Clay Lane

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New posts, old posts, and a few brainteasers

February 6 January 24 OS

43

Among Old Friends

‘Alpha of the Plough’ hoped Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not treat his old friends as he treated his favourite books.

As a rule, people who write well are also well-read, but it should not be supposed that they keep up with everything new that hits the shelves or receives breathless praise in the press. Alfred Gardiner, columnist for the Star, was like many professional writers suspicious of new titles, and preferred the company of characters he had come to know well.

Posted January 12

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Tags: Copy Book (85)

Picture: By Edward Hopper (1882-1967), via Wikimedia Commons. Photo © JJonahJackalope, CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.

44

Orlando Gibbons: Thus Angels Sung

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Thus angels sung, and thus sing we;
To God on high all glory be:
Let Him on Earth His Peace bestowe,
And unto men His favour show.

More: Thus Angels Sung.

Posted January 12

Tags: Comfortable Words (6) Music Video (27)

45

A Reckless Indifference to Life

In eighteenth-century England, the death penalty was the solution to almost any crime.

In Georgian England, the consensus was that the key to crime prevention was to dangle the hangman’s rope before every would-be criminal’s eyes. Whether he was guilty of shoplifting or murder most foul, the hangman awaited him. Yet to some at the Old Bailey the news that they wouldn’t be up on a hanging charge came as a disappointment, as George Wrong explains.

Posted January 11

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Picture: By an anonymous artist, via the Wellcome Collection and Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.

46

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford: Symphony No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 28 (Irish): II. Allegro molto vivace

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Posted January 10

Tags: Music Video (27)

47

Express each of these phrases in a single word.

Suggest a single word equivalent in meaning to each phrase below. There may be more than one suitable answer: think of as many as you can, and then choose the one you like best.

IIntrusion on another’s territory; IIa place of protection, recognised as inviolable; IIIa word to be given in response to a sentry’s challenge; IVa sudden rush of wind and rain; Vnumerous items lying about in disorder; VIa mechanical device for telling the time; VIIinflammable material in which a spark is caught; VIIIa person of no account; IXostentatious boldness; Xa low, continuous sound, as of distant traffic.

Some possible words and phrases can be seen by clicking this button.

Suggested Words

Adapted from an exercise in Exercises 12-13 (1933) by NL Clay.

Posted January 10

Tags: Think and Speak (43) Vocabulary (2)

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48

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.

Posted January 4

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Picture: By James Peale (1749–1831), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.