Answer
:
The last puzzle was
undoubtedly a hard nut, but
perhaps
difficulty does
not make a good puzzle any the less interesting when we are shown the
solution.
The accompanying diagram indicates exactly how the top of
Lady
Isabel de Fitzarnulph's casket was inlaid with square pieces of rare
wood
(no two squares alike) and the strip of gold 10 inches by a quarter of
an
inch.
This is the only possible solution, and it is a singular fact
(though I cannot here show the subtle method of working) that the
number,
sizes, and order of those squares are determined by the given
dimensions
of the strip of gold, and the casket can have no other dimensions than
20
inches square.
The number in a square indicates the length
in inches of
the side of that square, so the accuracy of the answer can be checked
almost at a glance.
Sir Hugh de
Fortibus made some general concluding
remarks on
the occasion
that are not altogether uninteresting to-day.
"Friends
and retainers," he
said, "if the strange
offspring of
my poor
wit about which we have held pleasant counsel to-night hath mayhap had
some small interest for ye, let these matters serve to call to mind the
lesson that our fleeting life is rounded and beset with
enigmas.
Whence
we came and whither we go be riddles, and albeit such as these we may
never bring within our understanding, yet there be many others with
which
we and they that
do
come after
us will ever strive for the answer.
Whether success do attend or do not attend our labour, it is well that
we
make the attempt; for 'tis truly good and honourable to train the mind,
and the wit, and the fancy of man, for out of such doth issue all
manner
of good in ways unforeseen for them that do come after us."
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