Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
By Vincent van Gogh, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Bede is reminded of another great Christian saint when St Cuthbert shoos some troublesome crows from his barley crop.
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© Barbara Carr, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
The way St Cuthbert found water for his island retreat confirmed that Northumbria’s church was the real thing.
From the Chroniques de St Denys (c. 1332-1350), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In April 1203, a royal prince and heir vanished from Rouen at just the right moment for King John.
By Su Hanchen (12th century), via the National Palace Museum (Taipei and Taibao, Taiwan) and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
On his travels through China and Tibet, Roman Catholic missionary Évariste Huc came across a novel way of telling the time.
By Boris Kustodiev (1878–1927), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
John Buchan draws a distinction between political changes brought by violence and those brought by progress.
By Johann Wilhelm Preyer (1803–1889), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
When violinist Joseph Joachim proposed a toast to the world’s greatest composer, he was cut off in mid flow.