A fun solve by the ever-pleasing Pabulum …
The rubric told us: within seven unclued lights are spelled out the ingredients of the eighth, which solvers must shade.
The unclued lights are suggested by surplus words in eight clues. So, unlike most Spectator unclued solves, there’s no connection in meaning between the unclued lights. After finding the only word that would fit 41ac, I noticed it contained aitch, which also seemed to be a necessary part of the only word that would fit 19d. So I was guided in finding solutions to the other unclued lights by looking for letters as they are pronounced (ingredients) and eventually arrived, having arranged them, at a 7-letter word (incidentally with no proper vowels) – RHYTHMS – for 23d. This, after some blind alleys, led the way to definite solutions for 5a and 28a.
Having spotted the avenger in 15 – an obvious companion to the obscure 41a, I then reverse-parsed the clues for the other superfluous words that would connect. There seemed to be a lot of extra descriptive words in a number of clues – pine, small, old, fierce, currant, and I had supreme attached to big in 43a for a good while. My conclusions (which are open to correction) were:
5ac LAWYER Y brief in 40a
20a SUPREME M greatest in 14a
28a LANYARD R cord in 36d
41a KURDAITCHA H avenger in 15a (an Australian aboriginal word for an avenger of kinsmen)
1d PRIVATEERSMAN T mariner in 33a
12d NECESSITARIAN S determinist in 24A
19d AITCHBONE H cut in 7d
the pronounced letters anagramming to RHYTHMS, solution to 23d
Hence the title – the letters are latent in 7 of the unclued solutions, giving a play on Letters Patent. (I assumed the labelling of the Down clues as Across was simply an editorial mistake.)
So the completed grid is:
Across
1 Old men with tastes in small cakes (8)
PASTRIES
PAS (0ld men) + TRIES (tastes)
9 Son in new trial practising beforehand (10)
REHEARSING
S (son) inside REHEARING (new trial)
14 Hogarth’s (greatest) painting? (3)
ART
Hidden in HogARTh
16 Cross composer snubbed poet (6)
BRIDGE
I think this is (definition) cross, with bridge as a verb. Wordplay: Frank Bridge (composer) + Robert Bridges (poet) with end cut off (snubbed)
17 Toodle-pip to old Jeeves? (5)
VALET
VALE (goodbye – or toodle-pip – in Latin) + T’ (TO in older English)
18 Fierce predator heard in pine forest (5)
TAIGA
Homonym (heard) of TIGER (fierce beast)
22 Who might make you sturdier footwear? (7)
TRAINER
Double definition – a trainer might make you sturdier
24 Dapper (determinist) holy man shily challenged (7)
STYLISH
Anagram (challenged) of ST (saint – holy man) + SHILY
25 Sheriff’s court ushers polled maple trees (5)
ACERS
MACERS )Sheriff’s court ushers) without first letter (polled)
26 Some jurymen actually make law (5)
ENACT
Hidden (some) in jurymEN ACTually
31 Poet’s pressure revealed by emotional tone that’s extreme (7)
STRAINT
STRAIN (emotional tone, as in music) + T first letter (extreme) of that’s. Definition: Spenserian word for pressure
33 Time of rest and quiet, sailor and near crazy (mariner) enter (7)
SABBATH
AB (sailor) + BAT (nearly crazy – bats) inside (enter) S…H (quiet!)
37 Burrower beginning to creep around cavity (5)
CELOM
MOLE (burrower) + C (beginning of creep) reversed (around). Def: celom (or more commonly coelom) is the space between the testicles and body-wall in mammals
38 Antique gold coin twinkling hard by ancient city (5)
MOHUR
MO (short for moment – twinkling) +H (hard) +UR (ancient city). A mohur was an ancient coin in Persia and India
39 In Ontario almost all like Schoenberg’s music (6)
ATONAL
AT (in) + ON (Ontario) + AL (almost all). Not all of Schoenberg’s music is atonal – see Verclarte Nacht
40 Bird in (brief) panic wing off (3)
ANI
pANIc without its wing(s). The ani is an American black cuckoo
42 Rod left in fury (6)
ANGLER
L (left) in ANGER (fury)
43 Take diadem from westward county big noise controls (8)
DISCROWN
WORCS (county) reversed (westward) inside (controls) DIN (big noise)
Down
2 With no sign of hesitation Mahler’s playing old instrument (5)
SHALM
Anagram (playing) of MAHLS (Mahler’s without ER – sign of hesitation). Shalm is an alternative spelling of shawm
3 Climbing tree rodent meets oak bark (6)
RATTAN
RAT (rodent) + TAN (oak bark, used for tanning)
4 Try easy solutions initially for instance (5)
ESSAY
Anagram (for instance) of EASY + S (Solutions initially)
6 Odd paragraph PR released showing Christ’s supposed sayings (7)
AGRAPHA
Anagram (odd) of AAGRAPH (paragraph without PR)
7 Unknown number (cut) by slack older singer (6)
YODLER
Y (unknown number) + anagram (slack) of OLDER
8 What could be Scotch imbibing island? (4)
EIGG
EGG (what could be Scotch) around (imbibing) I (island – doubling as definition)
10 Flowers one grows (6)
IRISES
I (one) + RISES (grows)
11 Priestly ruler in France yesterday and Argentina in October (9)
HIEROCRAT
HIER (yesterday in French) + RA (vehicle registration code for Argentina) in OCT (October)
13 Tailless fancy pigeon flew about deep gorge (8)
BARRANCA
BAR (BARB – a breed of pigeon without last letter – tailless) + RAN (flew) + CA (about).
15 Play the (avenger) in vain endlessly (7)
OTHELLO
THE inside OLLO (HOLLOW – vain, without outside letters – endlessly)
21 Relaxed regimen includes classy light sweetmeat (8)
MERINGUE
Anagram (relaxed) of REGIMEN + U (classy, according to Nancy Mitford)
27 Currant bun to eat when ingesting peeled peach (7)
TEACAKE
TAKE (TO EAT) around (when ingesting) EAC – inside letters (peeled) of pEACh29 Partly wash large squared
stone (6)
30 Man from Texas raised stots tall in shape (6)
OBLONG
OB (BO reversed – raised, in a down clue – familiar Southern US term for man) + LONG – tall, in the sense of an animal, hence, I presume, stots.
32 Modern Greek married in buzzing Cairo (6)
ROMAIC
M (married) in anagram (buzzing) of CAIRO.
34 I wouldn’t put up round paintings (5)
TONDI
I’D NOT (I wouldn’t – reversed – put up in a down clue)
35 Colombia imports this Roman dyestuff (5)
CHICO
CO (international code for Colombia) around (imports) HIC (this in Latin). Chico or chica is a dye used by South American peoples.
36 Type of (cord) jacket the ultimate in fine fashion (4)
ETON
E (the last letter – ultimate – of ETON) + TON fine fashion)