Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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61

Recollections of Slavery

Samuel Pepys ran into a little knot of seafaring men at the Exchange, who told him some hair-raising tales about their time in Algiers.

62

Jailbreak

When Rhoda, maid to John Mark and his mother, said Peter was standing at the gate, nobody in the house believed her.

63

Trouble at Belsize Gardens

In 1720, Welsh promoter William Howell opened a pleasure garden at Belsize House, but the pleasures drew the magistrates’ frowns.

64

Judges’ Wigs

On a countryside ramble in West Sussex, William Cobbett finds the weather turning against him.

65

The Defence of Castle Dangerous

In 1692, a girl of fourteen was left to defend her father’s manor from angry Iroquois raiders.

66

The Voyage of John Cabot

On the Feast of St John the Baptist, June 24th, 1497, Venetian navigator John Cabot claimed North America for the King of England.