Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Michal Klajban, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nearly seventy years after his death, the roguish laird still cast a spell over the farm-folk of the Highlands.
Read
© Basile Morin, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Revd Edmund Dixon urged young people to think about what a little politeness could do for them.
© Victor Michailovich Semernev, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Detail, cropped.
The Nika Rebellion drew a rising Roman general against some rioting sports fans, and it was a tense game.
© Roman Boldyrev, Wikimedia Commons. CC Attribution 4.0.
A half-starved cat is recruited by the Allies in the fight against Hitler.
© Peter O’Connor aka anemoneprojectors, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Some years before the Elgin marbles were put on display in the British Museum, rising artist Benjamin Haydon got a sneak preview.
By Alexander Hesler (1823-1895). Public domain.
Fame found Abraham Lincoln before he was ready for the scrutiny of the camera.