The Copybook

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

1357

© Andrew Curtis, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Hetton Railway Clay Lane

The railway earned a special place in history as the first to be designed for steam locomotives only.

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1358

© Karl and Ali, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Story of Pentecost Clay Lane

Jesus’s apostles receive the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, and the startling effects quickly draw a crowd.

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1359

Photo from NASA, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Music of the Spheres Clay Lane

Sir William Herschel not only discovered Uranus and infrared radiation, but composed two dozen symphonies as well.

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1360

© Martyn Gorman, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Clay Lane

Hermia and her lover Lysander elope from Athens, only to become tangled with squabbling fairies in the woods.

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1361

Photo from the Imperial War Museums, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Gift of the Gab Clay Lane

There was one form of power that self-taught engineering genius George Stephenson never harnessed.

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1362

From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Siren ‘Greatness’

In encouraging women into music, Alice Mary Smith thought promises of ‘greatness’ counterproductive.

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