Finding the Treasure

If you realised that there were some references to previous Hunts then you might have been minded to arrange the first letters of the village passwords into the order of those Hunts, starting with the latest (2004), as follows:

Year Village Passwords Paw Print
2004 West Wycombe Xanadu, Xanthippe, Xylene, Xiphias P
2003 M40 Junction 4 ToTime, Timur S
2002 Marlow Rogers, Rillian, Rove A
2001 Lane End Egregious, Eye, Excelsior, Elmer L
2000 Bledlow Ridge Anadyomene, Astronomer M
1999 Radnage SusanTraynor, Savannahs A
1998 Stokenchurch Ursa, UshaGupta, Ulster N
1997 M40 Junction 5 Rogers, Radicarbon, Ruelake, Round D
1996 M40 Junction 6 Evazan, Elizabeth S
1995 Watlington HouseholdWords, Highbury, HollyHunter O
1994 Shirburn Uldale, Ulotricious N
1993 Greenfield Nagasaki, Norway N
1992 Russell's Water Thyself, Threshold E
1991 Stonor ThomasMoore, Taurus, Triple T
1990 Turville Heath Whisky, Wearing, Woolwich, Worcester T
1989 Turville Emma, Ectoplasm, Eisenhower, Ere, Episkey W
1988 Skirmett Nemesis, Nazgul, Nothing E
1987 Ibstone Timmy, Thor N
1986 Northend Yoiks, You, York T
1985 Christmas Common Xenon, Xu, Xhosa, Xenotime Y

This yields XTREASUREHUNTTWENTYX [TREA1]. Not in itself very useful, but it does hint that there are two more clues to be solved, one from West Wycombe and one from Christmas Common. This is confirmed by another look at Uncle Paul�s map. On the side with the writing there are also two crosses, at positions that correspond to West Wycombe and Christmas Common on the other side [TREA2]. Or you might just have realised that there are two �dead ends� both reached by directions to �explore the woods�, and with passwords beginning with X (Xiphias from West Wycombe and Xenotime from Christmas Common).

On these pages are two halves of a hunting scene � The Find by Samuel Alken [TREA3], which seems quite appropriate, This is meant to show that you have only one half of the route to the treasure, if that wasn't already clear. 

On the West Wycombe page  is a picture of a red kite [TREA4] (its Latin name Milvus Milvus is in the title bar for these two pages). The kite is meant as a confirmer � at the start of the treasure route is an information sign abut how these birds were re-introduced to the area, and indeed I saw several while in the vicinity.  

On the Christmas Common page is a picture of the "White Mark" that is carved into the side of Watlington Hill [TREA5], where the treasure is to be found. More about this can be found on http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/9443. 

Then there are the coded messages in the form of grids with some squares having a three-digit code, such as (1,4,5). The words �line/word/letter� muttered by the ghost of Uncle Paul show how a message can obtained from these. However, you need two different  reference documents from which to obtain the right letters. There are two ways to find out what these documents are. Firstly, you can take the initial letters (in the �paw print� font) from the web page for each village. If these are placed in order (i.e. the order of the previous Hunts as shown in the table above) they spell PSALM AND SONNET TWENTY [TREA6]. Secondly, in the title bar for each village web page there are a few words from the start of Shakespeare sonnets 1-20 and Psalm 1-20 [TREA7]. These have been run together, either psalm then sonnet or vice versa according to which I felt made the most sense. Unscrambled, they are:

No

Sonnet

Psalm

1

From fairest creatures

Blessed is the man

2

When forty winters

Why do the heathen rage

3

Look in thy glass

Lord, how are they increased

4

Unthrifty loveliness

Hear me when I call

5

Those hours

Give ear to my words

6

Then let not winter�s ragged hand

O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger

7

Lo, in the orient

O Lord my God

8

Music to hear

O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy

9

Is it for fear

I will praise thee

10

For shame

Why standest thou afar off

11

As fast as thou shalt wane

In the Lord I put my trust

12

When I do count the clock

Help, Lord

13

O that you were yourself

For how long wilt thou forget me

14

Not from the stars

The fool hath said

15

When I consider

Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle

16

But wherefore

Preserve me, O God

17

Who will believe my verse

Hear the right

18

Shall I compare

I will love thee

19

Devouring Time, blunt thou

The heavens

20

A woman�s face

The Lord hear

At Christmas Common, the quotation is "XX The Lord, hear a woman's face XX", indicating that it is these ones � the twentieth psalm and sonnet � that should be used. As it happens, the last word in Sonnet 20 is "treasure".

So the source text you need to decode the final code from the West Wycombe page is Psalm 20 and from the Christmas Common page it is Shakespeare Sonnet 20.

This yields the two grids as follows:

r   m a   t  
W l o d v t o   c r p k
a m a i p t h
o k f o L g i L o n t e r o t e
A b e c o n l f t t u n l t
T a p a h d w n l l t h g h t r e
a s a t r e - r n e d l v e b i c
n o r p t h o e t
n c i t e n o t o n h e e t
e i t a e t o a i n e i h
T n i t i n t o e
S e e a e r i n e i l r i r
a n d a o - u n e d o e e i n
B e e e e s e t h e c s t i s u i
e s t h a e o o e o t h e u a e

[TREA8] 

F

 o F n d

H

a C

C

a k r r i e W

H

a a r
T k e n a
L o r o c a s h u
t n h e r e f
k e t o h i r o u e s
P s h e - t u k s i r r h
I g e a t l f
O e o p s u t l f
t a k e g h y p c s s g l b r c
u r r g h t r e s
n o t h s g l s v e b c h
t w - t r k n b h d i t
t w n t h a k e b r e d
l s n o n f t b l w s r f c

[TREA9]

You should now notice that the blank spaces in the Christmas Common grid correspond to the entries in the West Wycombe grid and vice versa. Putting them together we get: 

From F and H at CC, walk or drive to WH Car Park. Take main path. Look for Logica Ls on the route. At bench on left turn left. Take path downhill through trees. Pass a three-trunked silver birch. Ignore path to left. Once it opens out on the left, take eighty paces to a single birch. Turn right into trees. See another single silver birch and a two-trunked one behind it. Between these the casket is buried less than one foot below the surface.

The starting pint (sorry, point) is the Fox and Hounds in Christmas Common, which I was pleased to find is still an excellent hostelry after 20 years � beers straight from the cask and classy (if expensive) grub. WH is the very scenic Watlington Hill, where a short walk, observing the Logica Ls with which some vandal has defaced the natural beauty (water-based ink so no lasting damage), will reveal the Treasure. Points could be scored according to the order of arrival [TREA11]. 

Red Herrings

To make life just a little more difficult for anyone who thought there might be a shortcut to the treasure, some false maps and instructions were hidden among the graphics files. These lead you once again to Cold Christmas. The graphics are also referenced by an html page (password "kremvax") [RH1], where the passwords for options A and B are not too hard to find [RH2] [RH3]. The significance of these passwords and of the title bars are left as an exercise for the reader.  I just hope nobody went all the way to out to Cold Christmas; it's a dull place and doesn't even have a pub despite the "PH" that some evil person has placed on the map. If you did go there, press here.