SPECTATOR TWIN-TOWN TREASURE HUNT

Set by Caroline Moore

The first three winners of the eight-week Spectator Twin-Town Treasure Hunt will receive outstanding prizes.

The first prize has been presented by Framlington. It is 2,000 units in Framlington Monthly Income Fund. At the current offer price of 116.4p, these are worth £2,328. The unit price was up 41 per cent last year. This unit trust also offers a monthly income, paid straight into your bank.

The second prize is a weekend break in Madrid for two, flying from Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester by Iberia Air Lines and staying within walking distance of the Retiro Park, at the four-star Hotel Velazquez. The prize includes £100 spending money. For a brochure describing the prize 'and many other holidays arranged by Mundi Color, the specialists in visits to Spain for discerning travellers, telephone 01-834-3492.

The third prize is a case of 1979 Louis Roederer champagne donated by El Vino Co Ltd.

Students will have an extra chance to win a special prize of a choice of ten records or cassettes from the Editions EG catalogue. There will also be many other prizes, including wine and books by Spectator writers.

How to take part

In each issue of the Spectator from 7 February to 28 March, competitors are asked to identify two British place-names, (a) and (b); these may include boroughs of London or old villages now absorbed into it. In the final week, the last clue will enable you to decode the answer from the place-names you have collected. As usual, bonus marks will be given for identifying quotations and briefly explaining allusions; but it will be possible to crack the code and reach the final answer without getting all the references. Good luck!

To win you must send in an answer form from each week of the competition with your final solution. Back numbers are available from the Spectator at £1.35, including postage. The closing date for entries is 18 April. No entries will be opened till then. If several correct and complete answers are received the winner will be decided by lot. The final arbiter is the editor of the Spectator. The competition is not open to employees of the Spectator or their relatives. Important: Please keep the answer form, as you will need to send it in at the end of the competition with the subsequent forms. If you need more space, you may write your answers on plain paper.

a)

Seventh clue

a) The place — that was won and lost by the politician who had a tap inserted into his side by a famous philosopher.

— where a storm drove ashore the Queen who was later reported to have become insanely attached to the habit of kissing her dead husband's feet.

— that gives the name of the Detective-Inspector who was converted to a raving maniac by a scratch from a fungus-impregnated needle, and returned at half past two every morning to hammer at his wife's door.

b) The place — where a tripe-shop and lodging-house was kept by Mr and Mrs Brooker, and Mr Brooker handed out slices of bread-and-butter imprinted with black thumbmarks (like all people with permanently dirty hands he had a peculiarly intimate, lingering manner of handling things').

— that was the home town of the doctor's wife who, after her husband's death, commissioned a bronze of both their heads as a sentimental memorial; but then became so infatuated with the well-known sculptor who undertook the work that she asked for her head to be cast with a lid, like an ink-well, so that his ashes could be put there after death.

— where the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland was compared to some tall tree of noxious growth, lifting its head to Heaven and poisoning the atmosphere of the land so far as its shadow can extend. It is still there, gentlemen, but now at last the day has come when, as we hope, the axe has been laid to the root [Loud Cheers]. It is deeply cut round and round. It nods and quivers from top to toe [Cheers]. There lacks, gentlemen, but one stroke more — the stroke of these elections [Loud Cheers].

Answer form — 7

b)

Name

Address