XIMENES CROSSWORD No. 186

ASHMOLEAN

1.  T. E. Sanders (Walsall): A wood-pile if old is just the place to harbour the ant. (ash mole an²; ant. = antiquities; mole⁵, pile² = pier).

2.  A. R. Read (Sidcup): Distracted male has no place to pursue serious studies at co-educational university (anag.).

3.  J. C. B. Date (Ruislip): The hero of the Jacobites hid under a tree on top of an accumulation of old junk near Worcester (ash + mole + an; molehill caused death of William III; Charles II hid in oak tree near W.; A. is near W. College, Oxford).

H.C.

J. A. Blair (NW9): No sham relic is exhibited here: there’s just the place to browse in (lea in anag. of no sham, & lit.; browse = feed on shoots of plants).

R. R. Greenfield (Ruislip): A massive building with no end of antiques—don’t make a noise inside (sh! in a mole + an(tiques), & lit.; mole⁵).

C. T. Hatten (Richmond): Refuse an underground worker an exhibition? Not at Cambridge! (ash mole an; museum in Oxford).

P. J. Higgins (Cambridge): The Ark contained only very old specimens. That’s what made Ham so confounded thin after the trip (anag. of Ham so + lean; ref. Tradescant collection, from their residence the “Ark”, gifted to Ashmole, initiated the museum).

Mrs L. Jarman (Brough): Has something different, beside being noted for casts; an outstanding collection (anag. + mole + an, & lit.; cast = moulded artefact, molehill).

L. W. Jenkinson (Stoke): You’ll see me lash wildly about the ring if I face the famous Randolph (O in anag. of me lash + an²; ref. Randolph Hotel, opposite the A., and R. Turpin, boxer).

C. J. Lowe (Manchester): Broad hint to exhibition entrants—sliced ham on sale in Oxford! (anag.; A. is in Broad St., Oxford; ref. food shortages).

T. W. Melluish (SE24): Alan’s Home for Disorderly Constituents should be visited at Oxford (anag.; ref. A. P. Herbert, MP for Oxford University, and ‘Misleading Cases’).

D. P. M. Michael (Whitchurch): Noah’s male issue provides new home for Ark collection (anag.; the Tradescant collection, from their residence the “Ark”, gifted to Ashmole, initiated the museum).

C. J. Morse (Oxford): Possibly a manhole’s one of the best places for archaeological study (anag.).

E. J. Rackham (Totton): Wherein you may see ham on sale, and other reminders of the past (anag.; ref. food shortages).

D. W. Reed (Chesterfield): In a quiet old mausoleum an excellent collection of curios may be found (a sh! mole⁵ an).

L. R. Smith (Thorne): Where the curious loiter, as before a manhole being hacked up, in Oxford (as + anag.).

J. A. L. Sturrock (Oxford): Spot the beginnings of a nest on the tree? Wren’s work, a scout could recognize it (ash + mole² + a n; design of A. attributed to Wren; scout = Oxford college servant).

F. L. Usher (Andover): “Near to thee, Bacon,” Calverley might have said of this building; anyhow it has cut ham on sale! (anag.; ref. C. S. Calverley, “Ode to Tobacco”, and W. Bacon, tobacconist formerly of Broad St., Oxford).

J. S. Young (Beckenham): This collection includes ‘The Arundel Marbles,’ a Holmes mystery with an engaging end (anag. of a Holmes + an).

I. Young (NW3): The little gentleman in black velvet with astrakhan fringes going round the museum (mole in as(trak)han; ref. Jacobite toast following death of William III, caused by molehill).

RUNNERS-UP

E. S. Ainley, C. A. Baker, Rev B. Chapman, D. L. L. Clarke, Mrs D. M. D’Eath, W. M. Easther, Rev B. Foley, B. Freedman, D. J. Furley, C. E. Gates, Rev J. G. Graham, R. J. Hall, S. Holgate, E. M. Furnival Jones, P. W. W. Leach, F. E. Newlove, M. Newman, Mrs A. M. Osmond, Mrs D. M. Pittman, R. Postill, M. G. Powell-Davies, E. R. Prentice, A. Robins, N. Roles, W. K. M. Slimmings, F. B. Stubbs, H. Thwaite, H. S. Tribe, G. H. Willett.
 

COMMENTS—228 correct: not many mistakes, but a sprinkling of bad guesses produced “Grublinob.” The anag. was not enough to settle it, nor, in such a queer name, was word-probability: Brewer’s Reader’s Handbook would have done the trick. NERONI seems to have given trouble: I thought Barchester Towers was better known than it appears to be. I do wish occasional solvers would drop the pathetic bleat of “not in Chambers” with reference to proper names: the recommendation of a dictionary does not suggest that it is an encyclopaedia, an atlas or a literary handbook. It is not the function of a dictionary to give proper names, nor, as I have said before, can I undertake to restrict myself to any specific reference book for these. I cast my net fairly wide for them, and I always give a subsidiary clue to a possibly unfamiliar one: it must be very unusual for an anag. not to be definitive, as in the case of GRUBBINOL: if it isn’t—well, you can’t always expect to be spared research!
 
A harder puzzle this time seems to have been welcome to many tigers—sorry, I mean seasoned wolves. The word offered plenty of scope and produced some good results: I thought there was very little to choose between the 2nd and 3rd and Messrs. Jenkinson and Melluish: after these I liked best Mr. Hatten’s friendly dig at “the other place.” Perhaps an Oxford man ought to have been brought in to judge this competition: as it was, a poor Cantab had to do some research in verifying the Oxonians’ facts—but you can’t always expect ……!
 
Still the unindicated anag. rears its ugly head, e.g. “Is Alan s home where they keep lost causes?”, with note  “Alan’s home—anagram.” Perhaps the sender of this and others did not see last time’s slip, so I’ll repeat:—a note to me doesn’t help the solver, for whom an indication of an anag. must be given in the clue.