Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Cristian Bortes, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
The French revolution failed because real liberty cannot be enforced overnight, or indeed enforced at all.
Read
By John Constable (1776-1837), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Some likened tax-and-spend to a refreshing shower of rain, but for William Cobbett the rain wasn’t falling mainly on the plain man.
© Nickolas Titkov, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.
William Wordsworth watches a playful kitten, and makes himself a promise.
© Godot13, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Lord Salisbury seeks to calm the Viceroy of India’s nerves in the face of anti-Russian hysteria.
By Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In the last of his twelve labours, the hero must snatch the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld.
© Derek Harper, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Henry Tilney teases a bewildered Catherine Morland for her lazy vocabulary.