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It's worth writing out the template in groups of 13.

meursault - I am full of admiration.

Too subtle for me Meursault . Filled the grid including row 7.

Got the theme word and the instruction. But simply no idea what the template is.

Hi Woodlouse. From what I've said previously, have you counted the letters (excluding punctuation) of the template ? So now you know why it is referred to as a template. Now look very carefully again at the instruction : one word should be considered as its constituent letters.

Hi, Meursault,

Thanks for very helpful hint. I’m surprised that the preamble didn’t tell us how many cells to highlight - by my count, it’s 41.

The historical source for the theme is given in one of the clues.

Got there with your help Meursault but don't think we would have done otherwise.

How does the wordplay work in 30dn ENTHRAL? I can see RA and EL but nothing else. Thanks.

Unclued
It is "nth" as in "to the nth degree"
Spanish the = EL
Artists = RA
Def = CHARM

Unclued: nth as in to the nth degree, n being a marker for a series member at an arbitrarily large position.

Many thanks both of you. I would never have thought of that. I just had Nth = north.