The Three Princes of Serendip course, there is a happy ending. The fairy tale "The Three Princes of Serendip" is based upon the life of Persian King Bahram V, who ruled the Sassanid Empire (420–440). Stories of his rule are told in epic poetry of the region (Firdausi's "Shahnameh" of 1010, Nizami's "Haft Paykar" of 1197, Khusrau's Hasht Bihisht of 1302), parts of which are based upon historical facts with embellishments derived from folklore going back hundreds of years to oral traditions in India and "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights". With the exception of the well-known camel story, English translations are very
Horace Walpole and George Montagu (c.1730-1780) (later a Member of Parliament and Private Secretary to Lord North) the "Triumvirate", a schoolboy confederacy. More important were another group of friends dubbed the "Quadruple Alliance": Walpole, Thomas Gray, Richard West and Thomas Ashton. At Cambridge Walpole came under the influence of Conyers Middleton, an unorthodox theologian. Walpole came to accept the sceptical nature of Middleton's attitude to some essential Christian doctrines for the rest of his life, including a hatred of superstition and bigotry. Walpole ceased to reside at Cambridge at the end of 1738 and left without taking a degree. In 1737 Walpole's