Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
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By Ary Scheffer (1795-1858), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Richard Cobden told an Edinburgh peace conference that the biggest threat to the United Kingdom’s security was her own foreign policy.
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By Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-1890), photographed by Simon Speed, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
As Christian is making his way along the highway that leads to the Celestial City, he finds his way barred by a foul fiend.
By Pietro Bellotti (1625-1700), via the Dallas Museum of Art and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
When literary critics decide that a book is not worthy of their notice they expect the public to follow their lead, but ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ was different.
By Poliphilo, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In the thirteenth century, wealthy English homeowners began to think more about the inside of their stately homes.
© Michael Garlick, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
In January 1807, newspapers breathlessly reported that Napoleon Bonaparte’s rampage across Europe was at an end — but was it true?
© mags, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
When Saint-Mars arrived to take over as warden of the Bastille in 1698, staff at Paris’s most famous prison had eyes only for his prisoner.