The Copybook

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

May 19 ns May 6 os

Blog

Copybook

Think & Speak

Games

KJV Bible

Read short passages similar to those NL Clay collected in his anthologies, to gain a feeling for the language, history and culture of the English-speaking world.

In The Copybook

★

Featured

By Egbert van der Poel, (16621-1664). Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Playing with Fire by William Thomas Stead

William Stead warned his fellow-journalists to take care that their bellicose rhetoric did not end in a real war with Russia.

Read

1

© Ronnie Macdonald, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Road to Ruin by Bishop George Berkeley

George Berkeley warned that industry, not financial speculation, was the guarantee of a nation’s wealth.

Read

2

© Caroline Legg, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.

My Native Notes by James Boswell

Scotsman James Boswell always spoke good English when in England, but he was careful to leave a little Scots in.

Read

3

French folksong, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The Great and the Good by Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe wondered whether goodness was not preferable to greatness.

Read

4

By Karl von Piloty (1826-1886), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The Coronation of Anne Boleyn by J. A. Froude

The weight of the crown that Anne Boleyn wore proved too heavy to bear.

Read

5

Dumbarton Oaks Collection, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Better By Example by Gregory Nazianzen

Gregory urged the persecuted Christians of Nazianzus to be the better men.

Read

6

© David M. Clark, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.

A Proper Game of Cricket

Mary Mitford makes an appeal for the traditional village cricket match.

Read

Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 19 NS

May 6 OS

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.
The Coronation of Anne Boleyn : The weight of the crown that Anne Boleyn wore proved too heavy to bear.
Abstract : Use these words in sentences as a Noun, Verb or Adjective.
Better By Example : Gregory urged the persecuted Christians of Nazianzus to be the better men.
Speed Clues : Help a friend to guess five words in under a minute.
Latest

Clay Lane Home

Search

Blog

The Copybook

Think and Speak

Comfortable Words

Word Games

Featured Authors

Featured Subjects

Search The Copybook

About Clay Lane

Close Menu