Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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499

The Royal Oak

In 1680, Samuel Pepys sat down with Charles II to record how, many years before, a bold double-bluff saved the King from Cromwell’s men.

500

Better than a Play

During his tour of England in 1782, Karl Philipp Moritz dropped in on the House of Commons, and thought the histrionics in the Chamber better than any play.

501

The Old House

In the opening lines of The Cuckoo Clock, Mrs Molesworth paints a word-picture of a house so old that Time itself seemed to have stopped.

502

Padgett, MP

Lord Cromer, a former Consul-General of Egypt, expressed his frustration at politicians who set too much store by Foreign Office briefings.

503

The Uganda Railway

When it opened in 1901, the Uganda Railway still wasn’t in Uganda, and Westminster’s MPs were still debating whether or not to build it.

504

The Return of King Charles II

Almost nine years after Oliver Cromwell’s army drove him from England, King Charles II returned at their invitation, and John Evelyn was there to see it.