I have the five thematic sentences.
A letter has to be added to down clues before solving.
27d. I repeatedly wove borders, wanting a bit of Gingham (6) Letter to be added is N.
SE?VES
28d. Course that's taken with expert on statues (6) Letter added is T, probably making statutes. LAW?E? Lawmen, Lawyer?
Thanks.
A letter may be added to across clues.
17. Half-heartedly rolls and eases out (5) TO?ES
37. More than one sat slightly reclining? (4) ?ATA
41. Nonsense about red setter and alsatian? (6) ???EDS
oops.
Did not see your message.
I now have the circle.
I don't have all the letters from across clues.
And not sure what replacing two entries to represent fifth sentence involves.
Nice puzzle.
Thanks ProfessorM.
I figured out which two across entries have to be replaced by what appears in the firft sentence, which has to be taken literally.
The second across word replaced does not seems to make a real word but all down words make real words.