Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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919

The Fact-Lovers

American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson saw the demand for hard evidence as a peculiarly English trait.

American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) believed that there was no people in Europe so committed to hard, scientific facts than the Victorian English, so unwilling to act until all the evidence is in – a ‘Victorian value’ worth rediscovering today.

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Picture: By James Gillray (1756-1815), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

920

Dead Man Walking

Richard Hannay was finding life in London a little slow until a self-confessed dead man walked into his rooms.

It is May 1914, and Scotsman Richard Hannay has recently arrived in London from South Africa. Hannay is bored, so when a strange American calling himself Franklin P. Scudder slips past him into his flat, he looks forward to being entertained.

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Picture: © Stephen Richards, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

921

Wellington’s Cook

The hero of Waterloo needed all his men to believe in him that day, but none believed in him more than his cook.

Charles Dickens’s ‘Household Words’ for 1851 recounted a summer visit to the site of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, where the Duke of Wellington masterminded the defeat of Emperor Napoleon. Some of the tales told by the guides were of doubtful authenticity, but Dickens liked this one about the Duke’s personal chef.

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

922

The Life-Giving Spring

An obscure officer in the Roman Army gains a dizzying promotion after performing a simple act of kindness.

In the fifth century, about the time when St Patrick was preaching in Ireland, far away in the Roman Empire’s glorious capital of Constantinople an obscure Roman soldier performed a kindness for a blind man which brought the most rapid promotion one could ever imagine.

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Picture: © Alessandro57, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.

923

Serjeant Munday

William Howitt had some advice for Victorian tourists hoping for an authentic experience at the battlefield of Waterloo.

The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 created a tourist attraction for patriotic Englishmen hoping to connect with the Duke of Wellington’s legendary victory. Some tour guides, Charles Dickens cautioned, were inclined to fantasise, but happily an authentic voice was on hand.

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

924

The Consecration of Bishop Cuthbert

Cuthbert would not go to King Ecgfrith, so King Ecgfrith and his entire court had to go to Cuthbert.

Sometime after 676, Cuthbert left his monastery on Lindisfarne and retired to the nearby island of Inner Farne, with thousands of seabirds for company. His quiet retirement was to be short-lived, however, as he discovered following a rare trip down the coast to Coquet Island to counsel Elfled, the King’s sister, about the royal succession.

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Picture: © jmc4 - Church Explorer, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.