English Literacy Inspired by the Vision of NL Clay
Clay Lane is a website for people who care deeply about the language and heritage of the English people, and who want to know more about them because they understand how important these things are for our future. It is inspired by textbooks written by Yorkshire schoolmaster NL Clay, and used in English schools and homes from the 1920s to the 1960s. Clay Lane is ideal for those who prefer traditional methods, traditional content, and the option of one-to-one human contact.
Read famous (and not so famous) passages from history, legend, biography, politics, poetry and fiction, and try your hand at exercises similar to those Clay gave to pupils in secondary schools before the educational changes of the 1960s. Use what you find here to improve your command of good, clear, correctly spelled and punctuated English, or just browse for pleasure.
Everything on Clay Lane is free to use. Share your creativity with me, and if you’d like a little help, just ask. See Email Support.
“The course should train pupils to observe, learn more of the world they live in, think clearly, use the imagination and to speak clearly.”
NL Clay, Think and Speak (1929)
Featured Music
John Field: Piano Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 1 No. 1: II. Rondo. Allegretto
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Featured Post
From A Day in Georgian London
If you would know our manner of living it is thus: We rise by nine, and those that frequent great men’s levees find entertainment at them till eleven or, as in Holland, go to tea-tables. About twelve the beau monde assembles in several coffee or chocolate houses, the best of which are the Cocoa Tree and White’s Chocolate-houses, St James’s, the Smyrna, Mrs Rochford’s and the British Coffee-houses; and all these so near to one another that in less than an hour you see the company of them all.
Featured Exercise
Confusables Find in Think and Speak
In each group below, you will find words that are similar to one another, but not exactly the same. Compose your own sentences to bring out the similarities and differences between them, whether in meaning, grammar or use.
