If Monday is the Day of Cryptic Definition (from Rufus), then Sunday’s Everyman is a day for well-constructed Ximenean clues without recourse to puns.
Across
| 4 | [g]O SLO[w] – “endless” removes both the beginning and end of GO SLOW which is somewhat unusual but perfectly valid. And again nice to see OSLO not clued in Czechoslovakia. |
| 9 | OBESE – hidden in “Mother-tO-BE SEems…”. Nice clue. |
| 10 | E(YEBR)IGHT – Another flower learnt via cryptics. EIGHT (our “number”) contains byre*. |
| 12 | SNOW,D,ON – the only British mountain I can remember (OK, Ben Nevis as well). CP SNOW’s our “novelist”, years ago I read many of his novels. |
| 13 | TIDY SUM – (study? I’m)*. The enumeration in the online edition was given incorrectly as (7). |
| 17 | B(READ) AND B,UTTER – Nice clue – both Bed and Breakfast and Bread and Butter are “B&B”. |
| 23 | DAM,A,SCENE – ornamentation on your sword in the style of Damascus. As for SCENE being a “tasteless display”, well, at home we believe our domestic SCENEs to be quite dramatic, yet tasteful. |
| 25 | HOOKE[d] – Robert HOOKE was a 17C English scientist who gave Newton a run for his money (proposing e.g. a wave theory of light and the inverse square law of gravity before the Great Man – without proof though). |
| 26 | EAR,N – nice simple clue: def is “make” with N[ervous] at the end. |
| 27 | S.P.,LE(N,DID)LY – N for “knight” and Sir Pieter LELY was a 17C English painter of Dutch origin and a contemporary of Hooke. |
Down
| 3 | ABERDEEN ANGUS – Well-known cattle breed. Turns out ANGUS is no longer a county but a council area. |
| 5 | ELECT,RA – She was Agamemnon’s daughter (and cousin to Helen). |
| 7 | SA,G – nice simple clue again: SA is “it” (as in, sex appeal) |
| 8 | ON (TIM)E – Our TLB (three-letter boy) is TIM this time. |
| 11 | RIDE (ROUGH)SHOD – (horse did)* contains ROUGH for “uncut grass” as in the unmowed stuff lining a golf green. |
| 14 | SPLIT,SECOND – Nice clue again: SECOND in the cryptic reading is to “transfer” typically used in military contexts. SPLIT is a Croatian resort that I visited as a teenager when it was still Yugoslavia. |
| 16 | GREENE,RY – Another British writer: this time Graham GREENE. |
| 18 | ANTWERP – (new part)*. Without checking I’m going to assume that ANTWERP is a “province” as well as a town. Perhaps couldn’t be fit in last week’s Belgian puzzle? |
| 19 | DEAD,EYE – last clue. “Gone to sleep” is a euphemism for DEAD in genteel families. |