The Listening Grove · Fifty Famous Stories Retold
Chapter 10: Three Men of Gotham
A Charlotte Mason read-aloud lesson. Press play, with the lesson.
What is Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 10, Three Men of Gotham, about?Parent review
Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 10, Three Men of Gotham, is a comic little tale from the old English village famous for its foolish wise men. Two men of Gotham meet on the road: one is coming home from market, the other going to buy sheep. They fall to quarreling over which way the sheep should be driven, though not a single sheep is there between them. A third neighbor comes along carrying a sack of meal, and to show the two how much sense their argument holds, he calmly pours all his meal out into the river. It is a short, funny story that pokes gentle fun at quarreling over nothing at all.
Say what you remember!
Tell what you remember from the last chapter.
What happened in Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 9, The Black Douglas?Have a look
In the last chapter, The Black Douglas, Sir James Douglas, a dark-haired warrior so feared that English mothers hushed their children with his name, set out to win back a castle held by the English. In the dusk he and his men wrapped themselves in dark cloaks and crept toward the walls on hands and knees. A watchman saw the dark shapes below but took them for a farmer's stray cattle. On the wall an Englishwoman sang a song about the dreaded Black Douglas to quiet her child, never guessing he was near. It was a taut, shadowy tale of a daring night attack.
Read the previous lesson: The Black Douglas →Show what you know!
Use your printable Lesson Guide. Fill in the vocabulary you know, then click to check your work and learn some new words today.
What are the difficult or advanced vocabulary words in Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 10, Three Men of Gotham?meal, quarreling, merry, careHave a look
- meal: grain ground into a coarse powder
- quarreling: arguing angrily
- merry: cheerful and full of fun
- care: caution; careful, watchful attention
Locate it on the map!
Use your printable Lesson Guide. Use an atlas and fill in the blank map if you can find the geographic location, then click to check your work.
What important geographic location connects with Fifty Famous Stories Retold Chapter 10, Three Men of Gotham?
- Find the River Soar Bridge (Nottinghamshire, England).
See it on the mapHave a look
This matches the map in your Lesson Guide.
The Books come Alive!
Read or listen to Chapter 10 of Fifty Famous Stories Retold, the Kindred Thicket Enhanced Edition, read by Laura Caldwell.
Read by Laura Caldwell for LibriVox (public domain), professionally adjusted and trimmed by Kindred Thicket.
What do the Teacher’s Notes tell us about Chapter 10 of Fifty Famous Stories Retold?Parent review
This is a Kindred Thicket Enhanced Edition. Baldwin’s 1896 words are read exactly as he wrote them, and we add Teacher’s Notes with historical and literary context.
- About the whole bookFifty Famous Stories Retold gathers real history together with well-loved legends and traditions. These notes tell you, story by story, which is which.
- This chapterGotham is a real village in Nottinghamshire, long famous in folklore for its foolish wise men.
- This chapterThis is a traditional Gotham jest about quarreling over nothing, not a real event.
Memory becomes Action!
Use the Response Resource* to remember and spell tricky names. Choose one way to narrate.
*Materials in the Lesson Guide.
What is the list of names, people, characters, and places that are important in Chapter 10 of Fifty Famous Stories Retold?Hodge, Peter, The Third Man of Gotham, GothamHave a look
- Hodge: A man of Gotham coming home from market, who quarreled with Peter over sheep that did not exist.
- Peter: A man of Gotham going to market to buy sheep, arguing over which way to drive them home.
- The Third Man of Gotham: The neighbor who poured his meal into the river to show the two how much sense their quarrel held.
- Gotham: The English village whose people were famous in old tales for their foolish, comic doings.
Chapter 10 Q & A
This is a Kindred Thicket Enhanced Edition. Baldwin’s stories mingle real history with beloved legend, and here is what to know about this one.
Is the story of the three men of Gotham true?
No, it is a traditional Gotham jest, a comic folk tale rather than a real event. Gotham itself, however, is a real village in Nottinghamshire, in England, long famous in folklore for its foolish wise men. For hundreds of years people have told funny stories about the silly things the men of Gotham were supposed to have done.
Where is Gotham?
Gotham is a real village in Nottinghamshire, in England. It became famous in old English folklore as the home of foolish wise men, and a whole tradition of comic tales grew up around it. This story is one of many. The village is real, but the silly doings in the tales are jests passed down for amusement.
Why did the men quarrel?
Two men of Gotham argued over which way to drive a flock of sheep home from market, one coming from market and one going to it. The joke is that there were no sheep there at all. They quarreled fiercely over something that did not even exist, which is exactly the kind of foolishness the Gotham tales love to poke fun at.
What is the lesson of the story?
The tale gently mocks quarreling over nothing. The third man pours his meal into the river to show the other two that their argument holds just as much sense, which is to say none. For a young learner it makes a lighthearted point: it is foolish to fight bitterly over things that do not matter, or that are not even real.