The Copybook

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

667

By William Hole (1846-1917), via the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

St Margaret of Scotland The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

When Malcolm III, King of Scots, met Princess Margaret of Wessex, he knew at once that he had found a woman capable of setting an example to a whole nation.

Read

668

© Matt Brown, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Deep River William Charles Berwick Sayers

Berwick Sayers tells how his friend, the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, set out on his last voyage.

Read

669

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

The Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln

Following a decisive victory in the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln urged his supporters to make sure that liberty’s advantage was not squandered.

Read

670

© Steven C. Berger, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Battle of Gettysburg D. H. Montgomery

Two years into the American Civil War, the Union army responded to a dispiriting defeat at Chancellorsville with a decisive and historic victory at Gettysburg.

Read

671

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

The Battle of Lewes D. H. Montgomery

The Battle of Lewes in 1263 took place just a few miles from the Battle of Hastings two centuries before it, and was arguably as important.

Read

672

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

The Provisions of Oxford D. H. Montgomery

When King Henry III’s barons turned up to his council wearing full armour, he realised he had to mend his ways.

Read