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Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

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55

By Edward Hopper (1882-1967), via Wikimedia Commons. Photo © JJonahJackalope, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Among Old Friends by A. G. Gardiner

‘Alpha of the Plough’ hoped Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not treat his old friends as he treated his favourite books.

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56

By an anonymous artist, via the Wellcome Collection and Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

A Reckless Indifference to Life by George McKinnon Wrong

In eighteenth-century England, the death penalty was the solution to almost any crime.

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57

By James Peale (1749–1831), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Dear Anne Elliot by Anne Thackeray

Anne Thackeray saw something satisfying in the self-control of Anne Elliot.

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58

By Arthur Rackham (1867-1939), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The Three Bears by Robert Southey

The beginning of Robert Southey’s classic fairy tale.

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59

By Dmitry Levitzky (1735-1822), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

A Man Without a Price by Charles Maybury Archer

A Russian princess admitted defeat with a most gracious compliment.

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60

By Nikolai Yaroshenko (1846-1898), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

One Last Look by Edith Nesbit

Edith Nesbit brings down the curtain on ‘The Railway Children’.

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About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 21 NS

May 8 OS

The Spy : In 1910, Constantine Zervakos, a young monk from the Greek island of Paros, found himself charged with espionage.
The Miracle of St John of the Caves : The story of an unexpected escape through the heart of a hill.
The Peninsular War : Napoleon’s six-year-long campaign (1808-1814) to bring Spain and Portugal into his united Europe was frustrated by Arthur Wellesley.
Thick and Thin : Express each of these ideas as a single word.
Break : Explain what each of these common expressions means, and give examples.
Blind Guide : William Wirt recalls an overpowering sermon from a blind man in a little wooden chapel.
It’s All in the Delivery : Aeschines paid tribute to the oratory of his greatest rival — whether he meant to or not.
The Road to Ruin : George Berkeley warned that industry, not financial speculation, was the guarantee of a nation’s wealth.
Signs of Command : Suggest publicly-displayed commands, and say how many of them are sentences.
My Native Notes : Scotsman James Boswell always spoke good English when in England, but he was careful to leave a little Scots in.
Hidden Message : Reveal the hidden message in a letter, and write a coded letter of your own.
The Great and the Good : Daniel Defoe wondered whether goodness was not preferable to greatness.
Statements, Questions and Commands : Choose a word from our list, and then use it in any one of the three basic types of sentence — if possible.
Sentegrams : These sentences, taken from English literature, have been jumbled up like an anagram; see if you can piece them back together.
Good Sense : Rewrite these sentences so that the word ‘unless’ is not used.
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