The Copybook

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

373

By W. Fordyce, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Richmond Shilling The London Journal of Arts and Sciences

For centuries our coal industry was plagued by regulations and taxes, but a tax imposed in 1667 seemed to have nothing to do with coal at all.

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374

Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), Public domain.

‘Have a Care What You Do’ Charles Dickens

Lord George Gordon marched at the head of 50,000 protestors to the House of Commons, to demand that George III’s England did not become like Louis XVI’s France.

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375

By an anonymous artist of the English School, circa 1560, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Little Flower Boy John Foxe

Mary I’s fear for her throne had risen to such a pitch that her Chamberlain felt threatened by a three-year-old child.

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376

After Samuel Cooper (1609–1672), via the National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: ? Public domain.

Christmas Under Cromwell John Evelyn

In 1657, Sir John Evelyn celebrated Christmas in a church for the first time in years. Unfortunately, someone told the authorities what he was doing.

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377

By Bruno Liljefors (1860–1939), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Two Sly Foxes Sir Nicholas L’Estrange

Sir Nicholas L’Estrange recalls two astonishing eyewitness accounts of the resourcefulness the fox.

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378

© HoppyH, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Translated from the Lattin Sir Nicholas L’Estrange

When William Shakespeare agreed to be godfather to Ben Jonson’s baby boy, he forgot that he would have to think of a gift for his christening.

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