The Copybook

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

1285

Via Wikimedia Commons.

Wellington’s Secret Samuel Smiles

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

Read

1286

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

A True Gentleman of Verona Samuel Smiles

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

Read

1287

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

One Last Question Charles Dickens

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

Read

1288

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

Northumberland Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

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

Read

1289

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

‘Sussex’ Rudyard Kipling

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

Read

1290

© Richard Crowest Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Triumph in Adversity Samuel Smiles

Two famous figures, one from the sciences and one from the arts, who turned suffering to advantage.

Read