Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
By Heinrich Lossow (1843–1897), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Leopold Mozart was eager to win the hearts of the English, and thought he knew just the way to do it.
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© Lisa Jarvis, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
French economist Jean-Baptiste Say recalls a time when an ounce of prevention might have saved many pounds of cure.
© Pyspic, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Former slave Ignatius Sancho complained that Britain was denying to Africa the free trade and Christian principles she so badly needed.
By John Trumbull (1756-1843), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In 1775, London’s high-handed exploitation of her colonies for tax revenue began to look like a very expensive mistake.
© Mattbuck, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
John, Duke of Montagu, that irrepressible prankster, identified a sad-faced soldier in the Mall as the perfect mark.
From a thirteenth-century copy of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Prophetiae Merlini, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence Public domain.
Geoffrey of Monmouth tells the tale of how Merlin first came to the attention of Britain’s kings.