205
Fill the empty boxes with letters, using the clues to help you find the right ones.
A new crossword for the collection.
Fill the empty boxes with letters to make words running across and down. Use the numbered clues to help you find the right words. Click any box to get started.
1 across Spotted. 5 letters
5 across Common name for nepeta cataria, a plant of the mint family. 6 letters
6 across Spire. 7 letters
7 across A golden era, a time of past success. 6 letters
2 down Just a little hungry. 7 letters
3 down Wide, tidal mouth of a river. 7 letters
4 down ‘A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of ____.’ (Proverb) 7 letters
Posted September 21 2024
Picture: © Joanna Boisse, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Croped.. Source.
206
The Revd Edmund Dixon urged young people to think about what a little politeness could do for them.
I recently added this post, Manners Makyth Man.
The Revd Edmund Saul Dixon was a frequent contributor to Charles Dickens’s periodical Household Words. This extract comes from the start of what was really a review of several books on etiquette, from England, France, and French-colonial Algiers. Dixon was particularly impressed with those cultures in which class distinctions did not lessen the obligation to be courteous: he thought everyone should be polite to everyone else. The subject matter might have led to a rather preachy article but Dixon handled it with the kind of light touch that we would expect his editor to demand.
Composition
Join each group of ideas together into one sentence, in at least two different ways.
1 He has bad manners. He won’t get on.
2 Sometimes we need advice. Sometimes friends can help. Sometimes books must be used.
Posted September 21 2024
Jigsaws: Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can. See if you can include any of the words in square brackets.
He has bad manners. He won’t get on. [Career. Hinder. Polite.]
Picture: © Basile Morin, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
207
Make as many words as you can using the letters of one nine-letter word. Can you beat our score?
Posted September 21 2024
Picture: © dun_deagh, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
208
Nearly seventy years after his death, the roguish laird still cast a spell over the farm-folk of the Highlands.
Posted September 21 2024
Jigsaws: Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can. See if you can include any of the words in square brackets.
Mrs Macfarlane rarely spoke. Dorothy asked about Rob Roy. Mrs Macfarlane answered at length. [Name. Soon. Tongue.]
Picture: © Michal Klajban, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
209
Suggest lively actions to make these simple scenes more interesting.
This is adapted from an idea in School Certificate English Practice (1933). It draws on a fundamental principle of writing often called ‘Show, Don’t Tell’, which encourages writers to paint lively, attention-grabbing images of something rather than make bald statements of it.
How would you show that a man had long arms? In her Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland in 1803, Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of poet William, was struck by how Scottish people spoke of Rob Roy’s prodigious reach:
“They told us that he could garter his tartan stockings below the knee without stooping.”
This is so much better than simply saying ‘Rob Roy had long arms’ and leaving it there.
Suggest similar ways to impress the following scenes on the imagination. How would you show that...?
1 A pool was stagnant.
2 A cave was huge.
3 A dog was helpful.
[Huge cave] In the narrow passages we had been noisy, but suddenly we found ourselves talking in whispers, like pilgrims in a cathedral.
For a helpful dog, read our story Manners Makyth Man by Edmund Saul Dixon.
Adapted from an idea in NL Clay’s School Certificate English Practice (1933).
Posted September 20 2024
210
The Nika Rebellion drew a rising Roman general against some rioting sports fans, and it was a tense game.
Posted September 18 2024
Jigsaws: Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can. See if you can include any of the words in square brackets.
Justinian was a Blues fan. The Blues suddenly turned against him. [Abandon. Despite. Rely.]
Picture: © Victor Michailovich Semernev, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Detail, cropped.. Source.