Informational Site NetworkInformational Site Network
Privacy
 
Home Top Rated Puzzles Most Viewed Puzzles All Puzzle Questions Random Puzzle Question Search


The Franklin's Puzzle





(CANTERBURY PUZZLES)



"A Franklin was in this company; White was his beard as is the daisy." We are told by Chaucer that he was a great householder and an epicure. "Without baked meat never was his house. Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous, It snowed in his house of meat and drink, Of every dainty that men could bethink." He was a hospitable and generous man. "His table dormant in his hall alway Stood ready covered all throughout the day." At the repasts of the Pilgrims he usually presided at one of the tables, as we found him doing on the occasion when the cook propounded his problem of the two pies.



One day, at an inn just outside Canterbury, the company called on him to produce the puzzle required of him; whereupon he placed on the table sixteen bottles numbered 1, 2, 3, up to 15, with the last one marked 0. "Now, my masters," quoth he, "it will be fresh in your memories how that the good Clerk of Oxenford did show us a riddle touching what hath been called the magic square. Of a truth will I set before ye another that may seem to be somewhat of a like kind, albeit there be little in common betwixt them. Here be set out sixteen bottles in form of a square, and I pray you so place them afresh that they shall form a magic square, adding up to thirty in all the ten straight ways. But mark well that ye may not remove more than ten of the bottles from their present places, for therein layeth the subtlety of the riddle." This is a little puzzle that may be conveniently tried with sixteen numbered counters.








Read Answer





Next: The Squire's Puzzle

Previous: The Ploughman's Puzzle



Add to Informational Site Network
Report
Privacy
ADD TO EBOOK




Random Questions

The Victoria Cross Puzzle.
Moving Counter Problem
A Puzzle For Card-players.
Combination and Group Problems
The Round Table
MISCELLANEOUS PUZZLES
Ovid's Game
MISCELLANEOUS PUZZLES
Mrs. Hobson's Hearthrug.
Various Dissection Puzzles
The Cushion Covers.
Patchwork Puzzles
The Grasshopper Puzzle.
Moving Counter Problem
A Printer's Error.
Money Puzzles
Mother And Daughter.
Money Puzzles
How Old Was Mary?
Money Puzzles
The Nine Schoolboys.
Combination and Group Problems
The Nelson Column
MISCELLANEOUS PUZZLES
The Chinese Chessboard.
Chessboard Problems
The Dyer's Puzzle
CANTERBURY PUZZLES
The Wizard's Arithmetic
MISCELLANEOUS PUZZLES