At a glanceNot solved · text not obtained
- The document
- Two personal advertisements signed W., The Standard, p. 1 col. 2, 8 and 20 May 1875. The second ends in clear: it is “intelligible if read in connection with” the first.
- Where
- British Newspaper Archive (paywalled). Text as checked against the originals by Thomas Ernst (2018); number 8 on Klaus Schmeh’s Top 50.
- The cipher
- No substitution. Line i of the first ad and line i of the second are the two order-preserving halves of one phrase, from which W. also dropped letters.
- How it was tried
- Every published reading costed exactly; open-vocabulary searches in English (30,000 words) and Latin (19,000); a phrase-level 5-gram search; name-frame tests; the Hertford Scholars list of the 1850s.
- What it says
- An 1850s Oxford undergraduate recalls summer term 1853, Conington’s and Jowett’s lectures, a cap taken at a college party, the Hertford scholarship examination, and closes with a DYING DECLARATION.
- Still open
- Lines 9/26, 12, 23, 29 and the tails of 5, 6, 14, 19, 21; the figures of lines 13 and 20; the identity of W.
- Credit
- Readings by Thomas Bosbach, Lance Estes, “Dave”, Thomas Ernst and Jozef Krajčovič on klausschmeh.net.
01 The two advertisements
Ernst’s text, checked against the British Newspaper Archive originals in July 2018. It corrects a dozen errors in the circulating version (Hrsclam, not Hfsclam; 138, not 139; Etfdorshpxn; Tsvlysdinlge).
8 May: W. Str 53. Catokwacopa. Olcabrokorlested. Coomemega. Sesipyyocashostikr. Rep.– Itedconlec mistrl. Hrsclam 54. 3 caselcluchozamot. 1. 6. 9. Mopredisco. Contoladsemot. Iadfilisat. Qft. Cagap. Balmnopsemsov. Ap. 138.–Hodsam 55, 6. Iopotonrogfimsecharsenr. Tolshr. Itedjolec. mistrl.–Ding Declon.–Ereflodbr.
20 May: W. –Umem 18. Poayatlgerty. Dpeatcnrftin. Nvtinrdn. Dmlurpinrtrcamnr. Etd. – Atndngtnsurs. Otenpu.–Etfdorshpxn. 18. Ndtsfindseseo. Cotegr Tsvlysdinlge. Ngtndusdcndo. Edrstneirs. Ui. Ndted. Iolapstedttoc. A.P. 138.–Yxn. 18. 18. Wtubtrfftrstendinhofsvmnr. Dily.–Atdwtsurs. Oatvpu.–Y Arati. Rileohmae.–This will be intelligible if read in connection with my communication published in this column on the 8th inst.
No scan can be shown here. The originals are only on the paywalled archive, and the images on klausschmeh.net are re-typeset from the old, uncorrected text.
02 The mechanism
Both ads have the same token skeleton, with numerals and dashes in the same slots. Over the 24 letter lines, the summed length difference between paired halves is 33; no random re-pairing in 100,000 comes as close. So W. split each phrase roughly in half, and the pairing is real.
The halves differ in kind. Consonant-initial words begin in the 8 May half almost always (summer, term, cap, college, conington, dying, declaration); vowel-initial words mostly begin in the 20 May half (away, at, attended, us, in). The first ad carries word onsets; the second is rich in vowels and endings. This positional rule ranks rival readings.
03 What the letters force
For each reading, the cost is the number of letters W. must have omitted and the number of cipher letters that must be misprints. A reading with misprints is an emendation, not a reading of these letters.
| line | reading | omitted | misprints |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27–28 | DYING DECLARATION (Bosbach) | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | I ADDED FIRST LINE SATIRS | 1 | 0 |
| 17 | QUI FIT (Krajčovič; Horace, Satires 1.1) | 1 | 0 |
| 24 | TOLD SHIRLEY | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | CAP TOOK AWAY AT COLLEGE PARTY | 2 | 0 |
| 4 | OLD CAP BROKE AT CORNER LEFT INSTEAD | 2 | 0 |
| 7 | REPEATED | 2 | 0 |
| 1 | SUMMER TERM | 3 | 0 |
| 8 / 25 | I ATTENDED CONINGTON / JOWETT LECSURES | 4 | 0 |
| 10 | HERTFORD SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION | 12 | 0 |
| 18 | CHANGE ADOPTED (found here) | — | 0 |
| 27 | SIGNED (for DYING) | 1 | 3 |
| 9, 26 | MASTER PUPIL | 2 | 4 |
| 29 | RELIGIONEM CONFIRMARE | 4 | 7 |
The name lines carry real weight. In each frame (I ATTENDED ___ LECSURS; TOLD ___; ___ SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION) all 1,645 proper names of a 30,000-word corpus were tried, and exactly one fits each: Conington, Jowett, Shirley, Hertford. The Oxford reading is right in outline.
04 The Hertford Scholars, 1852–56
The ad’s numerals 53, 54 and 55 sit next to SUMMER TERM, the Hertford examination and HOLIDAYS. The Historical Register of the University of Oxford (1888, p. 120) lists one Hertford (Latin) Scholar a year, elected in Michaelmas Term from undergraduates within two years of matriculation:
- 1852 James Beaumont Winstanley, University
- 1853 William Lambert Newman, Balliol
- 1854 Frederick Butler M. Montgomerie, Balliol
- 1855 Charles S. C. Bowen, Balliol
- 1856 Reginald Broughton, Balliol
The 1854 Calendar (p. 99) shows the election was then held in Lent Term and names no examiners. This fits a Balliol freshman of 1853 who sat the Lent 1854 examination, which Montgomerie won. Line 10 does not say W. won, and the list makes it unlikely. Krajčovič’s candidate Jex-Blake never held the scholarship; Ernst’s unnamed commoner of 1856 would have matriculated too late. The list narrows the field but does not name W.
Foster’s Alumni Oxonienses lists every Balliol matriculant of 1852–54. Among those with W surnames, Main Swete Alexander Walrond fits the timeline best: he matriculated in March 1853, so summer term 1853 was his first full term, he could sit the 1854 Hertford in Lent Term, and from 1873 he was vicar of St Lawrence Jewry in the City of London. But he lived until March 1899, so if the dying declaration is W.’s own, Walrond is not W. Added as cribs, his name and the other Balliol surnames do not decide any open line.
05 Why the rest does not read
With three to twelve letters freely inserted per line, short lines admit many unrelated exact readings, scoring within a nat or two of each other. Three searches were run on every open line: an exact-fit search over 30,000 English words, the same over 19,000 Latin words, and a letter-by-letter phrase search under a modern English 5-gram. A fourth run (24 Oct 2026) added about 90 Oxford words of the 1850s: the Hertford scholars, Balliol tutors, terms, examinations and set texts. Each recovers the known lines as controls and gives nonsense on the open ones:
- lines 9 and 26 (
mistrl / otenpu,mistrl / oatvpu): omit stern pull, moist relative put; MASTER PUPIL needs 4 misprints, MOST PRIVATE 5 - line 12 (
caselcluchozamot / ndtsfindseseo): no sense - line 23 (48 letters): with doubt portion from gift first mending …
- line 29 (
ereflodbr / rileohmae), the end of the dying declaration: retire followed both mare in English, junk in Latin - tails of lines 5, 6, 14, 19, 21: several exact fits, none forced (line 19 begins BALLIOL MAN; line 21 HOLIDAYS EXAMINE is third)
- lines 13 (
1.6.9 / cotegr) and 20 (A.P. 138): no reading of the figures
Fifteen of 28 lines carry a forced phrase; thirteen are open. The forced phrases account for 257 of 470 letters, but they are telegraphic fragments, not sentences, so the note is not read.
06 What would finish it
- W.’s identity. A contemporary identification of the advertiser, or 1875 records for the other Balliol men of 1853. A memoir or college record could confirm the £138, the cap, the motto and the dying declaration, and give cribs for lines 9, 26 and 29.
- A quoted source. If line 29 or 23 is a stock formula, the source decides it at once.
- The originals. A British Newspaper Archive subscriber could rule out misprints on the open lines.
Full texts
The transcription and the decryption of every document on this page, so that the reading can be used and checked. Short files are shown here; all are in the repository.
The Standard, 8 and 20 May 1875 (both halves) decoded, not read
Two personal advertisements signed W. in The Standard, whose lines pair up as two order-preserving halves of one plaintext with letters dropped. The forced lines give the Oxford reading in outline: SUMMER TERM 1853, a cap taken away at a college party, Conington's and Jowett's lectures, the Hertford scholarship examination, a second motto (QUI FIT, Horace), TOLD SHIRLEY, DYING DECLARATION.
A mechanical decode with holes in most sentences: shown so that the transcription and the key can be checked and improved, not as a reading.
Transcription
# The two W. advertisements, The Standard, p. 1 col. 2, 8 and 20 May 1875: Thomas Ernst's BNA-checked text (2018), copied verbatim from ads.py (22 Oct 2026), with his 29-line pairing. ## 8 May 1875 W. Str 53. Catokwacopa. Olcabrokorlested. Coomemega. Sesipyyocashostikr. Rep.– Itedconlec mistrl. Hrsclam 54. 3 caselcluchozamot. 1. 6. 9. Mopredisco. Contoladsemot. Iadfilisat. Qft. Cagap. Balmnopsemsov. Ap. 138.–Hodsam 55, 6. Iopotonrogfimsecharsenr. Tolshr. Itedjolec. mistrl.–Ding Declon.–Ereflodbr. ## 20 May 1875 W. –Umem 18. Poayatlgerty. Dpeatcnrftin. Nvtinrdn. Dmlurpinrtrcamnr. Etd. – Atndngtnsurs. Otenpu.–Etfdorshpxn. 18. Ndtsfindseseo. Cotegr Tsvlysdinlge. Ngtndusdcndo. Edrstneirs. Ui. Ndted. Iolapstedttoc. A.P. 138.–Yxn. 18. 18. Wtubtrfftrstendinhofsvmnr. Dily.–Atdwtsurs. Oatvpu.–Y Arati. Rileohmae.–This will be intelligible if read in connection with my communication published in this column on the 8th inst. ## Line pairs (8 May half / 20 May half) 1 str / umem 2 53 / 18 3 catokwacopa / poayatlgerty 4 olcabrokorlested / dpeatcnrftin 5 coomemega / nvtinrdn 6 sesipyyocashostikr / dmlurpinrtrcamnr 7 rep / etd 8 itedconlec / atndngtnsurs 9 mistrl / otenpu 10 hrsclam / etfdorshpxn 11 54.3 / 18 12 caselcluchozamot / ndtsfindseseo 13 1.6.9 / cotegr 14 mopredisco / tsvlysdinlge 15 contoladsemot / ngtndusdcndo 16 iadfilisat / edrstneirs 17 qft / ui 18 cagap / ndted 19 balmnopsemsov / iolapstedttoc 20 ap138 / ap138 21 hodsam / yxn 22 55.6 / 18.18 23 iopotonrogfimsecharsenr / wtubtrfftrstendinhofsvmnr 24 tolshr / dily 25 itedjolec / atdwtsurs 26 mistrl / oatvpu 27 ding / y 28 declon / arati 29 ereflodbr / rileohmae
Decryption
# Line-by-line reading of the two W. advertisements (The Standard, 8 and 20 May 1875) Output of `measure.py` (5 Oct 2026), saved 22 Oct 2026; run with the en-modern LM check stubbed out (the corpus was not cached), so only its English-score assertion was skipped. Readings in capitals are the published ones the letters force (Bosbach, Estes/'Dave', Ernst, Krajcovic); lines marked `--` are unread, with the reason. ``` ln A / B chars read reading / reason 1 str / umem 7 7 SUMMER TERM [search top (sum term); same words] 2 53 / 18 4 4 1853 [numerals: year, cf. 22] 3 catokwacopa / poayatlgerty 23 23 CAP TOOK AWAY AT COLLEGE PARTY [search + beam top; at college/catalogue the only rival] 4 olcabrokorlested / dpeatcnrftin 28 28 OLD CAP BROKE AT CORNER LEFT INSTEAD [search top] 5 coomemega / nvtinrdn 17 0 -- CONINGTON MET ME IN GARDEN needs a misprint; searches give conviction/convention me me garden 6 sesipyyocashostikr / dmlurpinrtrcamnr 34 16 USED SIMPLY YOUR CAP [head forced in both searches (side/used simply your cap; SAID needs a misprint); tail open] 7 rep / etd 6 6 REPEATED [search + beam top] 8 itedconlec / atndngtnsurs 22 22 I ATTENDED CONINGTON LECSURES [name frame: Conington only] 9 mistrl / otenpu 12 0 -- mistrl/otenpu: phrase LM gives mist often purely; no forced reading 10 hrsclam / etfdorshpxn 18 18 HERTFORD SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION [name frame: Hertford only] 11 54.3 / 18 5 5 1853 4 [numerals: year] 12 caselcluchozamot / ndtsfindseseo 29 0 -- phrase LM: case land clutch so find size ...; junk 13 1.6.9 / cotegr 9 0 -- 1.6.9 / cotegr: no reading 14 mopredisco / tsvlysdinlge 22 17 MONTHS PREVIOUSLY DISCLOSED [search + beam top for the head; adverb privately/previously; tail indulge/in college open] 15 contoladsemot / ngtndusdcndo 25 25 CONINGTON TOLD US TO ADD A SECOND MOTTO [name frame: Conington only] 16 iadfilisat / edrstneirs 20 20 I ADDED FIRST LINE SATIRS [search top + positional rule] 17 qft / ui 5 5 QUI FIT [Latin search top (Horace)] 18 cagap / ndted 10 10 CHANGE ADOPTED [search + beam top, exact] 19 balmnopsemsov / iolapstedttoc 26 0 -- BALLIOL MAN POSTED needs 11 misprints; phrase LM junk 20 ap138 / ap138 10 0 -- A.P. 138: plain in both ads, meaning unknown 21 hodsam / yxn 9 0 -- HOLIDAYS EXAMINE vs how days examine vs hold say mixing: not decided 22 55.6 / 18.18 7 7 1855 6 [numerals: year] 23 iopotonrogfimsecharsenr / wtubtrfftrstendinhofsvmnr 48 0 -- phrase LM: with you but portion frog fit ...; junk 24 tolshr / dily 10 10 TOLD SHIRLEY [name frame: Shirley only] 25 itedjolec / atdwtsurs 18 18 I ATTENDED JOWETT LECSURS [name frame: Jowett only] 26 mistrl / oatvpu 12 0 -- mistrl/oatvpu: moist relative put; junk 27 ding / y 5 5 DYING [exact, 0 omissions] 28 declon / arati 11 11 DECLARATION [exact, 0 omissions] 29 ereflodbr / rileohmae 18 0 -- terrible flowed to him bare; junk; Latin junk 8 May ad: 134/238 = 0.563 20 May ad: 123/232 = 0.530 overall: 257/470 characters read as sense = 0.547 ```
07 Sources
- The Standard, 8 and 20 May 1875, p. 1 col. 2 (British Newspaper Archive).
- Klaus Schmeh, klausschmeh.net (14 Aug 2026 post and thread) and Cipherbrain (2015–2018 threads): readings by Bosbach, Estes, “Dave”, Ernst and Krajčovič.
- Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses 1715–1886 (1887–88), via the Internet Archive.
- The Historical Register of the University of Oxford, 1888, p. 120, Hertford Scholarship, via the Internet Archive (historicalregist00univrich).
Everything is in targets/catokwacopa/ in the project repository: ads.py (text and line pairs), mech.py (pairing test, exact costs), search.py, latin.py, beam.py, names.py, oxnames.py and their outputs, and NOTES.md.