Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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1447

The Tanfield Railway

Opened in 1725, the Tanfield Railway is one of the oldest railways still operating anywhere in the world.

Dating from 1725, the Tanfield Railway formed part of an extraordinary network of horse-drawn wagonways in North East England that became the basis of the railway revolution.

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Picture: © Peter McDermott, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1448

The Tragedy of Hamlet

The Prince of Denmark is bound to avenge his father’s murder.

The Danish Prince came home to find his father mysteriously dead, and his uncle ready to marry his mother the Queen, and claim the crown.

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

1449

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Is an old family legend being used as a cover for a very modern murder?

Local superstition about a family legend going back to the English Civil War (1642-1651) blames the death of Charles Baskerville on a giant, ghostly hound, but Sherlock Holmes doesn’t seem to be able to take it seriously.

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Picture: © Derek Harper, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1450

A Nation’s Wealth

It is not politicians and their policies that create wealth, but the hard work and ingenuity of ordinary people.

Richard Cobden MP led the fight in the House of Commons to repeal the Corn Laws, which taxed imports of grain in order to shore up Britain’s agriculture industry. The laws caused the price of bread to rise, making the poor poorer; after the laws were repealed, Britain became the manufacturing centre of the world.

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Picture: © Rover Car Club of Australia, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1451

The Legend of Beowulf

The oldest surviving heroic legend in English begins with a wild creature of the fens that hunts men for prey.

‘Beowulf’ is the oldest surviving epic in English. Set in Scandinavia, it tells of a hero who pays off a debt of honour, by helping a family friend to rid his neighbourhood of a wretched but deadly enemy.

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Picture: © Jonathan Billinger, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.

1452

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

A knight issues a bizarre challenge to King Arthur and his court.

One New Year’s Eve, a knight rode into King Arthur’s hall. He was green, all over, and he made a strange offer.

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