The Copybook

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

691

By Thomas Eakins(1844-1916), from the Metropolitan Museum of Art via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

A Chess Problem by A. A. Milne

Milne felt that chess was a game deserving of its place in the gallery of sports, but also that it had a drawback.

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692

© RedCoat, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.5.

The Wolf, the Fox and the Monkey by Clay Lane

A Wolf and a Fox go to court over a petty theft, but they have a hard time getting the Judge to believe them.

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693

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

Striking Water by Colonel the Hon. Aubrey Herbert

An Albanian shepherd plans to expand into arable farming, but he needs water and the search is close to ruining him.

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694

© Roy Parkhouse, Geograph. Licence CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Character of the Conqueror from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle looks back on the reign of King William I.

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695

© Jungpionier, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Hugh Hammer-King by Sabine Baring-Gould

Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, was kind to children and animals but Kings merited firmer handling.

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696

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

One Man and his Dog by Edmund Lockyer

English explorer Major Edmund Lockyer tries to buy a puppy in Queensland, but ends up paying the owner to keep him.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 5 NS

April 22 OS

When the Cat’s Away... : A Victorian artist and avid bird-watcher banished cats from his country cottage, but soon wished he hadn’t.
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.
Hardly : Tone down these bold assertions with ‘hardly’.
The Death of Julius Caesar : When Julius Caesar entered the Senate that day, a note warning him of treachery was clutched in his hand — unread.
Two Letters Home : A German soldier stopped the Great War so he could ask Captain Hulse to post a letter for him.
Smile : Choose adjectives of praise for these nouns, at about the 7/10 level.
The Making of Mark : St Mark wrote his Gospel as a summary of the preaching of St Peter.
Zheng He and the Rise of Malacca : Malacca became a refuge from the overbearing empires of the Far East, thanks to a celebrated Chinese admiral.
Confusables : Compose sentences to bring out the similarities and differences between these words.
Jill and I : Include yourself in these sentences about Jill.
Saddled : Use these words in sentences, and see if you can use one of them as a verb.
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