Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1495

The Harmonious Blacksmith

Handel called it ‘Air and Variations’, but by Charles Dickens’s day everyone knew it as ‘The Harmonious Blacksmith’.

1496

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose!

(That’s cat-tails, obviously.) And who ever said cats were unpredictable?

1497

Hephaestus and the Love Net

When he caught his wife with her lover, the ugly blacksmith of the gods showed that he was not without his pride.

1498

Heracles at the Crossroads

The gods had given Heracles every grace of body and mind, but there was one thing he must do for himself: choose how to use them.

1499

St Hild at Whitby

Hild founded an abbey that poured out a stream of priests and bishops for the revitalised English Church.

1500

Horatius at the Bridge

Horatius Cocles was the last man standing between Rome’s republic and the return of totalitarian government in 509 BC.