{"id":337,"date":"2005-07-14T07:05:38","date_gmt":"2005-07-14T06:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/?p=337"},"modified":"2005-07-14T09:36:03","modified_gmt":"2005-07-14T08:36:03","slug":"letter-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/07\/14\/letter-boxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter boxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, for the first time in months, I completed the daily Guardian<\/em> cryptic crossword – all on my own, without a dictionary or Google, and before I’d even reached the station for the train journey home. I was suitably flushed. Even better, it was set by the crème de la crème of setters, Araucaria, and featured a signature Very Long Answer. This anagram – 8 words comprising 33 letters – once solved provided a useful hoard of checked letters, which enabled me to solve my favourite clue from the puzzle:<\/p>\n

Mary’s third keeps dog in order — good news about her and another James? (4,5,4)<\/p>\n

And the answer is…<\/p>\n

BOTH DOING WELL<\/p>\n

The explanation: Mary Queen of Scots’ third husband was James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell; “dog in” order = doing; and “good news about her and another James?” refers to Mary and her son, James VI, and therefore an expression for mother and child.
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Yesterday, for the first time in months, I completed the daily Guardian cryptic crossword – all on my own, without a dictionary or Google, and before I’d even reached the station for the train journey home. I was suitably flushed. 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