Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
By an anonymous artist, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
As a young prince Henry V was ‘fierce and of wanton courage,’ Thomas Elyot tells us, but there was one man with courage to match his.
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By Eastman Johnson (1824-1906), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
A runaway slave is recaptured, and charged with ingratitude by the master who has taken such pains to afford him economic security.
John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ opens with Christian wondering how to convince his wife that their town and their family are in immediate danger.
From the British Library, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Edmond Holmes, a former inspector of schools, reported back to the Board of Education on a pioneering system being developed in Italy.
© CowieJemma, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Norman Leys complained that policymakers in Africa were interested more in training loyal and industrious workers than in nurturing free peoples.
Inspired by an avid interest in English warrior heroes, the fifteen-year-old Guthlac recruited a band of freebooting militiamen.