The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

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175

© Andrey Mironov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Jailbreak by St Luke the Evangelist

When Rhoda, maid to John Mark and his mother, said Peter was standing at the gate, nobody in the house believed her.

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176

By Jan Siberechts (1627-?1703), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Trouble at Belsize Gardens by Clay Lane

In 1720, Welsh promoter William Howell opened a pleasure garden at Belsize House, but the pleasures drew the magistrates’ frowns.

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177

© Robin Stott, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Judges’ Wigs by William Cobbett

On a countryside ramble in West Sussex, William Cobbett finds the weather turning against him.

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178

© Dennis Jarvis, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.

The Defence of Castle Dangerous by Edith Louise Marsh

In 1692, a girl of fourteen was left to defend her father’s manor from angry Iroquois raiders.

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179

© Mike Edwards, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Voyage of John Cabot by Edith Louise Marsh

On the Feast of St John the Baptist, June 24th, 1497, Venetian navigator John Cabot claimed North America for the King of England.

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180

By Richard Caton Woodville (1856-1927), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem about a suicidal cavalry charge during the Battle of Balaclava on October 25th, 1854.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 10 NS

April 27 OS

Merchants of Muscovy : In 1553, Richard Chancellor set out on a perilous voyage to Russia in order to bypass the Hanseatic League’s customs union.
The Causes of the Indian Mutiny : Incompetence, arrogance and some mischievous propaganda all conspired to throw India into chaos.
A Thousand Commas : Assess the punctuation of this sentence, according to the author’s own principles.
Batter My Heart : John Donne gives God a free hand to do whatever needs to be done.
Window Seat : Describe the view from one of the following vantage points.
Repeat Offender :
In Two Minds : Join these ideas together to a form a single sentence, in at least two different ways.
The First Traffic Lights : The busy crossroads outside the Houses of Parliament was the testing ground for a new technology.
Good Companions : Explain what these wise classical authors are telling us.
The Rule of the Road : Being a free citizen doesn’t mean that everyone else has to get out of your way.
Blind Courage : George Santayana reprimanded politicians and military men who thought war was good for the country’s soul.
Patience : Make a single sentence out of these three ideas.
The Angel Cried : A hymn sung in the weeks after Easter, imagining how Gabriel brought the news of Christ’s resurrection to Mary.
She was a Phantom of Delight : Mary Wordsworth wasn’t pretty or bookish, but she was kind and vital, and William loved her.
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