I say “essentially” because it’s important to note that the puzzle type was being developed before “fairness rules” were established Torquemada was followed by Ximenes (aka Derrick Somerset Macnutt) who quite clearly articulated that there should be a definition, a secondary wordplay, and absolutely no extra words, but that was not the case with all of Torquemada’s puzzles. Unlike regular crosswords, the clues in a cryptic involve a double-indicator, one which is a “straightforward definition”, one which is generally wordplay, and the two are merged together in such a way it can be difficult to discern which is which. In 1926 started publishing crosswords with The Observer, and importantly, continued developing what is essentially his invention, that which is sometimes in the United States called the “cryptic crossword”. We’ll try a sample from here in a moment.Īs the title indicates, all clues are in rhyme, and already are much more elaborate than the “American” style crossword. There was, for example, the 1925 volume Cross-Words in Rhyme for Those of Riper Years. He originally distinguished himself as a translator and poet, but also was a prolific writer of puzzles under the pen name Torquemada (he of the Spanish Inquisition). Our protagonist for today’s story, Edward Powys Mathers, was on the British side. This eventually kicked off a crossword craze that lasted all the way through the 1920s on both sides of the Atlantic. Other shapes, like a diamond or a triangle started to be used, but it wasn’t until Arthur Wynn’s Word-Cross for 1913 did “across” and “down” get turned into separate clues, with arbitrary shapes. For example, these clues from Guess Me (1872) make a 5 by 5 square: Word squares became a popular pastime in 19th century England, and eventually, clues started to be made in order to generate them. The same words are spelled across as down. It is unknown who actually was the first to put words crossing in a grid, but the earliest example we have is from a piece of 2nd century wall found at a Roman house in Cirencester.
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