Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Mark Kent, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
The mournful owl in her Sussex garden so troubled A. G. Gardiner’s friend that she rarely visited her house in the country.
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© DrStew82, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh’s first attempt to found an English colony in the New World failed, but two years later he was keen to try again.
By Thomas Harriot (?1560-1621), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In 1609, Englishman Thomas Harriot turned his new-fangled telescope on the moon, and sketched for the first time the face of another world.
By Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), from the National Gallery of Art via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Standing on the dockside with Laertes, who is eager to board ship for Paris, Polonius takes a moment to share some fatherly wisdom.
By William Anderson (1757-1837), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
After word came that Harry Demane had been lured aboard a slave-ship, Granville Sharp had only a few hours in which to make sure he did not sail.
© Peter K. Burian, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
The great French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte protested that in calling England ‘a nation of shopkeepers’ he had paid us a compliment.