Richard Cobden told his audience in the London Tavern that however much sabre-rattling was heard in St Petersburg, the average Russian was a man of peace.

Amid the Don Pacifico Affair, William Gladstone told Lord Palmerston that pride in his own country did not excuse bossing others about like a global schoolmaster.

Piqued by the way French and German literati mocked the English, Charles Dickens urged his compatriots to be the better men.

A stranger warns the people of Shorapur that they will come to regret their hospitality.

For Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Christmas was a time to let the dead past bury its dead.

The sounds of an English country Christmas helped Tennyson in his deep mourning for an old friend.