The diagram represents twenty-five coloured counters, Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Green (indicated by their initials), and there are five of each colour, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, an...
An honest dairyman in preparing his milk for public consumption employed a can marked B, containing milk, and a can marked A, containing water. From can A he poured enough to doubl...
Here is a five-queen puzzle that I gave in a fanciful dress in 1897. As the queens were there represented as hats on sixty-four pegs, I will keep to the title, "The Hat-Peg Puzzle....
The Parson was a really devout and good man. "A better priest I trow there nowhere is." His virtues and charity made him beloved by all his flock, to whom he presented his teaching...
Nearly all of our most popular games are of very ancient origin, though in many cases they have been considerably developed and improved. Kayles—derived from the French word quille...
The difficulties of the proprietor of a motor garage are converted into a little pastime of a kind that has a peculiar fascination. All you need is to make a simple plan or diagram...
"Speaking of odd figures," said a gentleman who occupies some post in a Government office, "one of the queerest characters I know is an old lame widow who climbs up a hill every we...
A Cockney friend, who is very apt to draw the long bow, and is evidently less of a sportsman than he pretends to be, relates to me the following not very credible yarn:-- "I've jus...
When the big flaming placards were exhibited at the little provincial railway station, announcing that the Great ---- Company would run cheap excursion trains to London for the Chr...
Can you write 100 in the form of a mixed number, using all the nine digits once, and only once? The late distinguished French mathematician, Edouard Lucas, found seven different wa...
Starting from the ordinary arrangement of the pieces as for a game, what is the smallest possible number of moves necessary in order to arrive at the following position? The moves...
One Christmas the Abbot offered a prize of a large black jack mounted in silver, to be engraved with the name of the monk who should put forth the best new riddle. This tournament...
A good dissection puzzle in so few as two pieces is rather a rarity, so perhaps the reader will be interested in the following. The diagram represents a piece of bunting, and it is...
This Doctor, learned though he was, for "In all this world to him there was none like To speak of physic and of surgery," and "He knew the cause of every malady," yet was he not in...
"A man I know," said Teddy Nicholson at a certain family party, "possesses a string of thirty-three pearls. The middle pearl is the largest and best of all, and the others are so s...
"My property is exactly a mile square," said one landowner to another. "Curiously enough, mine is a square mile," was the reply. "Then there is no difference?" Is this last stateme...
It is curious how an added condition or restriction will sometimes convert an absurdly easy puzzle into an interesting and perhaps difficult one. I remember buying in the street ma...
This person joined the party on the road. "'God save,' quoth he, 'this jolly company! Fast have I ridden,' saith he, 'for your sake, Because I would I might you overtake, To ride a...
There was a great commotion in Lower Thames Street on the morning of January 12, 1887. When the early members of the staff arrived at Wapshaw's Wharf they found that the safe had b...
There is perhaps no class of puzzle over which people so frequently blunder as that which involves what is called the theory of probabilities. I will give two simple examples of th...
Here is a curious extract from Robinson Crusoe's diary. It is not to be found in the modern editions of the Adventures, and is omitted in the old. This has always seemed to me to b...
This puzzle has to do with railway routes, and in these days of much travelling should prove useful. The map of England shows twenty-four towns, connected by a system of railways....
"We laughed greatly at a pretty jest on the part of Major Trenchard, a merry friend of the Squire's. With a piece of chalk he marked a different number on the backs of eight lads w...
Once upon a time a knight went to consult a certain famous wizard. The interview had to do with an affair of the heart; but after the man of magic had foretold the most favourable...
Every child knows how to play this game. You make a square of nine cells, and each of the two players, playing alternately, puts his mark (a nought or a cross, as the case may be)...
Seven coal-miners took a holiday at the seaside during a big strike. Six of the party spent exactly half a sovereign each, but Bill Harris was more extravagant. Bill spent three sh...
Our illustration shows the plan of a Chinese city protected by pentagonal fortifications. Five European Powers were scheming and clamouring for a concession to run a railway to the...
As I sat in a railway carriage I noticed at the other end of the compartment a worthy squire, whom I knew by sight, engaged in conversation with another passenger, who was evidentl...
Two youths, bearing the pleasant names of Moggs and Snoggs, were employed as junior clerks by a merchant in Mincing Lane. They were both engaged at the same salary--that is, commen...
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