Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
John Bright MP urged a critic of the British Raj to offer India more than fine words.
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© Sujay25, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
As Viceroy of India, Lord Ripon was rather more popular with the people of India than he was with some of his own civil servants.
From James Lillywhite’s Cricketer’s Annual for 1890, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Meriel Talbot’s distinguished career in government came as no surprise to those who had seen her at the wicket.
© Maigheach gheal, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Composer Ethel Smyth starts telling the Archbishop of Canterbury a joke, and then wishes she hadn’t...
By John Everett Millais, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Sir Thomas More gives his explanation for the mysterious disappearance of King Richard III’s nephews.
© Kim Traynor, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
Major-General Charles Napier, given the task of policing a Chartist rally in Manchester, was alarmed to hear the protestors had brought the big guns - literally.