Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
By Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In the last of his twelve labours, the hero must snatch the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld.
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© Derek Harper, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Henry Tilney teases a bewildered Catherine Morland for her lazy vocabulary.
© Stephen Craven, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson praises the English public for still loving freedom, despite their politicians.
© Nationalmuseet (National Museum of Denmark), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Lord Salisbury tells his fellow statesmen that no country should have its laws dictated from abroad.
© T. R. Shankar Raman, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Arthur Wellesley watches on as one of his soldiers is rescued from a watery grave.
Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
That infernal nonsense ‘Pinafore’ took America by storm.