Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© LA(Photo) Angie Pearce / MOD, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Open Government Licence v1.0.
Richard Cobden despaired at British statesmen using the peerless Royal Navy merely to strangle trade in other countries.
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© Gary Kramer / US Fish and Wildlife Service, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.
The leader of a wolf-pack makes some sheep an offer they’d better refuse.
© Androsch, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.
An innovative English composer who did not live to fulfil his extraordinary promise.
From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Greek revolutionary Nikitarás gives his ungrateful men a sharp reminder of what really matters.
From Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (1907), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
After being outwitted once too often, Zeus decides to spite Prometheus by ruining the race of men.
© jimmyweee, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
A man steals a mother sparrow from her chick, but St Cuthbert isn’t going to let him get away with it.