Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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25

Drake’s Drum

In time of crisis, so the legend goes, Sir Francis Drake will come to our aid again, as once he did against the Spanish Armada.

26

Strong Speech

Ralph Waldo Emerson traced a common thread running throughout English literature.

27

A Time Like the Present

Charles Dickens set his historical novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) in the French Revolution seventy years before, but it was far from the dead past to him.

28

Thus Was the Empire Born

According to Kipling, the British Empire was the last resort of Englishmen who could not stand conditions at home.

29

Character Counts!

Salesman Richard Cobden wondered why his employers left a full warehouse in his hands without any kind of security.

30

The Making of a Great Citizen

Travelling salesman Richard Cobden was still in his twenties when he bought a loss-making mill for a hundred times his annual salary.