My partial solution to Lewis Carol's acrostic puzzle?

ACRatone

Hello, I'm new to the forum. I wanted to ask whether you think my solution to an old acrostic puzzle of Lewis Carol is any good. My answer is the solution is: Allah.

Reference is A Day in the Country (1866), Lewis Carol. There was not supposed to be any deep puzzles in the playful acrostic Carol wrote for the guests and relatives at the country manor he was visiting. But only some have been solved at this late date.

Reference:

https://books.google.com/books?id=stEYqhhZ32gC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=a+day+in+the+country+lewis+carol+acrostic+puzzle+come+pack+my&source=bl&ots=_jXE0S2BRb&sig=ACfU3U1ha5A0Lit3iXl5il2eAVQuenYepQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjU19jf8pfiAhUGEHwKHZc6AAUQ6AEwAnoECCoQAQ#v=onepage&q=a%20day%20in%20the%20country%20lewis%20carol%20acrostic%20puzzle%20come%20pack%20my&f=false

His clue:

"I've taken pictures bad and good:
But that, I think, was worst than any,
The great Logician never could
Have proved it worth a single penny!

I came up with my answer in 1 minute, Logician was capitalized and so I reasoned a committed Christian like an ordained minister fellow of Christ's Church at Oxford must be, then a capitalized 'great Logician' must be the deity. And Allah sort of fit. A quick google showed me that here was indeed a famous British coin (the first Penny ever minted in fact!) by King Offa in the 700's was golden and worth a fortune. Yet it was only a Penny. And it had inscribed on that coin (very strangely for a British coin) "‘There is no God but Allah, The One, Without Equal, and Muhammad is his prophet".

I'm not sure if anything concerning this particular coin was timely in the year 1866, which would make Carol think it a fair question for the other guests.

Or perhaps somebody has a better answer? The link above shows the parts of Carrol's acrostic that have been solved. And some that are not yet.

https://www.intriguing-history.com/king-offas-gold-coin/

Terrapin Station

I'm confused. Where are the letters a-l-l-a-h in the poem at hand (whether directly or via word substitutions or whatever, akin to the infamous "Mabel"/"Emily" acrostic)?

ACRatone

The answers to questions 1 and 2 are PORTMANTEU and PHOTOGRAPHY.

Therefore the answer to #2 has to start with the first letter of each (P and P). Base on that people easily figured out the answer to #3 is PUMP. And #4 ihas to start with O and end with H, and is obviously OSTRICH.

So it absolutely starts with A ends with H and can have any number of letters as long as the answer fits the clue.
Sounds simple, but nobody has figured out in over 100 years of trying to solve that question in Lewis Carol's acrostic!!

Carol was of course the famous author of Alice in Wonderland, Oxford professor, and ordained in the Church of England. And required to be celibate and proscribed against marrying on pain of losing his guaranteed for life free residence and board at Christ Church college, Oxford University. Carol was relatively poor and the room was literally right next door to the Dean of the college. The Dean's daughter was Alice LIddel (the Alice of Wonderland). Such a free room was very prestigious for a poor man like Carrol (he had 10 siblings, mostly unmarried sisters, and he was head of his family because his father had died). His sisters depended on him.

Luke

↪ACRatone

I think you'll need to show us the puzzle somehow. I couldn't access it via your links.

Terrapin Station

The answers to questions 1 and 2 are PORTMANTEU and PHOTOGRAPHY. — ACRatone

I don't get that either without further explanation. How do we get, as an acrostic, "portmanteau" from

Come, pack my things, and let the clothes
Be neatly brushed and folded well:
The friends I visit all suppose
That I'm a perfect London swell.

(Come)
P (ack my things, and let the cl)
o (thes be neatly b)
r (ushed and folded well:)
T (he friends I visit all suppose, That I')
m
a (perfect Lo)
n (don swell)

. . . but that's obviously not right, not to mention that we ran out of letters before we could finish the word. So I'd need even that one explained.

There's something missing in the explanation in the book (at least in that section--maybe it's explained elsewhere in the book)

My partial solution to Lewis Carol's acrostic puzzle?

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