The Copybook

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

1045

© David Crocker, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

To Autumn John Keats

Poet John Keats speaks of the beauties of Autumn, her colours, her sounds and her rich harvest.

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1046

© Gouwenaar, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

‘Thy Necessity is Yet Greater than Mine’ Fulke Greville, Baron Brooke

Elizabethan courtier and soldier Sir Philip Sidney shows that a nobleman can also be a gentleman.

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1047

© David Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Bishop and the Chatterbox Clay Lane

One week into a Lenten retreat with the Bishop of Hexham, a boy’s miserable life is turned right around.

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1048

© José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Michaelmas

A celebration of St Michael, captain of heaven’s angel host, courteous warrior, and healer.

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1049

© Roswitha Budde, Cattery vom Hohen Timp, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Wolf, the Bear and Cat Ivanovitch Clay Lane

A faithful but unprepossessing pet is turned out of hearth and home.

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1050

Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Japan’s First Railway Clay Lane

As Japan’s ruling shoguns resist the tide of progress, a Nagasaki-based Scottish entrepreneur steps in.

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