Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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235

Sanctuary!

As late as the fifteenth century, criminals on the run could find refuge in the precincts of England’s great churches.

236

The Shimabara Rebellion

Forty thousand men, women and children, the last survivors of Japans’s persecuted Christian population, took refuge without earthly hope in a seaside castle.

237

The Vast Depths of Infinity

Thomas Wright offers his readers a way of thinking about the enormous distances involved in any description of the solar system.

238

Written in the Skies

Though some other sciences may seem to destroy it, astronomy restores a sense of religious awe.

239

A Surfeit of Lampreys

Augustus, the Roman Emperor, invited himself to dine at the luxury Naples villa of Publius Vedius Pollio, but a broken goblet thoroughly spoilt the evening.

240

A Rush to Judgment

As a young man, surveyor Thomas Telford was a red-hot political activist who yearned for revolution, but admittedly he had read just one book on the matter.