FACTFINDER’S CROSSWORD

ACROSS 1 Small town in the north-east (pop about 3,000), developed in the 1760s (12) 8 The second largest island in Sweden (518 sq miles; pop about 26,000) (5) 9 Any plants of the buttercup genus (9) 11 To bearwithoutsinking(6) 12 Covered (something) with a hard black varnish (8) 14 Town in the south-east (pop about 12,000), created a royal burgh in the 12th century (10) 15 Large island in south-east Asia (53,588 sq miles; pop over 140 million), the 13th largest island in the world (4) 18 Anybody or anything admired uncritically (4) 19 A comprehensive, generally compressed, treatise (10) 21 An aromatic Artemisia used for flavouring sauces, etc (8) 23 The European bison (6) 25 Legal term for the cancelling of a contract

(9) 26 A stuffed jacket worn under a coat of mail

(5) 27 A helmet-shaped cap (12) DOWN 1 Seaside resort in north Wales (pop about 20,000) (9) 2 To corroborate, or prop up (8) 3 River rising in Cantabria and flowing 578 miles into the Mediterranean Sea (4) 4 A small, ribbed musk-melon (10) 5 US state (82,278 sq miles; pop 2.9 million), nicknamed the Sunflower State (6) 6 French cathedral city (pop 112,000), where Joan of Arc was tried and burned at the stake in 1431 (5) 7 London-born pioneer of antiseptic surgery (1827 - 1912), who was president of the Royal Society (1895 -1900) (6,6) 10 Uprising against the British Raj in 1857) (6,6) 13 Expert in the science of soil management and crop production (100 16 Cordials and liqueurs with a liquorice flavour (9) 17 A vollety of gunfire along a line from end to end (8) 20 A German arms manufacturer, founded in

1811 (6) 22 A pleated frilling (5) 24 Indigo, plant or dye (4)