Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
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By David Wilkie (1785-1841), Apsley House and via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain
The Russians had checked it in the East, but in the West the expansion of Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire was far from over.
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Via the Imperial War Museums collection, and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Gregory Rasputin is tricked into attending a dissolute Moscow soirée, and shares his sadness with Englishman Gerard Shelley.
Via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant-Governor of Java, urged London to bypass our European partners and trade directly with Japan.
© Bollywood Hungama, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
A. A. Milne warns that marketing cricket to people who don’t like the game must not spoil it for those who do.
By Loliloli, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
From the grateful solitude of his library in the Dordogne, Michel de Montaigne reflects on the companionship of his cat.
Australian War Memorial Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The Gallipoli landings in 1915 did not achieve the Admiralty’s goals, but for John Masefield they remained one of the proudest moments of the Great War.