E: 29/08 Win £250 with Cash Hunt - HELP NEEDED

reniannen

kragen_ironfist wrote: »

@ Reniannen, Hi I am new to this hunt and have to say that I would not have gotten the first half of the clues in a million years, going over the answers you have given, and researching the details of those answers I can see how they fit, what I don't understand is HOW you got the answers in the first place.

Would you be able to explain the process you went through for those of us who are hard of thinking to better understand how these things are working.

I'm not brilliant at them by any means, I've just done quite a few and you get used to how they work! This is roughly how I got there -


Did Henry go starving while clearing bent grass

I had a hunch the first line referred to a placename, as I know they sometimes use place name meanings in the clues, which are often mentioned in wikipedia articles. I also have a bit of an interest in toponymy, and knew that lee meant clearing.
I googled placenames + "bent grass" (quotes search for the exact phrase, I'm not sure if everyone knows that) which got me immediately to Bentley.
I then went on a futile quest for a Henry Bentley who might have been hungry at some point lol, until I finally googled the phrase hungry Bentley and got to the wikipedia article. It tells you that it was owned by Henry de Ferres so everything matched up and I knew I was in the right place.

Buy hall and you'll see above cellar your task

The wikipedia article mentions the hall so I googled that and came up with the estate agents pdf document which fitted with the word 'buy'. I searched it for mentions of the cellar and came to the floor plan which specifically says it's below the drawing room. I wasn't sure I was right at this point, but as drawing fitted the phrase 'task' and I couldn't see anything else I went with it.

Match she without T find where hat home did make
Crustacean will show you the one with no steak

My mum gets credit for this bit, she's good at cryptic crosswords so she recognised that you take the t out of match and solve the anagram. After trying an anagram solver and getting nothing I thought that it might be another placename and since ham is a common suffix I worked it out as Chesham. I googled Chesham + the word drawing. This gets you to the Drawingroom website which mentions the mad hatter connection on the first page. With hindsight I could have just went to the Chesham wikipedia article which mentions it too.

(This is actually quite rare when they make it that the clue can be solved without going through every stage. Although the first part of the clue led you to drawing, you could have solved the anagram and found Roger Crab without it.)

Now where he joined Phil you remember your youth

After this it was just a case of clicking through Wikipedia pages from Roger Crab to Bethnal Green then the V&A childhood museum.

The pattern from inmates will lead to the truth

I googled keywords, something like V&A childhood + inmates + pattern to find the info on the floor

hope that helps

Back to the last part now.... :mad: :rotfl:

kragen_ironfist

thats excellent thank you, btw what did you think of the extension of the womens prisons clue that CPotterton came up with (i tried to explain in more detail later)

reniannen

The women of Woking prison also did the mosaic floor of the Cast Courts / Architectural Courts at the V&A

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/sculpture/sculpture_features/cast_collection/cast_courts_masterpiece/index.html

can't find anything for a Courts golf club and there doesn't appear to have been anything written on the floor it was just geometric.

Also found that the mosaics were called 'opus criminale' - don't think that leads anywhere in itself but might be a good google keyword

reniannen

kragen_ironfist wrote: »

thats excellent thank you, btw what did you think of the extension of the womens prisons clue that CPotterton came up with (i tried to explain in more detail later)

I went that route too and tried googling Wellesley and Wellington + golf, but didn't get anywhere either.

ahh just thought, the tomb says Arthur Duke of Wellington

googling Duke + golf gets me to the home of golf here -

http://oldcoursehotel.kohler.com/golf/dukes_landing.html

not finding anything that fits into the letters though

itsinthemail

kragen_ironfist wrote: »

True but I think its still relevant

I didnt say it wasn't relevant, just adding a little clarification

Marg2k8

Word two you must find then flog the wrong way

What if both "word two" and "flog" are the wrong way. (By this, I mean anagrams, not necessarily just spelt backwards). Then we could be looking for an anagram of criminale, as well as an anagram of flog. I have tried online anagram solvers for an anagram of criminale, but have not had any luck, but as before, the anagram might not be shown if it is a proper noun.

itsinthemail

More information on mosaic floors done by the inmates elsewhere. This is from an article about the floor in Wormwood Scrubs chapel/'opus criminale'

The most sophisticated work, however, is the mosaic floor in the narthex (now, alas, partially hidden by crude partitioning) which must be an example of so-called 'opus criminale': mosaic floors made by female convicts in Woking and Parkhurst prisons. One of them was Constance Kent, a young woman who confessed to the murder of her half-brother in 1865 and whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment after a sensational trial which involved Fr Arthur Wagner, that great Brighton church builder, refusing to reveal the secrets of the confessional. It is known that Miss Kent made a mosaic floor for the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral and another for St Peter's, The Grove, on the Isle of Portland, opened in 1872. As this was another church built for and by convicts and was designed by Du Cane in the same Romanesque style, I should like to think the wretched Constance worked at Wormwood Scrubs as well.
source

But I'm starting to think this must be the wrong tree I'm barking up.

Marg2k8

itsinthemail wrote: »

But I'm starting to think this must be the wrong tree I'm barking up.

I think that there must be a whole forest that is deafening with the sound of us all :rotfl:

marialionza

kragen_ironfist wrote: »

@ Reniannen, Hi I am new to this hunt and have to say that I would not have gotten the first half of the clues in a million years, going over the answers you have given, and researching the details of those answers I can see how they fit, what I don't understand is HOW you got the answers in the first place.

Would you be able to explain the process you went through for those of us who are hard of thinking to better understand how these things are working.

I know this sounds a pain, but I'm also interested in knowing because it's unbelievable what you have achieved (hats off to Reniannen).
Long live the queen/king/royalty...:rotfl::beer:

kateab

Just to say that as a native of Chesham, I can confirm the Mad Hatter link. There used to be a restaurant called the Mad Hatter in the Old Town many many years ago.

kateab