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

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325

From a manuscript of Froissart’s ‘Chronicles’ (?1470-72), via the British Library and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Coronation of Henry IV by Jean Froissart

On October 13th, 1399, Henry Bolingbroke was crowned King Henry IV of England in Westminster Abbey.

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326

© Michael Beckwith, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Sanctuary! by Temple Chevallier

As late as the fifteenth century, criminals on the run could find refuge in the precincts of England’s great churches.

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327

© Mike Cattell, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Poisoned Chalice by Temple Chevallier

Scientist and clergyman Temple Chevallier believed that the fast pace of recent discoveries in astronomy risked substituting a new superstition for an old one.

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328

Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain image.

The Shimabara Rebellion by Joseph Longford

Forty thousand men, women and children, the last survivors of Japans’s persecuted Christian population, took refuge without earthly hope in a seaside castle.

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329

By NASA/JPL, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain image.

The Vast Depths of Infinity by Thomas Wright

Thomas Wright offers his readers a way of thinking about the enormous distances involved in any description of the solar system.

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330

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

Written in the Skies by Thomas Wright

Though some other sciences may seem to destroy it, astronomy restores a sense of religious awe.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 21 NS

May 8 OS

A Personal Favour : Over a hundred young Greeks were slated to be shot after resistance fighters and British forces sabotaged an airfield.
The Miracle of St John of the Caves : The story of an unexpected escape through the heart of a hill.
The Peninsular War : Napoleon’s six-year-long campaign (1808-1814) to bring Spain and Portugal into his united Europe was frustrated by Arthur Wellesley.
Thick and Thin : Express each of these ideas as a single word.
Break : Explain what each of these common expressions means, and give examples.
Blind Guide : William Wirt recalls an overpowering sermon from a blind man in a little wooden chapel.
It’s All in the Delivery : Aeschines paid tribute to the oratory of his greatest rival — whether he meant to or not.
The Road to Ruin : George Berkeley warned that industry, not financial speculation, was the guarantee of a nation’s wealth.
Signs of Command : Suggest publicly-displayed commands, and say how many of them are sentences.
My Native Notes : Scotsman James Boswell always spoke good English when in England, but he was careful to leave a little Scots in.
Hidden Message : Reveal the hidden message in a letter, and write a coded letter of your own.
The Great and the Good : Daniel Defoe wondered whether goodness was not preferable to greatness.
Statements, Questions and Commands : Choose a word from our list, and then use it in any one of the three basic types of sentence — if possible.
Sentegrams : These sentences, taken from English literature, have been jumbled up like an anagram; see if you can piece them back together.
Good Sense : Rewrite these sentences so that the word ‘unless’ is not used.
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