Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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685

Samson’s Riddle

The Israelites under Philistia’s rule might have blended with their heathen masters had not Samson kept stirring up trouble.

Samson was one of the Judges, charismatic rulers of Israel before the Kings. In his day, Israel had been worshipping the Philistines’ gods, and their punishment was to fall under Philistia’s government. To make sure that the Israelites were not absorbed by Philistine society, however, God prompted Samson to keep tensions high.

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Picture: From the Walters Art Museum, Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.

686

The Bluebell Line

The Bluebell line in Sussex was the first failing British Railways line to be taken over by volunteers.

There are over a hundred and eighty ‘heritage’ railways and tramways in the United Kingdom, privately owned and run largely by volunteers. Many are routes closed by State-owned British Railways, which enthusiasts have turned into profitable companies in defiance of Authority. The first of these inspirational and quintessentially British adventures was the Bluebell Line in Sussex.

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

687

The Hollow Blade Sword Company

Seventeenth-century German craftsmen came seeking a land of opportunity, and found it in County Durham.

From the sixteenth century onwards, craftsmen and merchants from the European Continent began to settle in England, escaping the regulation, persecution and war that was a daily feature of our neighbours’ politics. By the reign of William and Mary (1688-1694), investors were lining up to help European craftsmen choose Britain as a place to do business.

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Picture: © Robert Graham, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

688

Blind Passions

Hardworking Kichijiro wins Ima’s heart and Kanshichi’s hatred without noticing a thing.

The following tale was told to Gordon Smith as a real-life story, set in seventeenth-century Maizuru. Since 1943, Maizuru has been a naval base in Japan’s Kyoto Prefecture; in 1626, when our tale begins, it was a modest provincial harbour where prosperous merchant Shiwoya Hachiyemon had his business.

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Picture: By Torii Kiyomine (1787-1869). Photo: Brooklyn Museum. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

689

Sir Stamford Raffles

The Founder of Singapore established his city on principles of free people and free trade.

Sir Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) is well-known to anyone who has visited Singapore, the city he founded in 1819. Still held in honour there, he is much less widely remembered back in his own country, but deserves better from us for his pioneering campaigns against slavery in the Far East and for being a champion of free trade in a world dominated by gunboat diplomacy.

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Picture: National Portrait Gallery, via Wikimedia Commons. ? Public domain.. Source.

690

The Battle of Waterloo

The Russians had checked it in the East, but in the West the expansion of Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire was far from over.

In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte wrapped up the short-lived French Republic, crowned himself Emperor of the French, and set about conquering Europe. However, failure to invade Moscow in 1812 was the first sign of vulnerability, and on June 18, 1815, his dream was ended by allied forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington.

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Picture: By David Wilkie (1785-1841), Apsley House and via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain. Source.