Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

I'm afraid I'm still very much head-scratching with this. I now think I have the first 4 words of the message, in which case the fifth will begin at 1 down. I'll have another look at it later but need to get ready for a trip to the Trossachs. No doubt I'll be taking all my rough drafts etc of this with me to keep me busy on the trains.

If you have the 1st 3 words of the message ...you should be able to google for the legend to go under the grid...

Enjoy your trip, AP and give my regards to Ben A’an. Memories of happy summer evenings on the crags there; Ash Wall and The Last Eighty were great fun and none too taxing.

Thanks for your good wishes, Jack Aubrey. I'll certainly look at Ben A'an and think of you. Thank you Kirky for your pointer. I've tried that but I keep getting redirected to another continent. That suggests I have the third word (and possibly the first 2) wrong. At the moment my first letters for the first 5 words (still working on the last) are T-O-I-B-C with the last word being 6 letters. Once I've got things ready for the off I'll go back to it.

AP, a quick little pointer from me - your O is wrong it should be a different vowel, everything else is fine.

AP, sorry to do this AGAIN - I didn't notice your other error. The first letters should be N-O-I-B-C.

Thank you again Malone for your very generous help. I'm now beginning to think that I have the wrong extra word (third?) in 19 across and completely the wrong third word of the message. (Asian nationality?) Ill go back to it once I've finished packing.

AP, thanks - and glad I haven't confused you, spoiled the puzzle for you.

Your 'Asian nationality' is correct on one level (ie it could be the answer to a crossword clue), but is probably very wrong nowadays, I don't think it's been used in the puzzle's context for a number of years now!

Thank you again Malone. You're certainly not ruining it for me. I now have a very common noun as the first word (a royal mistress of times past is the only other 'possibility') but when I try Googling that with what I hope is the second word together with the third word I'm still finishing up with Asian references with no obvious relevance to the theme. I have E rather than R as the second letter of the fourth word and including that together with the fifth word is still taking me in that direction. I'll have a quick look tomorrow morning before I set off then tear out what few hairs I still have during the journey.

AP, at the risk of enraging Malone by beIng way too obvious, what would your I word mean to those represented in the thematic whatsit? As to “legend” look at definition 5 as a noun in the BRB.