

Is it another of those e as y cryptograms ? asked Wilson .

”
If so I would suggest sending it upst airs to the billi ard m arker
,
-
.

D on t be sarc astic Wilson

’
said Melville ,
R emember we
,
”
.
,

are indebted to Dovey for the gre at Railway Signal P roblem th at

gave us all a week s amusement in the solving’

.
”
96 T HE C A N TE RBU R Y PU Z ZLES
‘
‘
fe lows want to hear resumed Bayn es j ust try to
If ou
y l , ,

ago ? La dy Marksfo rd an d her h u sb and h ave been in P aris -for

two o r three mon ths Well th e poor cre at ure soon got under the
.
,

influen ce o f the green eyed monster an d formed the Opinion th at

-
,

Lo rd Marksfo rd was fli rting with other l adies o f his acqu aint ance .

No w she has actuall y put one of D o ve y s spies on to th at

’

exce lle nt husban d o f hers and the myrrnid o n h as been sh ad owi ng

him abo ut fo r a fortnight with a pocket c amer a A few d ays ago .

he cam e to Lady Marks fo rd in gre at glee He h ad sn apshott e d .

his lords hip while act ually walking in the public streets with a
lady who was not his wi fe .

What is the use of this at all P as ked the j ealous wom an .

Well it is evidence your ladyshi p that your husb and was

, , ,

walking with the lady I know where she is st aying and in a few
.
,

days sh all have found out all about her .

’

But you stupid man cried her ladyshi p in to n es o f great

, ,
’

co nt empt ho w can any o n e S we ar th at this is his lordship when

, ,

the great e r p art o f hi m includi ng his head an d s houlders is hi dden

—
,

—
,

fo
r m s ight ? And an d s he scrutini z ed the photo c arefully

why I guess it is impossible from thi s photograph t o say whether

,

the ge ntl e man is walking with the lad y o r going i n the Oppos ite
direction 1
Th ereupon she dismiss ed the detect i v e in high dudge on .

Dovey has himself j ust returned from P aris an d g ot this account ,

o f the incident from her Iadyshi p He wants to j ustify hi s man

. .

if possible by S howin g that the photo does disclose which way

,

t e man is going
h
Here it is See what y ou fellows can m ake
. .

0 It .

Our ill ustration is a faith f ul dr awing m ade from the ori ginal
Pho tograph It will be seen th at a slight but sudde n summer
.

sho wer Is the real c ause o f the diffi cult y .

 A D V ENTU RES O F T HE PU ZZ LE CLU B 97
Her l adyship is wrong , said B ayn es after every body had
,

m ade a close scrutiny . I find there is import an t evidence in

the picture .

Of cOurse , Melville , we can tell nothi ng from the

 8 T HE C A NTE R BU R Y PU ZZLE S
9
h
T e hen has his overco a t over hi s arm but which w ay hi s arm ,

im mss ible to se e
”

go e s it is .

Ho w a bout the bend of the le g s P a sked C hurton

Bend ! why there isn t any bend put in Wilson as he
,
’
,
”
,

glan ce d over the other s shoulder F rom the picture you might
’
.

Im’
that pe rha ps began Macdon ald ,

his eye gl asses

-
.

D on t think Mac advised Wilson It might

’
.
, ,

Be si des it is no use you thinking th at if the dog

,

pas s o n things would be e asy He won t .

’
.
”

The man s gener al pose seems to me to imply mo v eme nt

’

th e left Tomkins thought

"
, .

On the contrary Melville decl ared

, it appears to me
”
,

clea rly to sug es t movement to the right

”
g .

No w look here yo u m en
, said Russ ell
, whose o ,
”
,
roo THE C A NTE R B U R Y PUZZ LES

w ith which it w as co n nected — ah embe z z lement at Tod d s B

’

o
C r nhill a few y e ars a g o Lamson
. a n d Ma rsh t wo o f the ,

clerks suddenly disappe ared ; an d it was found that

,

absc onded with a very l arge sum o f mone y There .

hunt fo r t hem by the police who were so prompt in

,

that it was impossible for the thieves to get o ut of the

They were traced as far as Truro an d were known to be ,

in Cornwall .

ust th i s time it h appened th at He n ry Melville and

J at
Wil son were away together o n a wal king tour round the Co
c oas t
. Like most people they were interested in the c as e ;
,

o ne morning while at bre akfas t

,

absconding men h ad been tracke

m aking an esc ape very improb able .

c onst able c ame into the inn to m ak e

civilities with the two members o f the P u z z le Cl ub .

e nces to some o f the le ading London detectives an d t ,

o f a co nfidenti al letter Melville h appened to h av e in his k t l

p o c e

fro m o ne o f them soon est ablished complete confidence and the

, ,

ins pect or opened o ut .

He said that he had j ust been to examine a very import ant

a q uarter o f a mile from there an d expressed the Opinion
,

Mes srs Lamson and Mars h would never ag ain be found alive
.
.

the suggestion o f Melville the four men walke d al ong the

t ogether .

Th e re is o ur stile in the di st ance s aid the inspector , .

const able found beside it the poc k et book th at I h ave shown -

cont ai ning the n ame o f Marsh and some memoranda in his h

writing It had evidently been dropped by accident
.
.
 A D VE NTU RES O F T HE PU ZZ LE C LUB Ioi
‘

the two men were here very clearl y i m

soft soil and they all too k c are no t t o
,

They followed the prints closely an d ,

the edg e of a cliff forming a sheer

at the foot of which the se a some ,

gentlemen you see sa id the inspector that the foot

, , ,

lead straight to the edg e of the cli ff where there is a g ood

,

of tramplin g abo ut and there end Th e soil

, .

disturbed for yards around except by the footprin t s that you

,

The conclusion is obvious

”
.

That knowing the y were un able to esc ape capture th ey de

, ,

no t t o be t ak en alive an d threw themselves over th e cli ff P

,

Loo k to the rig ht an d the le ft , and yo u will fin d no

be sati sfied that the most experienced mo unt ai neer

102 THE C A NTE RBU R Y PU ZZLES

h t ever li ve d could not m ake a descent or even an ywh

t a ,

over the edge of the cli ff There is no l e dge or foothold .

fifty fee t.

Utterly impossible said Melville after an inspection ,

.

do you propose to do P
“I am goi ng straight b ack to communic ate the
headquarters We sh all withdraw the cordon an d
.

for the dead bodies .

Then you will m ake a fat al mist ake said Melville , .

men are alive an d in hiding in the di strict Just examine .

prints again Whose is the l arge foot P

.

Th at is Lamson s an d the sm all print is Marsh s

’ ’
.
,

was a t all m an j ust over six feet an d Marsh was a little

, ,

I thought as much said Melville And yet you

,
”
.

that Lamson t akes a shorter stride than Marsh Notice .

,

pe culi ari ty that Marsh walks he avily on his heels while ,

treads more o n hi s toes Nothing rem arkable in that P .

no t ; b ut has it 0

Becau se yo u will find that he sometimes

steps th ough you wi ll neve r find Marsh tre ading in the
,

the other .
"

Do yo u suppose that the men wal ked b ac kw ar d s

o wn footprints P asked the inspector .

No th at is impossible No two men could walk b .

some two hundred yards in th at wa with such x titu

y e ac

will no t find a single pl ace where the y h ave missed the

e ve n an eighth o f an inch ite Nor do
Q u irn po ssi b le . .

that two me n hunt e d as they were could h ave provi

, ,

wi th flying machines b alloons or even p arachutes They di d

-
, , .

drop over the cliff .

”

Melville then explain ed ho w the men h ad got away .

acc oun t p roved to be quite correct for it w

ill be remembered ,

t e y we re ca ught hiding under some straw in a b arn withi n

h
mi les o f the spot
,
,

Ho w di d the y
.

d id P
1 04 THE C ANTE R B U R Y P UZZ LES

o ne suc
h n umber in which
,
ca se the thing is solved But eve n i.
f
there are se veral cases the owner o f the act u al car may e asily be
,

found .

Ho w will you m an age th at ? someb o d y asked .

'
Surely replied R ussell the method is quite obvious B y
,
”
,
.

the proc ess o f elimin ation Every own er except the o ne in

.

will be able to prove an alibi Yet merely g uessing o ffh and I

.
, ,

t hink it quite probable th at there is only o ne n umber th at fits the

case We shall se e
. .
”

Russell was right for th at very night he sent the number b y

,

post with the result th at the run away c ar was at on ce traced

, ,

and its owner who was himse lf driving h ad to the cost o f the
,
p y
a ,

damages resulting from his carele ssness Wh at was the number o f

.

t he car ?
 A DV E NTU RES O F THE PUZZ LE C LU B
"

1 05

65
.
—The M ystery of Ravensden e P ark .

Th e mystery of Rave n sd e n e P ark which I will n ow present , ,

was a tragic a ffair as it involved the ass assin ation of Mr Cyril

, .

Hastihgs at his country ho u se a short dist ance from London .

On F eb ru ary 1 7th at 1 1 p m there was a he avy f all o f snow

, , ,

an d though it l asted o n ly h alf an ho ur the gro und was covered to ,

a depth o f several inches Mr H astings h ad been spending the

. .

evening at the house of a neighbour an d left at midnight to walk ,

home t aking the short route th at lay through R ave nsde ne Park
,

that is from D to A in the sketch pl an But in the early mornin g

,
-
.

h e was fo und de ad at the point in dicat ed by the st ar in o ur di agram

, ,

st abbed to the he art All the seven g ates were promptly closed
.
,

an d the footprints in the snow exa mined These were fort un ately .

very di stinct an d the police obt ained the followin g fac ts

,

Th e footprints of Mr H astings were very c lear straight from

.
,

D to the spot where he was fo und There were the footprin t s of

.

the R ave sd e e b utle

n n r— who retired to bed five min utes before
—
midnight from E to E E There were the footprints o f the game
.

kee per from A to his lodge at AA Other footprints showed that.

 1 06 T HE C A N TE RBU R Y PUZZLES

o ne in dividual had come in at gate B an d left at gate B B while

,

an o th er ha d entered by gate C and left at g ate CC .

Only these five persons h ad entered the p ark sin ce the fall o f
sno w No w it was a very foggy night an d some of these p edes
.
, ,

tri ans had conseq uently t aken circ uito u s routes but it was par
,

ti cularly noticed that no track ever crossed another tr ac k Of this

.

th e police were absol utely cert ain b ut they stupidly omitted to

,

make a sketch o f the various routes before the snow h ad melted

an d utterly e fiace d them .

The m ystery was brought before the members o f the P uz z le

Club who at once set themselves the t ask of solvin g it
, Was it
.

poss ible to di scover who committed the crime P Was it the butler P
Or the gamekeeper ? Or the man who came in at B an d went
o ut at BB P Or the man wh o went in
at C an d left at CC P They
r d a a s —
p ovi ed themselves with di gr m sketch pl ans like the o ne we
-
,

a
h v eprod uced which simplified the real form o f R ave n sd e ne
e r ,

Park without dest ro ying the neces sary conditions of the problem
.

Our fri e nds then proceeded to trace o ut the route o f e ach person
,

In ord nce with the po sitive st atements of the police th at we h ave

acc a

gi ven .
It was so on eviden t th at as no path ever crossed another
,
,
1 08 THE C A N TE RB U R Y PU ZZ LES

st
di ri ct ar e S qu are ; an d I doubt whether the re ar e t w o o f ex actl y
th e sa me siz e .
If only I knew the si z e o f the field I could soon
disco ve r it and by t aking these S imple me asurements quic kly
, ,
,

se cu re th e t reasure .

‘ would not kn ow which cor n er to st art from n or

But yo u ,

which dire c tion to go to the next corner .

chap that onl y me an s

,
S pots at the mos t to

dig ove r ; and as the p aper s ays th at the tre asure is three f eet
dee p yo u bet that wouldn t t ake me long
,
’
.
’

Now gentlemen
,
continued D awkins I h ap pen to be a bit
, ,

of a math e matici an an d he aring the convers ation I saw at once ,

th at fo r a spot to be e x act l y two three an d fo u r furlongs from

, ,

s si ve co rners o f a squ are the squ are must b e o f a p articular

su cce ,

Yo u can t get such measurements to mee t at o ne point in

‘
’
area .

any sq uare
y ou c hoose T h e y c an o n l.y h app en i n a fi eld o f o ne
 A D V E NTU R ES O F T HE PUZZ LE C LU B 1 09

siz e an d th at is j ust wh at these men never su spected I will

, .

leave yo u the puz z le of working o ut j ust what that a re a is.

Well when I found the si z e of the field I was not long in

, ,

di scovering the field itself for the m an h ad let o ut the district in

,

the conversation And I did not n e ed to m ake the eight digs for
.
, ,

as luck would h ave it ; the third spot I tried was the right o n e The.

treasure was a subst anti al sum for it h as brought me home an d

,

en abled me to start in a business that alre ady shows signs o f being

a p artic ul arl y lucrative o n e I often smile when I think o f th at
.

poor fellow goin g about for the rest of his life saying : If only I
knew the si z e o f the field I while he h as pl aced the tre asure s afe
in my o wn possession I tried to find the m an to m ake him some
.
,

compen sation anonymously but without success P erh aps he stood

, .

In little need o f the mone y while it h as saved me from ruin

, .

Co uld the re ader h ave discovered the requ ired a rea of the field
from those det ails overhe ard in the win e sh 0 p P It is an elegant
litt le puz z le an d furnishes another ex ample of the practic al utilit y
, ,

o n unexpected occ asions o f a kn owledge o f the art o f p roble m

,

solving .
 TH E P R O FE SSO R S P U ZZ L E S
’

WHY here is the Professor ! exclai me d Grigsby We ll make ” '

.
,

him sh ow us so me new pu z z les .

It was Christmas Eve an d the club was nearl y deserted ,

.

Onl y Grigsby H awkh urst and mys elf o f all the members
, , , ,

se e med to be det ai ned in town over the season o f mirth an d mince

pies The man however wh o h ad j ust entered was a welcome

.
, ,

ad dition to o ur num ber Th e Professor o f Pu z z les as we h ad

”
. ,

nickname d him was very popular at the club an d when as o n the

, , ,

e se nt occas ion thin gs got a little slow his arri val was a p ositive
p r , ,

He was a man o f middle cheery kind he arted but age , an d -

,

inclined to be cyn ical He h ad all his life d abbled in pu z z les

. ,

problems and eni gm as o f every kind an d wh at the P rofessor

, ,

di dn t know abo ut these m atters was admittedly not worth know

’

in g
. His p uz z les always h ad a ch arm o f their o wn an d this was ,

mainl y because he was so h appy in dishing them up in p al at able

Yo u
the man o f all others th at we were hoping would
are

drop in said H awkh urst

,
"
H ave you got anything new P .

I have always something new was the reply uttered with , ,

fe igned co nce it—for the Professor was re ally a modest m an ‘

Im
sim ply gl utted with ideas
”
.

Where do yo u get all yo ur notions P I asked .

Everywhere anywhere du ring all my waki ng moments I n

, , .

w
de ed t o o r three o f m y best pu z z les h ave come to me i n m y
,
1 12 THE C A NTE RBU R Y PU Z ZLES

co ins in the se ven empty di visions so that e ach o f the three ,

o u
c l m s n three
,
ro s
w and two di agon
,
al s S h all a d d up fift een s hil ling s .

Of c ours e no division
,
m ay be witho u t at le ast one coin an d no tw o ,
”
di visi o ns may cont ain the s ame val ue .

But ho w can the coi ns a ffect the question P as k ed Grig s by .

T ah t you will find out when y ou a ppro ,

ach the solution .

I shall do it with numbers first s aid H awkhurst an d the n

”
, ,

subs titut e coi ns .

iv
F e mi n utes l ater however he,
excl a imed H ang it ,
a ll ! I ,

can t help getting the 2 in a corner May the dorin be move d fro m
’
.

its prese nt position P

Cert ainly not .

Then I give it up .

But Grigsby and I decided that we would wor k at it another

t ime so the P rofesso r showed H awkhurst the solution privately
, ,

and th en went o n with his ch at .

68 — The P ostage S tamp s P uz z les

. .

instead o f c oins we ll substitute postage-s tam ps Take

No w,
’
.

ten c urre n t English st amps nine of them being all of d iff erent
,

values an d the tenth a duplic ate Stic k two of the m in o ne divi

, .

s ion and o ne in each of the others so th at the squ are sh all t hi s ,

time add up ninepenc e in the eight directions as before .

”

Here yo u are l cried Grigsby after he h ad been scri bbling ,

fo r a few minut es on the b ac k o f an envelope .

The Professo r smiled indulgently .

Are yo u sure th at there is a c urrent English post age st amp o f -

the v al ue o f threepence h alfpenny P -

For the life of me I don t know I s n t there P

,
’
.
’

That s j ust like the P rofes sor

’

put in H awkhurst There ,

”
.

ne ve r was such a tric ky m an Yo u never know when you h ave .

go t to the bottom o f his puz z les J ust when you m ake sure y ou .

have fo und a solution he trips y ou U over some little point o u

p ,
y
never tho ught o f
"
.
 T HE PR O FE SS O R S PU ZZ LES
’

When yo u h ave done th at said the P rofessor

, here is a ,

much better o ne for you Stick English postage st amps so that

.

every three di visions in a line s hall add up alike usi ng as m an y

,

st amps as you choose so long as they are all o f di fferent values

, .

It is a h ard nut.

69 —The
. F rogs and Tumblers .

What do yo u thi nk of these P

Th e P rofessor brought fro m his c apa cious poc ke ts a n u mbe r of

frogs snails liz ards and other cre atures o f J

, , ,
( )
 1 14 T HE C A N T ER B U R Y PU ZZLES
—very grotesque in form brilli ant in colour While we we re
an d .

loo king at them he as ked the waiter to pl ace S ixty four tumblers -

o n the club t able .When thes e h ad been brought an d arranged in

the fo rm o f a squ are as shown in the illustration he pl aced eight
, ,

o f th e little green frogs on the gl asses as shown .

No w he said see these tum b lers form ei ght hori ont l

”
, yo u ,
z a

and eight v e rtical lines and if you loo k at them di agon ally (both
,

ways) there are t went y six other lines If yo u run your ey e along
-
.

all the s e forty two lines

-
y o u will fin, d no t w o fr ogs ar e an ywhere in
a line .

The pu z z le is thi s Three o f the fro gs are sup posed to im p

.

from their pres ent position to three vac ant gl asses so th at in their ,

ne w rel ative positions still no two frogs sh all be i n a lin e What .

are th e j umps m ade ?

I suppose began H awkhurst .

I know what yo u are going to ask antici pated the P ro fesso r , .

No ; th e fr ogs do not exch an ge pos itions but each o f the three ,

j umps to a glass th at was no t previ ously occupied .

”

But surely there m ust be scores o f solutions P I said .

I sh all be very glad if yo u c an fin d them repli e d the Pro

I only kn ow o f o ne—o r rather two
,

fesso r with a dry smile .

.

countin
g a reversal which occurs in con se que nce o f the positio n
,

bei ng symmetric al .
”

7o
J
.
—Romeo and uli et .

For some time we tried to m ake these little rept iles per form the
fea t allotted to them and fai led Th e P rofessor however would
, .
, ,

no t give away his solution but s id he would inste d i tr

a , a n od uc e

to us a litt le thing th at is chil di shl y simple when

yo u h ave once see n
It but cannot be m astered by everybody at the very first attempt
,
.

Wai ter l he c alled again J ust t ake away these gl asses,

.

please and bring the chessbo ards

, .

I ho pe to goodn es s e xcl aimed Grigsby yo u are no t going

,
”
,

to sho w us some o f those awf ul chess problem

s o f y ours White .

to mate Black in
4 7 moves without mo vi ng his piece s The
’
2 .
1 16 THE C A NT ERB U RY PU ZZ LES
and visit e d every squ are once an d onl y onc
,
e ; but you h a ve m ad e

him turn ninet een t imes an d that is not doing the tric k in the fewest
,

”
turns possible .

Hawkhurst curiously enough hit on the so lution at once and the

, , ,

P rofes s or rem arked th at thi s was j u st one o f those pu z z les th at a .

pe rs on might solve at a gl ance o r not m aster in six months .

— Romeo s S econd J ourney

’

7 1 . .

It was a Sheer stroke o f luck o n your p art H awkhurst he , ,

“
added . Here is a much e asier p uz z le bec ause it is c ap able o f ,

more system atic an alysis ; yet it m ay j ust h appen th at you will not
d o it in an hour P ut R omeo on a white squ are an d m ak e him
.

crawl into every other white squ are once with the fewest possible
turnings This time a white squ are may be visited twice but the
.
,

snail must never pass a second time through the s ame corner o f a
square no r ever enter the bl ac k squ ares
”
.

May he leave the board for refreshments P as ked Grigsb y .

No he is no t allowed out until he h as per form ed his feat .

”

7 2 .
-
The F rogs who would a -
wooi n
g g o .

While we were vai nly attempting to solve this puz z le the ,

Profe ssor arranged o n the t able ten o f the frogs i n two rows as they ,

will be fo und in the illustration .

m m fi e
 T HE PR O FESS O R S PUZZL ES
’
1 17

wooing go F o ur of them are s upposed to go a wooin g and

’
a-
.
-
,

after the fo ur h ave e ach m ade a j ump u pon the t able the y are in ,

s uch a position that they form five straight rows with four frogs i n

every row .
”

"
Wh at s th at P asked H awkhurst
’
I think I c an do th at
. .

A few min utes l ater he exc l ai med How s this P ,

’

They form o nly fo ur rows inste ad of five an d you h ave moved ,

six o f them expl ained the Professor

,
”
.

H awkhurst said Grigsby se verely you are a du ffer I see

,
”
, .

the solution at a glance Here you are These two j ump on their
.

comr ades b acks

’
.

No no admonished the P rofessor

, ,
”
th at is n ot allowed .

I di stinctly said th at the j umps were to be m ade upon the t able .

Sometimes it passes the wit of m an so to word the conditions o f a

problem th at the quibbler will not persuade himself th at he has
found a flaw through whi ch the solution m ay be m astered by a
child of five .
”

After we h ad been vai nl y pu z z ling with these b atr achi an lOvers

for some time the Professor reve al ed his secret
, .

The P rofessor g athered up his Jap anese rept iles an d wished us

good night with the u sual se ason able compliments We three who
-
.

remained h ad o ne more pipe together and then also left for our ,

respective homes E ach believes th at the other two racked lthe ir

.

brains over Christm as in the determined attempt to master the

P rofessor s puz z les ; b ut when we next met at the c l ub we were all
’

unani mous in decl aring th at those puz z les which we h ad failed to

solve we re ally h ad not had time to look at while those we h ad ,
”

mastered aft er an enormous amo unt o f labour we had see n at the

first glan ce di rectl y we got ho me .
”
 M I SCE LL AN E O U S P U ZZ LE S

73 . f K—ayl
The Game
es o .

NE ARLY all of o ur most popul ar g ames are of very an cient ori gin ,

t ho ugh in many cases they h ave been consider abl y developed an d

.
—
improved Kayles d erived from the rench word q F ui lle s—was a
great favourite in the fourteenth century an d was undoubtedl y the ,

parent o f o ur modern game of ninepins K ayle pins were not co n .

-

fined in those d ays to an y p articul ar number an d the y were gen ,

e rally made o f a conic al sh ape an d set up in a straight row .

At first they were knocked down by a club th at was thrown at

them from a d ist ance which at once suggests the o ri gin o f the
,

past ime o f shyin g for coco an uts th at is to d ay so popular on -

Bank Holidays on H ampstea d Heath an d elsewhere Then the .

players introd uced b alls as an improvement on the club

, .

In the illustration we get a pict ure o f some o f o ur fourteenth

cen tury ancestors pl aying at kayle pins in this m ann er -
.

No w I will introd uce to my re aders a new game o f p arlour

,

kayle pins that can be played across the t able without anyprep ara
-
,

tion whatever Yo u simply pl ace in a straight row t hirteen domi

.

noes chess pawns dr aughtsmen counters coins o r be ans

-

an yt hing will d o —
, , , , ,

all clo se to e t h e r an d then remove the second

E g ,

on e as shown in the pict ure .

I t is assumed th at the an cient pl ayers h ad become so expe rt

that they co uld always knoc k down an y single k ayle pin or an y -
,

two kayle pins that stood close together

-
The y therefore altered.

the game and it was agreed th at the pl ay er who knocked down the
,

last pin was the winner .

1 20 THE C AN T E RBU R Y P UZ ZLES

the o ne to suppresse either the insolence or leviti c of the other .

h
T ese we n t tog ether to visit the F rench kin g l ying at Consta n c e :

where e ntertainin g the time with varie ti e o f disports Henry played

,
,

Hereat Lo uis beganne to gro we warme in words an d was ,

therein little res pected by Hen ry . Th e gre at imp atience of the one?
an d the sm al l forbe arance o f the other did strike
i n the end su ch a

h at between them th at Loui s threw the chessmen at Henry 5 face

e ’
.
 M IS C ELLANE O US PUZZ LES 121

Henry again stroke Louis with the chessbo ard drew blood ,

with the blowe and had presently sl ain him u pon the pl ace had he
,

not been st ayed by his brother R obert .

Hereupon they presently went to horse an d their Spurre s ,

cl ai med so good haste as they recovered P ontoise albe it they were ,

sharply pursued by the F rench ”

Now tradi tion—o u this point not trustworthy—says th at the

.

c hessbo ard broke into the thirteen fr agments shown in o ur ill ustra ~

tion It will be seen th at there are twelve pieces all different in

.
,

sh ape e ach cont aining five squ ares an d one little piece o f four
, ,

squares only .

We thus h ave all the sixt y fo ur squ ares of the chess bo ard and
- -
,

the puz z le is simply to cut them o ut an d fit them together so as ,

to m ake a perfect bo ard properly chequered The pieces m ay be .

e asily cut o ut of a sheet of squ ared p aper ; an d if mounted on ,

cardbo ard the y will form a source of perpet u al amusement in the

,

home .

If yo u succeed in constru cting the chessbo ard b ut do not record ,

the arr angement you will find it j ust as pu z z lin g the next time you
,
.

feel di sposed to att ack it .

P rince Henry himself with all his skill an d le arning would h ave
, ,

found it an amusing pastime .

75 . The Spi der

-
and the F ly .

Inside a re ct an gul ar room me asuring 3 0 feet in length and

,

12 feet in width and height a spider is at a point on the middle of

,

o ne o f the end walls , I foot from the ce iling as at A ; and a fly is

,

on the op posite wall , I foot from the floo r in the centre as shown ,
1 22 THE C AN TE R B U R Y PUZ Z L ES

at B Wh at is the shortest dist ance th at the S pider must crawl in

.

orde r to reach th e fly which rem ains st ation ary ? Of course the

,

spider ne ver d r0ps o r uses its we b but crawls fairl y

, .

76
.
—The P erplexed Cellarman .

Here is a li ttle p uz z le culled from the traditions o f an o ld mon

ast ery in th e we st o f Engl and Abbot F rancis it seems was a
.
, ,

ve ry worthy man an d his methods o f eq uit y e x tended to tho se

li ttle acts of charit y fo r which he was noted for miles roun d .

The Abbot moreo ver h ad

, fine t aste in wines On o ne occa
, a .

si on he sent fo r the cell arm an and compl i ed th t

, an a a p articular
bot tling was not to hi s pal ate .

Pray tell me B rother ohn how much o f this win e thou didst
, J ,

b ottle withal.
”
 r2 4 T H E C A NTE RBU R Y P UZZ LES

plac ed This would be e asy enough if it were not for the four
.

ro ses as we should me rely h ve to : from A to B an d insert the

,
a cut
,

piece at the bo ttom o f the flag But we are not allowed to cut
.

t hro ugh an yo f the rose s an d therein lies the diffi c ult y o f the pu z z le
, .

Of course we make no allowan ce for turnin gs .

”

78 .
—Catehz ng
°

the Hogs .

In the illustration Hen drick an d Katrii n are see n en gaged in the

exhil aratin g sport o f attempting the c apture o f a c ouple o f hogs .

Why did they fail

t
S ng
ra e 35 it may seem a complete an swer is afforded in the
.

h ttle puz z le gam e th at I will now expl ain .

 M IS C ELLAN EO US PU ZZLES 1 25

Cop y the simple diagram o n a con veniently large sheet of card

bo ard or p aper an d use four m arked counters to represent the
,

D utchm an his wife an d the two hogs

, ,
.

At the beginning of the game these must be pl aced o n the

s quares on which they are shown On e pl ayer represents Hendrick
.

an d K atriin an d the other the hogs

,
Th e first pl ayer moves the .

D utchm an an d his wife o n e squ are e ach in an y direction (b ut not

di agon all y) an d then the second pl ayer moves both pigs one square
,

e ach (no t di agon ally) an d so o n in turns until Hendrick c atches , ,

o n e hog an d K atrii n the other .

This yo u will find would be abs urdly e asy if the hogs moved
first but this is j ust wh at Dutch pigs will not do
,
.

79
—The . Thi rty one -
Game .

This is a game th at u sed to be (an d m ay be to this d ay for ,

aught I know) a f avo urite me ans of swindling emplo y ed b y c ard

sharpers at raceco urses an d in r ailway c arri ages .

As on its o wn merits however the game is p artic ul arly interest

, , ,

in g I will m ake no apology for prese nting it to my re aders

,
.

Th e c ardsh arper l ays down the twenty fo ur c ards shown in the -

illustration an d invites the innocent wayf arer to try his luck or

,

skill by seeing which o f them can first sc ore thi rt y o ne or drive

'

-
,

his opponent beyond in the following m anner ,

On e pl ayer turns down a c ard s ay a 2 an d counts two , ,

the second pl ayer t urn s down a c ard say a 5 an d adding this to , , ,

the score counts seven , the first pl ayer t urns down another
ca rd say a I
,
an d counts eight
, an d so the pl ay proceeds

al tern atel y u n til o n e o f them scores the thirt y o ne an d so -

,

Now the question is in order to win should you turn down the
, , ,

first card o r courteo usl y request your opponent to do so

, An d
ho w s ho uld yo u cond u ct your pl ay ? Th e re ader will perh aps say
“ h that is easy en ough You must play first
O , an d turn down a
.
,

3 then wh ate ver yo ur Opponent does h e c annot stop your makin g

, ,
1 26 THE C A NTE RB U R Y PU ZZL ES

t e n o r sto p your m a king se v enteen , twent y-

four, an d the wi nn i ng
,
”

t hirty o -
n e Y o u
.
h a ve onl y to secure these n u mbers t o win .

But thi s is j ust th a t little k n owledge which is such a d angerou s

thin g an d it pl aces yo u in the h ands of the sh arper

,
.

Yo pl y 3
u a a n d the ,
sh arper pl ays 4 an d counts seven y o u

play 3 an d count ten the sh arper t u rns dow n 3 an d score s

cou n t “ seventeen the sh rp er

y o u pl ay 4 a n d a

plays a and counts t went y o ne you pl ay 3 and m ake your

-

twe n ty four -
.

Now the sh arper plays the last 4 an d scores twent y e ight -

.

Yo u loo k in vain for another 3 with which to win for the y are ,

all turned down I So yo u are compelled either to let him m ake the
thirty o ne o r to go yours elf be yond and so lose the game
-
, .

Yo u th us see that your method o f cert ainl y winning bre aks

down ut terly by what may be c alled the method o f exh austion
, .
”
I 28 THE C A NTE RBU R Y PU ZZL ES

81 .
-
The E ig ht Clowns .

T his illustration represents a troupe of clowns I once saw o n the

on
C t e in nt E ach
.
clown bore one of the numbers I to 9 o n his
body After going t hrough the usu al tumbling j uggling an d other
. , ,

ant c
i s the
,
y gene rall y concluded with a few curious little n um eric al

tricks o ne of which was the rapid form ation of a number o f m agic

,

squ ares It occurred to me that if clown No I failed to appe ar

. .

(as happens in the illustration) this last item o f their perform an ce

,

might not be so e asy The re ader is as ked to discover how these

.

eigh t clowns m ay arr ange them selves in the form o f a squ are (one

place be ing vac ant ) so that every one of the three columns three
, ,

rows and each o f the two di agon als shall add up the s ame The
, .

vacant place may be at any p art o f the squ are but it is N o I t hat, .

must be abs ent .

 MI S CELLA N E O US PUZZL ES 129

On ce upon a time a knight went to consult a cert ai n farnous

'
-

wiz ard Th e intervi ew h ad to do with an affair o f the he art ; b ut

’

af t er
'
t h e im an o f m agic h ad foretold the most favour able issues
' '
,

and concocted a love potion th at wa s c ert ain t o help hi s visitor s

’
-

c ause the convers ation drifted on to occult subj ect s ge ne rally m

,
'

.
:

An d art tho u learned also in the m agic o f n irmbers

‘
asked

the knight Show me but one sample of thy wit in these m atters
. .
”

Th e o ld wi z ard took five blocks bearing numbers and pl aced ,

the m o n a shelf app arentl y at r andom so th at they stood in

, ,
‘
th e o rder 41 096 as shown in o ur ill ustration
, Hé I t he n l to o k
.
1.

in his han ds an 8 an d a 3 and h eld them together t o fo rm thé

.

,
"
1 30 T HE C AN T E RBU R Y PU ZZLES

Sir K night tell me s aid the wi z a rd c anst thou multiply

, , ,

o ne number into the other in thy mind P

Nay o f a truth
, , the good knight replied
”
I should n e ed.

to se t o ut upon the t as k with pe n an d scrip

”
.

Yet m ark ye how right e asy a thing it is to a man l e arn ed I n

the lore of far Ar a by wh o knoweth all the magi c that is hid in
,

th e philosophy o f n umb e rs I
The wi z ard simply placed the 3 next to the 4 o n the shel f an d ,

the 8 at the other end It will be found th at thi s gives the answer
.

—
q uit e co rrectly 3 41 0968 Very curious is it not ? Ho w m any
.
,

oth er two figure multipliers c an you fin d th at will produce the s ame

-

e ffe ct P You m ay place j ust as m any bloc ks as y ou o n the

shelf bea ring any fig ures yo u choose

, .

83 .
-
The R i bbon P roblem .

If we
t ake the ribbon by the ends and pull it o ut straight we ,

have the number 0 588 23 5 2 1 1 6 This numbe r has the peculi

'

94 7 47 .

ari ty
that if we multiply it by any o ne o f the numbers 2 3 4 53
,
, , . .
S3 2
R R
T HE C A N TE B U Y PUZZ LES
l d y suggested th t the simpl e st w ay w o uld be fo r he r t o
One a a

t ake a smaller sh are th an the other two bec ause then t he c arpet , ,

n ee d not be c u t into more th a n fo u r pieces .

her th ee e s y w ys of doing thi which I will l t h

'

s e av e e
T e are r a a ,

reader for the present the amusement of findi ng for himself merely ,

y
sa i ng th t
a i f yo u supp o s e the c ar pe t t o be n ine squ are feet then o ne ,

l ady m ay take a piece two feet squ are whole a nother a two feet ,

sq uare in two pieces an d the third a squ are foot whole

,
.

But this generous o ff er wo u ld not ‘

for a moment be entert a ined
by the other two sisters who insisted th at the squ are c arpet should
,
‘
be so cut th at e ac h should g et a squ a re m at o f ex actly the s a me
me .

No w , according t o the best Western authorities the y w ou ld ,

h ave found it n ecess ary to cut the ca rpet into seven pi eces ; b ut a
correspondent in Tokio assures me th at the legend is that they
did it in as few as six pieces and he wants to know whether such
,

a t hin g i s possible .

Yes it can be done .

Can you cut o ut the si x piece s th at will form three n

m ats o f equal size

85 .
-
Captai n Longbow and the Bears .

Th at emin ent and more o r less veracious traVelle r Capt ain

”
Longbow has a great grievance with the public He clairns th at .

during a recent expedition in Arctic regions he actu ally reach e d the

Nort h P ole but c ann ot induce anybody to believe him Of course
, . ,

t he diffi cul ty in such c ases i s to produce proof but he avers th at ,

future travellers when they succeed in accomplishing the s ame fe at

, ,

will fin d evidence on the spot He says that when he got there he

.

saw a be ar going round an d round the top o f the pole (which he .

declares is a pole) evidently perplexed by the peculi ar fact that no

,

matt er in what direction he looked it was always due south Cap .

-
P

t in Lo ngbow put an end to the bear s medit ations by shooting

’

a
hi m and afterwards imp ali ng hi m in the m anner shown i n the
, ,
 M IS C ELLA NE O US PUZZLES ‘
1 33

illustration as th e evidence for future travellers to which I h ave

,

allude d.

When the CaptaI n got o ne hundred miles so uth on his return

journey he h ad a little expe rience th at is somewhat puz z ling He.

was s urprised one mor nin g on looking down frOm an elevation

, ,

to see no fewer than eleven bears in his iIn me di ate vic init y ; But
'

wh at astonished him more th an anythi n g else was the curio us

fact that they h ad so placed themselves th at there were severi rows
of bears with fo ur bea rs In every row W
, . hether or not this was
'
t h e res ult of pure ac cident he c annot sa y b iI t su ch a thing might
,

have h appened If the rea der tries to m ake eleven dots on a sheet
.

o f pa per so th at there sh all be seven rows of dots with fo u r dots I n

every row he will find some diffI CIIlty; b ut the capt ain s al leged
,
’

groupin g of the bears is quite possible Can you discover how

.

they were arr anged ?

 THE C ANTE RBU R Y PUZ ZLES
I 34

h
T i s p uz z le h a s to do with r ai lw ay route s and ,i n these d a ys
much tr v lling shou ld prove useful Th e m ap of Engl and shows
of a e .

t wen ty four towns connect e d by a system of r ailways A resident

-
,
.

at th e town m ar k ed A at the t o p o f the m ap propose s t o visit ev e ry

o ne o f the towns once an d only once and to up,

at Z Thi s would be e as y en ough if he were able to cut across

.
,

co untry by ro ad as well as by rail b ut he is not

, , Ho w doe s he .

pe rform the feat ? Take your pencil an d st arting from A pass , ,

from town to town m aking a dot i n the towns yo u hav e vis it e d

, ,

an d se e if you can end at Z .

87 —The . Chifu Che mulpo P uz z le

-
.

Here is a puz z le that was once o n sale in the London shops

It represe nts a milita ry train—e u engi n e and eight cars The
.

.
1 36 T HE C A NTE RBU R Y PUZZ LES

sh e di sposed of a fif th of the remain der and gave a fifth o f an

,

egg over Then wh at sh e h ad left she divided equally among

'
.
. .

thirteen o f her friends .And strange to say sh e h ad not through

, ,

o ut all these t ransa ctions broken a single e gg fi Now the puz z le .

,

is to find the sm allest po ssi ble n umbe r of eg gs th at Mrs Co ve y .

c ould have t aken to market Can yo u s ay how m an y

.

89 — The
. P ri mrose P uz z le .

Select the n ame of any flower th at yo u think suitalble and th at ,

con tains eight letters Touch o ne o f the primroses with your

. ,

pencil and over o ne o f the adjoining an other o n ,

which yo u m ark the first letter of your word Then touch another .

v cnt flower an d again j ump over o n e in another direction an d

a a ,
,

wn te down the second letter Contin ue this (t aking the letters in

.

th ei r prope order until all the letters h ave been written down
r ) ,
 M IS C ELLA N E O US l PUZ ZLES ! 1 37

over may be oc cupied or n ot . The name of a t ree may lso

a be
.

Seven fri en ds named Adams Brooks Cater ; Do bson , E dwards

'

.
, , , ,

F ry an d Green were spending fifteen d ays together at the seaside

, , ,

and the y h ad a round brea kfast t able at th e hotel all to themselves .

It was agreed th at n o m an should ever sit down twice with the

sam e two neighbo urs As they can be se ated under these condi
.
,

tions in just fifteen ways the plan was quite practic able But co uld
, , .
'

the reader have prep ared an arran gement for every Sitting ? The
hotel proprietor was aske d to draw up a scheme but he miserably ,

Sometimes people will Speak o f mere cou nting as o ne o f the

simplest operations in the world but o n occasions as I shall Show , , ,

it i s far from e asy Sometimes the l abour can be diminished b y the

.

use o f little artifices ; sometimes it is pr actic a lly im possible to m ake

the required enumeration without h aving a very clear he ad indeed .

An ordin ary child b uying twelve post age st amps will al most in
, ,

stinctively say when he sees there are four along o n e side an d three
,

along the other F our times t r ee are t welve ;

h ‘ , w h ile hi s tin y
brother will co unt them all I n rows I etc I f the child S
'
'
.
,

ad d up the numbers I 2 3 up to 5 0 sh e , , , ,

a d dition s um o f the fift y numbers ,

more u sed to ari thmetic al o e rations will se e

p ,

at a gl anc e th a t by j oining the n umbersat the extremes th ere are

2 5 p airs of 5 1 ; therefore 2 5 x 5 1 I But his sm art son o f
,
:

twenty m ay go one better an d say Why multiply by 2 5 Just ,

add two 0 s to the 5 1 an d divide b y 4 an d there yo u are l

’

,
A tea merchant h as five tin tea boxes o f cubic al sh ape w
,
hich ,

he kee ps o n his counter in a ro w as sho wn i n o ur illustrati o n

, ,
.

, .
.
.

Every box has a pi cture o n each of its six sides so there are thirty , ,
 x3 8 T HE C AN TE RB U RY PUZZ LES

pictures in all but o ne pict ure on N o I is repe ated o n No 4 and . .

,

two o ther picture s on No 4 are repeated o n No 3

. There are ; .
,

therefore only t went y seven different pictures The own er always

,
-
.

ke eps No I at o n e end o f th e ro w and never allows No s 3 an d 5

. , .

to be put side by side .

tradesman s custome r h aving obtained this inf ormation

’
, ,

thinks it good puz z le to work o ut in how many way s

a

may be arranged o n the co unter so th at the order o f th

turns in front Sh all ne ver be twice alike He found .

o f th e count a tough little nut Can you work o ut .

wi thout gettin g your brain into a t angle Of course ,

pic res may be in a row as it is all a que stion of their order

t u
, .

92
—The . F o ur P orkers .

The fou p g are so pl ac ed each in a se parate sty that altho ugh

ri s
, ,
e ver
y on e o f t he thirt y six sties is in a st raight lin e eith r ho i
(
-
e r
z on tall
y verti cally or di agon ally) with at lea st o ne of the pigs
, ,
,
,
1 40 T HE C A N T E R BU R Y PU ZZ LES
‘ ’

by I is the sa me . You will find it quite impo ible ss to get rany

l r res ult
sm al e .

m y p le is t find the l r g est p ssible result D ivide

No w ,
uz z o a
o .

th e block s in to a n y two gro up s of five th at y o u like an d arr

, ang e

th em to form two multiplication sums th at S hall pro duce the same

p roduct an d the la rges t a mount possi b le T h a t.is all an d yet it,

is a nut th at requires some cracking Of course fr actions are no t

.
,

allo we d no r an
, ytricks W h atever T h e. p uz z le is quit e interest ing

e nough in the Sim

m e form in which I h ave given it ‘
P erh aps it
.

shoul d be added that the multi pliers ma

y co n t ain t w o figu res r . .

94.
—F o xes and Geese .

Here is a little puz z le of the moving counters cl ass that my ‘

read ers will probably find en tert aini n

g M a ke a di
. agr am o f
ay
'
n
con ve ni en t siz e similar to th at shown in o ur illustration an d ro
p
—
,

vide six c nters three m arked to represent foxes and three to

o u
 M IS C ELLA NE O US PUZZLES 14:

represe nt geese P lace the gee se on the discs 1 2 an d 3 an d the

. , , ,

foxes o n the discs n umbe red 1 0 I I an d 1 2 , , .

No w the p uz z le is this B y movi ng o ne at a time fo x , and

.
,

go ose altern atel y along a straight li ne from o ne disc to the n ext

,

o ne try to get the f oxes on I

,
z an d 3 a n d the geese on
, , ,

re a
ch of e ach other , or ther
e will be tro uble . Thi s rule , yo u

find pre vents yo u moving the fox from I I on the first move as on
,
!
,

either 4 or 6 he would be within re ach of a goose It also prevents

-
.

yo ur mo ving a fox from I O to 9 o r from 1 2 to 7 If yo u pl ay

, .

I O to 5 then y o ur next move m ay be 2 to 9 with a goose which

, ,

y o u could no t h ave pl ayed if the f o x h ad n o t previousl y gone from

10. It is perh aps unnec ess ary to say that onl y o n e fox o r o ne
goose can be o n a disc at the same ti me ” N ow wh at is the ,

sm allest n umber of mo ves necessary to make the fox es and geese

II T HE C A N T ER B U R Y P UZ ZL ES

95
—
.Ro bi ns on Crus oe
’
s Table .

d I i
'
Here is a curio us extr a ct fr o m R obi n son C rusoe s i a r y . t s

f d
'

not to be f oun d in the moder n editions o the Ad v e n tu r es a n ,

o t
is mi t e d in the o ld . T his h as alw a y s seemed to me t o b e a pit y .

The third day i n the morni n g ,the wind h a v i ng ab a t e d du ring

the ni ht I went do w n t o the shore h 0 ping to fi nd a t yp e w rite r a n d
g ,

other u se ful things washed up from the wrec k o f the shi p i but all

th at fell in my way was a piece o f timbe r with m an y in it .

My man F riday had man y times s aid that we st o od s adl y in ne ed

o f a sq ua re t able fo r o ur afternoon te a an d I bethought me h o w
,

this piece o f wood might be used for th at p u r pose An d since .

d uring the long time that F rid ay h ad n o w been with me I was no t

wanting to lay a found ation o f useful knowledge in his mind I told ,

h im that it was my wish to m ake the t able from the timbe r I h ad

fo und witho ut t here being an y holes in the top thereo f
, .

Friday was sadl y put to it to say how thi s might be more ,

I 44 T HE C A N T E R B U R Y PU ZZLES

p retty closely in o rder th at the y might get sh ade an d protection

,

from cold win ds 8 0 the y agree d to pl ant a lot o i young trees a

'

.
,

d ifiere n t number in ea ch orch ard in order to comp are res ults , .

One man h ad a single tree in his field another h ad two t rees , ,

another h ad thre e trees another h ad fo u r trees another five an d

, , ,

so o n the l as t m an h aving as m an y as fifteen trees i n hi s little

,

orchard Last year a very curiou s result was found to have come
. .
o ~

abo ut Each o f the fifteen individual s discovered th at e very tree

. ,

in his o wn orchard bore ex actly the same number o f apples But . , ,

what was stranger still o n comp aring notes they found that the
,

tota l gathered in every al lotment was almost the same In fact .

,

if the man with eleven trees h ad given o ne apple to the man who
had se ven trees an d the m an with fo urtee n trees had given three
,

each to the men

with ni n e an d thirteen trees ; th ey would all h ave

had exactly the same .

Now the puz z le is to disco ver h o w

,

ha ve had (the same i n every case) if th at li

'

bee n carried lo ut It is quite easy if y ou se t to work in the right

'
'

way .

When I pai d a visit to Peckh am rece n tl y I foun d e ve rybod y

asking What h as happene d to Sam Solde rs the plum
, ber He ,

se e me d to be in a bad wa
y an d his wife was seriousl y a
,nx ious about
the st ate o f his mind As he had fitted up a hot water app aratus
.
-

fo r me some yea rs ago which did not lea d to an explosion fo r at

l eas t three months (and the n o nl y d am ag ed the complexion o f
one o f the cook s followers I consider ble r g rd m
’

) h ad a e a fo,r hi .

The re he Mrs Solders w hen I call e d = to in quire

.
,
.

’
That s how he 3 been for t hree weeks He h ardly eats an ything
’

. .

and ta kes no rest whilst his business is s o ne lected th at I d on t

’

,
g
h ow what is goin g to h appen to me an d the fi ve

tearing his hair like a mad thin g . It s worr ying m e

’

,
 M ISCELLA N EO US PUZZ LES 1 45

I pe rsu aded Mrs Solders to expl ain m atters to me It see ms

. .

that he h ad recei ved an order from a customer to make two rec t

an gular z i n c cisterns one with a to p and the other without a to p
, .

Each was to hold ex actly cubic feet o f water when filled to

the brim . The p rice was to be a cert ain amount pe r ciste rn in ,

cluding cost o f l abour No w Mr Solders is a thrift y man so he

. .
,

n atur ally desired to m ak e the two ci st e rn s o f such dime nsio ns that

the sm allest po ssible qu antity o f met al should be required This .

was the little qu e stion th at was so worrying him .

Can my ingenious readers find the dimensions o f the most

economical cistern with a to p and also the ex act proportions o f
,

s uch a ci stern witho ut a top e ach to hold cubic feet o f water ?

'

By e conomical is meant the metho d that requires the smallest

possible quantit y o f met al No m argin n ee d be allowed fo r what
.

la dies would c all turnings I shall show how I he lped Mr

. .

Solders o ut o i his d ilemma He says : That little wrinkle you

'

gave me would be u se ful to o the rs In my trade

”
.

m077)
’
us T HE C A NTE RB U R Y PU ZZL ES

98 —The . N elson Colu mn .

Dun n g aNelson celebration I was st andin g in Trafal gar Sq uare

wit h a frie nd o f p uz z ling proclivities He h ad for some time been
.

gaz ing at th e column in an abstracted way an d seemed quite ,

unc onscious o f the c asu al rem arks th at I addressed t o him .

Wh at are yo u dre amin g about I s aid at l ast .

Two fee t he murmured .

Some bo dy s Trilbys P I inquired

’

Fi ve times roun d
Two feet five times roun d I Wh at o n earth are ou sayi ng
,
y
Wait a minute he said beginning to figure something o ut
”
, ,

the back o f an en velope I n o w detected that he was in the

.

t roes of producin a n ew proble m o f some sort

h g
hi s me thod s o f workin at th ese thin gs
fo r I w e ll k
,
n ew

g .
 148 T HE C A N T ER B U R Y PU ZZL ES
—
markable coin cidences little thin gs agai nst the prob abilit y o f the
o ccurre nce o f which the odds are i mmense
— th at fill us wi th be
wilderment . the t hree motor men in the illustration h as
One of

j ust happe ned o n o ne o f these queer coincidences He is pointing

.

o ut to his t wo friends th at the three n umbers o n their c ars cont ai n

all th e figures 1 to 9 an d o and wh at is more rem arkable that if

, , ,

th e numbe rs o n the first an d second c ars are multipli e d t o ge th e r

t he y will m ak e the num be r o n the third c ar That is 78 345 and
.
, , ,

co nt ain all the

ten figures and 78 multiplied by 3 45 m akes
,

Now the rea der will b e able to fin d m an y simil ar sets o f

,

n um bers o f t wo three and five figures res pecti vel y th at h ave

, ,

t he sam e pe culi arit y But there is on e set and o ne o nly in which

.

t he numbe rs have this addi tion al peculi arit y—th t the second
, ,

a
num e
br
is a m ultiple o f the first In other
.

be d mded by 8 wit hout a remai nde r the n um b

word s i f 3 45
, co uld
7 , e rs on the c ars
 M IS C ELLA N EO US PUZZLES 1 49

wo uld th em selve s fulfil this ext ra con dition Wh at are the three .

n umbe rs th at we want ? R emem ber that they must have two ,

three and five figures re spectivel y

, .

1 02 .
—A Revers i ble M ag ic S quare .

Can yo u construct a square o f sixteen di fferent n um be rs so th at

it sh all be magi c (th atis addi ng up ali ke in the four rows four , ,

co lumns an d two di ag onals ) whether you turn the di agr am u pside

, ,

d own o f n ot P Yo u must not us e a 3 4 o r 5 as these figures will , , ,

not reverse ; but a 6 maybecome a 9 when reversed a 9 a 6 a 7 a 2 , , ,

an d a 2 a 7 The I 8 an d 0 wi ll read the same both ways

.
, , Re .

m ember that the const ant must not be changed by the re vers al .

The above di agr am is the pl an o f an underground r ai lway The .

fare is uniform for any dist ance so long as you do no t go twice ,

along any portio n o f the line during the same jour n e y No w a .

ce rt ain passe nger with plenty o f t im e o n his han ds g oes dail y

, ,

from A to F How m any di fferent rout es are there fro m which

.

he may select F o r ex ample he can t ak e the short direct route , ,

A B C D E F in a straight line ; o r he c an go o ne o f the long

’

, , , , , ,

rout es such as A B D C B C E D E F It will be noted that

, , ,
‘
, , , , , , , .

he has Option al lines betwee n cert ain st ations , and hi s selec tio ns
i

o f these le ad t o v ari ations o f the complete route Many readers

‘

will fin d it a very perple xi ng littl e problem though its co nditions

’

are so sim ple .

I 50 T HE CAN TE RB U RY PUZZ LES

Mr Simon
.
Softleigh h ad spe n t most o f his life between T oo ti ng
Be e an d F ench urch Street His knowledge . o f the sea w as there
fore very li mi t e d So as he was t aking a holiday o n the south
.
,

o
c as t ,
he tho ught this was a splendid opportunity f o r pic ki n g up a

li ttle use ful inf orm ation He therefore proceeded to draw the
.

n ative s .

I suppose said Mr Softleigh o ne mo rmng to a j o vi al weather

0

.
, ,

beaten skipper .
yo u hav e seen m an y wonderful sights on the rolling
seas

Bles s yo u sir yes said the skipper

, , , F raps y ou ve never .
’ '

seen a vanilla iceberg or a merm aid a h anging out her things to d r

, y -

o n th e equatori al li ne o r the blue winged sh ar k wh at fli es through-

th e air in pur suit o f hi s pre y o r the se a sar int

p
-
,

Have yo u reall y see n a se a serpent P I thought it was nu -

cert ain whether they e xis t e d .

"

(1a Yo u wouldn t say there was anything uncertin ’

[ 5 2 T HE C A N T ERB U RY PUZZ L ES

Ho w much longer would the ladies h ave t aken ove r the ir n eedle
work task i f the si sters o f the curate refe rred to h ad play ed l awn
tennis instead o f attending the meetings ? Of course we must
assum e that the l adies attended regul arl y an d I am sure th at the y
,

all worke d equ ally we ll A mutu al kiss here counts as two Oscula
.

rod —The Adventuro us S nai l.

"

A simple version o f the pu z z le o f the climbi ng sn ail is familiar

to e ve rybod y We were all t aught it in the nu rsery and it was
. ,

appare n tly intended to inculcate the simple moral t hat we sho uld

ne ver sli p if we can help it This is the popul ar story

. A .

ping feet every night How long does it t ake to get to the
back 2 .

top Of co ur se we are expec t e d to sa the an swer is twel ve d ays

,
y
because the cre ature m akes an ‘
,

actu al adv ance o f 1 foot in e v ery

w
t e ty four hours But the mod ern infant in arms is not t aken
n -
.

m in thi s way He says correctly e nou gh th at at the e nd o f the

.
, ,
 M IS C ELLANE O U S PUZZ LES 1 53

ninth d ay the sn ail is 3 feet from the to p and there fore re aches ,

the summit o f its ambition on the tenth d ay for it would cease ,

to slip when it had got to the top

'

Let us however consider the origin al story Once u pon a

, ,
.

time two philo so phers were walking in their garden when o ne of ,

them espied a highly respect able member of the Helix Aspersa

famil y a pioneer in mount ainee ring in the act o f m aking the
, ,

perilous ascent o f a wall 2 0 feet high Judging b y the trai l the . ,

gentleman calcul ated th at the sn ail ascended 3 feet e ach d ay ,

sleeping and slipping b ack 2 feet every night .

Pr ay tell me said the philosopher to his fri end who was in

”
, ,

the same li ne o f business how long will it t ake Sir Sn ail to climb
,

to the to p of the wall an d descen d the other side ? Th e t0p o f the

wall as you know h as a sh arp edge so that when he gets there he
, , ,

will instantly begin to desc end putting preci sely the same exertion
,

into hi s d aily climbing down as he di d in hi s climbi ng u p and ,

sleeping an d slippi ng at nig ht as before .

”

This is the true version of the puz z le and my rea ders will ,

perh aps be interested in working o ut the exact numbe r o f days .

Of course in a pu z z le o f this kind the d ay is always supposed to be

,

e qu all y divided into twelve hours d ayti me an d twelve hours night

’ '
.

1 07 .
-
The F o ur P ri nces .

Th e dominions o f a cert ain Eastern mon arch formed a perfe ct ly

sq uare tract of country It happen ed th at the king o ne d ay
.

disco vered th at his four sons were not only plotting agai nst each
other but were in secret rebellion against himself Aft e r co n
, .

sultin g with his advi sers he decided not to exile the princ e s b ut to ,

co n fin e them to the four corners of the country where e ac h should ,

be given a tri angular territory of eq ual area beyond the boundaries -

,

of which they would p ass at the cost o f their lives No w the .

,

royal surveyor fo und himself confronted by gre at natural difii

culties owing to the wild ch ar acter of the co untry
, Th e result .

was th at while each was given ex actly the s ame area the four tri ,
1 54 THE C A N TE RB U R Y P U ZZ LES

a ng l
u ar districts were all of di ff eren t sh apes some w h at ,

shown in the ill ustr ation T h.e pu z z le is to give the three

ment s fo r e ach o f the four dist ricts in the sm allest po ssible

-all whole furlongs . In other words it is required to
,

sm allest possible n umbers) four ration al right angl ed tri an gl es -

equal area .

1 08 .
—Plato and the Nin es .

Both in ancient and in modern times the number mne has

considered to possess peculi arl y mystic q ualities We .

inst ance th at there were nine Mu ses nine rivers o f Hades and
, , ,

that Vulc an was nine d ays falling down from he aven Then it .

h as been confidentl y held th at nine t ai lors m ake a m an while

we kn ow th at there are nine pl anets nine d ays wonders and th at
’
, ,

a cat has nine lives - an d sometimes nin e t ails .

Most people are acqu ainted with some o f the curious properties
o f the n u
m ber nine in ordin ar y arithmetic F o r ex ample write
. ,

down a number cont ain ing as m any figures as you like ad d these ,

figure s together and deduct the sum from the first number No w
, . ,

the sum o f the figures in this new number will alway s b e a multiple
o f nine.

There was once a worthy m an at Athens who was not only a

cranky arithmetici an but also a mystic
, He was deeply convin ced
.

o f the m agic prope rties o f the number n in e and was e rpetu all y
p ,
 5 6 T HE C AN T E R B U R Y PU ZZLES

o ut nin e teeth ,
an d expired in nine minutes . I t will
be re d that nin e was hi s l uck y n umber It . was e vi

In solving the above little puz z le only the most ,

ari thmeti cal si gn s are necessa ry Though the an swer .

sim ple wh e n yo u see it m an y re aders

,

in disc overing it Take your pencil and see if you can arrange
.

t hree nin es to represent twenty .

1 09 .
—Nougkts and Crosses .

Every child knows ho w to pl ay thi s game Yo u make a square .

o f nin e cell s an d e ach o f the two pl aye rs pl ayin g altern ately puts
, , ,

his mark (a nought or a cro ss as the case m ay be ) in a cell with the

,

obj ec t o f getting three in a line Whichever player first gets three

.

in a line wins with the exultin g cry

Tit tat, toe , ,

My l ast go
Three j olly butcher bo ys
All in a ro w .
”

It is a very ancient game But if the two pl ayers h ave a

.

fee t knowl e dge o f it o ne o f three thing s m ust alway s h

,

(r) The first player should win (2) the first player should lose
o r (3) the game sh ould always be dr awn Which is co rrec t .

110 .
—0v£d s G ame ’
.

H aving exami ned Noughts an d Crosses we will now co n ,

s ide r an e xt ensio n of the g ame th at is d istin ctl y mentioned i n t he

works o f Ovid It is in fact the p arent o f Ni ne Me n s Morris

.
, ,
’
,
"

refe rred to by Sh akespe are in A M idsummer N ight s Dream (Act ii ’

.,

Scene Each pl ayer has three counters which th ey p lay al ternately ,

o n to th e ni ne poi nts shown i n the di agr m with the o bj ec t o f

a ,

gett i ng three in a li ne and so winning But after th e six co unt ers.

 M IS CELLA NE O US PUZ ZLES 1 57

are played th ey then proceed to move (always to an adj acent

un occupied point ) with the s ame obj ect In the e xarnple below
.

White pl ay ed first an d Bl ack has j ust pl ayed o n p oint 7 It is now

, .

White s move and he will undoubtedly pl ay from 8 to 9 and the n

’

, , ,

whate ve r Bl ack may do he will continue with 5 to 6 and

, , so win .

That is the simple g ame : Now if both pl ayers are e q ually

, perfect
sho uld h appe n Should the firs t player always
Or should the second pl ay er win P Or sho uld e ve ry game
draw ? One o nl y o f these things should always occ ur Which .

it
rrr
.
—
Th
e F armer s Oxen
’
.

A child m ay propose a problem th at a sage c ann ot answer .

A f armer propounded the following question : That ten acre -

meadow o f min e will feed twelve bullocks fo r si xtee n wee ks or

e ighteen bullocks for eight weeks Ho w m an y b ulloc ks could I
’

fee d o n a forty acre field fo r six weeks the grass growing regul arl y
~
-
,

all t he time

It will be seen that the sting lies in the t ail That st ead y
.
1 58 T HE C A NTE RBU R Y PU Z Z LES

growth o f the grass is such a re ason able point to be co nsidere d —

yet to some readers it will c ause considerable perplexit y .

grass is o f cou
,
rse ass umed to be of
,

ness in every case when the c attle begin t o eat The difficult y .

not so great as it appears if y ou properly att ac k the q uestion

,
.

112 .
— The Great Grangemoor Mystery .

Mr St anton Mowbray was

. very we al thy man a reputed a ,

millionaire residing in that be autiful old m ansion that has figured

,

so much in English history G range m o o r P ar k ,He was a b achelor .

,

spent most of the ye ar at home an d lived quietly e nough , .

Accordi ng to the evidence given o n the d ay preceding the night

‘
,

o f the crime he received by the second post a single

contents o f which evidently gave him a shoc k At ten .

ni ght be dismissed the servants s aying th at he had so me ,

busine ss matters to look into and wo uld be sitting up late

, .

would require no attend ance It was supposed that after all

.

gone to bed he had admitted some person to the house for ,

o f the serv ants was positive that she h ad he ard loud

at a very late hour .

Next morning at a quarter to seven o cloc k o ne

,
’

se rvants o n entering the room foun d Mr Mowbr ay

, , .

floor shot through the he ad an d quite dead Now

, , .

the curious circumst ance o f the c ase It was c le ar that after .

bullet had passed o ut o f the dead m an s head it h ad struc k the ’

clock in the room right in the very c entre of t he face an d actu

, ,

welded together the three b and s for the clock

th at revolved ro und the s ame di al as the ho ur
But altho ugh the three hands had become welded to ge t
as they s t ood in rel ation to e ach other at the moment

yet they were free to revolve round the swivel in one piece ,

had been st upidly spun ro und several times by the serv ants be
Mr Wiley Slyman was c alled upon the sp ot But they would not
.
.

move separately .
1 60 T H E C ANTE RB U RY PUZZ LES
The matt er is sup remely simple Yo u will notic e .

thre e band s appear to be at e q ual dist ances from o ne

The ho ur h an d fo r e a n ple is exactl y twent y m inutes
from th e minute han d—th at is the third o f th
, ,

th e dial You att ac h a lot o f im port anc e to

.

servants have bee n re volvi ng the welde d han ds ,

no conse que nce what e ver ;

taneo usly as th e y are free o n the swivel

, ,

of themselves into e q uili b rium Give me a .

can te ll yo u be y o n d any do ub t the e xact ti m e th at the

”
fired .

Mr Wiley Slyman t o o k fro m his p ock et a n ote boo k

. ,

to figure it o ut I n a few mi nut es

.

a sli p o f paper o n which ,

th e crim e The stranger .

Mowbray s was con vict e d

’
,

but be fore he pai d the pen alty for his wic ke d act he admitted ,

Mr Slyman 5 st at em e nt o f the time was pe rf ec tly correct

’
. .

Can yo u also gi v e the e xact time

Wood Block: —Cutting

l

H a a

An ec onomi cal carpe nter had a bloc k o f wood measuring

inches lo ng by four in ch es wide by t hree
dee p How man y piec es
.
,

by o ne in ch and a h alf by o n e in ch an d a quart er ,

o f it It is all a question of how yo u cut them o ut Mos t .

would have more wast e m ateri al left ove r than is necessary .

many pieces could you get o ut o f the bloc k P

H 4
.
-
The Tramp s and the Biscuits .

Four me rry tramps bought borrowed foun d o r in some , , ,

mann r o bt ai ne d pos sess ion of a bo x o f biscuits which

e ,
 M IS C ELLA N EO US PU ZZLES 161

tr ee , o ne man
pproache d the bo x devoure d exactly a qu arter o f
a ,

the numbe r o f biscuits except the o d d o n e left over which h e

,
.
,

threw as a bribe to their dog Later in the night a second man

.

awoke an d hit o n the same idea t aking a qu arter o f wh at rem ai ned

,

and giving the od d biscuit to the dog Th e third an d fourth me n

.

di d preci sely the same in turn t aki ng a qu arter o f what they found
,

and giving the o dd biscuit t o the do g In the m orni ng they divided

.

what remai n ed equ all y amongst them and again gave the od d ,

bisc uit to the anim al Every man noticed the reduction in the
.

con ten ts o f the bo x b ut believi ng himself to be alone res po nsi ble

, , ,

m ade n o comments Wh at is the smallest possible n umber o f

.

biscuits that there could have been i n the bo x whe n they first
acquired it i
‘
1 64 T HE C ANTE R B U R Y PU ZZLES

t ri angul ar numbe rs with fo ur stools an d for p yramidal numbe rs ,

wi th five stools In these c as e s there is always only o ne met hod

.

o f solution — th at is o f piling the

, cheese s .

In the case o f three stools the first and fourth rows tell us that
,

4 che e se s m ay be removed in 1 5 moves 5 in 3 1 7 i n 1 2 7 Th e , , .

se cond and fifth rows show th at with four stools 1 0 may be re , ,

moved in 49 an d 2 1 in 3 2 1 moves Al so with five stools we fin d

,
.
, ,

from the thi rd an d sixth rows that 2 0 cheeses require 1 1 1 moves ,

an d 3 5 ch ees es 3 5 1 moves But we also le arn from the t able the

.

necessary method of piling Thus with four stools an d 1 0 cheeses

.
, ,

the previous column shows th at we m ust m ake piles o f 6 an d 3 ,

—
which will t ake 1 7 and 7 moves respectively th at is we first pile ,

th e six sm allest c h eeses in 1 7 moves o n o n e stool ; then we pile

the next 3 cheeses o n another stoo l in 7 moves then remove the
largest cheese in 1 move ; then repl ace the 3 in 7 moves ; a nd

finally replace the 6 in 1 7 : m aking in all the necessary 49 mo ves .

Similarly we are told th at with five stools 3 5 cheeses m ust form

piles o f 20 1 0 an d 4 which will respect ively t ake 1 1 1 49 an d 1 5
, , , , ,

mo ves .

If the n umber o f cheeses in th e c ase o f four stools is n ot tri

an gular and in the case of five stools p yr amid al then there wi ll
, ,

be more than o ne way o f m aking th e piles and subsidi ary t ables ,

will be re quired This is the c ase with the R e ve s 8 cheeses But

.
’
.

I will le ave the re ader to work o ut for himself the ex ten si on o f .

the problem .

The P ardon er s P uz z le
’
2 .
-
.

Th e diagram o n p age 1 65 will show how the Pardoner started

from the l arge black town and visited all the other towns o nce ,

and once onl y in fifteen st rai ght pilgrim ages

, .

Se e No 3 20 The R oc k s Tour in A i n M
’ ”
.
, , . .

3 —The
. M i ller 3 P uz z le’
.

The way to arrange the sacks o f flo ur is as follo ws - 2 , 78 1 56 , ,

39 4 Here each pair when m ultiplied by its sin gle n eigh bo ur

, .

makes the n umbe r in the middle an d o nl y five o f the s ac ks nee d ,

 S O LUTI O NS m;

be There are j ust thre e other ways in which the y

have bee n arr an ged (4 3 9 1 56 78 2 ; o r 3 5 8 1 74 29 6 ; o r 6
, , , , , , , , , 29 ,
1 74, 58, but the y all require the moving o f seven sacks .

The Knight de clared th at as m any as 575 be

marke d o ff o n his sh ield, with a rose at e ve ry co rner . Ho w this
1 66 THE C A N TE R BU R Y PU Z ZLES

res ult is a chie ved m ya be real iz e d b y refere n ce to the accomp a ny

ing di a gra m — J o in A B C a n d D an d t h ere,
are 66 squ
,
ares o f , ,

t h is s iz e to be fo rm e d ; the si z e A E F O gi v es 48 A H I J , , , , , , , ,

3 2 ;

K ,
h m b 14 ; K O S D 16 ;
, , , , , , ,

t C 4; Q i T h tot l number is thus 5 75 T hese

Q , p ,
u r,
2 ,
e a , , , , .
.

groups have bee n treated as if each o f them represent e d a di fferent

siz ed square This is correct with the o ne exception that the
. ,

sq uares o f the fo rm B N O P are ex actl y the same siz e as those

, , ,

o f the form K h m b , , , .

good lady explai ned that a hung that is made fast in a

The .

barre l is like another bun g th at is falling o ut o f a b arrel because

o ne o f them is i n secure an d the other is al so i ns ecure The little .

re lationship pose r is readily understood when we are told th at the

paren tal co mm an d came from the father (who was also in the
ro om) an d not from the mothe r .

pu z z le propounded by the j ovi al host o f the Tab ard I nn

The
o f Sou thwark h ad p rove d more popul ar th an an y other o f the

whole collect ion I see my merry masters he cried

. th at I, ,
”
,

have sorely twist ed thy brains by m y little piece of craft Yet it is .

b ut a simple m atter fo r me to put a true pi n t o f fine o ld ale in each

o f these two measures albeit o ne is o f five pints and the other o f
,

thre e pints without using an y other meas ure wh atever

, .
”

The host o f the Tabard I nn thereupon procee ded to explain

to th e pilgrims h o w this app arentl y im p ossible t ask could be done .

He first fille d the 5 pint and 3 pint measure s and then tu rning the
- -
, ,

tap all o wed the b arrel to run to w aste—a proc e eding ag ai nst which
,
168 T HE C A NTE R B U R Y PU ZZLES

tte n pro rl y m tched It w l o sti ul ted in ff ect th t

p a r p e a as a.
s p a e a one

o f th e thre e pieces m ust be as s ma ll as possible Th e illus tra tion .

shows ho w to make the c uts and ho w to put the piece s together ,

while o ne o f the pieces cont ains only twelve o f the little sq u ares .

9
—Th
,e C arpenter s P uz z le
’
.

The carpenter said th at he m ade a bo x whose intern al dimensions

were exactl y the same as the origin al block o f wood—that is 3 feet ,

by 1 foot by 1 foot He then pl ace d the carved pill ar in this bo x

.

and filled up all the vac ant s pace wi th a fin e dry san d which he , ,

care full y shook do wn until he could get n o more i nto the bo x .

Then h e remove d the pill a r t aking gre at care not to lose an y o f

,

the sand which o n being sh aken down alone in the bo x fille d a

, , ,

space e qu al to o ne cubic foot This was therefo re the quantity

.
, ,

o f wood that h ad bee n cut away .

10 ,
—The P uz z le o f the S qui re
’
s Yeoman .

The illustration will show h o w three o f the arrows were removed

e ach to a neighbouring sq uare o n the signbo ard o f the Cheq uers
Inn so that still no arrow was in line with anothe r The bl ack
, .

do ts indi cate the s q uares o n which the th ree arrows ori gin ally
sto od .
 S O LUTI O NS

As there are eighteen cards be arin g the letters CANTE RBURY

P ILG R I MS write the n umbers 1 to 1 8 in a circle as shown in
, ,

the Then write the first letter C 1 and e ac h

,

letter against the second number that to be

vacant Thi s h as been done as far as the s econd R I f the re ader
. .

completes the process b y pl acing Y against 2 P ag ainst 6 I against

, ,

1 0 an d so o n he will get the letters all pl aced in the followin g

, ,

order —C YAS NPTR E I R MBLU I R G which is the re quired arran ge

,

ment for the c ards C being at the top o f the p ack and G at th e
,

botto m .
1 70 THE C A N TE R B U R Y PU ZZ LE S

12 —The . M erchaut s P uz z le
'
.

pu z z le amounts to findin g the sm allest possible number th at

This
has ex actly sixty four divisors counting 1 an d the number itse lf as
-
,

di viso rs The least n umber is

. The pilgrims might there ,

fo re have ridden in single file two an d two three an d thre e four

, , , ,

an d four and so o n in ex actly sixty four di fferent ways the last

, ,
-
,

ma nn er being in a single row of 7 560 , .

The Merch ant was c areful to s ay th at the y were going over a

co mmon an d n o t to mention its si z e fo r it cert ai nl y would no t
, ,

be po ssible along an ordin ary ro ad I

To find how m an y diff erent numbers will di vide a given numbe r ,

N let N a§
,
= b ”
c where a b c '
are p rime numbers , , .

Then th e n umbe r o f di viso rs will be (p + r) (q + r) (r + r)

which includes as divisors 1 and N itse lf Thus in the c ase o f .

my puz z le
6 = 3 3
7 , 5 0 2 x 3 x 5 x 7
P owers 3 3 1 1

Therefore 4 x 4 x 2 x 2 64 diviso rs .

To
fin d the smallest number th at has a given number o f di visors
we must p roceed by trial But it is import ant sometimes to note .

whe ther o r no t the condition is th at the re shall be a gi ven number

o f di visors aud uo more Fo r ex ample the sm allest n umber that
.
,
’

has se ven divisors an d no more is 6 4 while 2 4 has eight divisors , ,

and might e qu all y fulfil the conditio ns Th e stip ul ation as to .

no more was not necessary in the c ase o f m y pu z z le for n o ,

small e r number has more th an six t y four divisors -

.

1 3 —The M an of Law s P uz z le ’
.
.

The
fewest possible moves for getting the pri soners into their
dungeo ns in th e re quired numerical order are twent y six The -
.

me n move in the followin g order —1 2 3 1 2 6 5 3 1 2 6 5 , , , , , , , , , , , ,

3 I 2 4 8 7 I 2 4 8 7 4 5 6
. . . . . , As there are never more than
, , , , , , , .
1 7: T HE C ANTE RBU R Y PU ZZLES

eat th e p s
a t y an d tw,
o ar e willing to e at o f eith e r An y possibl e .

co mbi n a tio n m u st f all i n to o n e o f the following group s (i Where . .

th e w ar d en pie is dist r ib u t e d entirel y a mong the five first mentioned ;

ii
( ).
whe r e onl y o n e o f the a ccommod a ting p air is giv e n pie ; (iii ) .

where the other o f the p air is given pie ; (iv ) where both o f the .

pair are given pie .

ii
( ) 5 ( )
. 0 ,
iii 1 0
.
( iv , .

the eight participants A gre at .

as 1 8 5 b y overlooking the f act

,

precisely the same eight guests would be

c l ass (ii ) though the a ccommod ating p air would
,

en tly o f the two dishes This is the point that U pset the .

tions o f the comp any .

The S omb ucmr s P uz z le

’
'

16 .
- .

The number that the Sompnour confided to the Wife o f Bath

was twent y nine and s he was told to begin her count at the Doctor
-
,

o f P hysic who will be seen in the illustration st andin g the s econd

,

o n her right The first count of twenty nine f alls on the Shipm an
.
-
,

who steps o ut o f the ring The second count falls on th e Doctor

.
,

who next steps o ut Th e rem aining t h.

o n the Cook the Sompnour and the Miller Th e l adies would

, , . ,

therefo re h ave been left in possession h ad it not been for the

,

un fort u nate error o f th e goo d Wife An y multiple o f added .

to 2 9 would also h ave se rv ed the same pur pose begi nn ing the ,

co unt at the D oc tor .

17 —The . M ouk s P uz z le
’
.

The Mon k might have pl a ced dogs in the ke nn els in two

san d n ine hundred an d twent y six di fferent w a ys so th at -
,

sh o uld be ten dogs on every side Th e numbe r o f do gs might .

from twenty to fort y an d as long as the Monk k ep t ,

within thes e limits th e thing was always possible .

The gen e ral so lution to this pu z z le is difficult .

 S O LUT I O NS 17 3
fo r 11 dogs on e very side of the square the number of di fferent ,

where n is odd , an d

u
‘ I ou
3 2
3 811 68 71
1, where u is even i f , we count only tho se
48
arrangements that are fundament ally diffe rent But if we count .

all re ve rsal s an d reflections as di fferent as the Monk himself did , ,

then 11 dogs (odd o r even) maybe pl aced in

wa ys . In order that there may be 72 dogs o n every side the number ,

m ust n o t be less than 2 11 nor gre ater th an 471 but it ma be an y

y ,

An e xtension o f the princ iple in vo l ved in this puz z le is given in

“
No 42 Th e Riddle o f the P ilgri ms “
Se e also The Eight Villas
” ”
. .
,

an d A Dormitory Puz z le in A i n M . .

18 .
— The S hipman ’
s P uz z le .

Th e are just two hundr d

er sixt y four different ways in
e an d -

whi ch the shi p M agdaleu might h ave m ade her ten annual vo yages
without ever going over the same course twi ce in a ye ar Every .

ye ar she must n ec essa ril y end her te nth voyage at the islan d from
which she first set o ut .

19 .
—The P uz z le
of Chertsey was c orrect . The curiously
1
74 T HE C A NTE RBU R Y PUZZ LES

form a pe rfec t square . How this is done is shown in the illust ra

See also p .
31 in A i u M
. .

20 .
-
f
Thc P uz z le f o the Doctor o P hysi c .

H ere we have in deed a knotty problem Our text books tell .

-

us that all Spheres are similar an d th at simil ar so lids are as the

,

cu be s o f corresponding lengt hs There fore as the circumferences

.
,

o f th e two phi als were on e foot and two feet respectively an d the

cu be s o f o n e an d two added together m ake nine what we h ave to ,

fin d is two other numbers whose c u bes added together m ake nin e .

These n umbe rs clearly must be fraction al Now this litt le ques

.
,

tio n has reall y engaged the attention o f le arned men fo r two hun
dre d and fift y ye ars ; but although Peter de F erm at showed in the
se ven teen th cent u ry h o w an answer m ay be found in two fraction s

with a den omin ator o f no fewer th an twenty o n e figures not only -

,

are all the pu blishe d answers b y his method th at I h ave seen

, ,

in acc urate but nobod y h as ever published the mu ch sm aller result

,

th at I n ow print Th e c u bes o f W
.
i t t 3
11 an d m -
7

ad de d tog et her m ake ex actl y

o f a foot are the me asurements o f the circumferen ces o f the

phi als that the Doctor required to cont ai n the same quantit
liquid as those produced An eminent actu ary an d another
.

res po ndent h ave t aken the tro uble to cube o ut these numbe r s ,

they both find my res ult quite correct .

If the phi als were o n e foot an d three feet

respe ctively then an answer would be that the cubes
,

an d
W added together m ake ex actl y 2 8 See also NO 6 1 . .
,

Th e S ilver Cu bes .

Given a known c ase for the ex pression o f a number as the sum

o r diffe rence o f two c u bes we c an by formul a derive from it an
, , ,

infini te n umber o f other c ases alte rn atel y positive an d negative .

Th us Fermat s tarting f rom the known case 1

,
3
2
3
9 (which w e

will call a fundament al case ) first obt ained a negative solution in

,
1 76 T HE C A NTE RBU R Y PU Z ZLES

be lieve d to be th e max imum number o f rows possible ; an d though

w ith o ur pre se n t k nowledge I cann ot rigorousl y demonstrat e th at
fift e en rows cannot be beaten I have a stron g pi0us Opinion
,
-

h
t a t it is t he hig hes t num ber o f rows obt ai n able .

22 .
—The F rankli n
'
s P uz z le .

The a nswer to this pu z z le is shown in the illustration where ,

the n umbe rs the six te en bottles all to 3 0 in the ten

st raight direc tion s The trick consists in th e fact th at al th ough

.
,

the six bottles (3 5 6 9 1 0 and 1 5 ) in whi ch the flowe rs have

, , , , ,

bee n pla ce d are no t removed yet the sixt ee n ne ed not oc cupy

,

e x actl y the sam e position o n th e t able as be fo re The s qu are is . ,

in fact formed o ne step fu rther to the le ft

, .

23 .
—The S qui re
’
s P uz z le .

The po rtrait may be dr awn in a sin gle lin e because it cont ains
only two points at which an od d n um ber o f lin es m ee t but it is ,

absolutely necessary to be in at o n e o f these poin ts an d e n d at

g
the other One point is near the outer extremit y of the King s
’
.

left eye the o th e r is belo w it o n th e left chee k .

 S O LU T I O NS '
17 7

The five hundred silver pennies might h ave been pl aced in the
four b ags in accordance with the st ated con ditions in ex actly
, ,

ent ways If there h ad bee n a th ousan

di ffe r . d
“
coins there
would be ways It 15 a difficult problem m the partition
.

o f numbers . I have a single form ul a for the solution of anyn umber

o f coins in the ca se o f fo ur b ags but it was e
, xtremely h ard to con
S truct an d the best method 1s to find the twelve separ ate formulas
,

for the di fferent con gruences to the modulus 1 2 .

o
“ ~

’
25 .
-
The P arson s P uz z le .

A very little ex amin ation o f the origin al drawing will have

shown th e reader th at as he will h ave at first re ad the c onditio ns
, ,

the pu z z le i s quit e impossible o f soluti on We have therefore to

.

12
1 78 T HE C A N TE RB U R Y PU ZZ L ES

loo k fo r so me loophole in the a ct ual conditions as they we re worded .

If th e Parso n could get round t he source o f the river he could then ,

cross e very bridge once and once only on his way to church as ,

s hown in the anne x ed illustr atio n Th at this was no t prohibited

.

we sh all soon find . Though the pl an showed all the bridge s in

his pari sh it only showed p art o f the parish it sel f It is no t
, .

st at e d th at the river did no t t ake its rise in the p arish and since ,

it leads to the o nl y possible solution we must assume th at it did

, .

The an swe r wo uld be therefore as shown

, , It shou ld be noted
.

that we are cle arly prevented from considering the possibili t y o f

g e tting round the mo u th o f the river bec au se we ar
, e told it join e d
t he sea some hundred miles to t he south while no parish e ver
,

e xtended a hundred miles

26 —The
. Haberdasher s P uz z le
’
.

The illustration will show how the tri an gular piece o f clot h may
be cut in to four piec es that will fit togethe r and fo rm a pe rfec t

sq uare Bisec t AB in
. and in E ; produce AE
to F making EF eq ual to EB ; bisect AF i n G an d descri be the
1 80 THE C A N T E RBU R Y PUZZLES

prac tical form as it was m ade in polished m ahogany with brass

,

hi ng e s fo r use by cert ai n au diences It will be se en th at th.e four

piece s form a sort o f ch ai n an d th at when they are closed up i n
,

one di re ction they form the tri angle and when closed in the oth e r ,

direc tion they form the squ are .

27 — The Dyer s P u zz le
.
’
.

The correct answer i s diff erent ways Th e general .

formula for six fie urs de lys for all squ ares gre ater th an 2 i s S I m pIy
- - 2

this : Six times the squ are o f the number o f combin ations of 11
things t aken three at a time where n represents the n umber o f
—
, ,

h eur s de —lys in the side o f the square Of course where u is even .

the rem ainders in rows an d columns will be even and where rt is ,

o d d the rem ainders will be o d d .

F o r further solution see No 3 5 8 in A i n M

,
. . .

28 .
-
The Great D i sp ute between the F ri ar and the S omp n ou r
.

In this little pro blem we attempted to show how by sophistic al ,

rea soning it may app arently h e proved th at the di agonal o f a

,

square is o f pre cisely the s ame length as two o f the sides Th e .

puz z le was to di scover the fall ac y bec ause it is a v ery obvious

,

fallacy if we ad mit th at the shortest dist ance betwee n two poi nts
is a straight line But where does the error come in
.

Well it is perfectly true th at so long as our z igz ag path is

,

fo rmed o f steps parallel to the side s o f the square th at p ath m ust

be o f the same length as the t wo sides It does not m atter if yo u .

h ave to use the most powerful microscope obt ain able ; the rule is
always t rue if the path is m ade u f steps in th t w But
p o a a y .

t he error lies in the assumption th at such a z ig z ag p ath c an ever

become a straight line Yo u may go o n increasi ng the number
.

o f step s infinite l —th at is there is no limit wh atever theoretic ally

y ,

to the number o f steps th at c an be m ade —but o u can never reac h

y
a straight line by s uch a method In fact it is j ust as much
.

a j ump to a straight lin e if you have a billion steps as it is at

 S O LUT I O NS 181

the very outset to pass from t h e two sides to the di agon al It .

would be j ust as absurd to say we might go on dropping m arbles in to

a b asket u ntil they become sovereigns as to sa we incre se
y c an a
the number of o ur s teps un til they become a straight hn e There .

is the whole thin g in a nutsh ell .

29 —Chaucer s
.
’
P uz z le .

Th e surf ace o f water or other liquid is always spherical and ,

the greater an y S phere is the less is its convexity Hence the top .

diameter of any vessel at the summit o f a mo unt ain will f orm th e

b ase of the segment of a greater sphere th an it would at t h e bo tto m .

This sphere ; being greater must (from wh at h as been alre ad y said )

,

be less convex or in other words th e Spherical surface o f the

, , ,

water must be less above the brim of the vessel and consequently ,

it wi ll hold less at the top of a mount ain than at the bottom The .

re ader is therefore free to select any mount ain he likes in It aly

o r else where
i
' '

f Yeoman
’

30 .
-
The P uz z le o the Canon s .

The number of di fferent ways is The general form ula

for su c h arr an gements when the n umber o f letters in the shnte nce
,

is 2 71 I
, an d it is a p alindrome without di agon al re adin gs is ,

M? up .

I thin k it will be well to give here a formula for the general

sol ution of e ach of the four most common forms of the di amond
letter puz z le By the word line I mean the complete di agon al
. .

Thus in A B C an d D the lines re spectively cont ain 5 5 7 and 9

, , , , , , ,

letters A h as a non p al indrome line (the word bei ng BOY) an d

.
-
,

the general solution for such c ases where the line cont ains m 1 ,

let t ers is
, Where the line is a single p alindrome with ,

i ts middle letter in the centre as in B the general formula is , ,

'

Th is is the form of the R at c at cher s P uz z le an d

’
-
,

therefore the expres sion th at I h ave given above In c ases C an d .

D we h ave do uble p alindromes but these two repre sent very ,

1 82 T HE C A N T ERB U RY PU ZZL ES

differen t t ypes In C where the lin e c ont ains 4n

.
,
1 let t ers the ,

general e xpre ssion is But D is by far the m ost diffi

cul t case o f all .

I had be tter he re st ate that in the di amonds under considerati on

no di agon al rea dings are al lowed
— these h ave to be dealt with
s pe ci all y in c ases where they are possi b le an d admitt ed ; ( )
ii .

rea din gs m ay st art an ywhere ; ( )

iii rea dings
. m ay go b ack wa rd s

an d fo rwards us ing letters more t h an once in a single rea ding but

'

, ,

no t the same letter twice i n imm e di ate success ion This l as t co n

.

dition will be underst oo d i f the reader gl ances at C wher e it is ,

impos sible to go forwards and bac kwards in a reading with out

re pea ti ng the first 0 touche d — a procee din g which I have said is

no t allowed . I n the case D it is ve ry differen t an d thi s is what

,

accounts fo r its great er difii culty The formul a fo r D is this

.

(
n 5) x x 8

where the n umber o f letters i n the line is 4” 1 . I n the e xam me

give n th ere are therefore 400 re adi ngs fo r u 2 .

Se e also Nos 25 6 257 and 258 in A i n M

.
, , . .

L
LE L
LEV E L
LEV EV E L
LEV E LEV EL
LEV EV EL
LEV EL
LEL
L
P U ZZ LI N G T I M E S AT SO LVAM H ALL CAST L E

S I R H U GH E ! P LAI NS HI S P ROBLE M S

THE fri ends of Sir H ugh de F o rtib us were so perplexed over ”

many o f his strange p uz z les that at a gathering o f his kins men and
ret ainers he undertoo k to expl ain his posers .

Of a truth , said he
”
, some of the riddles th at I have put

for th gre atly t ax the wit o f the unlettered kn ave t o re d e ;

.would
yet Wi ll I try to Show the m anner thereof in such way that all m ay
"

have underst anding .Fo r m any t here be wh o c an not o f themselves

13 4
 S O LU T I O NS 1 85

do all these things b ut will ye t study t h em to their gai n when they

,

be given the answers an d will t ake pleasure therein

”
, .

32
—The Game of Band Ball
y
-
. .

Hugh expl ained I n answer to this puz z le th at as the nine

Sir , ,

holes were 3 00 2 50 20 0 3 25 2 75 3 50
, , , an d 400 y ards
, , ,

apar t if a m an co uld al w ay s strike the b all in a perfectl y str aight

,

lin e and send it at will a di st an c e of eithe r 1 2 5 yards o r 1 00 y ards ,

he might go ro und the whole course in 2 6 s trok es Thi s is clea rly .

correct for if we cal l the 1 2 5 s tro k e the drive and the 1 00 stroke
,

the appro ach he co uld pl ay as follows

, Th e first hole c o uld be -

re ached in 3 appro aches the second in 2 drives the third in 2

, ,

appro aches the fourth in 2 appro aches an d I drive the fifth in

, ,

3 drives an d 1 b ac kwa rd a ppro ach the sixth in 2 drives and I ,

appro ach the seventh in 1 drive an d I appro ac h the eighth in

, ,

3 drives a n d the
,
ninth hole i n 4 a ppro ache s There ar e thus 2 6 .

strok es in all and the fe at c annot be performed in fewer

,
.

33
—Tilti ug
. at the Ri ng .

“
By my hal idame ! excl aimed Sir Hugh if some o f yo u ,

v arlets had been put in ch ains which for their sins they do truly ,

deserve then wo uld they well know m ayh ap that the length of
, , ,

an y ch ain h aving like rings i s equal to the inner width of a ring

multiplied by the numberof rings and added to twice the t hi ckness

of the iron whereof it is m ade It m ay be S hown that the inner
’

width of the rings used i n the tilting was o ne in c h and two thirds -
1 86 THE C A NTE RB U RY PUZZ L ES
thereo f and the numbe r of ring s Stephen Mal et did win was three
, ,

and those th at fell to Henr y de Gourn ay would be nin e

”
.

The kni ght was quite correct for 1 § in x 3 1 in 6 ln,

. . .
,

an d 1 } in x 9 + 1 in
. 1 6 in Thus D e Gourn ay be at Mal et
. .

by six rings Th e drawing showing the rings m ay assist the reader

.

in verifyi ng the answer and help him to see why the inner wi dth o f
a lin k multiplied b y the number of lin k s and added to twice th e

t hickness of the iron gives the exact length It will be noticed that .

every link put on the chai n lo ses a length equal to twice the thick
nes s o f the i ron .

34
.
—Th e N oble D emoiselle .

Som e here hav e asked me continued Sir H ugh how they

, ,

may find the cell in the D u ngeon o f the D eath s head wherei n the
’
-

noble maide n was c ast B eshrew me ! but tis eas y with al whe n
.
’

y u do but kno w how to do it

o In attempting to pass .

every door once and never more you m ust t ake hee d th at
, ,

cell ha th two doors o r four which be even numbers except mo

, ,

c ells
, whi ch have but three Now certes y ou c annot go i n and
.
, ,

ut o f any place passing through all the doors o n ce an d n o more

o ,
,

i f the num ber o f doors be an odd n umber But as there b e but .

two such odd cells y et m a we by b egi nn i ng at the o ne and endi n

y , ,
g
at t he other so m a ke o ur j ourne y in m an y w ys with succ
, a e ss .

I pr y yo u albeit to m ark th at onl y o ne of these o dd cells lie th o n

a , ,
1 88 THE C A N T E R B U R Y PU Z Z LES
hat s that they do ad d u p to twenty and three in all the twelve lines
”
o f th ree th a t are u pon the b utt .

I think i t well here to s upplement the sol ution o f De F o rt ib us

with a few rem arks o f my own Th e nineteen numbers m ay be .

so a rr anged th at the lines will add up to an y nu m ber we m ay

c hoose to s elect from 2 2 to 3 8 inclusive exc epting 3 0 In some , .

ca ses there are several di fferent solutions b ut in the c ase of 2 3 ,

t h e re are only two I give one o f these To obt ain the second
'

. .

sol ution exch ange respectively 7 1 0 5 8 9 in the ill ustr ation , , , , , ,

wi t h 1 3 4 1 7 2 1 5 Also exch ange 1 8 with 1 2 an d the other

, , , , .
,

numbers m ay rem ain unmoved In every inst ance there must be

.

an even number in the centra l pl ace a n d an y such number from ,

2 to 1 8 may occur Every solution has its complement ary Thus

. .
,

if for every number in the acco mp any in g drawing we s ubstitute

the di fference between it an d 20 we get the solution m the c ase of
,

37. Simil arly from the arr angement in the origin al drawi ng we
, ,

m ay at once obt ai n a solution for the c ase of 3 8 .

36 .
—The D omon K cap
’

In this c ase Sir H ugh h ad gre atly perplexed his chief builder
by dem anding th at he sho uld m ake a window me asuring o ne foot
0" r side an d divided b y b ars into eight lights h avi ng all
eve y
‘
,

the i r sides equal Th e illustration will show how this was to be

.
 S O LU T I O NS 1 89

done It will be seen th at if e ach side of the window me asures

.
s

one foot then e ach of the eight t ri angul ar lights is six in ches o n
,

every side .

Of a truth m aster builder

, said De F ortib us slyly to the
,

architect, I did n o t tell thee th at the window must be square as ,

it is most cert ain it never co uld be .

37 —The
. Crescent and
”

the Cross .

By the toes of St Moden excl aimed Sir Hugh de Fo rtibus

.
,

‘
when this puz z le was brought up my poo r wit hath never shaped
,
f

a more cunning artifice or an y more bewitc hing to look upon It .

c ame to me as in a vision an d Ofttimes m arvelled at the

,

its excee ding di fficult y My m asters and ki nsmen

.
,

it is done in this wise .

”

Th e worthy knight then poi nted o ut that the crescent was o f

a p art icul ar an d somewh at irregul ar form — the two dist ances a to b
an d c to d being st r aight lines an d the arcs ac an d bd being pre
,

c i s e ly similar He showed th at if the c uts be m ade as in F igure I

. ,

the four pieces will fit together an d form a perfect square as shown ,

in F igure 2 if W e there only regard the three curved lines B y

,
.

no w m aking the straight cuts al so shown in F igure 2 we get the ,

t e n pieces that fi t together as in F igure 3 an d form a perfectly

, ,

symm etric al Gree k c r oss The proportio ns o f the crescent and

.
1 90 T HE C A N TE RB U R Y PU Z Z L ES

th e o
cr ss origi nal illustration were correct and th e solution
in th e ,

can be de monstrated to be absolutel y exact and not m erel y ap

proxim at e .

I ha ve a s olu ti on in considerably fewer piec es b ut it is far ,

'

mo re difficult to underst an d th an the above method i n whi ch the ,

problem is simplified by introducing the intermediat e sq uare .

3 8 —The. Amulet .

pu z z le was to place your pencil on the A at th e top o f th e

The
amulet and coun t in h o w m an y di ff erent w ays yo u could trac e o ut

t h e word Abrac adabra downwards always passing from a ,

letter to an adj oining o ne .

A
B B
R R R
A A A A
C O C C C
A A A A A A
D D D D D D D
A A A A A A A A
B B B B B B B B B
R R R R R R R R R R
A A A A A A A A A A A

No w m ar k y e fine fellows s ai d Sir Hugh to so me who had

, , ,

be sought him to expl ai n that at the very first st art there be two
,

ways ope n whiche ver B y e select there will be two several ways ,

o f proc ee ding ( twice times two are four) whichever R y e sel ect ,

there be two ways o f going o n (t wice times four are eight ) and so
n t i l the end E ach letter in order fro m A down w ards ma
on
u .
y so

be reach ed in 2 4 8 1 6 3 2 etc ways Therefore as there be

, , , , , .
, .
,

ten lin es o r steps in all fro m A to the bottom all y e n ee d do is to

'

m ultiply ten 2 s together and truly the result 1 024 is the an swer
’

, , ,

thou dost seek .

"

The S na il the F lag stafi

’

39 .
-
on .

Thoug h the re was no n ee d to t ake down an d meas ure the st

it is un doubt e dly nec es sary to find i ts heigh t be fore th
 1 92 T HE C A NTE RB U RY PUZZLES ~

in in ches o f the side o f that squ are so the acc urac y o f the
,

can be checked almos t at a gl ance .

Sir H ugh de F o rtib us m ade some

on the occ asion th at are not altogether uninterest i ng to d ay
-
.

F riends an d
ret ai ners he s aid
, if the strange o ffsp ri ng
,

my poor wit about which we h ave held ple asan

hat h m ayh ap h ad some sm all in teres t for ye ,

serve to c all to min

be se t with enigm as .

and al beit such as

st and ing y et there

,
 S O LU T I O NS 1 93

do come after us will ever strive for the answer Whe ther success
.

do attend or do n o t attend our l abo ur it is well th at we m ak e the

,

attempt ; for ti s tr ul y good an d honour able to tr a n the mind an d

’ i
,

the wit an d the fan cy of man for out of such doth iss ue all m anner
, ,

o f g ood in way s unforeseen for them th at do come af ter us.

 TH E M E RR Y M O N KS O F RID D LE W E LL

4 1 — The R i
. ddle of the F i sh p ond -
.

N U M BE R the fish b askets in the i ll ustration from 1 to 1 2 in the

di rection th at B rother Jon ath an i s seen to be going St arting .

from 1 proceed as follows where I to 4 me ans t ake the

, , ,

from b asket No 1 an d tran s fer it to b asket No 4

. .

1 t o 4 5 to 8 9 to 1 2 3 to 6 7 t o 1 0 1 1 to 2 an d
, , , , , ,

the las t revol ution to 1 m aking three revol utions in a ll Or

,
.

c an proceed t hi s way

4 to 7 8,to 1 1 1 2 to 3 2 t 0,5 6 t o g 1 0 to 1 , , , .

It is e asy to s olve in fo ur revolutions but the solutions in three ,

are more di fficult to di s cover .

4f
2 —The . R i ddle o the P i lgrims .

If it were not for the Abbot s conditions th at the num be r of ’

gu es ts in any room may not exceed t hree an d th at every room ,

must be occ upied it would h ave been possible to accommodate

,

eit her 24 2 7 3 0 33 3 6 3 9 or 42 pilgri m s But to accommodate

, , , , , , .

2 4 pilgrim s so th at there s h all be twi c e as m an y sleepin g on th e

upper floor as o n the lower floor an d eleven persons o n e a ch side ,

of the b ui lding it wi ll be found neces sary to leave some of t

,

rooms empt y If on the other h and we try to put up 3 3 3 6

.
, , , ,

o r 42 pilgrims we s h all find th a t in every c ase we are obliged

,

place more th an three pers ons in some of the rooms Thus .

know that the n umber of pilgrims origin al ly anno unced

it will be remembered it was possible to accom modate un ,

194
1 96 T HE C A N TE R BU R Y P UZ ZLES

44
— The.
f W
Riddle of the S ack
i n e o .

The question was : D id Brother Benj amin t ake more wine

the bottle th an w ater from the j ug ? Or did he t
from the jug th an wine from the bottle ? He (1
same quantity o f wine was transferred from the
was t aken from the j ug Let us assume th at the
.

a quarter o f a pint There was a pint of wine in the bottle and a

.

pint of water in the j u g After the first m anipul ation the bottle
.

cont ains three quarters o f a pint o f wine an d the j ug o n e pint of

-
,

water mixed with a quarter o f a pint of wine Now the second .

,

transaction con sists in t aking away a fifth of the contents of the j ug

that is o ne fifth of a pint of water mixed with one fifth of a qu arter
,
- -

o f a pint o f win e We thus le ave behind in the j ug fo ur fif t h s o f

.
-

a q uarter o f a p int of wine— th at i s one fifth o f a pint — while wen

-
,

l
“i
tran sfer from the j ug to the bottle an equ al qu an tit y (o ne fifth oi -

a pint o f w ater
) .

45 — T he R i ddle of the C ellarer

.
.

T ere were 1 00 pints of wine in the c ask and on thi rt y occasions

h
,

John the Cell arer h ad stolen a pin t an d repl aced it with

water .After the first theft the wine left in the c ask
 S O LUTI O NS 1
97

99 pints ; a fter the second theft the wine in the c ask wou ld be
i
fi
l }
pints (the sq u are of 99 di vided b y 1 0 0 ) after the third theft
there woul d rem ain 3 6 5 56 (the cu be o f 99 divided by the squ are
3 1 0 59 2 9

o f 1 00 ) after the fo u rth theft there wo uld rem ain the fo u rth power

of
99 divided by the c u be of 1 00 ; an d after the thirtieth t h eft

th ere would rem ain in the cask the thirtieth po wer of 99 divi ded b y
the twenty ninth power of
-
This by the ordin ary method of
c alcul ation gives us a n umber composed o f 5 9 figures to be divided
by a number composed of 5 8 figures 1 But by the use of logarithms
it m ay be quickly ascert ained that the required quantity is very
nearly 73 1 0 5 pints of wine left in the c ask Cons equently the
93
.

cell arer stole ne arly pints Th e monks doubtless omitted

.

the answer for the re ason th at they h ad no t ables of logarithms ,

an d did not c are to f ace the t ask of m aking th at long an d tediou s

calcul ati on in order to get the quantity to a nicet y as the wily ,

cellarer h ad stipul ated .

B y a simplified process of c alc ul ation I have ascert ained that ,

the ex act qu antity of wine stolen wo uld be

2 6 02 9962 66 1 1 7 1 95 772 6 998 49076 83 2 85 05 77473 2 3 73 76473 2 3 55 5 65
2 999

pints A man wh o would in volve the mon astery in

. a fraction of

fift y eight decim als deserved severe punishment

- .

46 .
—The
f R i ddle o the Crusaders .

Th e correct answer is th at there would h ave been

Crusaders wh o co uld form them s elves into a square 776 by 776 ;
,

an d aft er the str anger j oined their rank s the y co uld form 1 1 3 ,

squ ares of —
men th at is 73 by 73 Or 1 1 3 x 73 ,
.
?

This is a p artic ul ar c ase o f the so —c alled P elli an Equation re ,

S pec tin g which see A i n M p 1 64 . . .

47.
— The R iddle of S t E dmonds ba ry . .

Th e reader is aware th at there are prime n umbers an d compo

site whole numbers Now .
, c an not be a prime number ,
198 T HE C A N T ERB U RY PUZ ZL ES

becau se if it were the onl y possible answers would be those pro pos ed
by Brother Benj amin an d rej e c ted by F ather P eter Also it c annot .

have more th an two factors or the an swer would be indetermin ate , .

As a m atter o f fact equ al s 2 3 9 x 46 49 (both primes ) an d

, ,

since e ach cat killed more mi c e t h an there were c ats the answer ,

m ust be 2 3 9 c ats See al so the Introduction p 1 8

.

.
, . .

Tre ated generally thi s problem consists in finding the factors, ,

10
“ 1
if an y, o f n umbers of the form
9
Luc as in his L Ari thmé ti qa e
, gl ves
’
a n um b er o f Amusante ,

c urious t ables which he obt ained from an a rithmetic al tre atise ,

c alled the Talkhys by Ibn Alb ann a an Arabi an m athem atici an

, ,

an d astronomer of the first h al f of the thirteenth cent u ry In the .

P a ri s N ation al Library are sever al m an uscripts de aling with the

Talkhys an d a co m ment ary b y Alkalacad i who died in 1 48 6
, ,
.

Among the t ables given by Lu c as is one giving all the factors of

n umbers of the above form up to n = 1 8 It s eems almost in co n .

c e ivab le th at Ar abi ans of th a t d ate co u ld find the

n = 1 7 as given in my Introdu ction

, But I re ad Lu c as as st ating .

that they are given in Talkhys though an e m inent m ath e m a ,

tic ian re ads him differently an d suggests to me th at the y were ,

discovered by Lu c as himself This c an o f co urse be settled by .

, ,

an ex amin ation of Talkh s b ut this has not been possible during

y ,

the war .

Th e diffic ult y lies wholly with those c ases where n is a prime

number If n = 2 we get the prime 1 1 Th e factors when n = 3 5
.
, . , ,

1 1 an d 1 3 a re re s pe c tively (3 an d
, (41

( 79
5 3 I h a ve given in these p ages the f actors where
n = 7 an d 1 7 Th e f actors when n 1 9 2 3 an d 3 7 are
.
:
, ,

there are an y When n 2 9 the fac to rs are

!
.
,

Mr Osc ar H O pp e
.
,
of N e w Yo r k i f m m ,
n or s e th at , a ft e r re a di gn my
in t h e I n tro d tiuc on, he w as le d t o in v tig t th es a e e c as e o f n 1 9 , an d a ft er

d
te io us wo r kh e su c c e e dd e in ro in p v g th umb e n er to b e a p im
r e . He s ub

i ngs of th e So ci e ty fo r 1 4 th Fb
e ru ary 1 9 1 8 .
200 T H E C A NTE RBU R Y P UZ Z LES

white discs move in the directions o f the h ands of a cloc k an d the ,

white figures o n bl ack discs the other way Th e followi ng are the .

n umbers in the order in which they move Whether you h ave to .

m ak e a simple move or a le aping move will be cle ar fro m the posi

t ion as yo u never c an h ave an altern ative
,
Th e moves enclosed .

in brackets are to be pl ayed five times over : 6 7 8 6 5 4 7 8 , , , , , , , ,

9. 1 0 6 5 4 3
.
2 7 8 .9 1 0 1 1 (
.
6 s 4 3 2 I ) 6 5. 4 3 z 1 2
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(7 8 ,
, 9 1 0 1 1 , , , 7 8 9
, , , 1 0, 1 1 , 1 , 6 5 4 3
, , , , 2, 1 2, 7 8 9
, , , 1 0, 1 1 ,

6 5 4 3 2 8 9
, , , 4, 3 ,
We thus h
,
ave m a de,
1 1 8 1 0, 1 1 , , , 2 , 1 0, 1 1 , 2 .

moves within the conditions the bl ack frogs h ave ch anged pl aces ,

with the whi te ones an d 1 an d 1 2 are side by side in the positions ,

stipul ated .

Th e general sol ution in the c ase of thi s pu z z le is 3 n + 2 n 2 — ’

moves where the n umber of frogs of e ach colo ur is n Th e law

, .

governing the sequence of moves is e asily discovered by an ex

amin ation of the s impler c ases where ri = z 3 a n d 4 , , , .

If inste ad of 1 1 an d 1 2 ch anging pl aces the 6 an d 7 must

, ,

interch ange the expression is n + 4n + 2 move s If we give it the

,
2
.

value 6 as in the ex ample of the F rogs R ing the number of moves

,
’

would be 62 .

F o r a general sol ution o f the c as e where frogs of o n e colour

reverse their order le aving the bl ank sp ace in the s ame position , ,

an d e ach frog is allowed to be moved in either direction (le aping ,

o f co u rse over his own colour T e Gr asshopper P u z z le in

,
) se e h ,

A i n M p 1 93
. .
, . .
 TH E ST RAN G E E SCAP E O F TH E
KI N G S JE
’
ST E R

ALTHO U G H the king s j ester pro mi sed that he would the reaft e r
’

m ake the m ann e r thereof plain to all there is no reco rd o f his

,
”

having ever done so I will therefore submit to the reader my o wn

.

views as to the prob ab le solutions to the mysteries involved .

49 .
-
The Mysteri ous Rop e .

When the j ester divided his rope in h alf it does not follow ,
”

th at he cut it into two p arts each h alf the origin al length o f the
,

rope No do ubt he simply unt wisted the stran ds and so divided

.
,

it into two ropes e ach of the origin al length but o ne h alf the thick
, ,
-

n ess He would thus be able to tie the two together and m ake a
.

rope nearly twice the origin al length with whi c h it is quite co n

,

ce i vab le th at he m ade good his esc ape from the dungeon .

50 ,
—The U nd ergroun d M az e .

How did the j ester find his way o ut o f the m az e in the dar k P
He h ad sirnply to grope his way to a wall and then keep on walk
ing without once removing his left h and (or right h and) from the
wall St arting from A the dotted line will m ake the route clear
.
,

when he goes to the left If the re ader tries the route to the right
.

in the same way he will be eq ually successful ; in fact the two ,

routes unite and cover every p art of the walls of the m az e except
—
those two det ache d p arts on the left h and side o ne piece like a
-

201
2 02 T HE C A NTE RBU R Y P UZZLES

U and the other li ke a distorted E This rule will apply to the

, .

m aj ority o f m az es an d p uz z le gardens ; but if the centre were e n

closed b y ah isol ated wall in the form o f a split ri ng the j ester ,

would sim ply h ave gone round and round this ring .

See the article Maz es and How to Thre ad Them in A i n M

, , ,
”
. .

5 1 .
— The S ecret Lock .

Thi s p uz z le ent ailed the findin g o f an English word o f three

letters e ac h letter being found o n a different di al No w there
, .
,

is n o Engli sh word compo sed o f con sonants alone an d the only ,

vowel appearing anywhere on the di als is Y No English word .

be gins with Y an d h as the two other letters conson ants an d all the ,

words o f three letters ending in Y (with two conson ants) either begin
with an S or h ave H L or R as their second letter But thes e
, ,
.

four conson ants do not appe ar Therefore Y m ust occur in the

.

middle an d the only word th at I c an find is P Y!

, an d there ,

can be little doubt th at this was the word At any r ate it solves .
,

o ur p uz z le .

52 .
—Crossi ng the M oat .

No doubt some o f m y readers wi ll smile at the st atement th at

a man in a bo at o n smooth w ater c an p ull hi mself across with
the tiller rope ! But it is a fact If the j es ter h ad fastened the
.

end o f hi s rope to the stern of the bo at an d then while st andi ng ,

in the bows h ad given a series of violent j erks the bo at would have

, ,

been propelled forw ard Thi s has often been put to a practic al
.

test an d it is said that a speed of two or three miles an ho ur m ay

,

be att ained See W W R ouse B all s M athemati cal R ecreations

. . .
’
.
3 04 T HE C A N T E R BU R Y PUZZLES

54 .
—Bridg ing the D i tch .

The solution to this pu z z le is best explain e d b y the illustration .

If he had pl aced his eight pl anks in the m anner shown ,

,

the angle o f the ditch he would h ave been able to cross without
,

much trouble The king s j ester might thus have well overco me
.
’

all hi s difficulties an d got safel y away as he h as told us th at he

,

succ e eded i n doi ng.

 TH E SQ U I R E S C H RI ST M AS P U ZZ LE P ARTY
’

H OW TH E VARI O U S TRI CK S WERE D ON E

THE record o f one of Squire D avidge s an nual P uz z le P arties

’

mad e by the old gentlem an s young lady relative who had often
’

spent a merry Christm as at Stoke Co urcy Hall does not cont ain ,

the solutions o f the mysteries So I wi ll give my own answers to

.

th e p uz z les an d try to m ake them as cle ar as possible to those who

may be more o r less novices in such m atters .

55 .
—The Three Teacups .

Miss Charit y Loc ky er clearly m ust have h ad tric k up her a

sle eve an d I thi nk it highly prob able th at it was conceived

,

o n the following lines She proposed that ten l umps o f sugar

.

should be placed in three te acups so that there should be an o dd

,

number o f lumps in every cup The illustration perhaps shows

.

M iss h
C arity s answer
’
an d the
,
fig u res o n the c ups indi c ate the
number o f l umps that h ave been separ ately placed in them By .

pl acing the c up th at holds one lump inside the one that holds
two lumps it can be correctly st ated th at every cup cont ains an
,

o dd number o f lumps On e cup holds seven lump s another holds

. ,

o ne lump while the t hird c up holds three lum ps

,
It is e vident .
2 06 THE C A N T E RBU R Y PU ZZ LES

th at if a cup cont ains another cup it also cont ains the content s
of th at second c up .

There are i n all fifteen di fferent solutions to this pu z z le Here .

two numbers in a triplet represent respe ctively t he

Th e first
number of lumps to be placed in the inner an d o uter o f the two
c ups th at are pl aced one inside the other It will be noted that .

the outer cup of the pair m ay itself be empty .

56 .
—The E leven P e nni es .

It is rather evident th at the trick in this pu z z le was as follows

F rom the eleven coins t ake five then add four (to those alre ady
t aken away) and yo u le ave nine—in the second heap o f those
removed l
57 —The
. Chri stmas Gees e .

F armer R ousesent ex actly 1 0 1 geese to m arket Jabe z first sold .

Mr J asper Tyler h alf of the flo c k an d h al f a goose over (that is

.
,

S H f or 5 gee e le ving he then sold F rmer Avent

-
C , 1 s a , a a

third of wh at rem ained an d a thi rd of a goose over (th at i s 1 6 + ,

3
1

or 1 7 geese le aving 3 3 ) he then sold Widow F oster a quarter of

,

wh at rem ained and three qu rters of goo e over (th at is H 2o r

a -
a s 8 — — ,

9 geese lea ving

, 2 4) i he next sold Ned C ollier a fi fth of wh a t he
h ad left an d gave him a fifth of a goose for the missus (th at is ,

42 4 o r 5 geese le a
,
vin g He then too k these 1 9 b ac k to his
m aster .

5 8 — T he .C ha lked N um
'

bers .

little j est on the part o f Maj or Trench ard is another trick

This
puz z le and the face of the rog uish boy on the extreme right with
, ,
20 8 T HE C A NTE R B U R Y PUZZ LES

- twe n ty o ne b ut I h ave not counted them I h ave recorded

- -
.

fo urtee n o f these and possibly there are m ore An y o ne o f these

, .

would se rve o ur purpose except for the condition th at the tenth

,

stro ke sh all end at the ste am n hot pudding Thi s was .

(1q —
to stop a plur alit y o f solutions c alled b y the m ak er o f
chess problem s coo ks I am not aware o f more th an o ne solu
.
”

tion to this pu z z le ; but as I may not have recorded all the tours ,

I c ann ot mak e a positive st atement o n the point at the time o f

6o .
-
Under the M istletoe Bough .

Every body was found to h ave kissed everybody else once un der
the mistletoe with the following additions an d exceptions : NO
,

m ale kissed a m al e ; no m an kiss ed a m arried wom an except his

o wn wife ; all the b achelors an d boys kissed all the m aidens an d

girls twice ; the widower did not ki ss anybody and the widows ,

did not kiss each other Every kiss was returned and the double
.
,

pe rformance was to coun t as o ne kiss I n m aki ng a list o f the

.
 S O LU T I O NS 209

comp ny a , we
le ave o ut the widower
c an al together bec ause
,

took no part in the osculatory exercise .

7 Married co uples
3 Widows
12 B ac helors and Boys
10 Maidens an d Girl s
Tot al 39 P ersons
Now i f every o ne o f these 3 9 persons kis sed everybody else
,

once the number of kisses would be 741 ; an d if the 1 2 b achelors

,

an d boys e ach ld sse d the 1 0 m aidens an d girls onc e again we m ust ,

ad d 1 20 m aking a tot al of 8 6 1 kisses

, But as no m arried m an .

kissed a m arried wom an other th an his own wife we must deduct .

,

4 2 kisses ; as no m ale kissed another m ale we must deduct 1 7 1 ,

kisses ; an d as no widow kissed another widow we must deduct 3 ,

ki sses We h ave therefore to deduct 42+ 1 71 + 3 21 6 kisses

.
, ,

from the above tot al o f 8 61 an d the result 645 represents exactly

, , 9
,

the number o f kisses th at were actu ally given under the mistletoe
bough .

61 .
—The S i lver Cu bes ;

There IS no limi t to the n umber of di fferent dimensions th at will

give two cubes whose s um sh all be exactly seventeen cubic inches .

Here is the answer in the sm allest possible numbers One of the .

silver cubes m ust m easure inches along each edge and the ,

other must m easure T hi s? inch If the re ader likes to undert ake

.

the t ask o f cubing each number (th at is multiply e ach number ,

twi c e by itself) he will find that when added together the contents
,

exactly equal seventeen c ubic inches Se e also No 20 Th e. .

,

”
P uz z le of the D octor of P hysi c .
 TH E AD VE N T U RE S O F TH E P U ZZ LE CLU B

62 — The . Ambiguous P hotograp h .

ONE by o ne the m embers o f the Club succeeded in disco v erin g

the ke y to the mystery of the A mbiguous P hotogr aph excep t ,

Churto n who was at length persu aded to give it up Herbert ”

.
,

B ayn es then pointed o ut to him th at the co at th at Lord Marksfo rd

was c arrying over his arm was a l ady s co at bec ause the buttons
’

are o n the left side wherea s a m an s co at always h as the buttons

’

o n the right h and side

-
Lord Marksfo rd would not be likely to
.

walk about the streets o f P aris with a lady s co at over his arm ’

unless he was accom p an ying the own er He was therefore walking .

with the l ady .

As they were t al ki ng a wai ter b rought a telegram to Bayn es .

Here yo u are he s aid after reading the message

,
”
, A wire .

from D ove y : D on t bother about photo F ind l ady was the

’
.

gentlem an s sist er p assing through P aris Th at settles it Yo u

’
, .
’
.

might notice that the l ady was lightly cl ad an d therefore the co at ,

might well be hers But it is clear that the rain was only a sudden
.

shower an d no doub t they were close to their destination and she

, ,

did no t think it worth while to put the coat o n .

”

63 —The . Corn i sh Clifi Mystery

r
.

Melville s explan ation

’
the Cornish Cliff Mystery was very
of

simple when he gave it Yet it was an ingenious trick that the

.

two crimin als adopt ed an d it would h ave completely succeeded

,

h ad not o ur friends from the P uz z le Club accident ally appe ared on

210
212 THE C A N TE RBU R Y PUZZLES
Mystery may b e trac ed without , p ath e ver crossing
an y

It depends whether the b Utle r , E went to the north o r t

,

o f the gamekeeper s cott age an d

’

south o r the north o f the h all But it will be found that the
.

persons who co uld h ave appro ached Mr Cyril H astings wit .

c ro ss ing a p ath we re the butler E an d the m an C It was , , , . ,

e ver a fact th at the butler retired to bed five minutes before

,

night where as Mr H astings did n o t le ave his fri end s hou se

, .
’

midnight Therefore the cri min al must have bee n the man
.

entered the park at C .

66 —The
. Buri ed Treas ure .

The field must h ave cont ained between 1 79 an d 1 80

be more ex act ,
acres H ad the meas urements .

2, an d 4 f urlongs respe ctively from s u cce ssive corners then ,

field would h ave been ac res in are a .

One method of solving this problem is as follows F ind the .

o f tri angle AP B in term s of x the side of the squ are Do

, .

the result = xy D ivide by x an d then square an d we h ave

.
,

val ue o f y in terms o f 96 Simil arly find v al ue of 2

2
'

.
2

o f x ; then so lve the eq u ation y + z 3 which will come

2 2= 2
,

4— 2==— =
the form x 20x 37 Therefore x
.
2
1 0 + J 3 17
6 :
. .

squ are f urlongs very ne arl y an d as there are ten acres

, ,

square furlong this equal s

, acres If .

tive root o f the equation we get the are a o f th

,

acres in which
,
 S O LUTI O NS 2 13

field as in D i agram 2 But this solution is exc luded by the

,
.

di tion th at the tre asu re was buried in the field Th e words

.

were The document

,
st ates cle arly that the field is
”
an d th at the treas ure l s buried in it
.
 TH E P R O F E SSO R S P U ZZ LE S
’

67 .
—The Coi nage P uz z le .

THE poin t o f this p uz z le turns o n the fact th at i f the m agic

sq u are were to be composed o f whole n umbers addin g up 1 5 in

all w ays the two m u st be pl aced in o n e of the corners

, 0 th .

fractions must be used an d these are supplied in the pu z z le by t

,

employment of sixpe nces an d h alf crowns I give the arrange

-
.

ment requiring the fewes t possible c u rrent English coins—fifte e n .

It will be seen th at the amount in e ach corner is a fraction al one ,

the sum re quired in the tot al being a whole number o f shillin gs .

68 .
—The P ostage S tamps P uz z les .

Th e first o f these p uz z les is b ased on a simil ar prin ciple tho ugh l,

it is re all y m uch e as ie r bec ause the condition th at nine of the

,

214
2 16 T HE C A NTE R B U R Y PUZZ LES
st amps at p esent in circul tion
r ld 2d a are these — § d 1d .
, 1 .
,

3 d
.
4d
, 5 d 6
. d , 9d 1 o
.d , 2 s 6d 1 0 3 £ 1 an d £5 , . .
, , .

In the first sol ution the numbers are in arithmetic al

—1 1 5 2 Z S 3 3 1 4 45 5 But an y nine numbers will form
, , , , , , , , .

m agic squ are i f we c an write them thus

1 2 3
7 8 9
13 14 15

where the horiz ont al di fferences are all alike and the vertic al dif
fe re n ces all alike but not necess arily the s ame as the horiz ont al
, .

This h appens in the case o f the second solution the numbers o f ,

which may be written

Also in the c ase of the sol ution to N o . 67 ,

the Coin age Pu z z le , the
num bers are in shillin gs ,

2 2 S 3
4S 5 st
7 7h 8

If there are to be nine difierent numbers 0 may occur once (as ,

in the sol ution to No Yet o n e might con stru ct s quares with

.

negative numbers as follows ,

69 .
—The F rogs an d Tumblers .

It is perfectly true as the P rofessor s aid that there is onl y on e

, ,

solution (not counting a revers al ) to this p uz z le The frogs th at .

j ump are George in the third hori z ont al ro w ; Ch ang the artful ,

looking b atr achian at the end o f the fourth row an d Wilhelmin a ,

 S O LU T I O NS
the fai r creature in the seventh ro w George j umps downwards
.

to the second t u mbler in the seventh row C h ng only

; a who can ,

le ap short dist ances in consequence of chronic rheumatism removes ,

somewh at u nwillingly to the gl ass j ust above him—the eighth

in the third row ; with all the sp rightline ss o f

O O O O O O O O
O O O O O O O O
O O O O O O O ,

o q o
z
o o o d
O d O d O O O O
0 0 0
0 6 0 6 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
he r youth and se x performs the very credit able s alt atory fe at of
,

leapn to the fo urth t umbler in the fourth row In their new .

positions as shown in the ac comp anying di agram it will be found

, ,

that of the eight frogs no two are in line vertic ally horiz ont ally , ,

o r di agon all y .

70 .
—
Romeoj and uli et .

Thi s is r ather a di fficult p uz z le thou gh as the P rofessor t e ,

“
,

m arked when H awkhurst hi t o n the solution it is j ust one of ,

those puz z les that a person might solve at a gl ance by pure l uck .

Yet when the solution with its prett y symmetric al arran gement
, , ,

is seen it looks ridic ulously simple

, .

It will be found th at R omeo re aches Juliet s b alcon y aft er ’

V isiting every ho use once an d only once an d m aki ng fourteen

,

tu rnings not countin g the turn he m akes at st arting These are

,
.
218 T HE C A N T E RBU R Y P UZZ LES

the fewest turnings poss ible an d the problem

, c an onl y be sdlve d
by the route shown o r its revers al .

7 1 .
— Romeo s S econd J ourney
’
.

I n order to t ake hi s trip through all th e white squ ares onl y

with the fewest possible turnings R omeo would do well to adopt
,

the ro ute I have sh own by me ans of which only sixteen t u rnings

,

are re q uired to perform the fe at Th e P rofessor in forms me that

.
 M I SCE LLAN E O U S P U ZZ LE S

73
— T he G a
.m e of K ayles .

To win at thi s game you must sooner or l ater leave your o p

, ,

po nent an e ven n umber o f similar grou ps Then wh atever he .

does in o n e group yo u re pe at in a simil ar group Suppo se for .

,

ex ample that yo u le ave him these groups 0 0 00 0 000 Now

,
.
,

if he knocks down a single you knock down a single if he kn ocks

,

down two in o n e triplet yo u kn ock down two in the other triplet

,

if he kn ocks down the central kayle in a triplet you kn ock down ,

the centr al one in the other triplet In this way you must e ventu ally
.

win As the game is st arted with the arr an gement 0 0000000 00 00

. ,

the first pl ayer c an alw ays win but only b y knocking down the
,

sixth o r tenth kayle (counting the one alre ady fallen as the second) ,

an d thi s le aves in either c ase 0 000 000000 0 as the order o f the ,

groups is of no import ance Wh atever the second pl ayer n ow

.

does this c an al ways be resolved into an e ven number o f equal

,

groups Let us suppose th at he knocks down the single one ; then

.

we pl ay to le ave hi m 00 0000000 Now wh atever he does we

.
,

can afterw ards le ave him either 000 000 or 0 00 000 We kn ow .

wh y the former wins an d the l atter win s also ; bec ause however
, ,

he m ay pl ay we c an alw ays le ave him either 0 0 or 0 0 0 0

, , ,

o r 00 00 as the c ase m ay be
, Th e complete an al ysis I can no w
.

leave for the am u sement of the re ader .

74.
—The Bro ke n Ches sboard .

The ill ustration will show h ow the thirteen pieces can be put
to ge ther so as to construct the perfect bo ard and the re ve rse prob ,
 S O LUTI O NS 22 1

lem of c utting these p articul ar pieces o ut will be found equally

entert aining .

Comp are with No s 2 93 an d 294 in A i n M

. . .

75.
—The S p
~
i d er an d the F ly .

Tho ugh thi s problem was much discussed in the Dai ly M ai l

from 1 8th Jan uary to 7th F ebru ary 1 905 when it appe ared to ,

cre ate gre at p ublic interest it was act ual ly first propounded by
,

me in the Weekly D i spatch of 1 4th June 1 903 .

Im agine the room to be a c ardbo ard box Then the bo x m ay .

be cut in various different ways s o th at the c ardboard m ay be laid

,

flat on the t able . I show fou r of the se ways an d indi c ate in every
,

case the rel ative positions of the spider an d th e fly an d th e straight ,

ened course which the Spider must t ake wit h out going off the
c ardbo ard These are the four mo st favourable c ases an d it will
.
,

be fou nd that the shortest route is in N0 4 for it is only 40 feet in

.
,

length (ad d the squ are of 3 2 to the squ are of 2 4 an d extract the
square root ) It will be seen that the spider act ually p asses al ong
.

five of the six side s of the room 1 H aving m arked the route fold ,

the bo x u p (removing the s ide the Spider does not use ) and the ,

appe ar ance of the shortest co u rse is rather s urprising If the .

222 T HE C AN TE RBU R Y PU ZZ LES

S pider h ad t aken wh at most persons will consider ob viously the

shortest route (th at shown in No he would h ave gone 42 feet 1
.

R o ute NO 2 is
. feet in length an d R o ute NO 3 is
, feet . .

I le ave the re ader to discover which are the shortest routes

when the spider an d the fly are 2 3 4 5 an d 6 feet from the ceili ng
, , , ,

an d the floor respectivel y .

7 6 .
—The P erp lexed Cellarman .

Brother John g ave the first m an three l arge bottles and one
sm all bottleful of wine an d one l arge an d t hree sm all empty bottles
,
.

To e ach o f the other two men he g ave two l arge an d three sm all
bottles of wine an d two l arge an d one sm all empty bottle E ach
, .

o f the three then receives the s ame q uantit y o f wine an d the s ame ,

nu mber o f e ach si z e of bottle .

224 T H E C A N T E R BU R Y PU ZZ LES

pigs in their s impli c ity an d ignorance of the p ec uli arities o f

’

D utch hogs e ach went a fter the wrong anim al

, .

Th e li ttle prin c iple involved in this p uz z le is th at known to

chess pl ayers as getting the oppo s ition
-
Th e rule in the c a se .
”

of my puz z le (where the moves resemble rook moves in chess with ,

the added c ondition th at the rook m ay only move to an adj oining

squ are) is s imply this Where the number of squares on the s ame
, .

row between the man o r wom an an d the hog is odd the hog can
, , ,

never be c aptured where the number of squ ares is even a c apture ,

is possible The number of squares between Hendric k and the

.

blac k hog and between K atrii n an d the white hog is 1 (an odd
, ,

number) therefore these individuals c annot c at c h the anim al s

,

they are facing But the number between Hendrick an d the white
.

ho g an d between K atrii n an d the bl ack one is 6 (an even number )

, , ,

therefore they may easily c apture those behind them .

79
—.The Th i rty o ne Game -
.

By leading with a 5 the first pl ayer can al ways win I f your .

opponent pl ays another 5 y ou pl ay a 2 an d score 1 2 Then as ,

.

often as he pl ays a 5 you pl ay a 2 and if at any st age he drops ,

o ut o f the s eries 3 1 0 1 7 2 4 3 1 you step in and win

, , ,
If after
, , ,
.

your lead o f 5 he pl ays anything but another 5 you m ake 1 0 ,

o r 1 7 an d win Th e first pl ayer m ay also win b y le ading a 1 or

.

a 2 but the pl ay is complic ated

, It is however well worth the .
, ,

re ader s study
’
.

80 — The Chi nes e Rai lways . .

This pu z z le was artfull y devised b y the y ellow man It is n o t .

a m atter for wonder th at the represent atives of the five countries

interest e d were bewildered It would have puz z led the engineers .

a good deal to constru ct those circ uitous routes s o th at the various

trains might run with s afet y D i agr am 1 shows directions fo r the .

five systems o f lin es so th at no line sh all ever cross another an d

, ,

t his appears to be the m ethod th at would require t he shortest

possible mile age .
 S O LUTI O NS 225
'

re ader may wish to know how m any di fferent solutions

Th e
there are to the puz z le To thi s I sho uld answer that the number
.

case o f line A alone then one route would be Di agram 2 anoth er

th e ,
,

3 another 4 an d another 5
, , If 3 is different from 2 as it nu
.

doubtedly is then we must regard 5 as different from 4 But a

,
.

'

glance the four di agrams 2 3 4 5 in succe ssion will Show that

at , , , , ,

we m ay continue this windin g U p process for ever ; an d as there

will always be an unobstructed way (however long and c irc uitous)
from st ations B an d E to their respective main lines it is evident
,

that the numbe r o f rout es for line A alone is infinite Therefore .

the num ber o f complete solutions must also be infinite if railway

.
,

lines li ke o the r lines h ave no breadth ; an d ind e te rmi nate unless

, ,

l5
2 26 T HE C ANT ER B U R Y PU ZZ LES

we are told the gre ate st num ber o f parallel it is possible li nes t hat
to construct in cert ain places If some clear condition restricting .
,
”
these windings up were given there would be no gr eat diffic ulty
, ,

of the kind the n umber would I c alculate be little short

, , , of two
thousan d surprising though it may appear
, .

81 .
—The E ight Clowns .

is a little novelty in m ag ic squares These s qu ares may be

This .

formed with numbers tha t are in arithmd ical progression o r that ,

are n ot i n such progression If a square be formed o f the former .

cla ss o ne place m ay be lef t v ac ant but onl y under particular con

, ,

di tio ns In the case o f o ur puz z le there would be no difficulty

.

in m aking the m agic square with 9 missing ; but with 1 missing

(th a t is using , 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ,an d 9),it is n o t,pos sible
, Bu t a, , , .

gl ance at the origin al illustration will show th at the numbers we

have to de al with are no t actually those j ust mentioned The .

clown that has a 9 o n his bod y is portrayed j us t at th e moment

when two b alls which he is j uggling are in mid air The pos itions -
.

o f these b alls cle arl y convert his figure into the recurring decim al

.9 Now since the recurring decim al 9 is equ al to g an d there

.
, .
,

fore to 1 it is evident that al though the clown wh o be ars the figure

, ,

1 is absen t the m an who bears the figure 9 by this simple artifice

,

h as fo r the occ asion given his figure the v al ue o f the number 1 Th e .

troupe can consequently be grouped in the following m anner

7 5
2 4 6
3 8 . 9

Every column every row and each o f the two diagon als
, ,
'

no w
ad d U p to 1 2 This is the correct solution to the pu z z le
. .

—Thc Wiz ard s Anim ate 82 .

’
.

i
Th s puz z le is both easy an d difficult for it is a v ery s ,

m atter to fin d o ne o f the multipliers which is 86 If we m ,

.
228 THE C A NT ER B U RY PUZ ZL ES

the 43 inthis way Th e onl y m ultiplier o f 3 that produc es an 8 in

.

the digits pl ace is 6 I therefore multiply 73 by 6 an d get 43 8 o r

.
,

4 3 a fter rej ecti n g the 8 Now divid e.d by 73 le ave s,the

rem ainder 43 an d the dividend is
, To this I ad d the 6 men
tio n e d above an d ge t x 8 3 the ex ample given o n p age 1 2
9, .

In trying the even n umbers there are two c ases to be con

Srd e re d Thus t aking 8 6 we m ay s ay th at if 60000 etc when
'

.
, , , .
,

divided by 76 le aves either 22 o r 60 (bec ause 3 x 6 an d 8 x 6 both

prod uce we get a solution But I rej ect the former o n i nspe c
.

tion and see that 60 divided by 76 i s 0 le aving a rem ainder 60

, , .

Therefore 8 x the other example It will be found in .

the c ase o f 7 1 th at 1 000 00 etc divided by 6 1 gives a rem ainder , .

,

4 (7
2 ,
x 6 1 4 2 7) a fter producing the long d ividend at the b eginning
o f this article with the 7 added
, .

The other multipliers fail to produce a solution so 83 86 an d , , ,

7 1 a r e the onl y three possible multipliers T hose who ar e f amili ar .

with the prin ciple o f recurring decim als (as somewhat explained in
“
my nex t note o n No 8 3 Th e R ibbon P roblem ) will underst and
.
,

the conditions under which the rem ai nders repeat themselves after
cert ain peri o ds an d will only find it necessary in t wo o r three c ases
,

to m ake any lengthy divisions It clearly follows th at there .

an u nlimited number o f multiplic ands for each multiplier .

83 —.The R i bbon P roblem .

solution is as follows : P l ace this r ather lengthy

Th e
on the ribbon 0 2 1 276 5 95 74468 08 5 1 063 8 29787 2
,

6
3 7 1 It m
. ay be multiplied by a n y numbe r up to
t o give the s ame order o f figures in the ring Th e .

vi o usly given c an be m ultiplied by an y number up to

the limit 9 in order to put readers o ff the scent The .

t wo numbers are simpl y the recurring decim als th at

an d £7 respectively Multipl y the one b y seventeen an d
.

by forty seven and you will get all nines i n e ach c ase
-
, .

In tr ansforming a v ulgar fraction s ay 1 7 to a

3
, ,
 S O LU T I O NS 2 29

fraction we proceed as below adding as m any noughts to th e

, ,

dividend as we like unt il there 15 no rem ainder or until we get ,

a recu rring series of figure s or u ntil we h ave c arried it as far as

,

we require since every addition al figure m a never e n ding dec imal

, -

carri e s us nearer and nearer to ex actitude .

17 ) 1 00

85

9
.

Now sinc e all

, o f 1 0 c an onl y cont ain f actors o f the

powers o f 2 an d 5 it cle arly follows th at your decimal never will

,

come to an end if an y other factor t h an these occurs in the de

nomin ator o f your vulgar fraction Thus l an d § give us the .
, ,

exact decim al s 5 25 an d 1 25 } and 33; give us 2 and 04

, .
, .
, . 7 . .

3 give us 1 an d 05 : bec ause the denominators are all

1 1, an d ”
d
. . .

compose o f 2 an d 5 factors But if you wish to convert .

i ,

or }
a
, your divi s ion sum will never end but you wi ll get these ,

decim als 3 3 3 33 etc

, . 1 66666
,
etc and 1 42857 1 42 857 1 42857
.
,
. .

in t he first c ase the 3 keeps on repeating for ever,

an d ever ; in the second c ase the 6 i s the repeater and in the ,

l ast case we get the rec urring period of 1 4285 7 In the c ase o f .

3
1 7 ( i n Th e R ibbo n P roblem w e fin d the circul ating per i od
to be 05 88 23 5 2941 1 7647
. .

Now, in th e division sum a bo ve , the succ e ssi ve remainders are

230 THE C A NTE R B U RY PUZZLES

1 , etc an d these n umbers I have inserted around

1 0 , 1 5 , 1 4, 4 6 9
, , , .
,

the inner ring of the di agram It will be seen that every num ber .

from 1 to 1 6 occurs on c e an d th at if we multiply o ur ribbon number

,

by any o ne o f the numbers in the inner ring its position indic ates
exactly the point at which the product will begin Thus if we .
,

multiply b y 4 the product will be 2 3 5 etc if we multiply b y 6

, , .
,

3 5 2 etc, We can therefore multiply by an y numbe r from 1 to

.

1 6 an d get the desired result .

The kernel of the p uz z le is this : An y prime number with the , ,

exception o f 2 and 5 which are the factors of 1 0 will ex actly

:

, ,

divide without rem ainder a n umber consisting of as m an y nines as

the number itself less one Thus 999 999 (Six 9 s) is divisible by 7
, .
’

six teen 9 s are divisible b y 1 7 eighteen 9 s by 1 9 an d so on This

’

,
’

, .

is always the c ase though frequently fewer 9 s will s uffice ; fo r o n e

,
’

9 is divisible b y 3 t wo b y 1 1 six b,y 1 3 when o ur ribbon rul e fo,

r ,

consecutive m ultipliers bre aks down an d another law co m es in .

Therefore since the 0 an d 7 at the ends of the ribbon may no t

,
2 32 T HE C A N T ERB U R Y PU ZZL ES

If with t he t hre e e qu al squ ares we form the rect angle I BBA

_ ,

then the mean proportion al o f the two sides o f th e rect angle will
be the o f a square o f equ al are a P roduce AB to C
.
,

BC q ual to BD
e . Then place the po int o f the compasses at E
(midw a y be twee n A an d C) an d describe the arc AC I am show .

ing the quite gener al method fo r conv er ting rect angles t o squares ,

but in this p articul ar c ase we may o f course at once pl ace o ur

, ,

compasses at E which req uires no finding P roduce the line BD

, . ,

cutting the arc in F an d BF will be the required side of the square

,
.

Now m ar k o ff AG an d D H e ach equ al to BF an d m ake the

, ,

cut I G an d al so the cut H K from H pe rpendicul ar to I D The

, , .

six pieces produced are numbered as in the di agram o n l ast pag e .

I t will be seen th at I h ave here given the reverse method first

N to cut the three sm all squ ares into six
pi eces to form a l arge square In the case .

o f o ur p uz z le we c an proceed as follo ws

Make LM equ al to ha lf the di agon al

ON . D r aw the line NM an d drop from
L a pe rpendicul ar on NM Then LP .

will be the side of all the three sq uares

of combined are a equ al to the large
squ are Q NLO Th e re ader c an no w
.

c ut o u t withou t di ffi c ult y the s ix pieces ,

as shown in the numbe red squ are on the l ast p age .

 S O LUTI O NS 2 33

8 —
C aptai n Longbow and the Bears .

It might have struc k the reader that the story of the be ar

1m paled on the North P ole h ad no connection with the problem

th at followed As a m atter o f fact it is essential to a sol ution

.
.

Eleven bears c annot possibly be arranged to form o f themselves

seven rows o f bears with four bears in every row But it is .

a m at ter when Capt ain Longbow informs us that they

8

h ad so placed the mselves that there were seven rows o f fo ur

F o r if they were grouped as shown in the di agram s o that ,

t hree of the be ars as indicated were in line with the North P ole
, , ,

that imp aled anim al wo uld complete the seventh ro w o f fo ur ,

which c annot be obt ained in any other way It obviously does not
.

aff ect the problem whether this seventh row is a hundred miles

long or a h undred feet so long as they were really in a st raight

line —a poin t that might perhaps be settled by the c apt ain s pocket
,

compass .

86 — The E ngli sh Tour

. .

It was required to show how a resident at the town m arked A

might visit every o ne o f the towns once and only onc e and finish
, ,
2 34 T HE C A NTE R B U RY PU ZZLES

up his tour at Z This pu z z le conce als a little trick After the

.
,
.

solver h as demonstrated to hi s s atisfaction th at it c annot be done

in accordance with the conditi ons as he at first understoo d them ,

he should c arefully examine the wording in order to fi nd some

flaw It was said
. This would be e asy enough if he were able to
,

cut c ountry b y ro ad as well as b y rai l b ut he is no t

”
~

.
, ,

No w lthough he is prohibited from cutting across country b y

, a

road nothing is said about his going by Se a lEI f therefore

, , ,

c arefully loo k again at the m ap we shall find that two towns and
, ,

two onl y lie o n the se a co ast When he reaches o ne of these

, .

towns he t ake s his departure o n board a coasting vessel and sa ils

to the other port The annexed illustration shows by a dark
.
,

line the complete route

, .

This p roblem should be comp ared with No 2 5 0 Th e Gr and

.
,

Tour in A i n M
”
,
'

It can be sirnplified in practically an

. .
2 36 T HE C A NTE RBU R Y PU ZZLES

j ump from 3 to I an d write it down o n I and so o n The second

, .

word c an be inserted i n the s ame order Th e solution depends on .

findi ng those words in which the second an d eighth letters are the
s ame and also the fourth an d sixth the s ame because th ese letters
, ,

in terch ange without destroying the words MA R I TI MA (or .

pink) would also solve the pu z z le if it were an English word .

Comp are with No 22 6 in A i n M

. . .

H ere is the way of rrangi ng the seven men

a

w o u m m
o c w o m
c w o m o
o w m m o
m o m m c
m c o m w
o m w o m
u m o m w
w m e m o
m m u o m
o m w u m
m mo w m
m w m o c
a n m c w
w u a w O
Ofcourse at a circul ar t able A will be next to the man at the
, ,

end of the line .

I first gave this problem for six persons o n ten days in the ,

D aily M ai l for the 1 3 th an d 1 6th O ctober 1 90 5 an d it ,

since been disc ussed in various periodic als by m athem atici ans O f .

course it is easil y seen that th e m axim um num be r o f sitti ngs fo r

W
,

n persons is ways . The com parati vel y easy method

 S O LUTI O NS 237

case s where n is a prim e 1 was first di scovered by

fo r solvin g all
Ernest Bergholt I then pointed out the form an d construction of
.

a solution th at I h ad obt ained for 1 0 persons from which E D , . .

Bewley fo und a general method for all even numbers The odd .

numbers however are extremely diffi c ult and for a long time
, , ,

n o progress could be m ade with their solution the only numbers ,

th at could be worked being 7 (given above) and 5 9 1 7 and 3 3 , , , ,

these l ast four being all powers of 2 1 At last however .

,

( tho ugh not without m uc h diffic ulty) I di scovered a subtle method

,

for solving all c ases and h ave written out sc hedules for every
,

number up to 2 5 inclusive Th e c ase of 1 1 has been solved al so

.

by W Nash P erh aps the re ader will like to try his h an d at 1 3

. . .

He will find it an extraordinarily h ard nut .

The solutions for all c ases up to 1 2 inclusive are given in A .

i n M pp 2 05 2 06
.
, .
, .

91 .
-
The F i ve Tea Ti ns .

There twelve ways of arran ging the bo xes without consider

are

in g the pict ures If the thirty pict ures were all di fferent the
.

answer wou ld be But the necessary deduction s for c ase s

where ch anges of boxes m ay be made without affecting the order
of pict ures amount to an d the b oxe s m ay therefore be

arr an ged in accordance wi th the condit i on s in

,
di fferent ,

ways I will leave my re aders to discover for the mselves how the
.

figure s are to be arrived at .

Th e n umber of ways in which the four pigs m ay be placed in

the thirty six sties in accord ance with the conditions is seventeen
-
,

inc ludi ng the example that I gave not counting the reversals and ,

reflection s of the s e arr angement s as di fferent J ae n i sc h in his . ,

An alys e M athemati que an feu des Boheas quotes the

s t atement th at there are j ust twenty one sol utions to the lit t le -

problem on which this p uz z le is based As I h ad myself only .

recorded seventeen I ex amined the m atter ag ain an d foun d that

, ,
“
238 T H E C A NTE R B U R Y PUZZLES

he was in error an d doubtless h ad mist aken reve rsals for di fferent

, , ,

arr angements .

Here are the seventeen answers Th e figures indic ate the ro ws .

,

an d their positions show the col umns Thus 1 0 4603 m e ans that .
,

we pl ace a pig in the first row of the first column in no row o f the ,

s econd column in the fourth row of the thi rd column in the si xth
, ,

ro w o f the f ou rth column in n o row o f the fif th column

, an d in t h e ,

third row of the s ixth column The arrangement E is that which .

I gave in diagram form

A . 1 04603

B . 1 3 600 2

C . 1 405 02

D . 1 405 20

E . 1 6002 5

F . 1 603 04

G . 2 0 1 405

H . 2 0 1 605

I . 2 05 1 0 4

It will be found th at form s N an d Q are se mi s ym m etric al with -

reg ard to the centre an d therefore give onl y two arrangements

,

e ach by reversal and refle ction that form H is qu arter s ymmetric al -

,

an d gives o nl y four arr angement s ; while all the fo urteen others

y ield by revers al an d reflection eight arr angements each T here .

fore the pigs may be plac ed in (2 x 2) (4 x 1 ) (8 x 1 4) 1 20

di fferent ways b y reversing an d reflecting all the seventeen forms .

Three pigs alone m ay be placed so th at every st y is in line with

a pig provided th at the pigs are not forbidden t o be in line with
,

o n e another ; but there is onl y o ne way of doin g it (if we d o no t

count reversals as different ) as follows 1 0503 0 , .

93 .
—
The N umber Blocks .

Arrange the blocks so as to form the two multiplic ation sums

9 5
1 x 64 an d 73 2 x 80 , and the prod uct in both c ases wi ll be the
sa me :
2 40 T HE C A NTE R B U R Y PU ZZLES

two puz z les are the same thi ng in di fferent dres s Now co m pare .

p age 1 41 with D i agr am B and it will be see n that by disent angli ng

.
,

the strings I h ave obt ained a simplified di ag ram without altering

the e ssen ti al relations bet ween the buttons o r discs The re ader will .

now satisfy himself without any diffic ult y th at the puz z le requires
eleven moves fo r the foxes and eleven for the geese He will see
th at a goose o n 1 o r 3 m ust go to 8 to avoid being ( me m
.

, ove from
a fo x an d to ena ble the fox o n 1 1 to come o n to the ring If we .

— —
pl y 1 8 then it is cle arly best to play 1 0 5 and no t 1 2 5 fo r
a ,
—
the foxes When they are all o n the circle the n they sirnply
’

.
,

promen ade round it in a clockwise direction t aking c are to reserve ,

— —
8 3 an d 5 1 2 for the fin al moves It is thus rendered ridi c u
.

lo usly e asy b y this method See also no tes o n solutions to Nos 1 3

. .

an d 85 .

95.
—Ro bi ns o n Crusoe
f
s Table .

‘
The di agram s hows h ow the pieCe o f wood should be cut in t wo
pi e ces to form the s qu are t able to p A B C D are the corn ers o f
-
.
, , ,

The way in whi ch the piece E fits into the piece F will
be b vious to the
o ey e of the reade r The shaded part is th e wood
.

th at is disc arded .
 S O LUTI O NS 241

The number m ust be the le ast common m ultiple of 1 2 3 etc , , , .

,

up to 1 5 th at when divided by 7 leaves the rem ainder 1 by 9

, , , ,

lea ve s 3 by 1 1 leaves 1 0 by 1 3 leaves 3 an d by 1 4 le aves 8 S uch

, , , .

a n umber i s 1 20 The next n umber is

.
b ut as we h ave no
—
record of tree especi all y a very young one— bearing anything
a

like s uch a l arge number of apples we may t ake 1 20 to be the only ,

answer th at is accept able .

97
—The P erp
. lexed P lumber .

Th e rect angul ar c losed cistern that sh all hold a given quant ity
of water an d yet have the s mal lest pos sible surface of met al m ust
be a perfe c t c ube— t h at i s a ci stern every s ide of which is a square
, .

For c ubic feet of w ater the intern al dimen s ions will be

1 0 ft x 1 0 ft x 1 0 ft
. . an d t h e z inc req uired will be 60 0 sq uare feet .

In the c ase of a ci stern without a top the proportions wi ll be ex

ac tly h a lf a c ube These are the
. exact proportions as ked fo r
in the s econd c ase The exact dimen sion s c annot be given b ut
.
,

ft is a close approxim ation The cistern

. .

will hold a little too much water at which the buyer will not ,

compl ai n an d it will involve the plumber in a trifling lo ss not

,

worth con sideri n g .

9 8 —Th e N elso n C olumn . .

If you t ake a sheet of p aper an d m ark it with a di agon al line ,

as in F igure A you Will find th at when y ou

,

roll it i nto cylindri c al form with the line o ut ,

side it will appe ar as in F igure B

, .

It wi ll be seen th a t the Spiral (in one com

p le t e t u rn ) is merely the hypotenuse of a

right ang led tri angle of which the length an d

-
,

width of the paper are the other two sides .

In t h e p uz z le given the lengths of the two sides of the trrangle

,

are 40 ft (one fifth of 200 ft ) an d 1 6 ft 8 in Th ere fo r the

g
- . .
. .

l
{
242 T HE C AN T E RBU R Y PUZ ZL ES

hypotenuse is 43 ft 4 in The length of the garl a nd is there fore

five times as long—2 1 6 ft 8 in A curio us feature o f the puz z le is
. .

. .

the fact th at with the dimensions given the result is exactly the
sum o f the height and the circumference .

99 .
—The Two E rrand Boys .

All th at is necess ary is to ad d the two dist ances at which they

meet to twice their di fference Thus 640 = 1 760 yards
.
,

o r o n e mile which is the dist ance re q uired

, Or put another way .
, ,

three times the first dist an c e less the second dist an ce will always
g ive the answer only the first dist an ce should be more t han two
,

thirds o f the second .

1 00 .
—0n the Ramsgate S ands .

Just six di ff erent rings may be formed without bre aking the
conditions Here is o ne way o f effec ting the arrange m e nts
. .

ir
1 1

A B C D E F G H I J K L
A G E G I K M B D F H J L
A D G J M C F I L B E H K
A E I M D H L C G K B F J
A F K C H M E J B G L D I
A G M F L E K D J C I B H

J oin the ends an d yo u h ave the s i x rings .

Luc as devised a simple mech anic al method for ob t aining the

n ri ngs th at m ay be formed under the conditio ns by 211 1 children .

1 01 .
—The Three M otor Cars
-
.

The only set o f three n umbers o f two three and five figures , , ,

respectively th at will fulfil the required conditions is 27 x 5 94 =

,

These three numbers cont ain all the nine digits an d 0 ,

without repetition ; the first two numbers multiplied together m ak e

the third and the second is exactly twenty two t imes the first If
,
-
.
2 44 THE C A NTE RBU R Y PUZ Z LES
“

irrespective o f routes Thus the direction BCDE gives

.
,

nine ro utes bec au se there are three ways of getting from B to

,
”

C an d t hree wa ys of getting from D to E

, But the direc tion .

E BCE a dmits of no v ari ation therefore yields o nl y one route .

2 two line directions

-
6
I three line -
I

I
9
2 four line -
12

2 3 6
6 fiv e -
line 36
2 36
2 si x line -
7 2

12 seven line -
43 2

Tot al 6 40

We thus see that there are j ust 6 40 di fferent routes in all,

is the correct answer to the puz z le .

1 04 .
-
The S kipp er an d the S ea S erp en t
-
.

E ac h of the three pieces was c le arly three c ables long But .

Simon persi sted in as suming th at the c uts were m ade tran sversely ,

o r ac ro s s an d th at therefore the complete le n gth was nine c able s

, .

Th e s kipper however expl ained (an d the point is q uite as ver ac ious
, ,

as the rest of his y arn ) th at his c uts were m ade longit udin ally

straight from the tip of the nose to the tip of the t ail Th e c o m
p le t e length was therefore only th ree c ables the s ame as e ac h ,

pie c e Simon was not asked the ex act length of the serpent b ut
.
,

how long it must h ave been It m ust h ave been at le ast three
.

c ables long tho ugh it might h ave been (the skipper s st atement
,
’

ap art ) anythi ng f rom th at up to nine c ables according to the ,

direction of the c uts .

 S O LUTI O NS 2 45

1 05 — The . D orcas S oci ety .

If there were twelve l adies in all there would be 1 3 2 ki sses ,

among t h e l adies alone le a ving twelve mo re to be exc h anged with

,

the c ura te six to be given by him an d s ix to be received There

a

'
.

fo re of the twelve la dies six would be hi s s i sters Consequently

, , .
,

if twelve c o uld do the work in four an d a half months s ix ladi es ,

would do it in twice the time— fo ur and a h alf m onths longer

which i s the c orrect an swer .

At first s ight there mi ght appe ar to be some ambiguity abo ut

the words Everybody kissed everybody else except of c ourse
, , , ,

the b ashful young man him self Might this not be held to imply .
”

th at all the l adies immodestly ki ssed t he c urate although they ,

were not (exc ept th e sisters) ki ssed by hi m in ret urn ? No be

c au s e in th at c ase it wo uld be fo und th at there must have been
, ,

twelve gi rl s not one of whom was a Sister which is contrary to the

, ,

conditions If ag ain it should be held th a t the si sters might not

.
, , ,

acc o rding to the wording h ave ki ssed their brother alth ough he , ,

ki ssed them I reply th at in th at c ase there must h ave been twelve

,

gi rl s all of whom m ust h ave been hi s sisters And the reference

, .

to the l adies who might h ave worked exclusively of the sisters shuts
o ut the possibilit y of this .

1 06 .
— The Adven turous S nail .

At the end of s eventeen d ays the sn ail will h ave climbed 1 7 ft

an d a t the end of i ts eighteent h d ay time t ask it will be at t h e to p -
.

It inst antly begins slipping while sleepi ng an d will be 2 ft down ,

.

the ot her s ide at the end of t h e eighteenth d ay of twe nt y four hours -

.

How long will it t ake over the rem aining 1 8 ft If it slips 2 ft . .

at nigh t it c le arly overcome s the tenden c y to slip 2 f t during th e .

d aytime in climbing up In rowing up a river we h ave the stream

,
.

ag ain s t us b ut in c oming down it is with us an d helps us

,
If the .

snail can climb 3 ft ; and overcome the tenden cy to slip 2 ft in .

twelve hours ascent it could with the same exertion crawl 5 ft a

’
,
.
2 46 THE C A N TE RBU R Y PUZZLES
d ay on the level Therefore in going down t he same exe rtion
.
,

carries it 7 ft in twelve hours—th at is 5 ft b y person al exertion

,
_

. .
,

and 2 ft by slip
. This with the night slip gives it a descending
.
, ,

progress of 9 ft in the twent y four hours It can therefore do

.
-
.
, ,

the rem ainin g 1 8 ft in exactly two days and the whole j ourney up
.
, ,

and down will t ak e it ex actly twent y d ays

, .

1 07 .
—The F our P ri nces .

Whe n Montucla in his edition o f Oz anam s Recreations i n,

’

M athematic s d eclared th at , No more th an three right angled -

tri an gles equal to each other c an be found i n whole numbers but

, , ,

we may find as m any as we choos e i n fractions he curiously o ver ,

looked the ob vious fact th at if you give all your sides a common
denomin ator and then c ancel th at denomin ator y ou have the
required answer in i ntegers l
Every reader should kn ow that i f we t ak e an y two n umb ers m ,

and n then m + n
,
2 2
m 2
n
2
an d 2mn will be the th ree sides o f a
,
-
,

ration al right angl e d tri an gle Here m and n are c alled gen eratin g
-
.

num bers To form three such tri an gles of equal area we use the
.
,

followi ng s imple form ul a where m is the greater n um ber ,

mn + m 2
+n
2=
a

m —n
2
bZ a

2=
2 mn + n c

N ow i f we form three tri angles from the followin g p airs o f

,

gener ators a and b a an d c a an d b + c they will all be of equal

, , , ,

area .This is the little problem respecting which Le wis Carroll

says in his di ary (see his Lif e and Letters by Collingwood p , .

Sat up l ast night till 4 am over a tempting problem sent me ,

from New York to find three equal rational sided right angled
,
- -

tri angles I found two

.
’
but could n of fi nd three !
The following is a subtle formul a b y me ans o f which we may
always fin d a R A T equ al in area to an y given R A T
. . Let z =
. . . .

hy potenuse b = b ase h = height a = area of the given tri angle ; then

, , ,
2 48 T HE C A N TE RBU R Y PU Z Z LES

1 09 .
— N oughts and Crosses .

Th e solution is as follows Between two pl ayers who thoroughly

underst and the pl ay every g ame sho ul d be dr awn Neither player .

co uld ever win except through the blundering of his opponent If .

No ught (the first pl aye r) t akes the centre Cross m ust t ake a corner , ,

or Nought m ay be at him with cert ai nty If No ught t akes a corner .

o n his fir s t pl ay Cross m ust t ake the centre at once or again be

, ,

be aten with cert ainty If No ught le ads with a s ide both pl ayers
.
,

must be very c areful to prevent a loss as there are numerous pit ,

f all s But Nought m ay s afely lead anything an d sec ure a draw

. ,

and he c an o nl y win through Cross s bl u nders

’
.

—Ovi d s Game1 10 .
’
.

The sol ution here is : The first pl ayer can al w ays Win pro ,

vi d e d he pl ays to the centre on his first move But a good vari a .

tion of the game is to b ar the centre for the fi rst move of the first
pl ayer In th at c ase the second pl ayer should t ake the centre at
.

once This sho uld always end in a draw but to ensure it the first
.
,

pl ayer m ust pl ay to two adj oining corners (such as 1 an d 3 ) on h is

fir st an d second moves Th e game then requires gre at c are on
.

both sides .

111 .
— The F armer s Oxen
’
.

Sir Is aac Newton h as shown us in his U n i versal Ari thmetic

, ,

th at we m ay divide the b ullocks in e ach c ase in two p arts—one p art

to e at the incre ase an d the other the ac c um ul ated grass The first
, .

will v ary directly as the si z e of the field an d will not depend on the,

time the second p art will also vary directly as the si z e of the field ,

an d in addition inversely with the time W e find from the f armer s

.
’

st atements th at 6 bullocks keep down the growth in a 1 0 acre -

field an d 6 bullo c ks e at the gr as s on 1 0 acres in 1 6 weeks There

, .

fore ii 6 b ullocks keep down the growth on 1 0 acres 2 4 will keep

, ,

down the growth o n 40 acres .

 S O LU T I O NS 2 49

Again we find th at if 6 bullocks

,
e at the accumul ated gr ass on
10 acre s in 1 6 weeks then ,

1 2 e at the gr ass on 10 a cres in 8 weeks ,

48 40 8
1 92 40 2

64 40 6

Add the two res ult s together (2 4 + an d find that 8 8 oxen

we
m ay be fed on a 40 acre me adow for -
6 weeks the grass growing
,

regul arly all the time .

1 12 —The Great Gran emo or M ster

.
g y y .

We were told th at the bu llet th at killed Mr St anton Mowbray .

stru c k the very centre of th e clock face an d in st antly welded to

gether the hour min ute an d second h ands so that all revolved
, , ,

in one piece The p uz z le was to tell from the fixed rel ative posi
.

tions of the three h ands the ex act time when the pistol was fired .

We were also told an d the illustration of th e cloc k f ac e bore ,

o u t the s t atement th at th e hour an d minute h ands were ex ac tly

,

twen ty divi sion s ap art the thi rd of th e c irc umferen c e of th e di al , .

Now t h ere are eleven time s in twelve ho urs wh en the hour h and
,

is ex actly twenty divi sion s ahe ad of t he minute h and an d eleven ,

times when the min ute hand is ex actly twenty divi sion s ahe ad of
the hour h and Th e illustration showed th at we h ad only to c o n
.

s ider the former c ase If we st art at four o clo c k an d keep on ’

.
,

a dding I h 5 111 2 7
— se.C we s h all get a
.ll the s e eleven time s t h e
3
3 1
.
, ,

l ast being 2 h 5 4 min 3 2 se c Anot h er addition b rings us b ack

— — . .
-
8
1 1
.

to four o clock If we now ex amine the clock f ace we s h all find

’
. ,

t h at the se c onds h and is nearly twenty two divi sions be h ind th e -

minute h and an d if we look at all o ur eleven times we sh all find

,

that only in the l ast c as e given above is th e seconds h and at this

dist ance Therefore the shot must h ave been fired at 2 h 5 4 min
. . .

min e e to
75
8
ex ctly or t t h ot h er w t 5
2
3 11 s e c a .
p u e a y a
, 5 2 ,
s ,
.
1
.

t h ree o clock This is the correct an d only possible answer to the

’
.

pu z z le .
250 T HE C A N T E RB U R Y PUZZ LES

1 13 — Cutti ng a Wood Block .

Though the cubic contents are s ufficient for twent y five pi -

only twent y four c an act ual ly be cut from the block F irst red
-
.

the len gth o f the block by h alf an inch The smaller piece cut
.

constit utes the portion th at c annot be used Cut the l arger pi .

into three sl abs e ach o ne an d a qu arter inch thick and it will

, ,

found th at eight blocks m ay e asily be cut o ut o f each sl ab without

an y further w aste .

114 .
—The Tramps and the Bi scui ts .

The sm allest number o f biscuits must h ave been 1 02 1 ,

which it is evident th at they were o f that mi ni ature descript

th at finds favour in t h e n ursery The general solution is that
.

n men the n u mber m ust be ( n where m is an y

E ach m an will receive m (n 1 bisc u its at the fin al divi s ion ,

tho ugh in the c ase of two men when m = 1 the fin al distribution

, ,
.

onl y benefits the dog Of course in every c ase e ach man ste als an i
.
,

n th o f the n um be r o f bisc uits after g i vin g the o dd o n e to the d o g

, .
2 52 I N D E!
C k P zzl Th 3 6 17 1
oo
’
s u e, e, , . F orm at, P . d e , 1 74 .

C i h Cli ff My t y Th 9 9 210
o rn s s er , e, , . Fi h p d Th R i ddl f the 69 194
s -
on , e e o , , .

C t P bl m M v i g 24 3 5
o un e r ro e s, o n , , , 69 , Fl g M ki g 123 223
a , a n a, , .

7 7 , 124 , 1 35 , 13 6 , 14 1 . Fl u d Ly Sixty f u 5 0
e rs - e- s, - o r, .

C g
o u n ti n P zz l
o ut u e, 39 . Fl u Th Ni S k f 26
o r, e ne ac s o , .

C t
re sce n d th Cr Th 63 18 9
an e o s s, e, , . Fl y Th S p i d
, d th 1 21 221
e e r an e, , .

C i g Ri v P bl m 82 8 3
ro s s n er ro e s, ,
. F tp i t Pu zzl 101 105
oo rn s e s, , .

C u d Th R iddl f th 74 19 7
r sa e rs , e e o e, , . F u P in Th 15 3 246
o r r c e s, e, , .

C B T bl
ru s o e R bi 14 2 240a e, o n so n , , . F x o d Ge 140 239
e s an e se , , .

Cu b S u m f Tw 174 209
e s, s o o, ,
. F k lin Pu zzl Th 44 17 6
ra n
’
s e, e, , .

Th S i l v 9 2 209 Fi d S mp u Di p ut 5 1 18 ’
e e r, ,
. r ar an o no rs s e, ,

Fi Pu zzl Th 46 177
r ar s
’
e, e, , .

Da ily M a il, 179 , 221, 236 . Fro g d Tu mb l Th 1 13 216

s an e rs , e, , .

D m l R
eci a s, g
e c u rri n , 228 , 229 . wh w u ld w i g g 1 1 6 219
o o a- oo n o, , .

D m ll
e bl
o i s e e , Th e N o e , 5 9 18 6 , . F g Rin g Th e Riddl e f th 76 199
ro s
’
, o e, , .

Di m d Le tt Pu zzl 18 1
a on er es , .

D igi t l A ly i 228
a na s s, .
G m Puzzl 1 18 125 15 6 15 7
a e s, e, , , , .

Puzzl 18 26 90 103 e s, , , , , 129 , 1 3 9 , G d Th R y l 8 2 203

ar e n s , e o a , , .

148 , 15 4 .
G Th Ch i t m s 8 8 206
e e se , e rs a , , .

D i p u t b tw
s e e e en Fi r ar an d S mp o n o ur,
G m t i l P bl m 5 2 6 2 6 7
eo e r ca ro e s, , , , 121
13 1, 144 , 146
P zzl
.

Di sse c t i o n u e s, 29 , 3 0, 3 5 ,
41, 49 , My t y Th 15 8 249
G ran ge m o or s er ,
e, ,

6 3 , 123 , 13 1, 142 .
G up P o b l m C m b i ti
ro d
r e s, o na o n an .

Di t h c , Bri d gi n g th e 8 3 204 , , .
C o m b in tio d Gro u p P b l m a n an ro e s .

Di v i s ors o f Nu mb e rs , Fi d 170 To n , .

D t
oc or of Ph y si c , Th e P u zz l e f th 4 2 o e, ,
H b d h Pu zzl Th 49
a e r as er s
’
e, e, , 1 78 .

174 .
H g C t h in g t h 124 223
o s, a c e,
K e e p Win d o w Th 62 188
.
,
D on j o n , e, , .

H pp O
o 19 8 e, s c a r,
D S i ty Th 15 1 245
.

o rc a s oc e , e, , .

H t Puzzl Th 28 166
os
’
s e, e,
D m it y P uzzl Th 70
.
,
or or e, e, .

D un g Th D t h h d 60
e on , e ea
’
s- ea
bl C k dy
.
,
La 6 7, 19 1
’
I sa e t,
D g
un Th N i
e o n s,35 e ne , .
e s as , .

Dy Puzzl Th 50
er s
’
e, e, ,

Jae n is c h , 23 7 .

E d w d P t it f Ki g 46
ar , o r ra o n , .
J p a an e se La di e s an d th e C rpe t
a , 13

E gg S lli g th 13 5
s, e n e,
23 1 .

St g E p Ki n g
.

E l v P i Th 8 8 206
e en e nn e s , e, , .
J e s t e r, ran e sc a e of ,
t he
’

E d B y Th Tw 14 7 242
rra n o s, e o, , .
7 8 , 201 .

E p f Ki g J te Th S t
sc a e o n
’
s es r, e ran g e

7 8 , 201 . K ayle e , Th e a e o f 118 , 220 G m , .

Ex e c u ti o n e r, The , 78 .
K l
e nn e s , Th e N i n e , 3 9 .

Kin g s J ’
e ste r, St ran g E e s ca pe of

F ll y f S q u r s Di g n l 5 2
a ac o a e
’
a o a , . 7 8 , 201 .

F m Ox n The 15 7 24 8
ar er s
’
e , , ,
K g ni ht s P u
’
zzl e , Th e , 26, 165 .
 IN DE! 253

y
Lad I sa e s as e t, 6 7 , 19 1 bl C k ’
. Nu m be Blocks The 139 23 8
r , , , .

L Ari thmé tiq u e Amusa nte , 19 8

’
. N mbu Mt C 103 148
e rs o n o o r- ars , , .

Leg d 1 75en re , . P t iti f 4 6 ar on o . .

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e Pu zzl 16
er e s, . Th C h l k d 8 9 206 e a e , , .

Lo k Th S
c ,
t 8 0 202 e e c re , , . Nu Pu zzl Th 3 2 169
’
n s e, e, , .

Loc om ti v d S p d Pu zzl 147

o e an ee e, .

L gb w
on d th B o C p t 1 32 233
an e e ars , a , , . O n e s, Nu mb e rs co m po e d s o nl y
L E d u d 175 19 8 242
u c as , o ar , , , . 1 8 , 75 , 1 9 8 .

O pp iti i Ch 224
os on n ess , .

17 9 . O h d Th Fi ft
rc ar 14 3 24 1
s, e e en , , .

of th e , 4 1 . O v i d G m 15 6 24 8
’
s a e, , .

Rv e e rsi bl e, 149 , 24 3 . O x Th F m
en , 15 7 24 8 e ar e r s,
’
, .

29 , 44 , 1 1 1, Oz anam Recreatio ns , 24 6
’
s .

1 83 . P ki g Pu zzl
ac n e s, M e asu rin g W ighing
, e ,

3 4 , 17 0 .

M k
ar e t W m o an , Th e E c c e n t ri c , 13 5 , P a li d m 1 7
n ro e s, .

P d
ar o n e r s Puzzl Th 25 164
’
e, e, , .

Marks f ord d d 96 an d t h e La y, Lo r , . Pa re n a t l C mm d A 28 o an , , .

M z Th U d g u d 79 201
a e, e n e r ro n , , . Par k My t y of R v d
,
s er 105 211 a ens en e , ,
.

M i g
eas u r n W ighi g d P king
, e n , an ac Pa rs o n s Puzzl Th 47 177
’
e, e, , .

P zzl 29 3 1 5 5 72 7 3 160 P t y Th S q u i s Ch i t m Pu zzle ’

u e s, , , , , , . ar , e re rs as ,

M h nt P zzl Th 3 3 170
e rc a
’
s u e, e, , . 8 6 , 205 .

M y M k f R idd l w ll 68 19 4
e rr on s o e e , , . P lli E q ti 19 7
e an ua on , .

Mill Pu zzl Th 26 164

er s
’
e, e, , . P i Th E l v 8 8 206
e nn e s, e e en, , .

Mi ll sc e u P zz l 1 18 220
an e o s u e s, , . Ph i l Th Tw 42
a s, e o, .

Mi tl t B gh U d th 9 1 208
s e oe ou ,
n er e, , . Ph t g p h Th Amb igu
o o ra 94 210 , e o u s, , .

M t C i g th 8 1 202
oa , ro ss n e, , . Pi e an d th P ty Th 36 e as , e, .

M n y D i v id i g th 5 7
o e ,
n e, . Pil g i m g Th Fif t 25
r a e s, e ee n , .

M k f R iddl w ll Th M y 68
on s o e e , e e rr , , Pi l g i m M
r f Ri di g 3 4
s
’
an n er o n , .

19 4 . Th R i dd l f th 7 0 1 94
e e o e, , .

M k Pu z z l
on
’
s e, Th e , 39 , 172 . Pill Th C v d W d 3 1
ar, e ar e oo e n, .

M o n t u c la 24 6 , . Pl t d th Ni
a o an 154 24 7 e n e s, , .

M t C Th Ru w y 103 211
o or -
ar, e na a , , . P l gh m
ou P zz l Th 43 175
an s
’
u e, e, , .

M t C Th Th e e 14 7 24 2
o o r- a rs , e r , , . Pl mb Th P pl x d 144 24 1
u e r, e er e e , , .

M v in g C u t P bl m S C u
o o n er ro e s . ee o n te r Pl m P dd i g T ti g th 90 207
u u n s, as n e, , .

P bl m M v in g
ro e s, o . Pi t
o n s d Li P b l m 4 3 1 16
an nes ro e s, , ,

13 3 .

Nash , W 23 7 P k
o r e rs , Fo u 13 8 23 7 Th e r, ,

Ne lso n Co l um n Th e 14 6 24 1 , , , . P t g S t mp Puzz l Th 1 12 214

os a e a s e, e, , .

Ne w to n Sir I sa ac 24 8 , , . P im
r Pu zzl Th 13 6 23 5
ro se e, e, , .

Nin e s Plato a n d th e 154 24 7

, , , . Pi Th F u 15 3 246
r nc e s, e o r, , .

N o b le De m o ise ll e Th e 5 9 18 6 , , , . Pi Th Pu zz l
r o re s s f t h 4 1 1 73
. e e o e, , .

N o u h tsg an d C osses
r , 15 6 , 248 . P fess P uzzl Th 1 10 214
ro or s
’
e s, e, , .
2 54 I N D E!

Pu zl Cl b Adv t
z e f th 94 u , e n u re s o e, 210 . S n ai l o n th Flagstaff e , Th e 65 , , 190 .

P uzzl H w t l v 18
es , o o so e, . The A d v nturo u e s, 15 2, 245 .

H w th y m d 14
o e a re a e, . Sn The Two , 1 15 , 217
ails, .

S phi ti l 15 o s ca , . So lv amhall ast e , u zz in C l P l g Ti mes at,

Th x t d iti f 18
e e ac c on on s o , . 5 8 , 18 4 .

Th m y t i h m f 12 S o mpn o ur s an d Friar Dis pute

’ ’
e s e r ous c ar o , . s , 5 1,
Th e n at u re o f, 11 . 18 0 .

l y
Th e uti it o f, 13 . Puz zl Th e 3 8 172 e, , , .

v y
Th e ari e t o f, 13 , 16 . Sph ri l S u f
e f W t
ca 18 1 r ace o a e r, .

U nso e , 20 lv d . Spid r an d th Fly The 121 221

e e , , , .

P l g m
uzz in Ti es at S olvamhall Castl e, 5 8, Square and Triangle Th 49 , e, .

18 4 . S qu re Fi l d Th e 107
a e , , .

Py ami d s
r , Trian gul a r, 163 . Square s Pro bl m of 74 , e , .

S q ua Three Squares fro m On e

re , , 1
Railw y Pu zzl 13 4 a e, . 23 1 .

Th Tu be 149 24 3 e , , . Squire Christmas Puz le Party

’
s z ,

Railw y Th e Chi a 127 224

s, n ese , ,
. 86, 205 .

Ramsg t S n d On t h 14 7 242
a e a s, e, , . Puzzl e, Th e , 45 176 , .

R t a tc h
- R iddl Th 5 6
ca er s
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e, e, . Yeo man The , Pu zzle of th e,
R ve d n P k My te y f 105 211
a ns e e ar , s r o , , . 1 68 .

R v e Pu zz l Th 24 163
e
’
s e, e, , . S tamp Countin g Postage 13 7
s, , .

R ib bo P bl m The 13 0 228
n ro e , , , . Magi Sq u f 1 12 c ares o , .

Rid d l o ld 16 e s, , . Puzzl Th e P t ge 1 12 214 e, os a , , .

R i d dl w ll Th M rry Mo nks o f 68
e e , e e , , S u pe rposi ti n Pro ble m on 179 o , , .

19 4 . S ylveste r 175 , .

R iv e r Cro ss in g P bl m 8 2 8 3 ro e s, , .

R bi n Cru T bl 142 240 bl Ro binso n Crusoe 142 240

’ ’
o n so so e s a e, , . Ta e, s, , .

Ro m eo a n d J uli t 1 14 217 e , , . Th Ro un d 13 7 23 6 e , . .

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’
S d Jo urn y 1 16 218
econ e , , . Tall bye , 198
-
.

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’
P ath , Th e , 207 . Ta pe s try , Cutting th e, 30 .

Ro pe Th e My , ste ri o us, 7 9 , 201 . Tapise r s z e,

’
e , 3 0, 16 7 Pu z l Th .

Roun d T bl a e , The , 13 7, 23 6 . p
T eac u s, The Three , 8 7, 205 .

Ro ute Pr bl m o e s, U ni cursa l an d . S ee Te a Tim , Th e i e , 13 7, 23 7 Fv .

U ni c ursal . y
Thi rt -o ne am e , Th e , 125 , 224 G .

Ti e ld Hearth , The i e o f the R ddl .

S k Wi
ac Th e i le o f the , 72, 19 6
ne, R dd . 19 5 .

St Edmo nd sb ury, The i

. e o f, 75 , 19 7 R d dl . g at th Ring 5 9 185
Tiltin e , , .

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an s , On the a s ate , 14 7, 24 2 R mg . T u Th e E gl i h 134 23 3
o r, n s , , .

S p
S ea e r e n t, Th e
-
i e r an d th e , 150, Sk pp T wn Vis iti g th
o s, 134 n e, .

T mp an d th B is ui ts The 160
ra s e c , , ,

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e , 27 a o n a, . T ea u
r Th B urie d 107 212
s re , e , , .

S h ip m Pu zl Th e 40 173
an s
’
z e, , , . Trees The S ix te e n Oak 4 4
, , .

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e - e , ,
150, Tri ngl e n d S q u
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244 . Triang les of Eq ual A re 15 3 246 a, , .

 PR E S S O PI N I O N S O N
TH E C A N TE R BU R Y P U ZZ LE S .

I t is ab k f m k bl
oo o re ar a e in g e n ui t y an d in te re st .
”
—E d ucation al Ti mes .

Th e m ti g i b i
os n e n o us ra n in E n gl d an a fascinatin g ne w b k oo .
”

E ven i ng N e ws .

A ca pit l b k a oo of p o se rs .
—D a i {y N ews .

Th e u z es Pzl re ac h th e i i t o f i n e n ui ty an d in tricac ; lm g y an d i t is
w lle fo r th e san i ty o f h is re a e rs tha t th e auth o r i e s a ist o f so d gv l l uti o ns at

th e e n d o f th e oo
”
— b k
0hse rve r . .

A b k th t w ill p vid mu h
oo a ro e c e n te rtai n m tf C h i tm g th i g
en or r s as a er n s
in g i u puzzl
en o d p bl m
s es an ro e s in v t d by S ph i x th P zzl
en e n ,
’
e u e
Th e Capta i n .

M r D ud e n e y, w ho se
. re put a ti o n isw o rl d wi d e as th e -
puzzl e an d p bl m
ro e
mk a er of th e ag e sure to fin d a w i d e c i rc ul a t i o n as attrac tiv i e n

pp
a e aran c e as i ts co n te n ts are fasc in atin g —E. ng li s h M echan i c an d World qf
S ci e nce .

An e x ce e d i gly i g n n e n io u s c o n struc to r an d so lv er o f fasc in atin g puzzl e s,

m ath e lm atic a an d o th e r w is e .
"
—S ch oo l G ua rd i a n .

“A b k gh t t b h igh ly p p l
oo w h ic h it i ll m igh ty i ou o e o u ar s a n

g i u
en o d v i
s , an
y t ll g tl y p t b f
er th d —S h fi ld
n e T l g ph i en u e o re e re a er . e e e e ra .

I t i m tt f sd l ight th t M H y E D d y h
a er o r ll t d i t e a r. en r . u e ne as c o ec e n o
a v l um th my t i p zzl f h i w hi h h v pp d i m yj
o e o se s e r o us l u es o s c a e a e are n an o urn a s
t i q it
c o n a ns mb f i g i w m t l p bl m
u e a nu er o n e n o us ne en a ro e s a
v l bl i t d ti
a ua e Th L dy
n ro uc on .
”
e a .

“F th l g w i t
or v i g M D d y b k f p zzl d m i
e on n er e en n s r. u ene
’
s oo o u e o s
t b
o mm d d M D d y h m d t dy f v yk i d f p z l
e re c o en e r. u e ne as a e a s u o e er n o u z e
—
.

th i
e re h
s ppl i y w ith v y k i d f b i tw i t
e su Th D i ly es ou e er n o ra n - s e r. e a

T o o k up m o re o f th e re vi e wer s m ’
ti e th an h e c o u l d w ll e a ffo r d t g iv o e
it ; h e w ante d to s o l ve
so e of e c ur o us m th i p bl m
ro e s th a t i t c o n tain s, a n d
g
fo r in e n io us e rso n s wh o w an t e p o e nt mpl ym on a we t d ay, h e p mi ro se s f m
ro
b d
i t a un an t sco e ”
Yorksh i re P ost p . .

“A we ll k n o w n mas te r puz z l e r
-
p vid
ro bu d e s an a n a n c e o f se a s o n a bl e
p
o c cu atio n f th i g or e n e n io us , w i th an i t d ti
n ro th g uc on on e e n e ra lq ue s tio n
o f p zzl u whi h i
e s, c s one o f th e
i n e re s m o st t ti g p t f th n ar s o e bo o k H e is
—
.

a s k il f l i v t
u N n e n o r.
”
otti ng ha m Gu a rd i a n .

“W ill
j y th m p vid d g witty ”
en o e e n te rtai n ent ro e in e ni o us an d .

x
E trem e y in e n io us oo , l g
h ic h b k w a b d o un s in ro e p bl m
s th at w il l
k p
ee d b
th e rea e r u sy fo r h o urs — u n ti i n l d pies a r h e turn s to th e an s w e rs
at th e e n d
”
—
M a n c hester G u ardi a n
. .

g
Th e se ttin o f th e se e r e i ti e s is n o e p pl x vl a d m ra atic b kg u d
ac ro n

b g ei n th us ro i e p vd d
w hic h re e n ts too re at p v g a ri d ity Th e b k h ul d
oo s o
b m e uch i n re ue s t
”
q
The M orn i ng L ea der . .