Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
By Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Back in the eleventh century English refugees founded New York, but it wasn’t in North America.
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© Niels Elgaard Larsen, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.
In Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire, a man from Kent founded a glittering church for English refugees.
© Harrie Gielen, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
Orderic Vitalis regrets the passing of a society far more refined and advanced than that which supplanted it.
By Tony Grist, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
When the Normans came in 1066 they deliberately destroyed English chant, the last survivor in Western Europe of a tradition five centuries old.
By John Tenniel (1820-1914), via the British Library and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Advice is a dangerous gift, and for centuries our greatest writers have wondered how to dispense it safely.
Photo by Philip Henry Delamotte (1821-1889), via Smithsonian Libraries and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The steering committee for the Great Exhibition of 1851 turned down all 245 designs submitted for the iconic venue.