The Copybook
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Heathen prince Boris I of Bulgaria (r. 852–889) commissioned St Methodius to paint an impressive scene for his palace walls.
St Methodius (815-885) and his younger brother St Cyril (826-869) were Slavs from Thessalonica who brought the Christian gospel to Eastern Europe. In 864, Boris I, King of the Bulgarians (r. 852-889), abandoned his heathen beliefs and was baptised, and according to 11th-century Byzantine chronicler John Skylitzes, Methodius was behind Boris’s change of heart.
At the Battle of Crécy in 1346, the English army was trying out a new military tactic under the command of a sixteen-year-old boy.
The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 led to a dispute over succession between Edward III of England (whose mother Isabella was French royalty) and Philip VI of France. Matters came to a head at Crécy in 1346, but despite all that was riding on it Edward left the battle in the hands of his son Prince Edward, aged sixteen.
The Israelites under Philistia’s rule might have blended with their heathen masters had not Samson kept stirring up trouble.
Samson was one of the Judges, charismatic rulers of Israel before the Kings. In his day, Israel had been worshipping the Philistines’ gods, and their punishment was to fall under Philistia’s government. To make sure that the Israelites were not absorbed by Philistine society, however, God prompted Samson to keep tensions high.
The Bluebell line in Sussex was the first failing British Railways line to be taken over by volunteers.
There are over a hundred and eighty ‘heritage’ railways and tramways in the United Kingdom, privately owned and run largely by volunteers. Many are routes closed by State-owned British Railways, which enthusiasts have turned into profitable companies in defiance of Authority. The first of these inspirational and quintessentially British adventures was the Bluebell Line in Sussex.
Seventeenth-century German craftsmen came seeking a land of opportunity, and found it in County Durham.
From the sixteenth century onwards, craftsmen and merchants from the European Continent began to settle in England, escaping the regulation, persecution and war that was a daily feature of our neighbours’ politics. By the reign of William and Mary (1688-1694), investors were lining up to help European craftsmen choose Britain as a place to do business.
Hardworking Kichijiro wins Ima’s heart and Kanshichi’s hatred without noticing a thing.
The following tale was told to Gordon Smith as a real-life story, set in seventeenth-century Maizuru. Since 1943, Maizuru has been a naval base in Japan’s Kyoto Prefecture; in 1626, when our tale begins, it was a modest provincial harbour where prosperous merchant Shiwoya Hachiyemon had his business.