The Copybook

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

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KJV Bible

25

© Tim Felce, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Go to the Ant from The Authorized Version

Solomon recommends taking lessons from one of God’s smallest but most hard-working creatures.

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26

By Clément Ader, photo © Roby, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Chariots of Steam by Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Darwin imagines how steam power will change the world.

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27

© Christine Matthews, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Moral Case for Family Farms by Richard Cobden

Richard Cobden called on Parliament to support small, family-owned farms.

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28

By Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Hiawatha Takes a Photograph by Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll records a suburban photoshoot in the style of Longfellow.

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29

By John Wallace, via Wellcome Collection and Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Nouns of Number by William Cobbett

William Cobbett gives his son James some helpful examples of collective nouns.

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30

© Balkowitsch, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Hiawatha’s Inspiration by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Longfellow tells us how his tale of a heroic Native American warrior came to him.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 19 NS

May 6 OS

The Road to Ruin : George Berkeley warned that industry, not financial speculation, was the guarantee of a nation’s wealth.
Signs of Command : Suggest publicly-displayed commands, and say how many of them are sentences.
My Native Notes : Scotsman James Boswell always spoke good English when in England, but he was careful to leave a little Scots in.
Hidden Message : Reveal the hidden message in a letter, and write a coded letter of your own.
The Great and the Good : Daniel Defoe wondered whether goodness was not preferable to greatness.
Statements, Questions and Commands : Choose a word from our list, and then use it in any one of the three basic types of sentence — if possible.
Sentegrams : These sentences, taken from English literature, have been jumbled up like an anagram; see if you can piece them back together.
Good Sense : Rewrite these sentences so that the word ‘unless’ is not used.
The Coronation of Anne Boleyn : The weight of the crown that Anne Boleyn wore proved too heavy to bear.
Abstract : Use these words in sentences as a Noun, Verb or Adjective.
Better By Example : Gregory urged the persecuted Christians of Nazianzus to be the better men.
Speed Clues : Help a friend to guess five words in under a minute.
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