Inquisitor 1786: Seen From a Window by Hedge-sparrow

11 comments on “Inquisitor 1786: Seen From a Window by Hedge-sparrow”

1. I thought this was a cracker and an early POTY contender, thank you Hedgesparrow. I found it to be a very satisfying challenge – I chipped away at it for much of the week and it wasn’t until I had an almost full grid that I was able to get the theme. I’d guessed FORFARSHIRE early but assumed that referred to geography and the setting for the puzzle. There were no shortcuts with the hidden instruction either, requiring almost all of the letters to be identified in order to see what needed to be done.

   And re: (non)symmetrical grids, I’m the same – it’s not something that I look for, and only strikes me as important when trying to complete a carte blanche puzzle.

2. Very satisfying puzzle and an enjoyable blog. Nice to get a complete finish. I would never have noticed grid is non-symmetrical.

   Not only is Forfar a town in Scotland, it has a football club, and in the days when results were solemnly intoned on the BBC, one would always listen out for “Forfar four…” In fact, once, there was a game ending East Fife four, Forfar five.

   Many thanks to Hedge-sparrow and Jon_S

3. Because the right-hand side yielded more easily than the left, I got most of FORFARSHIRE before the grid was half-full. I recognised that name only as the old county where Angus is now, but on looking it up I quickly found out about the SS Forfarshire and the heroic (and well-known) story of Grace Darling.

   LONGSTONE LIGHTHOUSE then went into the other two blank unclued entries, and they were of material help in completing the left side and thence the entirety of the grid.

   The grid manipulations to put the theme into effect were impressive and fun to do. It was an impressive set of clues too, with some gems that tripped me up until I negotiated them successfully. In this regard I must highight ‘Kyrgyzstani [s]ackers expelled from some’, which gave me just one letter (E) of the answer ELSE, and ‘in short, a prime number?’ to define the qualified anaesthetist FRCA. The story of the theme was well worth reading again (I had not realised, or had forgotten, that Grace Darling died at the age of 26).

   Thanks to Hedge-sparrow and Jon_S.

4. Much enjoyed — hearty thanks and a double ration of rum to Hedge-sparrow
   and Jon_S. As noticed above by Alan B, it was fun to have so much concluding activity in the grid, all rather reminiscent of the late great Schadenfreude.

5. Ah, the late great Schadenfeude — deeply missed.

   Very much enjoyed this offering; all thanks to Hedge-sparrow and to Jon_S.

   It was a narrow DNF for me, with the clever “number” and “stop” defeating me. (Very minor gripe: as a [deeply amateur] church organist I’d’ve said an ‘oboe’ stop is far more commonly called ‘hautbois’ — or am I missing something?). I deduced FORFARSHIRE relatively early on but had to wait a bit to get any confirmation I was on the right track.

   I personally prefer symmetrical square grids to asymmetric rectangular ones but no matter really; as far as I was concerned this was just the right level of difficulty and an interesting reflection on what was, for me, an unknown but worthy incident from our maritime history. Thank you!

6. The second 16×10 grid in a row! All present and correct here once again. A relatively tough solve I felt, with some wonderful clues and a very engaging endgame. I really liked the need to move the pertinent words around the grid to reside in more appropriate final resting places, as per the historical event – all very clever. Beautifully done, a delight from start to finish.

7. Dear All,
   Many thanks for all your kind comments, and to Jon_S for the excellent blog – I’m glad the puzzle proved enjoyable. I have heard of the Grace Darling window which Jon_S refers to (my wife is a stained glass artist so I get to know about such things ?): I rather wish I’d thought about it when constructing the puzzle since, as Jon_S implies, “Scene From a Window” would have been a good title. One other thematic feature of the puzzle is the clue gimmick: 40-something people sadly were lost when the Forfarshire sank – the letters “lost” from clues represent these victims.

8. I echo everyone’s comments – an absolute cracker, so much so that I strong-armed my wife into doing the denouement together. It was almost like stop motion animation!

   I also enjoyed the ‘prime number’, at least once the penny dropped many hours in.

9. Unless I am mistaken the importance of 18 across in the crossword is also a nice thematic twist, since I think there were 18 survivors from the Forfarshire in total, nine rescued by Grace and her father, another nine saving themselves separately. A lovely crossword, many thanks to setter and blogger.

10. Very skilful, but ‘Kyrgyzstan’ (s)ackers expelled from some’ to clue just the letter E is pushing it. Good fun, neat endgame. Thanks all round.

11. Terrific puzzle. Interesting that David thought of the late Schadenfreude, as when I completed the endgame I thought of Shackleton; I am sure Hedge-sparrow would be happy with both comparisons. Only the other week, I solved a Listener and thought of Hedge-sparrow, turns out he was a part of the setting pair! Comparable and incomparable, either way, a class act.

    Thank you.

    Great blog too.

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