Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
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© Des Colhoun, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Sir Humphry Davy explains in simple terms what it is that leads to scientific progress.
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By Philip Reinagle (1748-1833), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
William Burdon gives us a character sketch of his friend the ‘Count’, who did not let his small stature cramp his style or narrow his mind.
Anonymous, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
A veteran of the Battle of Salamanca in 1812 was boasting of his lieutenant’s bravery when his wife sprung some unwelcome news upon him.
© Guywestern, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
In the days of Henry II, relations with our cross-Channel neighbours were fractious, but we were fast friends with the people of Norway.
© J. Hannan-Briggs, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
The privileges granted to European merchants in fifteenth-century London led to seething resentment in the City.
© Konstantin hramov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
The city of Great Novgorod in Russia was a mediaeval pioneer of a decidedly rumbustious kind of parliamentary democracy.