The Copybook

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

1267

© Гондарева Илга (Ilga Gondareva), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Not a Scratch! by Clay Lane

Hapless extremists try to wipe out a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary.

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1268

Via Wikimedia Commons.

Wellington’s Secret by Samuel Smiles

The future hero of Waterloo dealt with political ambush as comfortably as he dealt with the military kind.

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1269

© Jakub-Hałun, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

A True Gentleman of Verona by Samuel Smiles

A young man from the Italian city on the Adige River demonstrates that class has nothing to do with wealth.

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1270

By Jules Girardet, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

One Last Question by Charles Dickens

English lawyer Sydney Carton goes to the guillotine in place of a French aristocrat.

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1271

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

Northumberland by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

A poem of nostalgia for the sea breezes and yellow gorse of Northumberland.

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1272

© Janet Richardson, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

‘Sussex’ by Rudyard Kipling

A meditation on our instinctive love for the place in which we live.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

April 23 NS

April 10 OS

A Tale of a Garter : Following the Battle of Crécy in 1346, Edward III instituted an order of chivalry in honour of St George, inspired (some said) by something he picked up in the street.
Christ is Risen! : Felicia Skene recalls the Easter celebrations on one emotionally-charged night in Athens
Approachable : Replace the verb ‘can’ with these alternatives, and explain how the meaning of the sentence has changed.
The First Easter : In a translation from the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, St Mark recounts the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb.
A Collect for Easter Day : A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Gambler : Which well-known expression is Dr Johnson talking about here?
If I Had But Two Little Wings : Samuel Taylor Coleridge holds on to those precious moments when loneliness is a problem for tomorrow.
Red Eye : Reconstruct the speaker’s original words from these reports.
Responsible : Combine each group of ideas into a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.
Opposites : Suggest words that seem opposite in meaning to the words in this list.
Three of a Kind : For each of these things, think of three different varieties of it.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War : A hymn in praise of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Peace Plan : Report this brief exchange between Anna and M. Pierre and Tolstoy’s War and Peace
Metaphors : Choose one of these words and use it metaphorically, not literally.
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