IN 1897, Elgar wrote a cipher, a coded message to Miss Dora Penny. The cipher, consisting of 87 characters spread over three lines, appears to be made up from an alphabet of 24 symbols.

But Miss Penny was never able to decipher it and to this day, no one knows what it says.

Research suggests the cipher is far more complex than was first thought but efforts to crack it continue, recently involving the online community.

Find out more on the internet at http://groups.yahoo.com/Elgar-Cipher