| Masquerade - by Kit Williams - The solution |
In 1980 a children's book hit the headlines after selling over a million copies. It told the story of how the Moon, having fallen in love with the Sun, enlisted the help of Jack Hare to take her a bejewelled treasure, and how on his journey Jack lost the treasure.
The book was of course Masquerade by Kit Williams published 1979.
The story was simply told and every page held a wonderful piece of artwork. Each of the pictures contained many animals or characters, such as Tara Treetops or Isaac Newton and hidden away in every picture there would be a hare to find.
Masquerade was of course no ordinary book. Within its pages it concealed the solution as to where Kit had buried a jewelled hare valued at ?5000.
The Golden Hare was fashioned by
Kit Williams out of 18-carat gold and dazzlingly adorned with precious stones:
ruby, moonstone, citrines, turquoise, mother of pearl and a rare compound
called faience, used by the ancient Egyptians to grace the Pharaohs.
Only Kit and TV presenter Bamber Gascoigne, acting as witness, knew the golden hare's location. |
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Before the hunt began Kit explained:
"The treasure is as likely to be found by a bright child of ten with an understanding of language, simple mathematics and astronomy as it is to be found by an Oxford don."
Kit gave no hints on how to find the treasure, perhaps the story would contain a message, maybe the pictures would conceal a code. Around the border of each picture there was a message written, for example 'All animals are equal in a tale of tail to tail, end to end to end'. Solving the puzzle was not easy and red herrings were everywhere to be found. No wonder it took over two years to solve!
On Friday February 19th, 1982, Kit Williams received this map (see image below). A map like a child's drawing, but enough for Kit Williams to know someone had cracked it.
Map sent to Kit Williams by Mr Thompson
showing the burial place of the Golden Hare |
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Dugold Thompson, claiming the prize using a pseudonym, Ken Thomas, had spent at least 18 months trying to solve the puzzle but instead of doing it using all the clues from the book he solved the puzzle using lateral thinking - he researched Kit's life and the places he'd lived and, with the aid of a metal detector and some of the book's clues, he eventually dug the hare up in Bedfordshire. He also had a business partner who had lived with a woman who had been Kit William's girlfriend when he wrote the book.
Kit rightfully felt cheated by Mr Thompson's methods and vowed never to get involved in the creation of a treasure hunt ever again.
Bamber Gascoigne, Kit's witness to the hare's burying, went on to write a book Quest for the Golden Hare which explained the solution and told stories of how obsessive fans had become.
Just before Dugold found the treasure, two physicists, Mike Barker and John Rousseau, had discovered the location of the treasure, using the correct method. Unfortunately, after unsuccessfully digging a few times in the correct area they decided to wait for the equinox to occur. Too long, as it turned out.
The SolutionThe golden hare turned out to be buried near a statue of Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII, in a park in Bedfordshire. The exact location of where to dig was indicated by the shadow cast by the statue at midday on the Vernal Equinox, 21 March.
The book's solution was in fact very simple and hinted at by a poem on the title page inside:
Within the pages of this book there is a story told
of love, adventures, fortunes lost, and a jewel of solid gold.
To solve the hidden riddle, you must use your eyes,
And find the hare in every picture that may point you to the prize.
To find the solution all you had to do was draw lines in the book: a straight line from the eye of each animal featured through their longest finger, toe, claw or fin until it reached a letter on the picture's border. The letters, when rearranged, created a word. When all the words from the 15 pictures in the book were strung together they created a message:
Cathrines Long finger Over Shadows Erth Buried Yellow Amulet Midday Points The Hour In Light of equinox Look you
Reading the first letter of the first word on each page gives the phrase CLOSE BY AMPTHILL. A clue to the hare's location in Bedfordshire.Where's The Golden Hare Now?After finding the treasure, Mr Thompson stored it in a bank vault for safe-keeping. At one point he had agreed to loan it to a museum for public exhibition, but, for some reason, changed his mind at the last minute.
Mr Thompson later sold the Golden Hare to a software company called: "Haresoft Ltd." They then offered it as a prize for solving a two part computer treasure hunt called: "The Hareraiser Hunt".
This treasure hunt was never solved, as Haresoft Ltd. went into liquidation soon after launching the competition.
So what happened to the treasure after this?
The UK's Daily Mail reported an article on December 7 1988, giving some details as to it's whereabouts. It transpired that Mr Thompson set up Haresoft Ltd, with a partner, John Guard. Very shortly after the companies downfall the Golden Hare re-emerged from its bank vault only to be sold Sotheby's, to an anonymous buyer, for ?31,900.
Kit Williams made an appearance at Sotherby's in order to personally bid, but dropped out at ?6,000."
Kit's Williams Next BookIn 1984 Kit published the 'unnamed' book, where readers had to solve the puzzle in the book to reveal its title. To win the prize of a beautiful bee box containing the book made by Kit himself, readers had to send him the title of the book but without using the written words.
The title turned out to be named Bee on the Comb
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