The Copybook

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

31

By Just L'Hernault (1832-1922), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Who’ll Turn the Grindstone? Charles Miner

Whenever Charles Miner suspected an ulterior motive, he would say quietly ‘That man has an axe to grind!’

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32

By Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), via WIkimedia Commons. Public domain.

A Full Day’s Play Charles Dickens

It was one of those rare occasions when a game of cricket had not been interrupted by the weather, but would the Church be so forgiving?

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33

By Edmund Blair Leighton (1852–1922), Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Sunday in London Washington Irving

Every Sunday, the Englishman is raised to heaven by the choir, and then taken to her bosom by Mother Earth.

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34

© AJD, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Mystery at Compton Wynyates Allan Fea

The Tudor mansion of Compton Wynyates is full of secrets and puzzles, some macabre, some downright peculiar.

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35

By Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Ye Children, Hearken Unto Me The Book of Common Prayer

David, fresh from another close encounter with Saul’s men, shares his advice for living a charmed life.

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36

British School, ca. 1600, via the Royal Collection and Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Look Upon This Picture William Shakespeare

Hamlet cannot understand what his mother could possibly see in his uncle Claudius.

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