Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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115

An Excellent Performance

On a visit to England in 1599, Swiss doctor Thomas Platter found time to pop across the Thames and take in a show.

116

Timur in Russia

Timur, Muslim lord of Samarkand, threw his weight behind the Golden Horde’s subjugation of Christian Russia, with unexpected results.

117

Dane-Geld

Three years before the Great War, Rudyard Kipling recalled how one English king simply paid his bullying neighbours to stay at home.

118

The First Steam Whistle

After an accident at a level crossing, the bosses of the Leicester and Swannington Railway acknowledged that drivers needed more than lung power.

119

The Surrender of Vercingetorix

As Rome’s grip on Gaul tightened, one man still dared to defy them.

120

Seeds of Empire

The British Empire may be said to have started when Elizabethan importers got into a fight with the Dutch over the price of pepper.