The Copybook

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

Blog

Copybook

Think & Speak

Games

KJV Bible

985

© Nickolas Titkov, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.

The Kitten on the Wall by William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth watches a playful kitten, and makes himself a promise.

Read

986

© Godot13, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

‘Never Trust Experts’ by Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Lord Salisbury seeks to calm the Viceroy of India’s nerves in the face of anti-Russian hysteria.

Read

987

By Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Heracles and Cerberus by Clay Lane

In the last of his twelve labours, the hero must snatch the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld.

Read

988

© Derek Harper, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

All Things ‘Nice’ by Jane Austen

Henry Tilney teases a bewildered Catherine Morland for her lazy vocabulary.

Read

989

© Stephen Craven, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Liberty-Lovers by Ralph Waldo Emerson

American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson praises the English public for still loving freedom, despite their politicians.

Read

990

© Nationalmuseet (National Museum of Denmark), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Supreme Indignity by Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Lord Salisbury tells his fellow statesmen that no country should have its laws dictated from abroad.

Read

Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 15 NS

May 2 OS

The Beautiful Side of the Picture : Heathen prince Boris I of Bulgaria (r. 852–889) commissioned St Methodius to paint an impressive scene for his palace walls.
The Repeal of the Corn Laws : Richard Cobden realised that John Bright, overcome with grief after seeing his young wife die, needed something worthwhile to live for.
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.
The Coronation of Anne Boleyn : The weight of the crown that Anne Boleyn wore proved too heavy to bear.
Abstract : Use these words in sentences as a Noun, Verb or Adjective.
Better By Example : Gregory urged the persecuted Christians of Nazianzus to be the better men.
Speed Clues : Help a friend to guess five words in under a minute.
A Proper Game of Cricket : Mary Mitford makes an appeal for the traditional village cricket match.
Mini Bios : Write a short paragraph about a prominent person, but don’t start any sentence with he or she.
A Thousand Commas : Assess the punctuation of this sentence, according to the author’s own principles.
Batter My Heart : John Donne gives God a free hand to do whatever needs to be done.
Window Seat : Describe the view from one of the following vantage points.
Repeat Offender :
Latest

Clay Lane Home

Search

Blog

The Copybook

Think and Speak

Comfortable Words

Word Games

Featured Authors

Featured Subjects

Search The Copybook

About Clay Lane

Close Menu