A Tombstone On Monday Mystery...!

I know that many folks enjoy a good puzzle now and then, so today is your lucky day. A mysterious inscription on a tombstone makes for a pretty cool puzzle, if ya ask me.

You have to ask...was it for fun, was it for entertainment, or was it done just to be different? Who knows? Most of all, does it really matter?

John Renie

Photo credit: Robert Cutts

 

Welsh house painter John Renie died in 1832. The unusual inscription on his grave takes the form of a grid, 19 squares across and 15 squares high. In each square is a letter. The center row, for example, reads “o J s e i L e r e H e r e L i e s J o.” You can make out some clear words. “Here” and “Lies” are in that in that string above, and you can see the start of “John.” But why the jumble?

After 170 years, a local TV station finally analyzed it, determining that it was a type of acrostic puzzle. Starting at the H in the very center and working outward, the sentence “Here Lies John Renie” can be read in 46,000 different ways. 

Some people say Renie was trying to fool the devil, to keep his soul safe. The local vicar thinks they’re taking the inscription too seriously. He expects it “was just a bit of fun” meant to provide entertainment for those that saw it.

I'll bet that ol' John would get a kick out of the amount of time folks are spending on trying to figure out why the tombstone is done in this manner. Probably getting a big charge out of it!

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. Fresh peaches anyone?