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

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415

By Walter Holmes Sullivan (1836-1908), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Bad Day at Waterloo by Sir Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby

Frederick Ponsonby’s involvement in the Battle of Waterloo began early, and it seemed to him that it went on for ever.

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416

© Robin Drayton, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Magnus ‘Barelegs’ Steers a Bold Course by Snorro Sturluson

Magnus had just reasserted Norway’s authority over The Isles and Man, when he stumbled into a party of Normans harassing the King of Gwynedd.

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417

© Lauren Johnston-Smith, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Magnus ‘Barelegs’ Tours the Isles by Snorro Sturluson

Barely a generation after Harald Hardrada narrowly missed out on taking the English crown, his grandson Magnus re-asserted Norway’s authority over The Isles and Man.

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418

By the Underworld Painter (fl. 350-300 BC). Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Wild Ride of King Herla by Clay Lane

Walter Map was so tired of being on the road in the entourage of King Henry II, that he began to wonder if the whole court was under a spell.

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419

© Ray Bird, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Jupiter and the Bee by Thomas James

A bee asks a blessing of the king of the gods, but what she gets from him is not quite what she had in mind.

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420

© BT2_AbhishekDey, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

The Black Hole of Calcutta by Edward Fraser

In 1756, the Nawab of Bengal allowed his frustration with British merchants in Calcutta to get the better of him.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 10 NS

April 27 OS

Merchants of Muscovy : In 1553, Richard Chancellor set out on a perilous voyage to Russia in order to bypass the Hanseatic League’s customs union.
The Indian Mutiny : The Indian Mutiny began with a revolt among disgruntled soldiers, and ended with the making of the British Raj.
A Thousand Commas : Assess the punctuation of this sentence, according to the author’s own principles.
Batter My Heart : John Donne gives God a free hand to do whatever needs to be done.
Window Seat : Describe the view from one of the following vantage points.
Repeat Offender :
In Two Minds : Join these ideas together to a form a single sentence, in at least two different ways.
The First Traffic Lights : The busy crossroads outside the Houses of Parliament was the testing ground for a new technology.
Good Companions : Explain what these wise classical authors are telling us.
The Rule of the Road : Being a free citizen doesn’t mean that everyone else has to get out of your way.
Blind Courage : George Santayana reprimanded politicians and military men who thought war was good for the country’s soul.
Patience : Make a single sentence out of these three ideas.
The Angel Cried : A hymn sung in the weeks after Easter, imagining how Gabriel brought the news of Christ’s resurrection to Mary.
She was a Phantom of Delight : Mary Wordsworth wasn’t pretty or bookish, but she was kind and vital, and William loved her.
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