Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Peter Trimming, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
After getting lost on a woodland walk and spraining his ankle, Samuel Pepys felt amply compensated when he stumbled across a flock of sheep.
Read
© Herdiephoto, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.
Sir Ector, who has searched fruitlessly for his brother for seven years, finds him at last, lying in state in the Joyous Gard.
By Guillaume-Alphonse Harang Cabasson (1814-1884), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Guy de Maupassant reflects on the way that a statesman’s place in history has so often been defined not by deeds or character but by his one-liners.
By Winslow Homer (1836-1910), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The Wind and the Sun compete to see which of them can make an unsuspecting traveller shed his cloak.
© Bradley Wurth, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Those in Power may imagine that a docile and compliant public makes Government run more smoothly, but a society of that kind just won’t move forward.
By James Pollard (1792–1867), via the Tate Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Tom Pinch, who has seen at last what kind of man his apprentice-master Seth Pecksniff is, leaves Salisbury to seek a new life in London.