Welcome

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882

He must be treated with sincerity and reality; with muffins, and not the promise of muffins.

Of the Englishman, in ‘English Traits’ (1856)

Welcome to Clay Lane

Straightforward English

“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)

Clay Lane is a traditional British education, of the kind seen in English schools before the educational changes of the 1960s. It is inspired by textbooks written by NL Clay, Senior English Master at Ecclesfield Grammar School in Yorkshire, and used across the country from the late 1920s.

Read short passages from literature and history, many of them chosen to provide a commentary on modern events and opinions. Or try your hand at puzzles in grammar and vocabulary like those Clay set for pupils aged 12-16. How would you have got on in the fourth form?

This site is for people who appreciate our heritage of strong, plain-spoken English from Shakespeare and the King James Bible to Austen, Dickens and Kipling, who take pride in the courage and vision of our country’s heroes both small and great, and who enjoy playing with words, sentences and ideas.

Get started with The Clay Lane Blog

About Clay Lane

VIPs: Very Important Posts

In Quotations: What We Stand For

Thomas Huxley on The Object of a Liberal Education

NL Clay on Straightforward English

Materials for the study of good, correct, straightforward English.

Traditional, pre-Sixties methods and content.

Read interesting passages from history and literature.

Practise writing your own English sentences.

Ask for help if you need it.

“If ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ are to be more than catchwords, clear communication must be the rule, and not the exception. Do we want a society in which placid masses take their orders from bosses? The alternative to government by force is government by persuasion. The latter must mean that the governed can talk back to the governors.”

NL Clay, Straightforward English (1949)

Post Box : Get In Touch

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The Blog

New and archive material, updated frequently. Passages for reading, brainteasers for solving, and music for listening.

Read English

The Copy Book

Browse hundreds of short passages from history, fiction, poetry and legend.

Write English

Think and Speak

Brainteasers for developing vocabulary, grammar and expression.

Ask your questions, and get personalised help with your English from me, Nicholas.

Play Games

Think and Speak

Puzzles with words and their letters, just for fun.

Read the Bible

Comfortable Words

The incomparable English of the King James Bible, the Prayer Book, and more.

From An Excellent Performance

On September 21st [1599] after lunch, about two o’clock, I and my party crossed the water, and there in the house with the thatched roof witnessed an excellent performance of the tragedy of the first Emperor Julius Caesar with a cast of some fifteen people.

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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.

1. Ante. 2. Dive. 3. Famous. 4. Follow. 5. Lord. 6. Nearby. 7. Reverent. 8. Serve. 9. Whisper.

Show Useful Words (A-Z order)

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 dis-.

Character and Conduct

Posts 120

Stories illustrating noble deeds in matters both great and small, such as the noble gesture of Sir Philip Sidney, and the determination of Benjamin Disraeli.

Poets and Poetry

Posts 60

Passages from English verse, from Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf to Shakespeare’s sonnets, Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade, Kipling’s If and many more.

Discovery and Invention

Posts 115

Tales of scientific innovation and merchant enterprise, from steam power and life-saving medicines to new trade partners far away, and new ways to reach them.

Classical History

Posts 60

Tales of tragedy, ambition and heroism from the Battle of Marathon and Hannibal’s passage of the Alps to Caesar’s fateful crossing of the Rubicon.

Abolition of Slavery

Posts 36

Heart-breaking tales of slavery, in which Britain played a shameful part; and heart-warming tales of Abolition, in which she played a courageous one.

Greece

Posts 53

Tales about the cradle of Western civilisation, from Socrates and the first democracies to the fall of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman yoke, and Britain’s part in the fight for independence.

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