General knowledge 781

(answers in next week’s paper)

ACROSS

1, and 7 Down. Michael Henchard’s position in a Thomas Hardy novel (5,2,12)

5. Small piece of relief carving in stone (5)

8. Former name of the state of Odisha in India (6) 9. Wild or cultivated flower also called heartsease (5) 10 and 19. Substance present in unripe apples, mountain ash berries, etc. (5,4) 11. Member of a group of American Indian people of the southwestern USA (6) 13. Answering to one’s highest conception (5) 15. Trees of the birch family (6) 18. Roman province of western Europe (4) 19. See 10 20. Roman poet famous for his Satires, Odes, Epodes, and Epistles (6) 24. River flowing through Rome (5) 26. Primitive, single-celled protozoan, continuously changing shape (6) 27. Bernardino —, Italian painter of the Lombard school (5) 28. An animal with two feet (5) 29. 16th century marble bridge over the Grand Canal, Venice (6) 30. Wooden golf club with a slightly concave face (5) 31. Popularly, bracing air of the seaside (5)

DOWN

1. The demon to whom Faust sold his soul (14)

2. River flowing north into the Seine at Montereau (5) 3. and 23. Food given by worker honeybees to developing queens (5,5)

4. Strong, durable agave fibre used for cordage, etc. (5) 5. Animal of Asia and Africa, used for riding and as a beast of burden (5)

6. Surname of the author famous for Winnie-the-Pooh, etc. (5) 7. See 1 Across 12. The 50th state of the USA (6) 14. South American animal mainly valued for its wool (6) 16. City of ancient Greece and site of a famous oracle (6) 17. Latin for “in the same place”, usually shortened (6) 21. Slang term for money (5) 22. Heap of stones, as a landmark (5) 23. See 3 24. Set apart as sacred or prohibited (5) 25. Well-known satirical poem by Lord Byron (5)