Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Bob Tarr, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
William Dampier describes the hand-to-mouth existence of the aborigines of northwest Australia, and reveals a people far advanced in charity.
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© xalexx, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, finally stood up to the Great Horde and their opportunistic Western allies.
From Book I of the Mendel Twelve Brothers Foundation ‘house book’, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
By the Great Charter of 1215, King John promised that his ministers would not meddle in the Church or stuff his Treasury with taxes on trade.
By Jean-Pierre Houël (1735–1813), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Edmund Burke would not congratulate the French revolutionaries on their ‘liberty’ until he knew what they would do with it.
© Russel Wills, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
A monk living in the tumbledown hermitage that had once belonged to St Cuthbert reluctantly decided that it needed more than repairs.
© Kresten Hartvig Klit, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
As various ball sports began to take hold in England, King Edward III became convinced that Government action was required.