Clay Lane

Posts in The Copybook credited to ‘Clay Lane’

187
Joseph and Benjamin’s Cup Clay Lane

Joseph thinks that little Benjamin may provide the leverage he needs to force Jacob to come to Egypt.

The sons of Jacob have been to Egypt to buy corn during a famine, little knowing the lordly official in charge of the granaries there was the brother they sold into slavery years before. On returning home, they have discovered the money they thought they had paid to Joseph still in the sacks, and are bemused and frightened.

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188
Joseph and the Land of Promise Clay Lane

Jacob takes his whole family to join Joseph in Egypt, but God promises him that one day they will return to Canaan.

A famine in Canaan has brought Joseph’s brothers to Egypt to buy corn, but they do not recognise the brother they sold into slavery, now the lordly Overseer of Pharaoh’s granaries. As a practical joke, Joseph has sold them some corn but has also planted a silver cup on little Benjamin, and arrested him as a thief.

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189
The Glorious First of June Clay Lane

Admiral Lord Howe battered a French fleet far out in the Atlantic, and helped prevent the spread of bloody revolution.

As soon as power had been secured after the Revolution of 1789, France’s new government began invading neighbouring countries in Europe, and seeking to evangelize the world with revolutionary fervour. Happily, the seed of republicanism fell on very stony ground on this side of the Channel.

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190
Heracles and the Cattle of Geryon Clay Lane

Heracles must get the better of a three-bodied giant and steal his cattle.

Heracles’s Tenth Labour sees him travel to southern Spain, his cousin Eurystheus once again hoping the hero will not return. As with the Amazons the tale is more involved than the earlier labours, since the ancient story-tellers tie our hero into the geography of the Mediterranean.

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191
Arthur MacPherson Clay Lane

MacPherson’s tireless efforts to promote Russian sport earned him a unique Imperial honour, and the enmity of the Communists.

Arthur Davidovitch MacPherson (1870-1919) was born in St Petersburg. He played a key part in establishing both Association football and tennis in his native land, helping Tsar Nicholas II to send a clear signal that Imperial Russia was becoming a modern and liberal society – the last thing the Communists wanted to see.

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192
The Aspden Cup Clay Lane

British factory workers started a historic three-cornered league in the Russian city of St Petersburg.

In the 19th century, Russia’s Tsars began to recognise the link between freedom, trade and prosperity. Merchants from Britain and other European neighbours were encouraged to relocate industries such as shipping, steel and textiles to Imperial Russia’s increasingly open society, and none was more important than Association football.

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