The Copybook
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Anne Elliot resents being expected to court the society of anyone simply because of social status.
Anne Elliot’s snobbish father Sir Walter, of Camden Place in Bath, usually wastes no time on those who fall short of his exacting standards in beauty or manners. But as Anne complains to her attentive cousin, Mr Elliot, he makes a grovelling exception for his aristocratic relations, the Dalrymples.
Robert Clive turned seven hundred frightened recruits into crack troops by sheer force of personality.
By the Spring of 1752, the power of the French in India was waning, thanks to young Robert Clive of the East India Company’s militia. Now he was utterly exhausted, and ready for home; but he reckoned he had strength and time enough to capture a couple more forts and still marry Margaret Maskelyne in Madras before his ship sailed.
King John promised his nobles respect, but he was not a man to regard his word as his bond.
The ‘Great Charter’ of England, signed on June 15th 1215, has been regarded for over three centuries as one of the foundational documents of the British and American constitutions. It was not always regarded with the same awe.
Muddle-headed inventor Professor Cavor needs to think aloud, and for reasons of his own Mr Bedford is anxious to listen.
Mr Bedford has complained about Professor Cavor’s habit of humming loudly as he passes by, thinking scientific thoughts, on his regular afternoon walk. As a result, the Professor’s walks have lost their magic, and Bedford feels guilty.