THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES
by these two." To find exact dimensions in the smallest possible
numbers is one of the toughest nuts I have attempted. Of course
the thickness of the glass, and the neck and base, are to be
ignored.
21.—
The Ploughman s Puzzle.
The Ploughman—of whom Chaucer remarked "A worker true
and very good was he, Living in perfect peace and charity"—
—protested that riddles
^
were not for simple minds
/. \
like his, but he would
/ I \
show the good pilgrims,
if they willed it, one that
he had frequently heard
certain clever folk in his
own neighbourhood dis-
cuss. " The lord of the
manor in the part of
Sussex whence I come
hath a plantation of six-
#
•«.
var
!-«
•-*:'
~'M
&
>&..
Tfc*'
";«.
teen fair oak trees,
and
^ ---*»- ---"jgr- ---*£,
they be so set out that they make twelve rows with four trees in
every row. Once on
a
time, a man of deep learning who happened
to be travelling in those parts, did say that the sixteen trees might
19
c 2
