A Common-place book of the fifteenth century, containing a religious play and poetry, legal forms and local accounts. Printed from the original ms. at Brome Hall, Suffolk, by Lady Caroline Kerrison. Edited with notes by Lucy Toulmin Smith.

The puzzle of the riddles consists in the words being spelt in a sort of cypher; every vowel is indicated by the letter which follows it in the alphabet; thus, what should be a is written b

o is written p

e is written f

i is written k

w is written x

The rubricator appears to have made a mistake in writing F instead of B (for A) as the initial of the two first lines.

Professor Skeat, who kindly helped me to decipher these queer|looking puzzles, has met with several of the same kind among Anglo|Saxon MSS. In the Sloane MS. 351, fo. 15 vo. (fifteenth cent.) are some curious directions for writing in this style, but more complicated; they are printed in Wright and Halliwell's Reliquæ Antiquæ, vol. ii. p. 15. Other instances, are, doubtless, to be found scattered here and there in old family books like the present. They are also well known in French MSS. It will be observed that the final result of all the five puzzles is highly uncomplimentary to women. I give a solution in the right-hand column.