Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
© Andrey Mironov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
When Rhoda, maid to John Mark and his mother, said Peter was standing at the gate, nobody in the house believed her.
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By Jan Siberechts (1627-?1703), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
In 1720, Welsh promoter William Howell opened a pleasure garden at Belsize House, but the pleasures drew the magistrates’ frowns.
© Robin Stott, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
On a countryside ramble in West Sussex, William Cobbett finds the weather turning against him.
© Dennis Jarvis, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.
In 1692, a girl of fourteen was left to defend her father’s manor from angry Iroquois raiders.
© Mike Edwards, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
On the Feast of St John the Baptist, June 24th, 1497, Venetian navigator John Cabot claimed North America for the King of England.
By Richard Caton Woodville (1856-1927), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem about a suicidal cavalry charge during the Battle of Balaclava on October 25th, 1854.