Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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679

Hugh Hammer-King

Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, was kind to children and animals but Kings merited firmer handling.

Hugh of Avalon (?1135-1200) was a Frenchman from Burgundy who was appointed Abbot of the Charterhouse at Witham in the reign of Henry II. In 1186, he was raised to the See of Lincoln, where he gained a reputation for kindness towards the sick, to children and to animals, but Henry’s son Richard found that his indulgence did not extend to Kings.

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Picture: © Jungpionier, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

680

One Man and his Dog

English explorer Major Edmund Lockyer tries to buy a puppy in Queensland, but ends up paying the owner to keep him.

In September 1825, Edmund Lockyer (1784-1860) led an expedition through the upper reaches of the Brisbane River in what is now Queensland, reporting back to Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor of New South Wales, on the possibilities for agriculture and mining. His contacts with the Aborigines were cordial, as this extract from his Journal confirms.

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Picture: © Newretreads, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.

681

Virtue in Rags and Patches

Charles Dickens explains to the young men of Boston MA what it is that motivates him to write.

In February 1842, Charles Dickens gave a speech in Boston, Massachusetts, before such literary greats as George Bancroft, Washington Allston and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In reply to the Chairman’s toast, Dickens shared with the company of some two hundred guests his thoughts on what drove him to write.

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Picture: By Paul Sandy, via Wikimedia-Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

682

‘To the Heights!’

St Gregory Palamas struggled all his life to stand up for the principle that the Bible means what it says.

St Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), Archbishop of Thessalonica, is reckoned (alongside St Photius and St Mark of Ephesus) one of the three Pillars of Orthodoxy; the second Sunday of Lent is dedicated to him. His life was a unrelenting struggle against slander, brought about by his utter conviction that those passages in the Bible which speak of angels or heavenly lights being seen by men actually mean what they say.

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Picture: Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

683

The Beautiful Side of the Picture

Heathen prince Boris I of Bulgaria (r. 852–889) commissioned St Methodius to paint an impressive scene for his palace walls.

St Methodius (815-885) and his younger brother St Cyril (826-869) were Slavs from Thessalonica who brought the Christian gospel to Eastern Europe. In 864, Boris I, King of the Bulgarians (r. 852-889), abandoned his heathen beliefs and was baptised, and according to 11th-century Byzantine chronicler John Skylitzes, Methodius was behind Boris’s change of heart.

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Picture: © Valeria23, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 Romania.. Source.

684

‘Let the boy earn his spurs!’

At the Battle of Crécy in 1346, the English army was trying out a new military tactic under the command of a sixteen-year-old boy.

The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 led to a dispute over succession between Edward III of England (whose mother Isabella was French royalty) and Philip VI of France. Matters came to a head at Crécy in 1346, but despite all that was riding on it Edward left the battle in the hands of his son Prince Edward, aged sixteen.

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Picture: © marcusmacaulay, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.