The Copybook

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

547

By Joseph Highmore (1692-1780), via Tate Britain and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

‘Poor Pamela’s Married At Last!’ by Charles Knight

Letitia Barbauld called Samuel Richardson’s 1740 novel Pamela ‘a new experiment’ in English literature, and to judge by its reception it was very successful.

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548

© Paul Fleury, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

A War of Words from Holinshed’s Chronicles

A few years before the Battle of Agincourt, the Duke of Orléans challenged King Henry IV to meet him in Bordeaux for a winner-takes-all joust.

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549

© Penny Mayes, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

A Stout Answer from Holinshed’s Chronicles

A few weeks after a large French raiding party had been driven away from the Isle of Wight, another flotilla arrived from across the Channel demanding money with menaces.

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550

By Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), from the Museum of Fine Arts via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Surprised by Heaven by Frederick Denison Maurice

We turn to books seeking an author’s sympathy and fellowship, but William Cowper’s verse is unusual: he turns to us for ours.

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551

© Caroline Legg. CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling

After the devastation of the Great War, calls rose for a new economic and social system, and to put the wisdom of our forebears behind us.

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552

© Țetcu Mircea Rareș, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic.

The Sacrifice of Isaac from The Authorized Version

Abraham invites his son Isaac to accompany him to a nearby mountain to offer sacrifice, and the boy is naturally curious to know what gift his father proposes to offer.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

April 25 NS

April 12 OS

The Life-Giving Spring : An obscure officer in the Roman Army gains a dizzying promotion after performing a simple act of kindness.
A Great Human Effort : The Gallipoli landings in 1915 did not achieve the Admiralty’s goals, but for John Masefield they remained one of the proudest moments of the Great War.
The Avengers : John Buchan was moved by the way the nations of the British Empire volunteered for service in the Great War.
A Tax on Companionship : William Windham MP was appalled at the idea of levying a tax on man’s best friend.
Christ is Risen! : Felicia Skene recalls the Easter celebrations on one emotionally-charged night in Athens
Saddled : Use these words in sentences, and see if you can use one of them as a verb.
Russia’s Heroic Stand : In 1941, with much of the West subdued, Adolf Hitler bent the full force of his hatred on Moscow.
Approachable : Replace the verb ‘can’ with these alternatives, and explain how the meaning of the sentence has changed.
The First Easter : In a translation from the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, St Mark recounts the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb.
A Collect for Easter Day : A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Gambler : Which well-known expression is Dr Johnson talking about here?
If I Had But Two Little Wings : Samuel Taylor Coleridge holds on to those precious moments when loneliness is a problem for tomorrow.
Red Eye : Reconstruct the speaker’s original words from these reports.
Responsible : Combine each group of ideas into a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.
Opposites : Suggest words that seem opposite in meaning to the words in this list.
Three of a Kind : For each of these things, think of three different varieties of it.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War : A hymn in praise of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
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