The Copybook

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

1195

© Stephen Glauser, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Marooned! Robert Louis Stevenson

Jim Hawkins, on a remote desert island, has escaped pirates only to be caught by a shadowy figure among the trees.

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1196

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

Britain’s Best Gift to India Samuel Smiles

Samuel Smiles reminds us that until we brought the railways to India, we had little to boast about as an imperial power.

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1197

British Library Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

India’s First Railway Clay Lane

The opening of the Bombay to Thane line was the real beginning of British India.

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1198

© Visit Israel, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The History of Susannah Clay Lane

A young Jewish woman in ancient Babylon falls victim to a heartless conspiracy.

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1199

© Paul Allison, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-A 2.0.

The Battle of Flamborough Head Clay Lane

When captain Richard Pearson of the Royal Navy surrendered to American revolutionary John Paul Jones, Jones naturally assumed that meant he had won.

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1200

Photo by Lt John Warwick Brooke, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Life’s Infantry Samuel Smiles

However obscure a man may apparently be, his example to others inevitably shapes the future of his country.

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