This is part 1 of A Trivial Pursuit, a 25-part puzzle hunt. Each part is solvable on its own, with the exception of the meta-puzzle at the end.
HERMITS ERECTED HER – SHE TOLD MERCHANT ALL
BEST AUTHOR YET, I FELT – PEN-NAME ‘SKIN’
AN EXPERT’S THIGH – IT THRILLED ME, MATE
First, we need to resolve the six lines in the quote:
The six lines are anagrams. Rearranging the letters, we get
HERMITS ERECTED HER --> CHRIST THE REDEEMER
SHE TOLD MERCHANT ALL --> THE MOTHERLAND CALLS
BEST AUTHOR YET, I FELT --> THE STATUE OF LIBERTY
PEN-NAME ‘SKIN’ --> MANNEKEN PIS
AN EXPERT’S THIGH --> THE GREAT SPHINX
IT THRILLED ME, MATE --> THE LITTLE MERMAID
We can then observe that
All of the answers are a reference to a statue! Specifically,
Christ The Redeemer is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Motherland Calls is a statue in Volgograd, Russia.
The Statue of Liberty is a statue in New York City, United States
Manneken Pis is a statue in Brussels, Belgium
The Great Sphinx is a statue in Giza, Egypt
The Little Mermaid is a statue in Copenhagen, Denmark
Noting that
the lengths of the countries are a perfect match for the grid, we fill them in...
...and arrive at the final answer, ASTUTE, which is fitting as it is an anagram of STATUE (Thanks @Stiv for pointing this out)
