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 Intolerable Power
It is not only Treason against the Constitution to attempt to deprive any free British subjects of their natural Right to a Share in the Legislature, but it is equally derogatory and injurious to the Authority of the Crown; because a King of England has no legal Authority to govern by any other mode than that limited government called the English Constitution which he is sworn to maintain.
Featured Exercise
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding im-.
