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I have just finished this, confident all is correct but I have several queries:

26 ac: can’t quite make sense of the parsing. Who is the “Turkish man”? I think I see how the rest of it works

38 dn: I can see the definition, and I know what the answer and the extra letter are, but the wordplay makes no sense

My other question I figured out while I was typing

Sorry, forgot to give the clues
26ac Turkish man about to grasp miles becoming measure
38dn Clay to break down wreath

The 'Turkish man' is a 3 letter honorific meaning gentleman or mister. The one I always remember is a chap called Kerim in a James Bond novel. Bond addresses him as Kerim ... IIRC.

Granama1, my apologies. Either I made a mistake about the comment number, or the numbering has changed due to editorial deletions. My comment referred to foinaven's post (#49) that the last step destroys the puzzle. That could be taken to mean that the the last step interferes with the thematically numberedd cells. I don't see how the puzzle is 'destroyed'. Non-words result, but that is often the case.

“Having resumed consideration of the clues, the solver repels his first notion and decerns.” Returning to this, I found myself much more in tune with the setter and realised that a lot of my initial difficulties were down to me confidently entering a few completely wrong answers. (One of which even had the wrong number of letters for the given enumeration!) A much more rewarding experience and an admirably elegant construction; the symmetry was a triumph, I thought. Thank you Deuce!

Ah right I see now. I had been looking for a 4 letter Turkish man. Thanks granama

Jack Aubrey, I agree - the symmetry is impressive

38d is a two letter word for break down (including extra letter) and then a three letter wreath

Louweed at 93, in 38d clay clue, Go is break down as in I think my washing machine is about to go.
It is Chambers.