History

When Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London, he decided to pass the time by writing a history of the world. He had filled about two hundred pages when, one morning, he was interrupted by a loud commotion coming from the prison courtyard. It seems that two prisoners working there had entered into a violent argument. Several blows were struck. Inmates clung to the bars of their cell windows yelling gibes and words of encouragement until the guards pulled the fighting prisoners apart to avoid mayhem. When the prisoners assembled for mess that noon, they talked of nothing but the fight. Sir Walter Raleigh listened attentively to no less than eight different versions of the encounter. No two stories were the same! As soon as he returned to his quarters in the tower, Sir Walter took his manuscript of the history of the world, tore it up, and threw it into the fire.