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St George, ca. 1450, Church of St Peter and St Paul, Pickering. St George is the Patron Saint of Clay Lane. See About St George.

© Michael Garlick, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0. Source

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Clay Lane

Blog

New posts, old posts, and a few brainteasers

January 9 December 27 OS
Welcome to the Clay Lane blog

This page keeps you up-to-date with recent additions, alerts you to posts you may have missed, and invites you to tackle exercises similar to those NL Clay gave to pupils aged 12-13 in the 1930s.

Add Vowels Every DayThink and Speak

Make as many words as you can by adding vowels (AEIOU) to these consonants.

frgs (5+1)

See Words

forages. foregoes. forges. forgoes. frogs.

frigs.

Spinners Every DayThink and Speak

Pick any group of three words, and see if you can still remember them in an hour, and still remember them tomorrow. For a further challenge, try using all of your three words together in a single sentence.

The words in this puzzle are taken randomly from a list of 927 common words. You can change e.g. cat → cats, go → went, quick → quickly.

1 Daughter. Nation. Street.

2 Everything. Partner. Picture.

3 Home. Lead. Skin.

Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)

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On This Day Old English Calendar ?

For December 27 osThe Feast of St Stephen

Stephen was the first person to lose his life because he was a follower of Jesus Christ.

In about AD 34, St Stephen became the first person to be executed for his belief in Jesus Christ. Most of what is known about him comes from St Luke in his ‘Acts of the Apostles’, though Eastern tradition adds a little more.

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On This Day Old English Calendar ?

For December 27 osKing Wenceslaus gives alms on St Stephen’s Day

By Divine providence, the shocking murder of Good King Wenceslas led to a flowering of Christian faith in Europe.

In the early 10th century, Bohemia (in today’s Czech Republic) had only just received the Christian gospel, and tribal paganism was still strong. Wenceslaus played a vital part in spreading light and reason into Europe’s superstitious dark ages — and so did his brother, who hated him and his religion alike.

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Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.

Wenceslaus gave alms to the poor. People remember him for this. He was also martyred.

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3

On This Day Modern Calendar ?

For January 9 nsthe funeral of Horatio Nelson (1806)

The Whitby man held his nerve to keep five enemy ships busy at Trafalgar, and subsequently led Nelson’s funeral procession.

The Battle of Trafalgar near Spain on October 21st, 1805, in which the victorious Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson was shot and killed, is one of the defining events in British history. Many played a vital part in it, including Captain Robert Moorsom of Whitby in Yorkshire.

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Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.

‘Revenge’ suffered heavy fire. His crew wanted him to respond. Moorsom waited.

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Posted January 4
Dear Anne Elliot

Anne Thackeray saw something in Jane Austen’s heroines that she missed in their more modern sisters.

Anne Thackeray wondered if the novelists of her own generation (she singled out George Eliot) were bathing the reader in a little too much emotion. Austen’s heroines did not share so intimately, or express so freely, but she had studied their characters more closely. Such a one was Anne Elliot, of Persuasion.

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Join each group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.

Austen’s heroines were often disappointed in love. They recovered quickly. Thackeray was envious. [Affection. Get over. Wish.]

The heroine of ‘Persuasion’ is Anne Elliot. There is a lot of Austen in Anne Elliot. It was her last novel. [Character. Draw. Plot.]

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Posted January 2
The Three Bears

The beginning of Robert Southey’s classic fairy tale.

The story of the Three Bears is a classic children’s tale from 1837 that first appeared in The Doctor, a seven-volume miscellany by Robert Southey published in 1834-47. In his original, there was no naughty, flaxen-haired Goldilocks, just a spiteful old woman. What follows is the beginning of Southey’s story.

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Join each group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.

The Bears cooked porridge. It was too hot to eat. They went for a walk. [Cool. Time. Wait.]

She saw a bowl of porridge. She ate greedily. She did not ask permission. [Eye. If. Tuck.]

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Posted January 1
A Man Without a Price

A Russian princess admitted defeat with a most gracious compliment.

John Smeaton (1724-1792) was an English engineer who made advances in water and steam power, and engineered bridges, canals, harbours and land drainage schemes. Such was his reputation that Empress Catherine of Russia, who had a high regard for English know-how, dangled the lure of her glittering Court and immense treasury in the hope of landing him.

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Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.

Catherine offered Smeaton a job in Russia. She told him to name his terms. He declined the job. [Accept. Sum. Turn.]

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Posted January 1

Henry Purcell: Rejoice in the Lord Alway (‘the Bell Anthem’)

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REJOICE in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Philippians 4:4-7

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Posted January 1

Show that each of these words might mean different things to different people.

Show that each of the following words might mean different things to different people. Which people would they be?

For example: Cannon.

To a soldier, a big gun.

To a billiard player, a shot in which the cue ball strikes two different object balls one after the other.

IBattery. IIAggregate. IIIDrum. IVFile. VFoil. VIMitre. VIIBall. VIIIBranch. IXNut. XBridge.

Developed from an exercise in Advanced English Exercises (1939) by NL Clay.

More Homonyms.

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9

Posted December 31 2024
Hair by Hair

Governments must not use ‘the good of society’ as an excuse to run our lives.

In 1803, William Wilberforce threw his weight behind compuslory vaccination for smallpox, declaring that those who refused it were endangering society. William Cobbett replied with an open letter, in which he wondered whether any Government could resist applying the same logic to every habit, preference or opinion they could label as a social menace.

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Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.

Some people want to regulate everything. They mean well. They insult the public. [Aspect. Law. Who.]

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