Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Alexandru Baboş Albabos, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
A man who seems to have everything loses his good looks to a dreadful disease.
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© nottsexminer, Wikimeda Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
A boy goes bird-nesting in Cuthbert’s church, and finds himself all in a heap.
© Nickolas Totkov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
A cat belonging to a Carthusian monastery in Paris gets a free lunch, but who is exploiting whom?
© Rob Farrow, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
St Cuthbert reminds a young monk that the labourer is worthy of her hire.
Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Young inventor James Watt’s life in London was overshadowed by the perpetual fear of being snatched.
By 1Chiki1, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Michael Faraday’s tour of Europe included a ‘picturesque’ multicultural event on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.