The Copybook

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

781

By Frank Reynolds (1876-1853), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Wrong Hand Charles Dickens

Davy Copperfield is not pleased at having to compete for his mother’s affection with Edward Murdstone.

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782

From the US Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Sayers-Heenan Fight Clay Lane

Victorian England was agog at the prospect of Tom Sayers meeting a confident but unproven challenger from the USA.

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783

© Frank Vincentz, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

On Thin Ice Sir Charles Villiers Stanford

Charles Villiers Stanford found it necessary to play dumb on a visit to snowy Leipzig.

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784

By Francis Wheatley (?-1801), via the National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons.

The First Fleet John Patience Chard

Having brought hundreds of convicts to New South Wales, Arthur Phillip then had to conjure order out of their chaos.

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785

© Petar Milošević, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Niobe’s Tears E. M. Berens

Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, was so proud of her fourteen children that she brazenly claimed the privileges of a goddess.

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786

© Towpilot, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Hearts of Steel Maharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur

The Maharaja of Jodhpur called on his subjects to do their bit and stop the Nazis.

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