[Illustration]
A very little examination of the original drawing will have shown the
reader that, as he will have at first read the conditions, the puzzle is
quite impossible of solution. We have therefore to look for some
loophole in the actual conditions as they were worded. If the Parson
could get round the source of the river, he could then cross every bridge
once and once only on his way to church, as shown in the annexed
illustration. That this was not prohibited we shall soon find. Though the
plan showed all the bridges in his parish, it only showed "part of" the
parish itself. It is not stated that the river did not take its rise in
the parish, and since it leads to the only possible solution, we must
assume that it did. The answer would be, therefore, as shown. It should
be noted that we are clearly prevented from considering the possibility
of getting round the mouth of the river, because we are told it "joined
the sea some hundred miles to the south," while no parish ever extended a
hundred miles!