Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
By John Singer Sargeant, via the National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: ? Public domain.
Lord Cromer, a former Consul-General of Egypt, expressed his frustration at politicians who set too much store by Foreign Office briefings.
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© TTC dude, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
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.
By William Hogarth (1697-1764), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
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.
By Christian Wilhelm Allers (1857–1915), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
On realising that he had the edge on his rivals, music publisher John Brand moved quickly to secure one of Haydn’s peerless Quartets.
© Yair Aronshtam, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
While the owner is away, the men he has hired to tend his vineyard conspire to seize it for themselves.
By William Brassey Hole (1846-1917), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Agricola, tasked with subduing the people of Britain to Roman colonial government, persuaded them to wear servitude as a badge of refinement.