Dudeney's Crossword Clown

Difficulty: (explanation of difficulty)

This crossword was created by Henry Ernest Dudeney in 1925 and published in The Strand magazine. Interestingly enough, in the column in which the puzzle appeared, Dudeney describes the crossword puzzle as a "curious craze" which "will probably die as rapidly as it has sprung up".

We give a portrait of our old friend, the Clown. The words defined begin at the numbers and go horizontally or vertically, as the case may be, and stop at the blacked-out squares. Every blank square has to be filled with a letter.

Instructions: Fill in each white-coloured box with a single letter, corresponding to the letters in each answer. When finished, click the "Check solution" button to check your solution.