The Copybook
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
How do we get the help of millions of people we don’t know? Only by trade.
For some people, ‘trade’ is synonymous with greed and selfishness but Scottish philosopher Adam Smith (1723-1790) did not think so. However greedy or selfish a businessman may be, if he wants to be successful he must spend at least a little time thinking of others, because no one is going to maintain him in comfort out of pity.
Ralph Neville spoiled David of Scotland’s alliance with France in the Hundred Years’ War
King David II of Scotland tried to help his ally France in the Hundred Years’ War, by knocking boldly on England’s back door. But after he stumbled across Ralph Neville’s defence force in a mist, things went from bad to worse.
The proof of Thomas Ferres’s rags-to-riches tale is quite literally written in stone, but popular lore adds some tantalising and romantic detail.
The rags-to-riches story of Thomas Ferres (d. 1631) has blended fact with a good deal of romantic fiction. But Thomas was a real historical figure, and however he came by his wealth, the way he used it to help the poor and vulnerable is deeply moving.
When Edward III sent the Earl of Salisbury to take her absent husband’s castle, Agnes brushed his attack aside - literally.
In the 14th century, Patrick, ninth Earl of Dunbar, found himself caught between the warring kings of England and Scotland, and survived by frequently changing sides. His wife was made of sterner stuff...
A gifted composer of classical music in the romantic tradition, admired by Stanford, Elgar, and Sullivan.
Daniel Taylor, a medical doctor who was later a coroner and magistrate in the Gambia, had a brief affair with an unmarried woman in London named Alice Martin. The result was a boy she named Samuel Coleridge Taylor, after the famous poet (it was Samuel who hyphenated it as Coleridge-Taylor).
Edward Elgar suffered from depression, and ‘Nimrod’ is his token of thanks to the true friend who supported him through it.
By far the best-known of all Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’ is ‘Nimrod’, frequently played at Remembrance services and funerals. But the story behind it suggests that it was intended as music not of loss or parting, but of enduring friendship, and new hope.