The Copybook

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

133

© Len Williams, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Our England is a Garden Rudyard Kipling

There is plenty of work in the garden of England for everyone, whether he has a green thumb or not.

Read

134

By Marcin Mlynczak. Public domain.

Equal Partners Frances Colenso

Frances Colenso warned that if the British did not learn to treat the Africans with respect, a higher Power would soon teach them some manners.

Read

135

© Edward Prentis (1797-1854), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

A Hymn to God the Father John Donne

During a severe sickness, John Donne, Dean of St Paul’s, asked of God three boons.

Read

136

By Thomas Davidson (1842-1919). Public domain.

Drake’s Drum Sir Henry Newbolt

In time of crisis, so the legend goes, Sir Francis Drake will come to our aid again, as once he did against the Spanish Armada.

Read

137

By Paul Sandby (?1730-1809). Public domain.

Strong Speech Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson traced a common thread running throughout English literature.

Read

138

By Pierre-Antoine Demachy (1723–1807). Public domain.

A Time Like the Present Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens set his historical novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) in the French Revolution seventy years before, but it was far from the dead past to him.

Read