Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Graham Hogg, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
For George Stephenson, the motto of the Stockton and Darlington Railway was a code to live by.
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By Edvard Munch (1863–1944), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
A dinner host enthralls his guests with an extraordinary scientific experiment.
© Hubert Śmietanka, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.5.
Richard Cobden questioned both the wisdom and the motives of politicians who intervene on foreign soil.
© Smiley.toerist, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
A gentleman travelling home from London by train reached his destination carrying more than he set out with.
From the Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Richard Cobden was not a little envious of the USA’s open and can-do society, but he did not covet her republicanism.
© Hefin Owen, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
An ageing Heron finds himself a little too stiff to fish for himself, so he thinks of a way to get the fish to do it for him.