The Copybook

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

355

By Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), via the British Museum and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

War is Such a Taxing Business by Sydney Smith

Sydney Smith warned ordinary Americans that encouraging the hawks in Washington would cost them more than blood.

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356

By Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

St Nicholas and the Deadly Gift by Clay Lane

The Bishop of Myra’s ceaseless toil to put an end to the worship of Artemis made him some dangerous enemies.

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357

© Aleksandr Zykov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

The Grandest of All Sepulchres by Thucydides

On the annual Remembrance Day of ancient Athens, Pericles rose to remind the people of the City that grief alone was not the best way to honour the fallen.

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358

By W. Fordyce, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Richmond Shilling from The London Journal of Arts and Sciences

For centuries our coal industry was plagued by regulations and taxes, but a tax imposed in 1667 seemed to have nothing to do with coal at all.

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359

Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), Public domain.

‘Have a Care What You Do’ by Charles Dickens

Lord George Gordon marched at the head of 50,000 protestors to the House of Commons, to demand that George III’s England did not become like Louis XVI’s France.

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360

By an anonymous artist of the English School, circa 1560, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Little Flower Boy by John Foxe

Mary I’s fear for her throne had risen to such a pitch that her Chamberlain felt threatened by a three-year-old child.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

April 23 NS

April 10 OS

St George and the Dragon : In one of the world’s most popular legends, bold hero St George rides to the rescue of a maiden in distress.
The Day of Resurrection : An eighth-century hymn of the Greek Church, for Easter Day
Approachable : Replace the verb ‘can’ with these alternatives, and explain how the meaning of the sentence has changed.
The First Easter : In a translation from the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, St Mark recounts the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb.
A Collect for Easter Day : A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Gambler : Which well-known expression is Dr Johnson talking about here?
If I Had But Two Little Wings : Samuel Taylor Coleridge holds on to those precious moments when loneliness is a problem for tomorrow.
Red Eye : Reconstruct the speaker’s original words from these reports.
Responsible : Combine each group of ideas into a single sentence, in as many ways as you can.
Opposites : Suggest words that seem opposite in meaning to the words in this list.
Three of a Kind : For each of these things, think of three different varieties of it.
The Son of God Goes Forth to War : A hymn in praise of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
Peace Plan : Report this brief exchange between Anna and M. Pierre and Tolstoy’s War and Peace
Metaphors : Choose one of these words and use it metaphorically, not literally.
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