A puzzle with a seasonal theme. I’d not heard the quote before so it took me quite a while to tease it all out esp as, understandably, fitting the quote in meant more unfamiliar words had to be used. Solving time, 39 mins.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
1 BRID(g)E I should have got this much more quickly than I did – I found this the toughest quadrant.
4 DISHWATER (Tried wash)*
10 S C (RAP) HEAP
11 E (TUD) E (duty less y)< A musical piece set as a study for practice of which I’ve memories, not entirely happy, from learning piano a long time ago.
12 TREADLE (altered)*
15 TRANSIT n in (‘Tis art)<
17 RI (D D) LED
20 AN G(o)RY
22 STEERSMAN (n rat seems)* definition = cox
24 E (VANGELI) C (leaving)* in CE<
DOWN
1 BA (BY – S) IT
2 IN FO R(a)CE
3 EU RI (PI) DES
4 DEC RE (ME) NT
5 STRIP Brilliant double definition – clue of the puzzle for me
6 WA (S) TE(r) I think this is ‘s (abbrev for is) that you see more in ‘advanced’ puzzles.
7 TEMPURA (rum paté)*
8 Bertrand RUSSELL “Rustle”
13 WORK ETHIC (white rock)*
14 EN (DORP H) IN (ni (h prod) ne)<
15/25/9/13a/23 ‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS WHEN ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE After I got the C in Christmas, I guessed that must be it and it helped me with crossing words. The clue itself is explained, I think, by the next line (thanks Google) “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”
16 A (LGE) RIA (leg)*
18 LIM(e) BURG grub<
19 DENS E(S)T et = and in French
21 YOU N G
22 S (A) HEL I think this is a in shel(f)
If you don’t know “‘Twas the night before Christmas” then I can only suggest you haven’t seen enough Tom and Jerry cartoons.
24D: A in SHEL[l] surely
I was a bit unsure between shell and shelf, but you’re probably right “marine remains” – continental shelf occurred to me. Definitely been a while since I’ve seen T & J.
I wasn’t keen on the long quote. There was no wordplay to help you get it so, unless you knew the poem, you were reduced to guessing the words. Most of them were fairly obvious from the checking letters, but I struggled with the “twas” and unfortunately guessed week for w_e_ instead of when.
The poem for me was a godsend. My first solve and plenty of letters to work with! I find it odd that it seems to have caused such grief as I just assumed everybody knew it. Having said that I was convinced the line was “…and all through the house” (not ‘when’) so that tripped me up.