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

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601

Photo by Daderot, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Home, Sweet Home by Alexis de Tocqueville

French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville visited the USA in the 1830s, and found a degree of contentment that he rarely found in Europe.

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602

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

The Cherry Tree by Joseph Longford

In the Great War, the Japanese were among Britain’s allies, and the Japanese cherry was a symbol of the courage demanded by the times.

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603

From the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Changing Face of Japan by Joseph Longford

Joseph Longford described how Japan had changed from the day he first joined the Japan Consular Service to the day he retired as Consul in Nagasaki.

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604

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

A Page Out of Pageantry by Ronald Wild

In 1932, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession, the Jam Sahib brought vanished days back to Nawanagar with a lavish hand.

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605

© james Petts, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Mrs Sancho’s Barometer by Ignatius Sancho

Ann Sancho would be in better health, said her husband, if she did not worry quite so much about him.

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606

From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Millionaire by A. G. Gardiner

In the year that Ranjitsinhji put aside his bat to concentrate on being the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, journalist A. G. Gardiner looked back on his dazzling career.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 9 NS

April 26 OS

A Gallant Attempt for the Crown : Only months after kidnapping the Duke of Ormond, Irish radical Thomas Blood was at it again, this time attempting to steal the Crown Jewels.
Russia’s Heroic Stand : In 1941, with much of the West subdued, Adolf Hitler bent the full force of his hatred on Moscow.
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 :
In Two Minds : Join these ideas together to a form a single sentence, in at least two different ways.
The First Traffic Lights : The busy crossroads outside the Houses of Parliament was the testing ground for a new technology.
Good Companions : Explain what these wise classical authors are telling us.
The Rule of the Road : Being a free citizen doesn’t mean that everyone else has to get out of your way.
Blind Courage : George Santayana reprimanded politicians and military men who thought war was good for the country’s soul.
Patience : Make a single sentence out of these three ideas.
The Angel Cried : A hymn sung in the weeks after Easter, imagining how Gabriel brought the news of Christ’s resurrection to Mary.
She was a Phantom of Delight : Mary Wordsworth wasn’t pretty or bookish, but she was kind and vital, and William loved her.
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