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In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States,
in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Those already prepared, and in use, are writtenin a style entirely beyond the capacities ofyoung children, and too comprehensive in detail.

“History for children ought to be told in theirown simple language, or it fails to interest them;while all that is unfitted for childish ears, orunsuited to a childish understanding, should becarefully omitted; at the same time, it is essentialto avoid making false or imperfect impressionsby an injudicious brevity.”

The Publisher invites the attention of those engaged in tuition,to the following reviews, selected from a large number, recommendatoryof Miss Corner, as an historian for the school-room:

“Miss Corner is an excellent historian for the school-room; shenarrates with fluency and clearness, and in a concise and livelymanner.”—London Spectator.

“It is written with clearness and simplicity, the principalevents are accurately and briefly described, and the whole is welladapted to the comprehension of young persons.”—London Atlas.

“Miss Corner is concise in matter, yet perspicuous in style,delicate in narration, yet accurate in record, comprehensive inreference, yet simple in arrangement.”—Devonport Independent.

“Miss Corner writes intelligently and fluently, with much easeand winning grace.”—London Magazine of Arts and Sciences.

“The beauty of composition throughout the writings of MissCorner is singular and fascinating.”—London Sun.

“This meritorious work is written in a very easy and agreeablestyle, perfectly adapted to the capacities of the young persons forwhom it is intended.”—London Times.

“Miss Corner has acquired a deserved celebrity for the singularly-attractiveand intelligible manner she has in narrating history.”—LondonCritic.

1. Would you not like to read about yourown country, and to know what sort of peoplelived in it a long while ago, and whether theywere any thing like us? Indeed, they were not;neither was England, in ancient times, such asit is now.

2. There were no great cities, no fine buildings,no pleasant gardens, parks, or nice roadsto go from one place to another; but the peoplelived in caves, or in the woods, in clusters ofhuts, which they called towns.

3. The country was not then called England,but Britain; and its inhabitants were calledBritons. They were divided into many tribes;and each tribe had a king or chief, like theNorth American Indians; and these chiefs oftenwent to war with one another.

4. Some of the tribes lived like savages, forthey had no clothes but skins, and did not knowhow to cultivate the land: so they had no bread,but got food to eat by hunting animals in theforests, fishing in the rivers, and some of themby keeping herds of small hardy cattle, andgathering wild roots and acorns, which theyroasted and eat.

5. But all the Britons were not equally uncivilized,for those who dwelt on the south coastsof the island, had learned many useful thingsfrom the Gauls, a people then living in the countrynow called France, who used to come over totrade with them, and with many families ofGauls who had at various times settled amongstthem.

6. They grew corn, brewed ale, made butter[11]and cheese, and a coarse woollen cloth for theirclothing. And they knew how to dye the woolof several colors, for they wore plaid trowsersand tunics, and dark colored woollen mantles, inshape like a large open shawl.

7. Perhaps you would like to know what theyhad to sell to the Gauls; so I will tell you.Britain was famous for large dogs; and therewas plenty of tin; and the South Britons soldalso corn and cattle, and the prisoners whichhad been taken in war, who were bought forslaves; and you will be sorry to hear that manyof the ancient Britons sold their children intoslavery.

8. They carried these goods in carts, drawnby oxen, to the coast of Hampshire, then crossedover to the Isle of Wight, in light boats, madeof wicker, and covered with hides or skins, inshape something like half a walnut shell.

9. The merchants from Gaul met them in theIsle of Wight; and as they brought differentkinds of merchandise to dispose of, they managedtheir business almost entirely withoutmoney, by exchanging one thing for another.

10. The Britons were very clever in makingthings of wicker work, in the form of baskets,shields, coated with hides, boats, and chariots,with flat wooden wheels.

11. These chariots were used in war, andsharp scythes were fixed to the axles of thewheels, which made terrible havoc when driventhrough a body of enemies.

12. But I shall not say much about the warsof the ancient Britons, or their mode of fighting;as there are many things far more pleasantto read of, and more useful to know.

13. At that time, which is about one thousandnine hundred years ago, the country was almostcovered with forests; and when the peoplewanted to build a town, they cleared a space forit by cutting down the trees, and then built anumber of round huts of branches and clay, withhigh pointed roofs, like an extinguisher, coveredwith rushes or reeds.

14. This was called a town; and around it theymade a bank of earth, and a fence of the treesthey had felled; outside the fence, they also duga ditch, to protect themselves and their cattlefrom the sudden attacks of hostile tribes.

15. As to furniture, a few stools or blocks ofwood to sit upon, some wooden bowls and wickerbaskets to hold their food, with a few jars andpans of coarse earthenware, were all the thingsthey used; for they slept on the ground onskins, spread upon dried leaves, and fern, orheath. Their bows and arrows, shields, spears,[13]and other weapons, were hung round the insidesof their huts.

16. The Britons were not quite ignorant ofthe art of working in metals; for there was aclass of men living among them who understoodmany useful arts, and were learned, too, forthose times, although they did not communicatetheir learning to the rest of the people.

17. These men were the Druids, or priests, whohad much more authority than the chiefs, becausethey were so much cleverer; therefore thepeople minded what they said.

18. They made all the laws, and held courtsof justice in the open air, when they must havemade a very venerable appearance, seated in acircle on stones, dressed in long white woollenrobes, with wands in their hands, and longbeards descending below their girdles.

19. The ignorant people believed they weremagicians, for they knew something of astronomy,and of the medicinal qualities of plantsand herbs, with which they made medicines togive the sick, who always thought they werecured by magic.

20. Some of the Druids were bards, that ispoets, and musicians; others taught young mento become Druids; and some of them made a[14]great many useful things out of the metals thatwere found in the mines.

21. You will perhaps wonder where theDruids gained all their knowledge. I cannottell you; but many learned men think that thefirst Druids came from India or Persia, as thereligion they taught was very similar to that ofthe Persians and Hindoos.

22. They did not believe in the true God, buttold the people there were many gods, and thatthey were in trees and rivers, and fire, whichthey worshipped for that reason.

23. They had no churches, but made temples,by forming circles of large stones, of such immensesize that nobody can guess how they werecarried to the places where they stood, for thereare some of them still remaining.

24. They used to hold several religious festivalsin the course of the year, when all the peoplemade holiday, and the bards played on theirharps and sang, and there was plenty of feasting,and merry making; and they used to lightbonfires, and make an illumination by runningabout with torches in their hands, for they believedthat a display of fire was pleasing to theirgods; and so you see that our custom of havingfireworks, and illuminations, and bonfires, ondays of public rejoicing, is as old as the time ofthe ancient Britons.

25. The Druids had a great deal to do onthose days; for they used to go to their templesand say prayers, and sacrifice animals for offeringsto their false gods; and on New Year’sDay, they walked in procession to some old oaktree to cut the mistletoe that grew upon it, forthis was one of their religious ceremonies; andthe oldest Druid went up into the tree to cut theplant, while the rest stood below singing sacredsongs, and holding their robes to catch theboughs as they fell; and crowds of men and womenstood round to see them.

26. But I must make an end of this chapterabout the ancient Britons, and tell you how theRomans came and conquered the country, andmade quite a different place of it.

1. The Romans, about the time of the birth ofChrist, were the richest, the most powerful, andthe cleverest people in the world. Rome was agrand city, and there were many other fine citiesin Italy belonging to the Romans, who knewhow to build handsome houses, and make beautifulgardens, besides being excellent farmers.

2. They had elegant furniture, and pictures,and marble statues; and they were well educated,[17]and wrote a great number of books inLatin, for that was their language, and many ofthose books are used in our schools to this day.

3. They had large armies, and had conquereda great many countries, when Julius Cæsar, agreat Roman General, brought an army to Britain,about fifty years before the birth of ourSaviour, to try to conquer the Britons also; butthousands of British warriors went down to thesea shore, by Dover cliffs, to fight the Romansas soon as they landed; and they took a greatmany war chariots with them, and fought sobravely, that after two or three battles, Cæsaroffered to make peace with them, and go away,if their princes would pay tribute to the Romangovernment; which they consented to do.

4. However, the Romans thought no moreabout Britain for nearly a hundred years, whenthey came again, and went to war in earnestwith the natives, who at length were obliged tosubmit to them; and Britain became a part ofthe Roman Empire, just as India is at this timea part of the British Empire.

5. Now this was a good thing for the Britons,although they did not then think so; for as soonas they left off fighting, the Romans began toteach them all they knew, and to make a much[18]better place of Britain than it had ever beenbefore.

6. As soon as a part of the country was conquered,some great man was sent from Rome togovern it, and to make the people obey theRoman laws.

7. Then other great men came to live here,and brought their families and furniture andplate from Rome; and built fine houses, andplanted gardens, with flowers and fruit trees,and vegetables, that were never seen here before,for they brought the roots and seeds and youngtrees with them.

8. At first, the Roman governors made theBritons pay very heavy taxes; not in money, forthey had none; but they were obliged to give apart of their cattle, and corn, and metals, orany thing else they had; and to work with theRoman soldiers at building, making roads, drainingthe watery lands, and cutting down trees, tomake room for houses and gardens.

9. They did not like this, and one of thetribes, named the Iceni, who lived in that partof Britain which is now called Norfolk and Suffolk,determined to make another effort to drivethe Romans out of the country.

10. You will be surprised to hear that theywere headed by a woman; but there were queens[19]among the Britons as well as kings; and theking of the Iceni being dead, his widow Boadiceagoverned in his stead.

11. She encouraged her people to rebelagainst their new rulers, and led them to battleherself, mounted in a chariot, and armed like awarrior; but the Romans won the battle, and thebrave but unfortunate queen put an end to herown life.

12. After this, there was another long war,which lasted till all the South British tribeswere subdued, and the Roman government establishedall over the country, except the northpart of Scotland.

13. It was lucky for the Britons that a verygood Roman, named Agricola, was made governorabout this time, for he behaved so kindlythat they began to like the Romans, and towish to live as they did, and to know how to doall the clever things they could do.

14. I should tell you that all the Roman soldierswere educated as engineers and builders,surveyors, and cultivators of land, and whennot actually engaged in fighting, they were employeddaily for four hours in some such out-of-doorlabour or occupation; so, when the warwas over, they were set to work to improvethe country, and the Britons had to help them.

15. They made good hard broad roads, pavedwith stones firmly cemented together, and setup mile stones upon them.

16. The Romans had built London during thewar, and given it the name of Augusta, but thehouses were almost all barracks for the soldiersand their families, so that it was not nearly sohandsome as York and Bath, and many othercities that they built in place of the old Britishtowns.

17. The Britons, who had never seen anything better than their own clay huts, must havebeen quite astonished at the fine houses constructedby the Romans; who also built, inevery city, temples, theatres, and public baths,with large rooms for people to meet in, like acoffee house.

18. Then, in each town, was a market placefor people to buy and sell goods, and the Romanstaught the Britons generally to use money,which was more convenient than taking thingsin exchange.

19. The Romans were excellent farmers, as Isaid before; so they shewed the natives how tomanage their land better than they had done,and how to make many useful implements ofhusbandry.

20. By cutting down the forest trees, which[21]they used in building, they obtained more landfor cultivation, and grew so much corn thatthere was more than enough for the people inBritain, so that a great deal was sent every yearto the Roman colonies in Germany.

21. By degrees, the Britons left off their oldhabits, and those above the lowest rank worethe Roman dress, spoke the Roman language,and adopted the manners and customs of theirconquerors, who treated them as friends andequals.

22. There were schools opened in all thetowns, where British and Roman boys were instructedtogether, and the former were allbrought up to serve in the Roman armies; forthere were no more wars among the Britishprinces; who held the same rank as before,but paid tribute to the Roman governor, andwere under his authority, as many of the princesof India are now under the authority of theEnglish Governor General in India.

23. The Britons had to pay a great manytaxes, but they likewise enjoyed many rights,for the Roman laws were much better laws thanthose of the Druids, which were made for barbarians,and not for civilized people, such as theBritons had now become.

24. You will, perhaps, wonder what the[22]Druids were about all this time. The Romansdid not approve of their religion, so they put anend to it very soon, after they came here; butwhat became of the Druids, is not exactlyknown.

25. It is supposed that many of them werekilled by the Romans in the isle of Anglesea,where the chief Druid always resided; andthat all the rest fled to Scotland, or the Isle ofMan.

26. The Romans, however, were themselvesheathens, when they first settled in Britain, andworshipped a number of false gods; but theirgods were different from those of the Druids,and the rites and ceremonies of their religionwere different too.

27. But, in course of time, many of the Romansbecame Christians, and Christianity wastaught in Britain, where the heathen templeswere converted into Christian churches, and theBritons, as well as the Romans, at length learnedto worship the one true God.

28. The Romans had kept possession ofBritain for more than three hundred years, whenit happened that great armies of barbarianswent to fight against Rome, and all the soldierswere sent for, to try to drive them away again;so that this country was left unprotected, for it[23]was the Roman soldiers who had kept enemiesfrom coming here.

29. The Britons hoped they would come backagain, as they did more than once; but affairsgot worse and worse at Rome, so the rulersthere sent word to the British princes, that theydid not wish to keep the island any longer, thereforethe Britons might consider themselves afree people. But was freedom a blessing tothem? I think we shall find it was not.

1. It is now time to tell you something aboutthe Picts and Scots. They were the people ofScotland, and were called by the Romans Caledonians,which meant men of the woods, becausethey were very rude and fierce, and livedamong woods and wilds.

2. They had always been sad enemies to theBritons; but the Romans had kept them away,and the good governor Agricola built a row of[25]strong forts, all across their country, and placedsoldiers in them, to make the Caledonians keepon the other side.

3. However, they sometimes managed to breakthrough; so the Emperor Severus, who was herefrom the year 207 to 211, had a stone wall builtacross that narrow part, where Northumberlandjoins Cumberland, and it was so strong, thatparts of the banks and forts are still remaining.

4. But when all the Roman soldiers weregone, the Picts and Scots began to come again,and robbed the people of their corn and cattle,and stole their children for slaves, and did agreat deal of mischief.

5. Now, if the British princes had agreedamong themselves, and joined together to driveout these terrible foes, things might have goneon very well; but they were foolish enough toquarrel, and go to war with one another; whilesome of the captains, who wanted to be princes,got a number of soldiers to help them, and tookpossession of different places, where they calledthemselves kings, and made the people obeythem.

6. They did not continue the good Romanlaws; nor elect magistrates to keep order in thecities, as used to be done while the Romans werehere; and tillage was neglected, because the[26]farmers were afraid their crops would be destroyed,so that numbers of people died offamine.

7. There were still many Romans in Britain,who were not soldiers but were settled here,most of them having married into British families;and there were a great number of peoplewho were Britons by birth, but whose ancestorshad been Romans; and all these were desirousthat the country should still be governed by theRoman laws, and formed what was called theRoman party.

8. But there was a British party also, thatwanted to do away with the Roman laws altogether,and not to let the Romans have anything to do with ruling the country; so each ofthese parties elected a king.

9. The Britons chose a prince named Vortigern;and the Romans chose one calledAurelius Ambrosius; and there was war betweenthem.

10. Then Vortigern, the British king, thoughtit would be a good thing to get some other bravepeople to join his party, that he might be ableto overcome his rival, as well as to drive awaythe Picts and Scots; so he proposed to someof the British chiefs that they should ask the[27]Saxons to come and help them, and they thoughtit would be a good plan.

11. The Saxons inhabited the north of Germany,and parts of Holland and Denmark,which were then poor and barren countries.

12. Many of their chiefs were pirates, that is,they lived by going out on the seas to fight andplunder; nor did they think it wicked so to do;but, on the contrary, imagined it was brave andnoble.

13. Two of them, Hengist and Horsa, happenedto be cruising near the British coast,when they received a message from Vortigern;who made a bargain with them, and offered togive them the little island of Thanet, if theywould come with all their men, to assist him indriving out the Picts and Scots.

14. Thanet is that part of Kent where Margateis now situated, but was then separated byan arm of the sea, so that it was a small island,standing alone, nearly a mile from the coast.

15. The Saxons were very ready to come, forthey knew that Britain was a pleasant, fertilecountry, and hoped to get some of it for themselves;but they did not let the Britons knowthey thought of doing so.

16. Hengist and Horsa were very brave, andtheir men were well armed, so they soon forced[28]the Picts and Scots to retreat to their own country;and shortly afterwards they went to theIsle of Thanet, which they fortified, and manymore Saxons came there to them.

17. I cannot tell you how the affairs of theBritons went on, or what became of Vortigern;but this I can tell you, that the Saxons soonbegan to quarrel with the people of Kent, andfought with them, and having driven most ofthem away, took the land for themselves, andbegan to live there.

18. The chief who made this conquest, wasEsca, the son of Hengist, who called himselfking of Kent, which, from that time, was asmall Saxon kingdom, for the Britons never wonit back again.

13. Then other chiefs, hearing how Esca hadsucceeded, got together bands of soldiers, andlanded in different parts of the country, to tryto gain kingdoms also; but they did not allcome at once, and their conquests were made bysuch slow degrees, that the wars lasted morethan one hundred and fifty years; so you mayguess how hard the Britons fought in defenceof their liberty.

20. We can learn but very little about thoseunhappy times, for the few histories that were[29]then written were mostly destroyed in these longwars; and though songs were composed by thebards or poets, which the people used to learnand teach to their children, these songs were notall true.

21. They were mostly about the wars, andthe brave British chiefs who defended the countryagainst the Saxons; and if you should everhear anybody speak of king Arthur, and theknights of the Round Table, you may rememberthat he is said to have been one of those chiefs;and, if we may believe the tale, killed four hundredSaxons with his own hand in one battle.

22. Those who made the story about him, saythat the nobles of his court were all so equal inbravery and goodness, that he had a large roundtable made for them to feast at, that no onemight sit above another; so they were calledknights of the Round Table. But let us returnto our history.

23. The Saxons went on making one conquestafter another, till, at last, they were in possessionof the whole country; where very few ofthe natives were left, for most of those who hadnot been killed in the wars, had fled into Gaul,or taken refuge among the Welsh mountains; sofrom this time we shall hear no more of the[30]Britons, but must look upon the Saxons as thepeople of England.

24. I told you how Esca had established thelittle kingdom of Kent. Well, in the course ofthe wars, six more kingdoms had been formed inthe same manner, by different Saxon chiefs, sothat, by the time the conquest was completed,there were seven kingdoms in Britain, namely,Kent, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia, Northumbria,Wessex, and Mercia; and this divisionof the country among seven kings, was calledthe Saxon Heptarchy.

25. The Saxons were not clever people, likethe Romans, but were rough and ignorant, andcared for nothing but fighting; so while the warswere going on, they ruined and destroyed all thebeautiful and useful works that had been done inthe Roman times; for they did not understandtheir value, and only thought it was a fine thingto destroy all that belonged to their enemies.

26. But the works of the Romans were verystrong; for even now, when workmen are diggingin London, and different parts of the country,they sometimes find Roman walls, and pavements,and foundations of houses, that showwhat good architects the Romans were.

27. When the Saxons had got possession ofthe whole country, you may perhaps suppose[31]they would be quiet and contented, but this wasnot the case; for as long as there were separatekingdoms, they were continually at war witheach other, and the principal cause of disagreementwas, that, among the kings, there wasalways one called the Bretwalda, or ruler ofBritain, who had some degree of authority overthe rest; but as any one of them might be raisedto this dignity, it was a constant source of quarrelsand warfare, until, at length, the weakerkingdoms were overcome by the more powerfulones, and there was but one king over the wholecountry, which then took the name of Anglelandor England, from a particular tribe of peoplecalled the Angles, who came here in great numberswith the Saxons.

28. I dare say you did not know before howBritain came to be called England; and youwould be very much amused to hear how manyof the places in it, came by their present names.

29. We will take for example Norfolk andSuffolk, which, with Cambridge, formed thekingdom of East Anglia, and was conquered bythe Angles. Now these Angles consisted of twotribes, who divided their conquest between them,one tribe settling in the north part, the other inthe south; so that they were called North folk,[32]and South folk, and thus came the names of thetwo counties.

1. I am now going to tell you what sort ofpeople the Saxons were, and how they livedafter they were quite settled in England; foryou ought to know all about them, as they wereour own ancestors, and made a great many of[34]our laws; and their language was English too,although it has so much altered that you wouldhardly know it for the same.

2. The Saxons were not Christians when theyfirst came here; but their religion was differentfrom that of both the Druids and heathen Romans;for they worshipped great images ofstone or wood, that they made themselves, andcalled gods; and from the names of their godsand goddesses, our names of the days of theweek are derived.

3. At length, the bishop of Rome, who wascalled the Pope, sent some good men to persuadethe Saxons to leave off praying to wooden idols,and to worship the true God.

4. These missionaries first went to Ethelbert,king of Kent, who was then Bretwalda, andreasoned with him, so that he saw how wronghe had been, and not only became a Christianhimself, but let the missionaries go and preachamong the people, who were baptized in greatnumbers, and taught to believe in God andJesus Christ.

5. The missionaries were all priests or monks;and some of them lived together in great housescalled monasteries, which they built upon landsgiven them by the kings and nobles, on whichthey also raised corn, and fed sheep and cattle.

6. They had brought from Rome the knowledgeof many useful arts, which they taught tothe people, who thus learned to be smiths andcarpenters, and to make a variety of things outof metal, wood and leather, which the Saxonsdid not know how to make before.

7. Then the priests could read and write,which was more than the nobles, or even thekings could do; and they used to write books,and ornament the pages with beautiful borders,and miniature paintings; and the books, thusadorned, are called illuminated manuscripts.

8. Still the Saxons, or English, as I shallhenceforth call them, were very rough and ignorantas compared with the Romans.

9. Their churches and houses, and even thepalaces of the kings, were rude wooden buildings,and the cottages of the poor people wereno better than the huts of the ancient Britons.

10. The common people were almost all employedin cultivating the land, and lived in villageson the different estates to which theybelonged; for the Saxon landlords were not onlythe owners of the land, but of the people also;who were not at liberty, as they are now, to gowhere they pleased; neither could they buyland for themselves, nor have any property but[36]what their lords chose. I will tell you how itwas.

11. The Saxon lords had divided all the landamongst themselves, and had brought from theirown countries thousands of ceorls, or poorpeople, dependent on them, to be their labourers.

12. Each family of ceorls was allowed to havea cottage, with a few acres of land, and to lettheir cattle or sheep graze on the commons, forwhich, instead of paying rent, they worked acertain number of days in each year for theirlord, and, besides, gave him a stated portion ofthose things their little farms produced; so thatwhenever they killed a pig, they carried someof it to the great house; and the same withtheir fowls, eggs, honey, milk and butter; andthus the chief’s family was well supplied withprovisions by his tenants, some of whom tookcare of his sheep and herds, cultivated his fields,and got in his harvests.

13. Then there were always some amongthem who had learned useful trades, and thusthey did all the kinds of work their masterswanted.

14. Yet, with all this, the poor ceorls generallyhad enough for themselves, and some tospare, which they sold at the markets, and thuswere able to save a little money.

15. Their cottages were round huts, made ofthe rough branches of trees, coated with clay,and thatched with straw. They had neitherwindows nor chimneys; but a hole was made inthe roof to let out the smoke from the wood fire,kindled on a hearth in the middle of the room;and they used to bake their barley-cakes, whichserved them for bread, on these hearths, withoutany oven.

16. They made a coarse kind of cloth for clothingfrom the wool of their sheep, a part of whichwas also given to their lord, and was used toclothe the servants of his household, for the richpeople got a finer cloth for themselves, whichwas brought from other countries.

17. Great men usually wore white cloth tunicsthat reached to the knee, with broad colouredborders, and belts round the waist. They hadshort cloaks, linen drawers and black leathershoes, with coloured bands crossed on their legs,instead of stockings. The common people woretunics of coarse dark cloth, and shoes, but nocovering on the legs.

18. But I must tell you something more aboutthese country folks, who, at the time, formedthe great mass of the English population. Theywere, strictly speaking, in bondage, for theycould not leave the place where they were born,[38]nor the master they belonged to, unless he gavethem their freedom; they were obliged to serveas soldiers in war time, and when the land wastransferred to a new lord, the people were transferredwith it.

19. All they had might at any time be takenfrom them, and their sons and daughters couldnot marry, without consent of their lord.

20. Yet these people considered themselvesfree, because they could not be sold like theslaves; for I ought to tell you there was a lowerclass of bondmen, called thralls, and there wereregular slave markets where they were boughtand sold.

21. A landowner could sell a thrall just as hecould sell an ox; but he could not sell a vassaltenant, or, as they were called in the Saxontimes, a ceorl, or churl, without the estate towhich he belonged. The thralls were employedto do the hardest and meanest work, and hadnothing of their own.

22. The houses of the great men were verylike large barns, and each house stood on anopen space of ground, enclosed by a wall ofearth and a ditch, within which there werestacks of corn, sheds for the horses and cattle,and huts for the thralls to sleep in.

23. The principal room was a great hall,[39]strewed with rushes, and furnished with longoak tables and benches.

24. The windows were square holes crossedwith thin laths, called lattices, and the fire-placewas a stone hearth in the middle of the earthenfloor, on which they used to burn great logsof wood, and let the smoke go out at a hole inthe door.

25. But the great people often had merrydoings in these halls, for they were fond offeasting, and used to sit at the long woodentables, without table cloths, and eat out ofwooden platters or trenchers with their fingers.

26. Boiled meats and fish, usually salted,were put on the table in great wooden dishes,but roast meats were brought in on the spits onwhich they were cooked, and handed round bythe thralls, to the company, who helped themselveswith knives which they carried at theirgirdles.

27. There was plenty of ale, and among therichest, wine also, which they drank out of horncups; and when the meats were taken away,they used to drink and sing, and play on theharp, and often had tumblers, jugglers, andminstrels to amuse them.

28. Then the visitors used to lie down on thefloor to sleep, covered with their cloaks; for[40]very few people had bedsteads, and the onlybeds were a kind of large bags, or bed-ticks,filled with straw, and blocks of wood for pillows.

29. Such were the rough manners of ourSaxon forefathers, who were, however, in somerespects a good sort of people, and you will besorry for them by and by, when you read howthe Normans came, and took away their lands,and made slaves of them. But I must first tellyou what happened in the Saxon times, after theHeptarchy was broken up, and there was onlyone king of England.

1. It was nearly 380 years after the firstSaxons came here with their two pirate chiefs,Hengist and Horsa, that England began to haveonly one king.

2. There were still some other princes, whobore that title, but they had so little power, that[42]they could hardly be called kings; so that abrave prince, named Egbert, who conquered thelast kingdom of the Heptarchy, is usually calledthe first king of England.

3. The civil wars were thus, for a time, ended;but it seemed as if the English were never tobe long at peace, for they now had some terribleenemies to contend with, who kept thecountry in constant alarm.

4. These were the Danes who came from Denmark,Norway, and Sweden, and were almostthe same people as the Saxons; for they spokethe same language, followed the same customs,and lived by piracy, as the Saxons did in formertimes.

5. I have not room to tell you of half themischief they did in England. Sometimes theywould land suddenly from their boats in thenight, when the affrighted people were awakenedby a cry of, “the Danes! the Danes!” and,starting up, perhaps, beheld their villages inflames; and, as they ran in terror from theircottages, were either killed or dragged away tothe pirate vessels, with the cattle and any thingelse that could be found, and made slaves.

6. Egbert had fought a battle with them inCornwall, and forced them to depart; but, duringthe reign of Ethelwulf, the next king, and three[43]of his sons, they not only attacked the townsand villages on the sea-coast, but used to seizethe horses and ride about the country in searchof plunder.

7. They broke into the monasteries, where thepeople often put their money and jewels forsafety; and if the inmates made any resistancethey would set the building on fire.

8. Then they set up fortified camps, in manyplaces; that is, a number of tents, arranged together,like a town surrounded with a wall andditch; and thus a great many of the Danesestablished themselves in the country, and conqueredall the northern part of it. This was thesad state of affairs when Alfred the Great cameto the throne.

9. I dare say you have heard of this goodprince, who was the youngest and favorite sonof king Ethelwulf, for he was the cleverest andbest. His mother, being an accomplished lady,tried to teach all her sons to read; but none ofthem would learn except Alfred, who afterwardswent to Rome to study Latin, and learn to write,so that he was a good scholar for those times.

10. His three brothers had all reigned inturn, and were all dead by the time he wastwenty-two years old, therefore he was then heirto the crown; but, instead of being able to think[44]about the best way of governing the country, hewas obliged to get together as many soldiers as hecould, and go out with them to fight the Danes.

11. There was no regular army then, as thereis now; but, when the king wanted soldiers, hesent to all the noblemen and landholders in thekingdom, who were obliged to come themselvesand bring so many men with them, according tothe size of their estates, some on horseback,some on foot, and all well armed.

12. You must remember that people could notbuy land then for money, nor have it for payingrent; but large estates were given to the thanesand nobles by the king, on condition that theyshould perform certain services for him; and youhave already seen how the vassals of the noblesheld their little farms on similar terms.

13. This was called the feudal system, whichmeans, holding land for services instead of rent;and the person holding the land was called thevassal of him to whom it belonged, whether richor poor; so the nobles were the vassals of theking, and the ceorls were the vassals of thenobles.

14. I think you now understand what thefeudal system was, therefore I shall proceed withthe history of Alfred the Great.

15. The war had gone on for several years,[45]and the king was so unfortunate that, at last, hewas obliged to hide himself in a woody marshin Somersetshire, called the Isle of Athelney,because it was surrounded by bogs and rivers.

16. The Danes were then in pursuit of him;and, one time, fearing to be taken prisoner, hegot some man to let him keep his cows, or pigs,I do not know which; so that, if the Danes happenedto see him, they might not guess who hewas.

17. I dare say, you have heard the story ofthis peasant’s wife scolding Alfred one day, forletting some cakes burn, which she had left tobake on the hearth, whilst she was out; but shedid not know that he was the king, or, of course,she would not have taken that liberty.

18. At last, Alfred heard there were manychiefs and noblemen, with their vassals, readyto join him again; so he determined to tryanother battle, but thought it would be prudentfirst to learn what was the real strength ofthe enemy.

19. Now the Danes, like the Saxons, were fondof good cheer, and liked to have songs andmusic to make them merry while they were feasting;and this put it into Alfred’s head to go intotheir camp disguised as a harper, for he couldplay the harp and sing very well.

20. So away he went, with his harp at hisback, and, when he came there, the Danishchiefs had him called into their tents, and madehim sit down and play to them, and gave himplenty to eat and drink.

21. Then he heard them talking about kingAlfred, and saying, they supposed he was dead,as he did not come to fight them, so they needthink of nothing but enjoying themselves; andthus he discovered they were not prepared for abattle, and were almost sure to be defeated, iftaken by surprise.

22. He, therefore, left the camp as soon as hecould, and sent a message to his friends to meethim in Selwood Forest, also in Somersetshire,with all the men they could muster; and, whenthey were all come, he put himself at theirhead, and, marching suddenly down upon theDanes, fought and won a great battle at Ethandune,a place in Gloucestershire, now calledWoeful Danes’ Bottom, from the terrible slaughterof the Danes there.

23. But there were a great many Danes inEngland who had not been engaged in this battle,and who had possession of almost all thenorthern part of the country; so the king wiselyconsidered that it would be much better to inducethem to settle peaceably in the country as[47]friends, rather than prolong those dreadful wars,which had already caused so much misery.

24. He therefore proposed to the Danishchief that, if he would promise to keep at peace,he should have a wide tract of country, whichhad been desolated by these wars, all along theeast coast, from the river Tweed to the riverThames, for himself and his people, to be calledthe Dane land; so Guthrun, the Danish chief,accepted the offer, and parcelled the land outamongst his followers, who settled there withtheir vassals, and lived the same manner as theSaxons.

25. You may think how glad the people werethat the wars were over, and the king was veryglad too, for he now had time to do what wasmore pleasant to him than fighting, which was,to do all the good he could for the country. Hethought the best way to defend it against itsenemies was to have good ships to keep themfrom landing; but, as the English did not knowmuch about ship-building, he sent for men fromItaly to teach them, and also had models ofships brought that they might see how they wereconstructed, and men were taught to managethem, so that England, for the first time, had anavy.

26. These ships were called galleys, and were[48]worked both with oars and sails; they were twiceas long as those of the Danes, and stood higherout of the water.

27. While some workmen were making ships,others were employed in rebuilding of the townsand villages that had been burned down by theDanes; and the king ordained that there shouldbe schools in different parts of the kingdom,where noblemen’s sons might be educated, for hehad found the benefit of learning himself, andthought it a sad thing that all the great menshould be so ignorant as they were.

28. You may, perhaps, wonder why so good aman as Alfred should only think of having thegreat people taught to read; but reading wouldhave been of no use to the common people, asthe art of printing was unknown, and there wereno books but those written by the monks ornuns, which were so expensive that none butvery rich people could afford to have even twoor three of them.

29. The principal school founded by kingAlfred was at Oxford, which was then a small,poor place, with a monastery, and a few meanwooden houses for the scholars to live in, verydifferent from the present grand university, andthe masters, who were all churchmen, and calledlearned clerks, resided in the monastery.

30. Alfred, with the help of some good and[49]clever men, whom he consulted in every thing,made some very wise laws, and obliged the peopleto obey them, by having courts of justice heldin the principal cities, regularly once a month;for nobody had thought much about law orjustice either, while the wars were going on, sothat there was need of some very strict regulationsto restore good order, without which therecan be neither happiness nor comfort any where.

31. Under the good government of Alfred theGreat, England enjoyed more peace and prosperitythan it had known since the days of theRomans; and as his son and grandson both endeavouredto follow his example, the influenceof his wisdom was felt long after his death, whichhappened when he was about fifty years old, inthe year 900.

1. Alfred was succeeded by his son Edward,who was a very good king, though not so cleveras his father. He built walls round a great[51]many of the towns, to defend them in case theDanes should come again; for, although so manyof them were living quietly in the country, thosewho did not live here were still enemies, and theresident Danes were always ready to join theircountrymen.

2. But they could not do much mischief whileEdward was king, or in the reign of his braveson Athelstan, who was almost as great a princeas Alfred himself.

3. He knew that commerce was one of thebest things in the world for any country, so hehad more ships built, and sent them to trade withforeign countries; and he said that, when anyman had made three voyages in a vessel of hisown, he should be made a Thane; which was thesame as knighting a gentleman in these days.

4. There were no stores in England at thistime, but the people bought every thing theywanted at markets and fairs; and they used tosalt a great deal of their meat and fish, that itmight keep a long time.

5. In buying and selling, they sometimes usedslaves and cattle, instead of money, a man slavebeing worth a pound of silver, and an ox wortha quarter of a pound, which was called five shillings,as a shilling was the twentieth part of apound in weight.

6. If a nobleman, therefore, wanted to buyany thing of two pounds value, he could payfor it with two of his thralls, or eight oxen, andthe seller was obliged to take them; but hecould sell them again directly; for I am sorryto say there were slave markets in England tillsome time after the Norman Conquest.

7. Athelstan had a good deal of fighting todo, for the people of the Daneland revolted, andhe was obliged to lead his soldiers into their territory,to bring them to order; and then he hadto march against Howel, the Prince of Wales,who was defeated in battle, when Athelstannobly gave him back his dominions, saying,“There was more glory in making a king thanin dethroning one.”

8. I shall not mention all the kings thatreigned after Athelstan, because there weremany of them who did nothing that is worthtelling about; but I must speak of a greatchurchman, named Dunstan, who was Archbishopof Canterbury, and, for several reigns,ruled the whole country, for the kings andnobles were obliged to do just as he pleased.

9. He was a very clever man, and so good aworker in metals that he made jewellery andbells, and gave them to some of the churches,which was considered an act of piety; for it was[53]about this time that bells began to be used inEngland, and they were highly valued.

10. Dunstan persuaded the kings and richnoblemen, to rebuild the monasteries that hadbeen plundered and destroyed by the Danes, andendow them with lands; so that, at last, nearlyone-third of all the landed property in the kingdombelonged to the clergy.

11. There was a king named Edgar, the fourthafter Athelstan, who did many useful things forthe country; and, among others, he thought ofa plan to destroy the wolves, which were so numerousin all the forests, that the people werein constant alarm for the safety of their sheep,and even of their little children.

12. Edgar, therefore, ordered that each ofthe princes of Wales, who had to pay tribute tothe kings of England, should send, instead ofmoney, three hundred wolves’ heads every year;so they were obliged to employ huntsmen to gointo the woods to kill those dangerous animals,which were so generally destroyed in a fewyears that they have seldom been found in Englandever since.

13. Then Edgar kept the Danes away byhaving as many as three hundred and sixtyvessels always ready for service; but, when heand Dunstan were dead the navy was neglected;[54]and the country was again overrun with thoseterrible enemies, who fought with the Englishevery where, robbed them of their property,took their houses for themselves, and acted justas if they were the conquerors and lords of theland.

14. At last, the Danish king, Sweyn, landedwith a great army, and began a dreadful warwith Ethelred, who was then king of England,that lasted about four years, in the course ofwhich he and Ethelred both died; but the warwas continued by Canute, the son of Sweyn, andwith such success, that, in the end, he wascrowned king of England.

15. It was lucky for the English that Canutehappened to be a wise and good prince; for hesaid to himself, “As I am now king of thesepeople, I will behave kindly to them, that theymay love me, and then we shall go on comfortablytogether.” So he began to repair themischief that had been done in the late wars,by setting people to work to rebuild the townsthat had been destroyed; which was soon donein those days, when the houses were so roughlybuilt, and only of wood.

16. He also made a law that the Danes shouldnot rob and insult the English, as they had beenin the habit of doing; and ordered that they[55]should obey the other laws of the country;which he did not alter in the least; neither didhe interfere with the estates of the nobles, norwith their rights over their vassals; and he consultedwith the Witanagemote, or Parliament, inall affairs of importance.

17. This Parliament was composed of thegreat nobles and the bishops, so that it was likeour House of Lords; and, when the king madea new law, the people were not obliged to obey it,until it had been approved by the Witanagemote.

18. As long as Canute reigned, which wasnineteen years, there were peace and plenty, andthe poor people were much happier than they hadbeen for a long time, for they could stay at homeand mind their farms, or work at their trades,without being called away continually to fightthe Danes.

19. The king, it is true, kept a large armyof Danish soldiers, and the people had to payheavy taxes to support them; but this wasbetter than seeing them come as enemies intothe towns and villages to destroy or take everything.

20. After the death of Canute, his two sonsreigned in succession, but they were neither very[56]good nor very clever, and both died within sixyears.

21. All this while there was a Saxon prince,named Edward, son of king Ethelred, living atthe court of the Duke of Normandy, who washis uncle, and had afforded him shelter and protectionwhilst his enemies were ruling in England.

22. He was now restored to the throne, andthe English people thought themselves happy inhaving again a king of their own nation; butthey little foresaw the terrible consequences ofplacing over them one who had formed so closea connection with the Normans.

23. Edward was attached to the Normans, forthey had been kind to him in his misfortunes;but it was neither wise nor just to bring a greatnumber of them to his court, and set them upabove his own countrymen, by giving them thehighest appointments in the government, which,of course, gave offence to the English noblemen.

24. Edward was called the Confessor, becausehe spent much of his time in devotion. Herebuilt Westminster Abbey, which was foundedduring the Heptarchy; but this building waspulled down about 160 years afterwards, byHenry the Third, who erected the present edificein its place.

25. But I was going to tell you what happenedin consequence of the king’s attachment to theNormans. His uncle was dead, and his cousinWilliam, a bold spirited prince, who was nowDuke of Normandy, came over to England tovisit the king, and see what sort of a place itwas.

26. He brought a great many noblemen withhim, and it seems they all liked the country somuch that the Duke thought he should like tobe its king, and his friends thought they shouldlike to get good estates here; so king Edwardwas persuaded to make a will, or give his promise,that, when he died, his cousin William,who was more than twenty years younger thanhimself, should be his successor. The Englishlords knew nothing about this at the time, butthey had reason enough to know it afterwards,as you will presently find.

27. Edward the Confessor died at the beginningof the year 1066, when Harold, his wife’sbrother, a brave and popular nobleman, tookpossession of the throne, with the consent ofthe chief nobles and clergy.

1. As soon as the Duke of Normandy knewthat Edward the Confessor was dead, and Haroldmade king, he called his friends together, andpromised to bestow lands and honors in Englandon all who would assist him to win the crown;which, he said, was his by right, and that Haroldwas an usurper.

2. Now this is a doubtful question; for,although the king could appoint a successor, ifhe thought proper; yet it was necessary that hischoice should have the approval of the Witenagemote,which had not been given in this case;so the English said that, notwithstanding kingEdward’s will, the Duke of Normandy had noright to the throne.

3. I cannot pretend to say which was right;but, as it is of more consequence to know howthe dispute ended, we will proceed to the historyof the conquest.

4. The Normans were great warriors; so thateven many of the clergy would sometimes puton armour under their robes, and lead their ownvassals to battle; and they had as much interestin the dispute as the nobles, for they expectedto come into possession of some of the Bishops’sees and rich abbey lands, provided Duke Williamshould succeed in his enterprise.

5. While all this was going on in Normandy,Harold’s brother, Tosti, had raised a rebellionin the north of England, and was joined by theking of Norway, who landed with an army inYorkshire: so Harold had to go and fight withthem, and there was a great battle at StamfordBridge, where the king gained a completevictory.

6. Two or three days after this he was enjoyinghimself at a great feast, at York, when newswas brought to him that the Normans had landedin Sussex, where they were doing all manner ofmischief, driving the people away from thetowns and villages, and taking every thing theycould lay their hands on.

7. The king made all the haste he could toget his soldiers together, and began his marchto oppose the invaders, but it took nearly a fortnightto get to where they were; and all thattime the invaders were making dreadful havocfor miles round their camp, so that the terrifiedpeople fled to the woods, or shut themselves upin the churches, for fear of being killed.

8. At last, Harold came, and a battle wasfought near Hastings, on the 14th of October,1066, where the king and two of his brothers,with a great many of the English nobles, wereslain, and the conqueror from that day lookedupon himself as the master of the country.

9. But the English had seen enough of theNormans to know that they should be very badlytreated if they once suffered a Norman governmentto be established, so they resolved to dotheir utmost to prevent it, and thus the Normanshad to fight for every town, and castle, before itwas given up to them.

10. William had marched to London, and laidsiege to it, soon after the battle of Hastings,and the people having submitted to him, he wascrowned in Westminster Abbey, on Christmasday.

11. A few of the English nobles went to offertheir submission, that is, they agreed to obeyhim as their king, since he had promised that allwho did so should be permitted to enjoy theirrank and property undisturbed.

12. But it was only a few who trusted to thesepromises, and they were deceived in the end, forit is almost certain that the Conqueror intended,from the first, to take every thing from the Englishto give to the Normans.

13. I mean the English lords; for he meantto make the common people remain on the estatesto which they belonged, that the new mastersmight have vassals and slaves to cultivate theirlands.

14. Now the poor people did not like this anymore than the nobles themselves, so they foughtbravely for their masters in many places; but itwas all to no purpose; for, at the end of sevenyears, the Normans were in possession of all theland in the country, and most of its former lordshad either been killed, or were reduced to such[63]a state of poverty and wretchedness that it ismelancholy to think of.

15. I will not attempt to describe the sufferingsof the people during that long period, butyou may imagine how very miserable they musthave been, for the Normans got the better ofthem all over the country, and took delight inrobbing and insulting their unhappy victims.

16. I told you that the design of the Conquerorwas to take all the land, and divide itamong his followers, except what he chose tokeep for himself, as crown lands.

17. Now there were many Saxon ladies whopossessed estates, in consequence of their fathersor brothers having been killed at the battle ofHastings; and most of these heiresses were compelled,against their will, to marry Normanlords, who thus gained lands as well as brides.

18. Then the estates of all those who had notsubmitted to the king were declared to be forfeited,and William gave them to the Normans,or, more properly speaking, he gave the Baronsleave to take them by force; so the English lordshad to fight for their houses and lands, and manywere killed, and many fled to other countries.

19. The rustics, on these forfeited estates,would fight for their lord to the last; but, whenhe was forced to yield, they had no choice but[64]to submit to the new lord, or to see their cottagesset on fire, and their wives and childrenperhaps murdered before their eyes.

20. Some of the English nobles hid in theforests with their families, and as many oftheir vassals as would go with them, where theymade habitations, and supported themselves byrobbery and hunting; and this was the originof the numerous bands of robbers that, in aftertimes, were the terror of the country.

21. The famous Robin Hood, who lived inthe reign of Richard the First, is supposed tohave been a descendant of one of these unfortunateEnglish nobles.

22. The Bishops’ sees and abbey lands wereseized in the same violent manner, as the estatesof the nobles, and given to the Norman clergy;and many of the monasteries, after being brokenopen and plundered, were taken for the abodeof monks who came over from Normandy ingreat numbers.

23. The Normans built a great many castlesin different parts of the country; and, if theywanted to build one on a spot where there happenedto be houses, they thought nothing ofturning out the inhabitants, and pulling downthe houses, to make room: and they pressed thepoor people, both men and women, to do all the[65]labour, without pay, and treated them verycruelly besides; for, if they did not work hardenough, these unfeeling taskmasters would urgethem on with blows.

24. Then wherever the Norman soldiers stayed,they went and lived in the houses of the people,took what they pleased, and made the familywait upon them.

25. The king, himself, cruelly laid waste differentparts of the country in revenge for theopposition made to his progress by some of theEnglish earls, especially in the north, where,about three years after the battle of Hastings,such a scene of desolation was made by fire andsword, that, from York to Durham, the houses,the people, and all signs of cultivation, wereutterly destroyed.

26. The last stand made against the Normanswas in a little island, formed by bogs and lakes,in Cambridgeshire, and still called the Isle ofEly. There, a brave chief, named Hereward,set up a fortified camp, and was joined by othernoblemen, and many of their dependents, who,with the ceorls, or tenants, belonging to theAbbey of Ely, made quite an army.

27. It was a secure place of refuge, becausethe only safe paths into the island were unknownto the Normans, who would most likely[66]have been lost in the bogs, if they had venturedto approach.

28. But they had built a castle close by, atCam Bridge, and they brought boats and triedto make causeways by which they might get intothe camp of refuge; but the English would goout in bands at night and destroy all that theirenemies had done, and kept constantly on thewatch for straggling parties, who were oftenattacked unawares, and many of them killed,while the English could always retreat to theircamp, where they were safe from pursuit.

29. At last the Normans established a blockadeof boats round the island, and provisionsbegan to get scarce within it; so two or threebad selfish men, who lived in the abbey, went tothe Normans at Cam Bridge, and said, theywould show them the way into the island, ifthey would promise not to meddle with theabbey.

30. These men led the Normans secretly intothe island, and a terrible battle was fought, inwhich almost all the English were killed.

31. When Hereward saw it was useless tofight any longer, he made his escape, and wentto his own castle of Bourn, in Lincolnshire;where I believe, he afterwards made peace withthe king, and was allowed to keep his estate.

32. I have given you a long history of theConquest, because it was the most importantevent that ever occurred in the history ofEngland, and was the last sudden and violentchange made in this country by foreign invasion.

1. The Normans were a cleverer people thanthe English, and lived in a superior manner.They were better acquainted with the arts ofagriculture and architecture, and they knew agreat deal more about useful gardening; for allthe convents in Normandy had good gardens,planted with vegetables and herbs; and the[69]monks brought over plenty of seeds and roots tosow or plant in gardens here.

2. The Normans built stone castles, andstrong houses of timber, with upper stories, sothat their dwellings, in general, were higher andmore substantial than those of the Saxons; andone great improvement was that they had chimneys;but their furniture was as rough andclumsy as the furniture used in the Saxontimes, and their way of living was almost thesame, except that they did not care so muchabout feasting, but preferred spending theirtime in hunting, hawking, and fighting in sport,for pastime.

3. I should here tell you that William theConqueror made the first game laws, and verysevere they were, and very hard upon the poorpeople, who used to be at liberty to kill game inthe forests; but, after these new laws, theydared not so much as take even a hare or partridgein their own fields.

4. It was not only the English, who were forbiddento hunt on the royal domains, but theNormans also, unless they had special leave todo so; and, if any one was bold enough to killa deer in the king’s forests, he was punished inthe most cruel manner, by having his eyes putout, or his hands cut off.

5. The king’s palace was at Winchester, andhe wanted to have a forest close by for hunting,so he ordered that all the towns and villagesshould be pulled down for about thirty miles, andthe land planted with trees; and, what wasworse, he gave nothing to the poor people forturning them out of their homes; and this isstill called the New Forest.

6. In imitation of this bad example, many ofthe nobles began to make large parks, enclosedwith walls to keep deer, and they cared no morethan William had done about taking away thefields and pasture lands of the poor cottagers,who dared not complain, and were even obligedto run to their doors with refreshments to offerto the Norman lords and their followers whenthey were out hunting, although they oftensaw them riding over their corn, and breakingthrough their hedges.

7. It was not till after several reigns that thedescendants of the Norman Conquerors beganto consider themselves Englishmen, and to treattheir vassals more like fellow countrymen.

8. The first hundred years after the conquestis therefore usually called the Norman period,and includes the reigns of William the Conqueror,William Rufus, Henry the First, andStephen.

9. I have already told you that the Feudalsystem was brought into England by the Saxons,and I explained what it was; but I must nowmention that this system was carried muchfarther by the Normans, that is, their feudallaws were stricter, and the nobles themselveswere bound by them as well as the commonpeople.

10. I should wish you to understand this asclearly as possible, because the manners andcustoms of the age were governed entirely bythose laws.

11. First, then, the king was lord of the land,and kept a great portion of it for himself, whichmade what were called crown lands; and all thepeople, who lived on the crown lands, whether inburgh, town, or country, were his tenants, andpaid him rent, or taxes, both in money and produce,besides being obliged to furnish him withsoldiers at their own expense.

12. For example, if a town had to find twoor more horse-soldiers, the inhabitants were, besides,obliged to pay the expenses of their arms,horses and maintenance, for the time they wereon service.

13. The Manors and Abbey lands were held ofthe king on the same conditions; and every man,who had a certain quantity of land, was bound[72]either to serve as a soldier himself, or send asubstitute.

14. The rest of the country was divided bythe king amongst the great barons, who agreed,in return, that whenever he went to war theywould go with him, and take with them so manymen, properly armed and trained for warfare,perhaps fifty or a hundred, or even more, accordingto the extent of lands they held.

15. These great Baronies were called Feods,and the king was the feodal or feudal lord of thebarons, who were called crowned vassals; and,when any one of them died, the king took thelands again until the heir paid him a large sumof money to redeem them.

16. Some of the kings behaved very ill inthis, in making the heirs pay a great deal morethan was just; and, if a baron died, and left adaughter only, she was obliged to marry any onethe king chose, or he would not let her have herinheritance at all.

17. The feudal laws were therefore very bad,because they gave men the power of beingtyrants to each other; for the nobles had thesame power of oppressing their vassals that theking had of oppressing them.

18. You must understand that the greatBarons, who held very extensive domains, gave[73]small estates out of them to men who were notso high in rank as themselves, on the same conditionsas the king had given the large baroniesto them, so that the lesser nobles were the vassalsof the great ones, and were bound to aidthem with men and money when required.

19. Then all the nobles, from the highest tothe lowest degree, were the absolute lords of allthe common people that dwelt on their lands,and could make them do just whatever theypleased, as I told you they could in the Saxontimes; but then the Norman lords treated them,at first, a great deal more harshly than theSaxon lords did, and took a great deal more fromthem.

20. After the Norman conquest they werecalled villeins, which meant villagers, and theylived in the same manner, and had the same kindof duties to perform for their lords, as in theSaxon times; but there were many new feudalcustoms brought here by the Normans; as forexample, a mill was set up on every estate, towhich all the poor people were obliged to taketheir corn to be ground, instead of grinding itat home with hand-mills, as they used to do;and, out of each measure, a part was taken forthe baron, which was a very hard tax upon them,especially if they had large families.

21. Another feudal custom was this; a dutywas laid on every thing sold at the fairs andmarkets; that is, if a man went to the marketto buy a sheep, he must pay so much for thesheep, and so much for duty, the duty being forthe baron, or lord of the manor.

22. There were a great many other customswhich I have not room to mention, but I thinkI have said enough to show you what the feudalsystem was in the first ages after the Normanconquest; so now I will tell you something aboutthe first Norman sovereigns.

23. William the Conqueror died in 1087, andwas succeeded by his eldest son, Robert, inNormandy, and by his second son, WilliamRufus, in England; but after a time Duke Robertwanted money to go to the Holy Wars,which I will tell you about presently, so hemortgaged his duchy of Normandy to his brotherWilliam, who thus became sovereign of bothcountries, as his father had been. He was a sadtyrant, and so rude in his manners that nobodyliked him.

24. I told you what strict game laws weremade by the Conqueror, but William Rufus madethem more severe still, and so displeased the noblemen,by forbidding them to hunt without hisleave, that some of them formed a conspiracy to[75]dethrone him; but the plot was discovered, andthe Earl of Northumberland, who was at thehead of it, was taken prisoner, and confined inWindsor Castle all the rest of his life.

25. There was another great lord, the Countd’Eu, who was accused of being engaged in thisplot, by a knight called Geoffrey Bainard, so theking had him arrested. The Count, however,denied having any thing to do with it, and saidhe defied his accuser, and was ready to fightwith him, and that God would give the victoryto whichever of them was in the right.

26. So they fought with swords, in the presenceof the king and court, when Bainard wasvictorious, and the Count being thus convicted,was condemned to have his eyes torn out.

27. This was a strange way for a man toprove his innocence of any crime, but it becamea common custom in England, and was called“Wager of battle.” Even law-suits, respectingright of property, were often thus decided; and,if a lady had a quarrel or a lawsuit, she mightget a man to do battle for her, and he was calledher champion.

28. It was the fashion for many ages, notonly in England, but all over Europe, for youngmen of noble birth to roam about the world insearch of adventures; and, as they were generally[76]poor and depended chiefly on their swordsfor subsistence, they would engage in anybody’squarrels; fight in the cause of women or childrenwho were either injured or oppressed, andenlist in the service of princes and barons whowere at war.

29. This was called chivalry, and these knightserrant, or wandering knights, were made welcomewherever they went, and treated with hospitalityat the castles of the great.

30. Numbers of them went to the Holy Wars,but, as I suppose you do not know what theHoly Wars were, I will tell you about them.

31. Many pious Christians in those daysthought it a duty to make a journey, or pilgrimageas it was called, to Jerusalem, once in theirlives, to say their prayers at our Saviour’s tomb;but Jerusalem had been conquered by the Mahomedans,who hated the Christians, and behavedvery cruelly to the pilgrims; so the Pope,who you know is the great Bishop of Rome, andat that time had more authority over all thecountries of Europe than the kings had, saidthat it was the duty of all Christian warriors togo to Palestine, or the Holy Land, to fightagainst the Saracens, and try to drive them fromJerusalem.

32. Then a religious man, called Peter the[77]Hermit, went about preaching a crusade, that is,exhorting the princes and nobles in France,Germany, and Italy, to undertake this war,which was called a crusade, orcroisade, becausethe ensign on their banners was to be the Cross.

33. Robert, Duke of Normandy, was amongthe first crusaders, and, as he wanted money tokeep himself and all the fighting men he tookwith him, he pledged his duchy to his brother,William Rufus, for a very large sum.

34. The English did not join in these wars, atfirst, but after a time there was scarcely a knightor noble in the land that did not go to the Crusades,for they were continued, in all, more thantwo hundred years; and, during two hundredyears; and, during that time, great numbers ofthe lower order of people in England were freedfrom bondage, in consequence of being allowedto purchase their liberty to supply their lordswith money for these wars.

35. William Rufus, who was killed by accidentas he was hunting in the New Forest, was succeededby his brother, Henry the First, surnamedBeauclerk, because he was a learned man,who behaved much better to the Saxon Englishthan the two former kings had done, and restoredto some of the old families a part of theirancient possessions.

36. He likewise altered the forest laws, whichhad given so much discontent, and gave thecitizens of London leave to hunt in EppingForest, which then reached very nearly to thewalls of the city.

37. Winchester was then the capital of England,but London was one of the best cities andthe richest, as many of its inhabitants were merchantswho traded with foreign countries; yetthe houses were only mean wooden buildings,with no glass in the windows, and thatched withstraw.

38. Westminster was quite a separate city, anddivided from London by country houses, fieldsand a village. The king had a palace at Westminster,and William Rufus built Westminsterhall adjoining it, for his Christmas feasts.

39. A curious privilege was granted by Henrythe First to the citizens of London, which willserve to show you what grievances the peoplewere subject to in those times.

40. There were a great number of personswho were employed in various ways about thecourt, and who followed the king wherever hewent; for great men, when they travelled, wereobliged to take every thing they wanted withthem, there being no public accommodation tobe had any where; so they carried with them[79]waggon loads of furniture, plate, wine, cookingutensils, and I do not know what besides; withtheir domestics and retainers of all descriptions,who formed a numerous retinue.

41. Now, the inhabitants of any city, wherethe king happened to be holding his court, wereobliged to give board and lodging, at free cost,to all these people, who generally behaved veryill; for they would insist upon having the bestrooms, order whatever they chose, and treat thefamily just as if they were their servants.

42. It was, therefore, a very good thing forthe Londoners when king Henry released themfrom this heavy burthen, but all other towns hadto bear it for a very long period.

43. In this reign the first manufactory forwoollen cloth was established in this country, bysome weavers from Flanders, where the bestcloth was made from English wool, which wasthe staple commodity of England at that period;I mean, the thing of which they had most tosell; for quantities of sheep were reared on everyestate.

44. England had no manufactures then, sothere were no employments for the lower classesbut agriculture, and the few useful arts, thatwere but very imperfectly understood.

45. Henry the First died in the year 1135.[80]He left the crown to his daughter Matilda, whohad been twice married; first, to the Emperorof Germany, and again to Geoffrey Plantagenet,Earl of Anjou, who was dead also, therefore shewas again a widow.

46. But there was a nephew of the late king,named Stephen, who was rather a favorite amongthe Barons, and was quite willing to take advantageof their good will; so, before Matilda couldreach England, her cousin Stephen had mountedthe throne.

47. Then there was a civil war in this country,which was carried on, at times, for fifteenyears, for a great many French noblemen camehere with Matilda to fight for her; and some ofthe English Barons, who had become dissatisfiedwith Stephen, because he had not done all theyexpected he would do, joined the other party,and there was fighting all over the country.

48. Wherever there is civil war, there is sureto be famine and misery of all kinds, and therenever was more misery in England than duringthe reign of king Stephen; for, in order to keepas many of the Barons on his side as he could,he let them do just as they pleased; and he gavetitles and estates to a great many bold and badmen, who built castles and kept bands of ruffians,who went at night to rob and plunder the towns[81]and villages; sothat the people, when they shutup their houses at night, used to kneel down andpray that God would protect them from robbersand murderers.

49. At last, it was settled that Stephen shouldkeep the crown as long as he lived; but thatMatilda’s son, Henry Plantagenet, should succeedhim; and, soon after this arrangement, hedied, having reigned nineteen years.

1. As soon as Henry the Second came to thethrone, he began to set things to rights again.He had all the new castles pulled down, andmade the bad men who had lived in them, leavethe country; then he set people to work to[83]rebuild the towns that had been burned down inthe late wars; and ordered that the judgesshould go on circuits; that is, travel to all thecities, and hold assizes, two or three times ayear, as they do now, to see that justice is doneto everybody.

2. But it was not quite so easy to do justicethen; for, as long as the feudal laws lasted, therich could always oppress the poor, and everygreat man had an army of his own vassals, whowould do any thing he bade them, whether itwas lawful or not.

3. Now the king wisely thought that the bestthing in the world for the country would be togive more freedom to the people, so that theBarons might not have quite so much power.

4. He, therefore, granted charters to some ofthe cities, which made them a little more independent;but it was by very slow degrees thatthe people of England became free, althoughthis happy change was beginning to take place.

5. Another thing the king wanted to do, wasto make the clergy answerable to the judges forany bad acts they might commit, instead ofhaving particular laws and judges for themselves;and, I am sorry to say, they sometimesdid very wicked things, for which they were notpunished half so severely as other people would[84]have been for similar offences, which certainlywas unjust.

6. But the bishops were unwilling to let theking have any thing to do with church affairs,and the Pope encouraged them to oppose him,in this respect; for the Pope, in those days, hadmore power over all Europe than the kingsthemselves, who seldom dared to disobey him.

7. The person who quarrelled most withHenry about these things was Thomas à Becket,archbishop of Canterbury, a very proud man,who wanted to rule both king and state his ownway.

8. The king was so much annoyed at the oppositionhe constantly met with from the archbishop,that one day, in a fit of passion, he saidhe wished that troublesome priest was dead; onwhich some persons, who heard these incautiouswords thinking to get into favor, rode off toCanterbury, and killed the archbishop in hisCathedral.

9. But they gained nothing by this wickeddeed; for the king was shocked when he heardof it, and sorry for what he had said; whichshows how wrong it is for people to use violentexpressions when they feel angry.

10. One very remarkable event which occurredin this reign, was the conquest of Ireland. That[85]country had been, for many years, divided intoseveral small kingdoms, and the disputes of thechiefs had often given rise to warfare amongthemselves; but it now happened that the kingof Leinster, having been deposed by anotherprince, went direct to the king of England, tobeg his assistance, which Henry readily promised,on condition that, if he were restored, heshould hold his kingdom as a vassal of the Englishcrown.

11. Dermot, that was the name of the Irishprince, agreed to these terms, and several Englishknights and noblemen undertook the enterprise.After a great many interesting adventures,which are told in the history of Ireland,Dermot was replaced on his throne; but otherquarrels arising among the chiefs, the Englishcontinued the war, and, after some time, theIrish chiefs acknowledged the king of Englandas a lord and master of Ireland, which has beenunder the authority of the English governmentever since.

12. Henry the Second died in 1189, and wassucceeded by his son Richard, who was calledCœur-de-lion, because he was very brave, so thateverybody said he had the heart of a lion.

13. Now it is a very good thing for men to bebrave, for I do not know what we should do[86]without brave men for soldiers and sailors, tofight for us; but it is not the most useful qualitya king can possess; and I think you will agreewith me, when I tell you that Richard the First,instead of staying at home to make good laws,and take care of his subjects, went away to fight,or gain glory, as fighting was then called, in theHoly Land, while all things were going wrongin England, for the want of somebody to keeporder.

14. But there was some excuse for him, aseverybody in those days thought that the mostpraiseworthy act princes and nobles could do,was to fight for their religion against all personswho believed differently from themselves; soRichard was very much admired by his people,although he did nothing for their real benefit;but, on the contrary, caused them very muchmisery, and great distress.

15. Another evil was that the Barons, whowent with him to the Crusades, took all theirown money as well as all they could get fromtheir tenants, to support themselves and theirfighting men abroad, so that the generality ofthe people were left very poor.

16. A great number, indeed, obtained theirfreedom, by giving up all they had to their lords;but then they were left without money or employment,[87]and many turned robbers, to savethemselves from starving; therefore, you see, itwas not always a good thing, at first, for the bondmento be set at liberty; but it was good in theend, for their children were born free, and, astimes got better, the free middle classes began tobe of some consequence, and have gone on graduallyincreasing in wealth and importance, tillthey have now become the best safeguard andsupport of the country.

17. While Richard was gone to the wars, hisbrother John, who was a very bad man, wantedto make himself king in England, and therewere some of the nobles who encouraged him,while others defended the rights of the absentmonarch; so that there was great confusion, andthe laws were sadly disregarded.

18. At last, Richard heard of all these baddoings, and left the Holy Land, intending tocome home as fast as he could; but, unfortunately,he was made prisoner, on his way, bythe Duke of Austria, and confined in a castle inGermany for some time before the English peopleknew what had become of him.

19. Richard knew this duke was his enemy,because he had affronted him when in the HolyLand, so he had taken the precaution of disguisinghimself in passing through his dominions,[88]and took with him only a single page; but, oneday, being tired and hungry, he stopped to restat a village near Vienna, and sent his page intothat city to buy some provisions.

20. The youth, foolishly, hung a pair of handsomegloves in his belt, and as gloves were, inthose days, only worn by persons of the highestrank, this circumstance excited suspicion, andhe was arrested, and obliged to confess thetruth.

21. The duke immediately sent a band ofsoldiers to seize the king, whom they found busyturning some meat that was roasting at the fire.

22. He started up, drew his sword, and foughtvaliantly, but was captured, and sent to a strongfortress, where he had remained a prisoner somemonths, when he was discovered, it has beenstated, by a wandering minstrel, who heard himsinging in his prison, and knew his voice. Butthis is a fabulous tale.

23. A large sum was raised in England, bytaxes, for his ransom, and he came back; buthe did not stay long at home; for he had quarrelled,while in the Holy Land, with the king ofFrance, and went over to Normandy for thepurpose of going to war with him, where he waskilled by a poisoned arrow, aimed at him from[89]the walls of a castle he was besieging, in theyear 1199, having reigned ten years.

24. Prince John was now made king of England,but he had no lawful right to the throne,as prince Arthur, the orphan son of an elderbrother, was living, and was the true heir, accordingto the rules of succession.

25. But this unfortunate prince was madeprisoner, in Normandy, by his wicked uncle,and most people believe he met with a violentdeath.

26. It was a very serious misfortune for thecountry when the king happened to be a badman, because the government was, at that time,despotic; that is, the king made the laws himself,and had the power of doing whatever hepleased; whereas, now, the laws are made by theparliament; so that, before any new act can bepassed, a great many good and clever men mustagree to it, which is a great protection to thepeople.

27. However, king John was compelled muchagainst his will, to make some very good laws,and the reason of this was, that his tyrannywas felt by the nobles even more than the commonpeople, for their estates were often unjustlyseized, and they were obliged to givehim large sums of money to get them back[90]again; then he would not let them marry unlessthey paid him for leave to do so; and if anyperson wanted to go out of the country, theywere obliged to buy his permission. In short,no one was free to do any thing till the consentof the king was obtained by a handsome present.

28. At length, his tyranny was carried tosuch a height that the chief nobles resolved tomake him act more justly, or dethrone him; sothey wrote down, on parchment, all the thingsthey wished to have done, or altered, and agreedwith each other that, if he refused to sign it,they would go to war with him, and they tookcare to have all their vassals armed, and inreadiness.

29. John was very much frightened when hefound the barons were in earnest, and agreed tomeet them at a place called Runnymede, betweenStaines and Windsor, where, after a great dealof disputing, he was obliged to sign his name towhat they had written, which thus became thelaw of the land. An ancient copy of this parchmentis now in the British Museum.

30. It is called Magna Charta, which is theLatin name for ‘the Great Charter;’ and it wasframed with a view to take from the king thepower of doing unjust things, and to make himgovern according to the laws, and not to be able[91]to make new laws, or impose new taxes, at hispleasure.

31. This famous act is generally regarded asthe beginning of the liberty which all Englishmenare so justly proud of; but the laws itcontained were, in many respects often brokenby the sovereigns of England, for a very longperiod.

32. The Barons of England still lived in theircastles, on their own estates, in the midst oftheir vassals and serfs. Their castle-halls werecrowded with knights, squires, pages, and militarydependents, for it was their pride to haveas many of such retainers as they could possiblymaintain. The pages were boys of highrank, generally the younger sons of noblemen,whose profession was to be knight errantry.

33. Now, in order to obtain the honour ofknighthood, they were obliged to serve somegreat baron, first as pages, then as esquires, forseveral years, and to be very obedient and respectfulin their conduct, and do all that wasrequired of them readily and cheerfully.

34. While pages, they had to wait upon theirlords and his guests at dinner and supper, tocarry messages, and perform little services forthe ladies of the family; but they were themselveswaited upon by the domestic slaves, and,[92]when they had finished their day’s duties, wereallowed to mix with the company.

35. They were taught to use the sword andlance, and to manage a horse skilfully, and wereinstructed in religious duties by the priests oftheir lord’s household.

36. When old enough, they were madeesquires, and then their duties were to take careof the horses and armour, and to attend theirlords on all occasions; which services he usuallyrewarded by making them knights, when theywere free to go wherever they pleased; and youhave already been told what their mode of lifewas afterwards.

37. The great people were very fond of huntingand hawking, and fighting at tournaments;but, perhaps, you do not know what a tournamentwas, so I will tell you.

38. There was a place built up, somethinglike a large theatre, with galleries for the ladiesand gentlemen, to sit and see the combats in theopen space below, and this was called the lists.Then the gentlemen, who wished to exhibit theirvalour, used to come in armour, and fight witheach other on horseback till one was conquered,when the victor received a prize from the greatestlady present.

39. When only two knights fought, it wascalled a tilt; but if there were several on eachside, it was a tournament; and, although thesecombats were held for sport, the combatantswere often dangerously wounded, and sometimeskilled.

40. When John had signed Magna Charta, theBarons went home to their castles, to enjoytheir usual pleasures; but the king had no intentionof behaving any better than before, andsecretly sent agents to Flanders, to raise troopsof foreigners, promising that they should beallowed to plunder the estates of the Barons, ifthey would enlist in his service.

41. Thus he soon appeared at the head of anarmy, and went to war with the nobles, who, inrevenge, did a very wrong and foolish thing,which was, to offer the crown to Louis, the sonof the king of France.

42. Louis soon came over with a French army,and, after having in vain tried to take DoverCastle, he entered London in triumph, whilstJohnwas obliged to retreat; but the Barons beganto think they had done wrong, and, as Johndied suddenly, in the midst of this confusion,they turned their arms against Louis, and forcedhim to leave the country.

1. The reign of Henry the Third, who wasonly nine years of age when he succeeded hisfather, was a very long and a very unhappy one.

2. At first, things went on very well, becausethe king had a good guardian, the Earl of Pembroke,[96]who managed the government wisely; buthe, in a few years, died, and others came intopower who did not act so well, and the king wastoo young to know what was right himself.

3. It was a pity the good earl died, for, ifHenry had been fortunate enough to have hada wise instructer, he might have been a bettersovereign, but, as it was, he was a very bad one.

4. The great mischief was this. He marrieda French princess, who had no more wisdom thanhimself; and they were both so extravagant thatthey spent a great deal more money than theycould afford; and, then, to get fresh supplies,the king ordered the people to pay more taxes,and began to do all the unjust things that hadcaused so much misery in the time of his father.

5. Sometimes the Barons assembled andobliged him to promise he would abide by theterms of Magna Charta; but he soon forgot hispromises, and went on the same as before, sothat the people were worse and worse off everyyear, and many men became robbers on thehighways, because they could not support theirfamilies by honest industry.

6. This was the state of affairs for manyyears, till at last, there was a civil war again,and, after a great deal of fighting and bloodshed,the king and his eldest son, Edward, were made[97]prisoners in a battle, fought at Lewes, in Sussex,in 1264, and the Earl of Leicester, the king’sbrother-in-law, took the government upon himself.

7. This was an important event, because theearl summoned a parliament to consult as towhat it would be best to do under these circumstances;and he desired that, besides the noblesand bishops, there should come to this parliamentknights, or gentlemen from every county, andcitizens and burghers, from every city and burghto state what the condition of the people reallywas, and to help to advise what could be donefor them; so that the commoners were now, probably,for the first time, admitted to some sharein the government of the country, which was agreat step gained by the people, who, beforethis, had no representatives in the nationalcouncil, or parliament, to take their part; andthis was the beginning of our House of Commons,so it is worth remembering.

8. Prince Edward, after this, escaped fromHereford, where he had been kept a prisoner,and gained a great victory over the Barons, andreplaced his father Henry on the throne; afterwhich, he went on a crusade to the Holy Land.

9. He had married a Spanish princess, namedEleanor, who was the first person, in England,[98]that had a carpet, which she brought from Spain,for the floors of the best apartments in thepalace were strewed with rushes; and, in houses,where they could not get rushes, they usedstraw.

10. Henry the Third died about seven yearsafter his restoration, in the year 1272, havingreigned fifty-seven years; and, although thenews was sent to his son as soon as possible, itwas nearly two years before he returned to England;such was the difference between travellingthen and now; for the journey to and from theHoly Land may now be accomplished in a fewweeks.

11. Edward the First was a much wiser andbetter prince than his father, but he was too fondof war, and too anxious to be renowned as a conqueror,which was the cause of the long wars inScotland, for his great ambitionwas to conquer that country.

12. But, the first thing he thought of, whenhe came home, was to make such regulations aswere most likely to protect the people from robbery;so he had watchmen and patrols appointedin all the cities, and ordered that nobody shouldbe abroad in the streets of London, nor anytaverns kept open, after the curfew bell hadtolled.

13. The curfew was instituted by William theConqueror, to prevent fires, which were veryfrequent, when houses were in general built ofwood, and thatched; so, when this bell tolled ateight o’clock, the people, for a long time afterthe conquest, were obliged to put out their firesand candles; but the custom of tolling the bellwas continued after that of putting out fire andcandle was done away with, and even to this day,in many places.

14. Edward the First took care that the magistratesshould do their duty, and punished thosewho broke the laws, which the kings had beenafraid to do in the last two reigns, because theirlives would have been in danger if they had.

15. I must also tell you that this wise monarchdid not alter what the Earl of Leicester haddone about the parliament; but he made it a rulethat the people should continue to send theirmembers, and every freeholder of land in thecounties, and, in general, all men, in the citiesand burghs, who paid taxes, had a right to voteat the election of members of parliament.

16. I should be glad to have nothing to sayabout warfare in this reign; but the Scottishwars form so large a portion of the history ofthe times, that you ought to know somethingabout them.

17. First, however, the king invaded thenorthern part of Wales, which had never beenconquered by the English, and was then governedby a prince, named Llewellyn.

18. This chief made a gallant resistance, buthe was killed, and the whole country was thenunited to England, and afterwards, in the reignof Henry the Eighth, divided into shires.

19. The queen, Eleanor, of Castile, Edward’sfirst wife, went to visit Wales soon afterwards,and her son Edward was born there, so the kingsaid he should be called prince of Wales, andthat is the reason why the eldest son of theEnglish sovereign has since had that title.

20. After this, there were a few years ofpeace, before the wars with Scotland were begun;so I will fill up the time by saying a little aboutthe manners and customs of the English at thisperiod.

21. The nobles lived in, what we should think,a very rough way indeed. Their large comfortlessrooms, and floors without carpets, unglazedwindows, and clumsy furniture, would not suitour modern notions, either of comfort or convenience.

22. They had their dinner at ten o’clock inthe morning, in the great hall of the castle;lords, ladies, knights, esquires, priests, dependents,[101]and strangers, all together; for, when therewere no inns, it was usual for travellers to stopat any castle, or monastery, on the road, wherethey were never refused lodging and entertainment.

23. There were no table cloths, and the dishesand cups were mostly of wood, but they werewell filled with meat, game, fish, or poultry,which, with bread and ale, constituted the rude,but substantial fare.

24. The Baron, with his friends, sat at anupper table, which was served with wine; and,sometimes he would have his hounds lying at hisfeet, and his favorite hawk, upon a perch, besidehim.

25. The supper, at five o’clock, was just likethe dinner, and these were the only regularmeals at that period.

26. I said there were no inns in those days,which reminds me to speak of the difficulty anddanger of travelling. The roads were very badand lonely, often running through forests andacross wide heaths, infested with robbers.

27. Then there were no public conveyancesof any kind, nor any way of making a journey,but on horseback, or on foot; and, as to stoppingat the country towns, there was very little accommodationto be had there, for they were poor[102]places, the houses in them being very little betterthan wooden sheds.

28. There were no shops, so that every thingwas bought, as formerly, at the markets andfairs.

29. A great many merchants, from London,France, and Flanders, used to bring goods tothe fairs for sale, and they were obliged to paytolls and duties to the lord of the manor, whichcame to a great deal of money, because theybrought a quantity of valuable merchandise, asthe nobles themselves purchased their wearingapparel, jewellery, spices, and many other commodities,at the fairs, which sometimes lastedfifteen days.

30. The dress of the great nobility, in thefourteenth century, was very handsome, for theywore mantles of satin or velvet, with bordersworked in gold, over jackets highly embroidered;and their velvet caps were often adorned withjewels.

31. The middle classes wore close coats ofcloth, with leather belts round the waist, suchas the Blue-Coat Boys now wear, and they hadtight pantaloons, short boots, and cloth caps.

32. The clothing of the working people wasmade of very coarse wool, sometimes undyed,and all spun and woven at home by the women,[103]who had nothing else for their own wearing, asthere were no cottons or stuffs made in Englandthen, nor any of the nice comfortable things thatthe poor people can get so cheap now.

33. The country towns were at this periodinhabited chiefly by free artisans, such as blacksmiths,carpenters, and others, of differenttrades; but there were still a great many villeinsand serfs, on all the cultivated lands, forslavery was never abolished in England by anyact of parliament, but gradually died away withthe feudal laws.

34. The armies were not raised then as theywere at an earlier period, by feudal service, butsoldiers were hired and paid by the day; butthere was no standing army, as there is at present;for, as soon as the wars were over, the menwere all discharged, which was a bad thing, as itoften happened they had no homes or employmentto return to, and so formed themselves intobands of robbers.

35. However, fighting men had plenty of occupationduring the reign of Edward the First,of whose wars in Scotland I am now about tospeak.

36. The king of Scotland died about thistime, and as he left no son, and his grand-daughterand heiress, Margaret, died soon after,[104]unmarried, there were two princes, who eachthought he had a right to succeed to the throne;so they agreed to let the king of England decidethe dispute, which he readily took upon himselfto do. One prince was named Robert Bruce,the other, John Baliol.

37. Edward said Baliol ought to be king, andhe was crowned accordingly; but the Englishmonarch soon began to find fault with him, andat last went to war, for he made up his mind totry to unite England and Scotland into onekingdom, and to be the king of both countrieshimself; but he did not succeed, although he dethronedBaliol, and was at war with Scotlandfor nearly eleven years.

38. I dare say you have heard of a renownedScottish chief, called Sir William Wallace. Hefought bravely for his country in these wars, buthe was taken prisoner at the battle of Falkirk;and, I am sorry to say, king Edward was socruel and unjust as to have his head cut off.

39. But this did not put an end to the war,for another chief, Robert Bruce, grandson ofhim before-mentioned, took the place of Wallace,gained several victories, and was crownedking.

40. The two sovereigns then prepared for along war, and Edward was on his way to Scotland,[105]with his army, when he was taken ill, anddied in the year 1307, having reigned thirty-fouryears.

41. His son, Edward the Second, was socareless of every thing but his own pleasure,that he neglected the affairs of both Englandand Scotland, so that the Scots recovered allthey had lost; and when, at last, the king waspersuaded to renew the war, he met with sucha terrible defeat at the battle of Bannockburn,that the Scots are proud of it to this very day.

42. There is nothing more worth telling aboutthe reign of Edward the Second, whose misconductcaused many of the barons to rebel, and hewas, at last, made prisoner by them, and cruellymurdered, in Berkeley castle, in 1327, havingreigned about twenty years.

43. His son, Edward the Third, was scarcelyfifteen, at the time of his father’s death; but hewas a very clever prince, and soon began tomanage the affairs of the country himself.

44. He married a Flemish princess, namedPhilippa, who was much beloved by the Englishpeople, as, indeed, she deserved to be, for shewas both good and beautiful, as well as one ofthe cleverest ladies of her time, and she employedher talents in doing all the good shecould for England.

45. She knew that the people of her owncountry, which was Flanders, had grown richby their trade and manufactures, so she did allin her power to increase the trade of England,and paid a number of Flemish weavers to comeover here and settle at Norwich, that theymight improve the people there, in the art ofmaking woollen cloth and stuffs, for which a manufactoryhad been established by Edward theFirst.

46. She also founded several schools, and wasa friend to those who distinguished themselvesby their learning.

47. I must not forget to tell you that Chaucer,the first great poet that wrote in English,lived at this time, and received much kindnessfrom the king and queen.

48. The English language was now beginningto be spoken by the higher classes, instead ofFrench, and was not very unlike the Englishspoken now, as you might see, if you were tolook at the poems written by Chaucer.

49. Edward the Third was, unfortunately, asfond of war as his grandfather. He renewedthe war with Scotland, but his great wars werein France, for his ambition was to be king ofthat country, and he pretended he had a right to[107]the throne, because his mother was the sister ofthe late king.

50. But the French thought otherwise, andchose another prince for their king, so Edwardinvaded France, where he commenced a longand destructive war, which lasted nearly fortyyears, and was carried on, for a great part ofthat time, by his eldest son, who was called theBlack Prince, because he wore black armour.

51. He made great conquests in the south ofFrance, and, at the celebrated battle of Poictiers,took the French king prisoner, and broughthim to England, where he remained a captivefor the rest of his life, but was treated with somuch kindness and respect, that he had little tocomplain of but the loss of his liberty.

52. The Black Prince was not only a bravewarrior, but was a good and clever man;therefore, his death, which happened a few months beforethat of his father, was a great grief to theEnglish people.

53. Edward the Third died in 1377, aftera long reign of fifty years. He had been apretty good king, had made the people obey thelaws, and, in general, observed them himself.

54. When he wanted money for the Frenchwars, he had allowed the villeins and serfs, on hismanors, or crown lands, to buy their freedom, so[108]that there were now, comparatively, but few ofthe lower orders remaining in bondage; and theagricultural labourers were paid for their labour,as well as the artisans and mechanics.

55. Their wages were, in general, from twopenceto threepence a day, but you must rememberthat twopence, at that time, was equal, inpurchasing the necessaries of life, to about oneshilling and eightpence of our money, and wouldbuy much more than sufficient food for a wholefamily.

56. They lived chiefly on meat, brown bread,and ale; for there were no vegetables for thetable, cultivated by the people in England, tillthe time of Henry the Eighth; nor any potatoes,till that of queen Elizabeth; and then they wereconsidered a dainty dish, and only seen at thetables of very rich people.

57. However, there were gardens, orchards,and vineyards, belonging to the monasteries, andto persons of high rank and fortune.

1. Richard the Second, the son of Edward,the Black Prince, was but eleven years old when,by the death of his grandfather, he became kingof England. His uncles governed the countrytill he was old enough to act for himself; butthey did not teach him to be a wise, nor a just[111]man, and this injustice was the cause of all hismisfortunes.

2. One of the first things he did on his ownaccount, was to break a promise he made to thepeople; and this was how it happened. A newtax had caused great discontent among thelabouring classes, and their unwillingness to payit was increased by the insolence of the collectors,who, one day, in the house of a man calledWalter, or Wat Tiler, behaved so ill to hisdaughter, that he gave one of them a blow onthe head with his hammer, which unluckily killedhim.

3. Now the neighbours knew that if Waltershould be taken, he would be put to death forthe offence, and as they all had cause to complainof the tax-gatherers, they assembled infront of his cottage, and declared they wouldprotect him.

4. This was at Deptford, and they all proceededto London, being joined by thousands ofmen from different towns, and a dreadful riotthere was; so that it was thought necessary forthe king to take some means of pacifying therebels.

5. Accordingly he went, with the lord mayorand some nobles and gentlemen, to meet themin Smithfield, and whilst Tiler, their leader, was[112]talking with the king, the mayor came behindhim, and struck him on the head with his mace,and stunned him, and he was killed by Richard’sparty; and then the king, fearing the rioterswould kill him in return, asked them what theywanted, saying, he was ready to do any thingthat was right and just.

6. They said they desired that the poll taxshould be taken off; slavery and villeinageabolished by law; so that all who were still inbondage should be made free; and that the oldfeudal custom of paying duties on goods, at allthe markets and fairs, should be done awaywith.

7. All this Richard promised to do; but nosooner had the men dispersed and gone back totheir homes, than he sent out a military force toseize all who had been concerned in the rebellion;and I grieve to say that, although he had givenhis word that they should all be pardoned, heordered the judges to have every one of themexecuted.

8. After such conduct as this, you will notexpect to hear much good of Richard the Second,whose selfish extravagance led him to doall kinds of unjust things, for the purpose ofraising money to spend on his own pleasures;so that it might truly be said that he was constantly[113]robbing his subjects; as, for instance, heonce wanted to borrow a large sum of the citizensof London, which they would not lend him,because they knew very well he would neverreturn it; so he took away their charter, that is,the grant which gives them the right to elect alord mayor, and to manage the affairs of thecity independently of the king; and they wereobliged to give him ten times as much to get itback again, as they had refused to lend.

9. The citizens of London were very rich atthis period, many of them being great merchants,and it was in this reign that the famous Whittingtonwas Lord Mayor.

10. He had made a large fortune in the coaltrade, which was then a new branch of commerce,for coals were very little used for firing till thetime of Edward the Third.

11. King Richard had unjustly banished hiscousin Henry, Earl of Hereford, and on thedeath of Henry’s father, the Duke of Lancaster,had taken possession of his estates.

12. This nobleman was a grandson of Edwardthe Third, and was much liked by the English,who would rather have had him for theirking than the unworthy sovereign they had got,although he would have had no right to thethrone, even if Richard had been dead.

13. However, he came back to England, andfinding most of the nobles as well as the peoplewilling to make him king, Richard was obligedto resign the crown, and was imprisoned inPomfret castle, where it is supposed he diedby unfair means; but as this is not quite certain,we will hope it was not so. He hadreigned twenty-two years, when he was deposed,in 1399.

14. This usurpation of Henry the Fourthwas the cause of the long civil wars in England,called the Wars of the Roses, which began inthe time of Henry the Sixth, whose right to thethrone was disputed, although his father andgrandfather had been suffered to reign withoutopposition.

15. Henry the Fourth was, on the whole, apopular monarch, and under his governmentthings went on pretty well with the generalityof the people.

16. There was an insurrection in Wales,headed by a gentleman, named Owen Glendower,who wished to restore the Welsh to theirformer independence, and to be their prince,as he was of the ancient royal family; and hewas joined by the powerful Earl of Northumberland,and his son Henry Percy, better known[115]by the name of Hotspur, who was one of thebravest knights of the age.

17. These noblemen had a quarrel with theking, and wanted to depose him; but he gaineda victory over them in a battle fought nearShrewsbury, where Hotspur was killed. Theseevents are not of much importance, but I tellthem because when you hear any celebratedcharacters spoken of, you ought to know whothey were, and when they lived.

18. The prince of Wales, afterwards Henrythe Fifth, was also celebrated for his valour,but not for his good behaviour in his youth;for his conduct was sometimes so disgracefulthat his father was quite ashamed of him, andnobody would have supposed he was the sonof a king.

19. One thing he used to do was to go out atnight, with some idle companions, and rob peopleon the highway, for amusement; yet he hadnot a bad disposition, for once one of the judgessent him to prison for trying to rescue one ofhis wicked companions; and he not only submittedto the punishment, but when he came tobe king, he treated that judge with great respectand attention, because he knew he was ajust man, and would punish the rich as wellas the poor, if they did wrong. King Henry[116]the Fourth died in 1413, in the fourteenth yearof his reign.

20. Henry the Fifth is famed as the conquerorof France. He went to war with thatcountry, on the same pretext that Edward theThird did before; and with better success, forthe French king was at last glad to make peaceby agreeing that Henry should be king of Franceafter his death.

21. The greatest victory gained by the English,was at the battle of Agincourt. KingHenry married the French king’s daughter, buthe died soon afterwards, in 1422, having reignednine years; and leaving an infant son; and ina little while the king of France died too, andhe also left a son.

22. Then there was a dispute which of theseprinces should be king of France, and a newwar was begun which lasted many years, duringwhich the English lost all that the armies ofHenry the Fifth had won.

23. In the mean time the young king, Henrythe Sixth, grew up so weak in mind and sicklyin body, that he was not able to govern thecountry; therefore, his ministers and the queen,a French princess, named Margaret of Anjou,had to manage every thing for him.

24. But many people did not like the queen,[117]and began to say that her husband had no rightto the throne as his grandfather was a usurper;but that Richard, Duke of York, ought to beking of England; while others said that, as theParliament had consented to let the family ofthe Duke of Lancaster reign, it was lawful forthem to keep the crown; and that although kingHenry was not fit for a ruler, the rights of hisson, prince Edward, ought to be protected.

25. The Duke of York was then governorof Ireland, but when he heard of these disputes,he came back, and was placed at thehead of the government here, instead of thequeen.

26. I think you will now quite understandwhy there was a civil war in England. Everynobleman in the country took one side or theother, and the friends of the Duke of York worea white rose or ribbon rosette; while those whosupported the king, or House of Lancaster, worea crimson one; as people now wear differentcolored ribbons at an election, to show whichparty they belong to; and this is why these warsare called the Wars of the Roses.

1. The civil wars may be said to have lastedthirty years, from the first battle at St. Alban’s,in 1455, to the battle of Bosworth, in 1485; for[120]although there were intervals of peace, the quarrelbetween the house of York and Lancasterwas not finally settled till the two families wereunited by the marriage of Henry the Seventh,who was heir of the House of Lancaster, withElizabeth, the grand-daughter of Richard, Dukeof York, and heiress of that family.

2. During that thirty years, the country was,as you may suppose, in a very unhappy condition.Every Baron wanted to collect as manymen around him as he could, to defend his castlein case of siege; so the countrymen left theirrural labors and went to enlist in the service ofthis or that nobleman, because they were sure ofgetting plenty to eat and drink.

3. Thus the castle halls were crowded, but thefields were left without sufficient laborers toplough and sow them, consequently the cropswere generally bad, and bread was at times, sodear, that many poor families could get none atall, but were obliged to eat herbs and berriesthat they found in the woods, which did notnourish them, so that numbers died of want.

4. Many battles were fought in different partsof England, and the queen was present at someof them, for it was she who conducted the war,as the king was incapable of so much exertion,[121]and Margaret could not bear to see her youngson Edward deprived of his birthright.

5. Three victories had been gained by theDuke of York, when he was killed at the battleof Wakefield; but this event did not put an endto the contest, for his son Edward, who succeededto his title, continued the war and, in the end,became king of England, while poor king Henrywas kept a prisoner in the Tower, where he diedin 1471.

6. Edward owed his success chiefly to the Earlof Warwick, the richest and most powerfulnobleman in England, and considered as the lastof the great feudal Barons, for it is said that hemaintained no less than thirty thousand peopleat his own expense, who were ready to devotetheir lives to his service.

7. He had a great many castles in differentparts of England, and a noble mansion in Warwicklane, London, which still bears that name,although it presents a very different appearancefrom what it did when this mighty Earl livedthere like a sovereign prince, and the place wascrowded with his armed retainers.

8. Edward had been very well received by thecitizens of London, and crowned, with their consent,long before the death of king Henry.

9. Two battles were fought soon after his[122]accession to the throne, one at Towton the otherat Hexham; and it was after the latter, that astory is told how queen Margaret wanderedabout in a forest with her little boy, till theywere both half dead with hunger and fatigue,when she met with a robber, and instead of tryingto avoid him, told him who she was, andbegged he would protect her child.

10. The man took them to a cave, and gavethem food and shelter, until he found an opportunityof getting them on board a vessel thatwas going to Scotland.

11. People were now in hopes there would bepeace; but the new sovereign was so unwise asto quarrel with the Earl of Warwick, who becamehis enemy, and resolved to deprive him ofthe crown he had helped him to win.

12. Then the war was begun again, and wenton for several years longer, till Warwick waskilled at the battle of Barnet, on Easter Sunday,1471, just ten years after the battle ofTowton.

13. On the day of this battle, queen Margaret,and her son, prince Edward, then ayouth of eighteen, landed in England, for they hadlived in France some years, and were sadlygrieved at the news of Warwick’s defeat anddeath; but as they had a great many friends, the[123]queen determined upon trying another battle,which was a great pity, for both herself and herson were made prisoners, and the young princewas killed in king Edward’s tent, for making aspirited answer to some insulting question put tohim by the haughty monarch.

14. The miserable mother was sent to theTower, where her husband had just died; butshe was afterwards released, and ransomed byher father; and she returned to live with him inFrance, her native country.

15. And now, that we have done with thewars, we may begin to think of something morepleasant. Have you ever heard it was in thereign of Edward the Fourth that books werefirst printed in England?

16. The art of printing, which enables us tohave so many nice books to instruct and amuseus, had lately been invented in Germany, andwas brought here by an English merchant, namedWilliam Caxton, who went to Cologne, on purposeto learn how to print, and when he cameback, he set up a printing-press in WestminsterAbbey, which, at that time, was a monastery.

17. We oughtto be very much obliged tothe clever person that invented printing; foronly think how very ignorant we should be, and[124]how much pleasure we should lose, if there wereno books to tell us any thing.

18. There were books, certainly, before thattime; but they were all written, and it took solong to copy them, that they were very expensive,so that none but very rich people couldhave even a few volumes.

19. Printed books were also, for a long time,much too dear to be in general use, but peopleof rank soon began to be much better educatedthan in former times, and their habits and mannersbecame much improved in consequence.

20. Then a great many of the old Normancastles had been destroyed in the wars, whichput an end, after a time, to the customs ofchivalry; and the nobles, instead of sendingtheir sons to be brought up for warlike knights,sent them to Oxford, or Cambridge, to becomescholars; or to Eton College, which had beenfounded by Henry the Sixth.

21. King Edward died in 1483, when his eldestson, who is called Edward the Fifth, although henever was really king, was only thirteen yearsold; and he, and his younger brother, the Dukeof York, were under the guardianship of theiruncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was avery bad man.

22. Instead of protecting the fatherless children[125]entrusted to his care, he only thought howhe might take advantage of their youth to obtainthe crown himself; so he sent them both to theTower, but not as prisoners, for it was then usedoccasionally as a royal residence, especially intimes of public disturbances; so Richard toldthe people the boys would be safe there; but ina little while it was reported that they weredead, and it was thought he had caused them tobe murdered, which was most likely the truth,although some people think they were not putto death, but were kept there as prisoners forsome years.

23. Richard the Third was not a very badking, for he made some laws that were veryuseful to the merchants who traded with foreigncountries, and he was the first who thought ofhaving postmen, or couriers, to carry letters, sothat, wicked as he was, we cannot say he did nogood as a sovereign.

24. The post was, at first, only for governmentletters, and it was a long time before anyarrangements were made for private persons tocorrespond by the same means; but this wasdone by degrees, and in the time of OliverCromwell, the General Post Office was established,when everybody had the benefit of thisexcellent institution, which adds so much to people’s[126]happiness; for who could possibly be happynow, if they could not hear from their absentfriends?

25. Richard the Third reigned only two years,for he was disliked by the nobility, and a conspiracywas formed against him by the friendsof the House of Lancaster, who were desirousof placing on the throne the heir of that family,Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond.

26. This young nobleman was living in exile,at the time, in France. But he was soon informedof what was going on, and told theFrench king, who lent him forty ships, andabout five thousand soldiers, with which hesailed directly for England, where he foundfriends ready to join him with more troops.

27. The battle of Bosworth was fought onthe 22nd of August, 1485, when Richard waskilled, and the conqueror proclaimed king onthe field; and thus ended the Wars of theRoses.

1. Henry the Seventh was not an amiableman, but he had many qualities that were goodand useful in a sovereign, and the country prosperedgreatly under his government.

2. One of the conditions on which he succeededto the throne, was that he should marrythe princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward the[129]Fourth, and thus secure peace by uniting thefamilies of York and Lancaster:—the princessElizabeth was a lady much beloved by everybody, and her many acts of benevolence werelong remembered in England, so that she wasgenerally called the good queen Bess.

3. The king wished to increase the wealthand prosperity of the nation, and he took thebest means of doing so by promoting commerce.He made commercial treaties, that is, agreementsabout trade, with foreign princes, bywhich he obtained many advantages for theEnglish merchants, just as our government haslately made a treaty with the emperor of China,about our trade in his country.

4. No English ship had ever been to Chinathen, nor even to India; and America had notyet been discovered; but in the time of Henrythe Seventh, the Spaniards and Portuguesemade longer voyages than had ever been madebefore, and the celebrated Christopher Columbus,whom I dare say you have often heard of,found out by study, that there was an unknownland on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean,and although people laughed at him, he at lastpersuaded the king and queen of Spain to lethim have ships, and sailors, and money, to go insearch of it, so he was the first that found out[130]the way to America, which, for a long time, wascalled the New World.

5. Soon after this, the Portuguese found outthe way to India by sea; and then the Englishbegan to make voyages of discovery also, andto find that the world had more countries in itthan they had ever dreamed of before.

6. Maps and charts, which had been knownto the Greeks and Romans, now began to bemuch improved, though they were still incorrect,as you may suppose.

7. However, all these new discoveries, togetherwith the invention of printing, made peoplethink more about learning, and less aboutfighting than they used to do; especially as thenobility were beginning to live more in the waythey do now, and to have handsome houses inLondon, instead of living always in their gloomyold castles.

8. Their domestics were no longer slaves, buthired servants; their tenants were not villeins,but free farmers, who paid rent for their land;andthe poor peasantry, no longer in bondage,were at liberty to go where they pleased, andwere paid for their daily labour.

9. You remember that in the feudal times allthe land in the country belonged to the king,[131]the nobles, the knights, and the bishops, andabbots.

10. But Edward the First made a law infavour of the sale and purchase of all lands exceptthose held immediately of the king; andEdward the Third gave his own vassals leaveto sell their estates.

11. Other laws were afterwards made, bywhich landed property was made liable to seizurefor debt, and might be given by will, orsold at the pleasure of the owner. And Henrythe Seventh, by another law, further encouragedthe sale of land, and the consequent division oflarge estates.

12. Then many of the nobles, who had moreland than they wanted, sold some of it towealthy merchants and others, who built largemansions, to which they often gave their ownfamily name, as for instance, if the name of theproprietor happened to be Burton, he wouldprobably call his residence Burton Hall.

13. These country gentlemen formed quite anew class of people in England, and they haveever since that time continued to increase inwealth, rank, and importance.

14. A strange thing happened in the reignof Henry the Seventh, which has made somepeople think the sons of Edward the Fourth[132]were not put to death in the Tower, as is generallybelieved, but you shall hear the story.

15. A young man, called Perkin Warbeck,came to Ireland from Flanders, and declaredhe was the younger of those two princes, andthe lawful heir to the throne, as his brother wasdead.

16. He told a wonderful tale, how he hadescaped from the Tower, and related many adventureswhich he said had befallen him; so theIrish people said they would fight for him, andtry to take the crown from king Henry; but asthey could not raise a sufficient force by themselves,Warbeck applied to the king of France,who also promised to help him, and then hewent to the Duchess of Burgundy, who wasEdward the Fourth’s sister, and, strange to say,that lady declared she believed the young manwas her brother’s son, and persuaded the Flemingsto lend him their aid.

17. But the king of France changed his mind;and made a treaty of peace with king Henry,who ordered the English merchants not to carryon any trade with Flanders while the Flemingscontinued to favour the cause of Perkin Warbeck,so they deserted him too.

18. I have not the room to tell you the restof his adventures, but they ended in his being[133]taken prisoner by the king, who had him put todeath as a traitor. Henry the Seventh reignedtwenty-four years, and was succeeded in 1509by his son, Henry the Eighth.

19. The young king was married to Catharineof Arragon, the daughter of the king ofSpain, a beautiful and talented woman, whodeserved a better husband, for Henry was asad tyrant in his family, as well as over thenation.

20. The greatest man in the kingdom next tothe king, was his minister, Cardinal Wolsey,who governed the country for many years, andwas so rich, that he not only lived in as muchsplendour as the king, but he built the palacesof Hampton-court and Whitehall, and foundedthe College of Christ Church at Oxford.

21. A Cardinal is a priest of high dignity inthe Catholic Church, being next in rank to thePope.

22. Wolsey was clever and learned; but hewas very proud, so he had many enemies, andat last fell into disgrace with the king, and diedof grief.

23. Soon after this Henry chose to be separatedfrom his good wife, Catharine, because hehad seen a young lady named Anna Boleyn,whom he thought he should like to marry; so[134]he sent the queen and his daughter Mary, awayfrom court, and made Anna Boleyn queen; buthe soon began to dislike her, and said she haddone some very wicked things, as an excuse forsending her to the Tower, where he had herhead cut off; and then he married another younglady, named Jane Seymour, who soon died.She left a little baby, who was king Edward theSixth; and Anna Boleyn also had a baby, whowas queen Elizabeth.

24. I must now tell you of a great changemade by Henry the Eighth, with regard to religion,and called the Reformation.

25. The church of England had, till this period,been the same as that of Rome, and thepeople were Roman Catholics; but there were agood many people in Germany, and in Englandalso, who thought that some of the forms of theCatholic religion were not right, and ought tobe altered, and these persons were called reformers,and all who adopted their opinions tookthe name of Protestants, because they protestedagainst certain things.

26. Now Henry the Eighth had a disagreementwith the Pope, about his second marriage;so he determined to abolish the Catholicreligion, to seize on and destroy the monasteriesand nunneries, and to have Protestant[135]clergymen to preach and read the prayers inthe churches.

27. It would be too long a story to tell youhow he accomplished all this; but it was done.There were nearly a thousand religious houses,that is, convents, abbeys, and priories, in England,inhabited by monks and nuns, clerks andfriars, of different orders, who had no otherhomes, nor any means of living, but on theproperty of the establishments to which theybelonged; and these were all suppressed, togetherwith many colleges and hospitals, whichalso supported a great many poor people.

28. The poor were very sorry the conventswere broken up, for they had been accustomedto go there when they were in distress, for food,clothing, or medicine; and now they did notknow where to get relief, as there were noworkhouses; the hospitals, and all other charitableinstitutions, except some alms-houses,having been destroyed; nor was it till almostthe middle of the reign of queen Elizabeth thatany provision was made by law for the destitutepoor.

29. The manufactures of England were nowfast increasing. Manchester, Birmingham, andSheffield, were beginning to be known as manufacturing[136]towns; the first, for woollens andcottons; the others, for cutlery and hardware.

30. Pewter plates and dishes were made inlarge quantities, for they were now used inthe most respectable families instead of wood;hats were also made in England in this reign;and a clock, the first ever manufactured in thiscountry.

31. But nothing was more useful than theimprovements made in gardening, for which weare indebted to the Flemings and Dutch, whowere the best gardeners in Europe, and whobrought here many kinds of vegetables for thetable, such as cabbages, lettuces, &c., and manyfruits that had not been cultivated in Englandsince the time of the Romans, particularly cherriesand currants.

32. Potatoes were not known until the reignof queen Elizabeth, when Sir Walter Raleighbrought some from America, and planted them,first in Ireland, little thinking, perhaps, that thisroot would, at a future time, be almost the onlyfood of the Irish people.

33. Henry the Eighth had three more wives,Anne of Cleves, whom he divorced; CatherineHoward, whom he had beheaded, like poor AnnaBoleyn; and Catherine Parr, who outlived him.

34. He reigned thirty-eight years, and was[137]succeeded by his son, Edward the Sixth, whowas only nine years old, and died before he wassixteen; so that he can scarcely be reckonedamong the kings of England.

35. He was a pious and amiable prince, fondof learning, and extremely charitable. Hefounded St. Thomas’s Hospital, for the sickpoor; and Christ’s Hospital and School, forthe education of boys who had lost their fathers.

36. He had a cousin, Lady Jane Grey, whomhe was very fond of, for she was about his ownage, gentle and beautiful, and being fond ofstudy, was educated with him; so that it was nowonder he liked her.

37. They were both Protestants; but Edward’seldest sister, Mary, was a Catholic; andas some of the great noblemen were Protestants,they did not like to have a Catholic queen; sowhen the young king was dying, they persuadedhim to make a will, leaving the crown to LadyJane Grey, which was not right, because hisfather had ordered, and the parliament confirmedhis will, that, if he died, Mary was to bequeen. Edward the Sixth died in the seventhyear of his reign.

38. Lady Jane was married to young LordGuildford Dudley, and knew nothing aboutking Edward’s will till after he was dead, when[138]her husband’s father told her she was to bequeen.

39. At first she refused, but was, at length,persuaded or compelled to allow herself to beproclaimed; and very unhappy it made her, sothat she was very glad, at the end of ten days,to give up the title of queen to her who had abetter right to it.

40. Now Mary was a woman of a morosetemper; and, unfortunately, at that time, andlong afterwards, people who differed in religiousopinions were very cruel to each other; so shewould not forgive poor Lady Jane Grey, butsent her and her husband to the Tower, wherethey were both beheaded.

41. The reign of queen Mary lasted only fiveyears, and there is little to tell about it, exceptthat she did all she could to restore the RomanCatholic religion, and re-established some of themonasteries; but they were suppressed again,after her death, by her sister Elizabeth, whohad been brought up in the Protestant faith.

1. Elizabeth is one of the most celebratedof our sovereigns, for she was a remarkablyclever woman, although, like her father, she washarsh and tyrannical.

2. It was a merry day in England when shewas crowned, for great numbers of the peoplehad not liked queen Mary. The citizens of[141]London testified their joy by decorating the outsidesof their houses with draperies of silk andsatin; and by having shows and pageants in thestreets, as was customary, at that time, on alljoyful occasions.

3. In one place, a fountain ran with wine;in another, a boy, dressed to represent anangel with wings, descended from the top ofan arch, as the queen’s chariot was passingunder, and presented her with a bible; thenwas drawn up again by a cord, to look as ifhe flew away; and there were many otherthings of the same kind, which I have not roomto tell of.

4. The ladies and gentlemen who attended thequeeen rode on horseback, for coaches were notused in England till some years afterwards,when a gentleman, from Holland, brought acarriage over here, and then the English soonbegan to build coaches, and ladies of rank leftoff riding on horses, as they used to do, seatedon a pillion, behind their husbands.

5. Elizabeth was a good queen in many respects,for she was a friend to learning, commerce,and all useful arts; and she chose ableministers, who ruled the country with wisdomand prudence; but she behaved very cruellyabout religion, for although numbers of the people[142]were still Catholics, she made a law thateverybody should go to Protestant churches;and those who did not were put in prison, ormade to pay such large sums of money, thatthey were quite ruined.

6. In other countries, particularly the Netherlands,the Protestants were as ill-treated asthe Catholics were here, so that a great manyof them came to England, and were very usefulin teaching the English several arts and manufacturesthey did not know before.

7. Pins, needles, and paper, were now firstmade in England, and the cotton and other factorieswere greatly improved, so that there wasmore employment for the working classes.

8. Then workhouses were established for thedestitute, and all householders, for the first time,were obliged to pay a tax, called the poor rate,to support and find the poor in food and clothes,so that they might not be driven, by want, tobeg or steal.

9. The middle classes became more wealthy,and lived in better style than at any former period,especially the citizens of London, many ofwhom were rich merchants, living like noblemen,and among these was Sir Thomas Gresham, whobuilt the first Royal Exchange, at his own expense,[143]and gave a grand dinner there to thequeen, in the year 1570.

10. English merchants now began to think oftrading to the East Indies: but as it required agreat deal of money to fit out ships, to make solong a voyage, for it took about four times aslong then as it does now, a number of rich merchantsjoined together, and for a sum of money,obtained a charter from the queen, which madeit unlawful for any other persons to carry onany trade with that part of the world.

11. It is very interesting to read how thisEast India Company first were only permittedjust to land in India, and buy and sell a fewgoods; then, how they obtained permission ofthe emperor, for there was an emperor of Indiathen, to build some warehouses on the sea coast,and form a little settlement, called a factory;then how they gradually established more factories,and took soldiers to protect them, andgained possession of lands, where they builttowns, so that many English families went tolive there.

12. Such was the beginning of the Britishempire in India; and, I dare say, that if theemperor could have foreseen the consequences,he would not have consented to have an Englishfactory built on his coast.

13. In the reign of Elizabeth, Captain FrancisDrake made a voyage all round the world,though he was not the first navigator who didso, but he was the first English one.

14. This was a grand exploit, as few peoplehad believed, then, that it was possible, or thatthe world was really a round body; so you seehow these voyages tended to increase knowledge,as well as to improve commerce.

15. When Drake returned, the queen went todine with him on board his ship, and made hima knight, after which he was called Sir FrancisDrake, and he soon became an admiral.

16. In the mean time, several voyages hadbeen made to America, and Sir Walter Raleigh,who was one of the great men of the time, hadtaken possession of a tract of land for the queenof England, which he called Virginia, and itstill bears that name.

17. The Europeans behaved very unjustlyabout America, for although the natives weresavages, they had no right to take away theirlands.

18. But they did so in every place they wentto; and if they were Spaniards, they set up theSpanish flag, and the commander of the shipsaid, “I take this country for the king of Spain;”and then would fight with the poor natives, and[145]kill them or drive them away; and, I am sorryto say, the English used to act much in the samemanner.

19. The Spaniards who had taken some ofthe West India Islands, and settled colonies inSouth America, wanted slaves to work in thegold mines, and their sugar plantations; so anEnglish captain took out some ships to Africa,and carried off a great many negroes, whom hesold in the West Indies, for a large price; andfrom that time this trade was carried on to agreat extent, and was permitted, by government,until the beginning of the present century.

20. But we must now think of what wasgoing on in England. Elizabeth had a cousin,named Mary, who was queen of Scotland, andwas next heir to the English crown.

21. She was young and beautiful, and hadbeen married to the king of France, who wasnow dead; so she had returned to Scotland, and,after a time, married lord Darnley, and had ason, who was our king James the First.

22. Lord Darnley was murdered, and Marymarried another lord, who was disliked by theScots, so that there was a civil war, and she wasobliged to resign the crown, and after much ill-treatment,escaped to England, and begged theprotection of queen Elizabeth.

23. Now the queen had always been jealousof her, and she was now cruel enough to shuther up in a castle, and, after keeping her aprisoner for eighteen years, in different places,gave orders for her execution, and the unfortunatequeen of Scots was beheaded in Fotheringaycastle.

24. Soon after this event, news arrived that alarge fleet was coming to invade England. Theking of Spain, Philip the Second, had beenmarried to our queen Mary; and had offered hishand to queen Elizabeth, but she had resolvednot to marry at all, and at any rate, she wouldnot have had Philip, for she did not like him.

25. He was, therefore, offended; and was alsoangry because the queen had been kind to theProtestants who had fled to England from theNetherlands, for he was king of those countriesas well as of Spain; and her admirals havingattacked some of his settlements in America, hedetermined to invade England, and make himselfking there too, if he could.

26. He got ready the largest fleet that wasever known, and called it the Invincible Armada;but it did not prove to be invincible,although the English had but a very small navyat that time, not more than fifteen ships of war;but the merchants lent their ships, and manned[147]them at their own expense; and people of allclasses gave money to pay soldiers, to defend thecountry, in case the Spaniards should effect alanding.

27. But they never did land; for the Englishvessels, though so much smaller than Spanishships, were lighter, and more manageable, andkept them from coming near the shore; and whenthey anchored off Calais, the English admiralsent fire ships among them, and burnt some ofthem, which created such terror, that they sailedaway as fast as they could, some one way andsome another, and the English ships chasedthem and disabled a great many; while otherswere wrecked by a violent storm; and thus theArmada was nearly destroyed.

28. Small handbills were printed and sentabout the country, to let the people know thatthe danger was over.

29. Many more books were now published,and there were many clever authors in this reign,especially Shakespeare, who wrote a number ofbeautiful plays.

30. The queen was a great admirer of Shakespeare’splays, and used to go to see them acted;but the theatres were then not much better thanthe shows at a country fair, and the performancewas in the day time.

31. People of fashion, in those days, dined ateleven o’clock; the merchants and tradespeople,at twelve; and laborers, at one; and all publicamusements were between dinner and supper,which was taken about six.

32. These amusements did not show very goodtaste, for gentlemen and ladies of rank used togo and see cock fighting, and bull and bear baiting,which are cruel disgusting exhibitions, andI only mention them to show you the differencebetween the manners at that time and this.

33. I will now give you an idea what kind ofdress people used to wear in the time of queenElizabeth. The gowns were open before, with astiff bodice, just like a pair of stays, laced infront, and a large ruff round the neck.

34. In the street, most ladies used to wear alittle black velvet mask, and shoes with suchhigh heels they could scarcely walk in them.Gentlemen wore short jackets, reaching a littlebelow the waist, with a belt and sword, a cloak,and a high-crowned hat.

35. One great improvement was made in dressin this reign, by the invention of stockings,which, for a long time, were all knitted; but theywere found much more convenient than the clothhose, that everybody used to wear, till then.

36. Queen Elizabeth died, after a long, prosperous[149]and peaceful reign, of forty-five years, in1603, having named for her successor, hercousin, James Stuart, king of Scotland: andthus the two kingdoms of England and Scotlandcame to be united, and took the name of GreatBritain.

1. The people of Scotland did not like theunion of the two kingdoms, at first, because the[151]king and many of the nobility went away tolive in London, which, as there was little trade,left Scotland in a very poor condition; and itwas a long time, indeed, not before the peoplehad experienced the great benefits of Britishtrade and commerce, that they began to feel asa part of the English nation; but now that theEnglish and Scots have become like one people,it is certainly much happier and better for both.

2. James had not been king two years, whena conspiracy was formed against the government,called the Gunpowder Plot. I cannot tell youfor certain by whom it was contrived, but it wasa wicked scheme to blow up the houses of parliament,when the king, and most of the lordsand commons were there assembled; but, happily,it was discovered a short time before themeeting of parliament, and all the greatest menin the country were saved from a dreadful death.

3. James the First was not a good king, forhe had a mistaken notion that a king ought todo whatever he liked; and that, if he wantedmoney he had a right to make new taxes, withoutthe consent of parliament, and, in fact, hethought it unnecessary to have any parliamentat all, and he taught his son Charles to be ofthe same opinion, which was the cause of that[152]monarch’s untimely fate, and the civil wars thatyou will presently read about.

4. In the reign of James the First, therewere such severe laws against those who did notconform to the church of England, that hundredsof people emigrated to America, and settledthemselves in colonies in a wild country,where at first they suffered many hardships andprivations; but these colonies, and others, afterwardsformed, gradually improved, till they becamelarge flourishing states, now called theUnited States of America.

5. James the First reigned twenty-two years,and was succeeded, in the year 1625, by his sonCharles, whose bad education led to all the miseriesof a long civil war, and to misfortunes thatfell upon his own head.

6. The quarrels between Charles and the parliament,arose from his taking upon himself thepower of raising money by taxes, without theconsent of the House of Commons; and in otherthings he chose to act by his own will, althoughit might be quite contrary to the laws of thecountry.

7. Many people were put in prison becausethey would not lend him money when he desiredit; and, at last, he dissolved the parliament altogether,and said he would govern without one,[153]and then the people had no protection from histyranny.

8. Those who were treated the worst were thePuritans, a religious sect, whose form of worshipwas very similar to that of the present ScottishChurch, which is different from the English, asthey have no bishops, do not use prayer books,and have particular rules about choosing theirown clergymen.

9. The Scots who hold these opinions arecalled Presbyterians. The Puritans dressedvery plainly, like quakers, and had their haircut close, and on that account they obtained thename of Roundheads; and those who took partagainst the king in the civil war, generallyadopted that fashion, and were distinguished bythat name.

10. After a time, the king began to find that,if he continued to govern by himself, therewould certainly be a serious rebellion; so he consentedto have a new parliament, and there wasan election directly, and as many of the newmembers were Puritans, they perhaps wantedthe king to yield too much, and thus provokedhim not to give up so much as he ought.

11. I cannot tell how this might be; but agreat many people at length began to think itwould be better to have a Republic, that is, a[154]government without a king, and many of thePuritans were of that opinion.

12. Charles had undoubtedly brought all histroubles upon himself, but it was now evident hemust either give up his authority as a sovereign,or fight to maintain it; so he chose the latteralternative, and a war was commenced betweenthe king and the parliament. Each party raiseda large army.

13. The queen, who was sister to the Frenchking, went to France, to raise money to paysoldiers to fight for her husband, and to bringarms for them. He was supported by most ofthe English nobility, while the principal commonerssided with the parliament.

14. The first general for the parliament wasthe Earl of Essex, who resigned in favor of generalFairfax, but the greatest general of theparliamentary army was a country gentlemannamed Oliver Cromwell, who was very clever,both as a military officer and a statesman; and,after the death of Charles, he became the rulerof England.

15. The war caused a great deal of unhappinessin private families; for, although it wasprincipally the soldiers who fought, everybodywas interested in the question whether thereshould be a king, or not; and such violent quarrels[155]arose, that the nearest relatives, even fathersand sons, and brothers often became enemies,and many young men went to join one army, orthe other; so that sometimes two brothers mightbe on different sides; and then think how dreadfulit was, when a battle took place, that theyshould be fighting against each other.

16. The Royalists, who were called Cavaliers,were known from the Roundheads by their handsomestyle of dress, for they wore colored doubletsmade of silk or satin, with lace collars fallingover them, and a short cloak over one shoulder.Their hair was curled in long ringlets, and theirbroad hats adorned with long feathers.

17. There was as much difference in dressbetween the ladies as the gentlemen, for thefemale Roundheads were very plain and prim intheir attire, while the Royalists were dressed inthe gayest fashion.

18. I shall not enter into the particulars ofthe war. It is enough to say that after it hadgone on three years, the king was totally defeated,at the battle of Naseby, in Northamptonshire,and soon afterwards was made prisoner.

19. The Republicans then had it all their ownway. The king was brought to trial on a chargeof having broken the laws of the country; was[156]condemned to death, and beheaded at Whitehall,January 30th, 1649.

20. But the civil war did not end with thedeath of Charles the First, for his son, princeCharles, who was in Holland at the time, wentto Scotland, where the generality of the peoplewere not disposed to have a republican government,so they made the prince promise not tointerfere with their religion, but to join thePresbyterians, and then they proclaimed himking, and soon raising an army, he marched intoEngland.

21. A battle was fought at Worcester, whereCromwell gained a great victory, and the youngking had to make his escape, in disguise, with afew friends, who were anxious to get him safelyout of the country; and many curious adventuresthey met with, for parties of the republicansoldiers were sent off in all directions inpursuit of the fugitive prince, who was severaltimes very nearly caught.

22. His escape was chiefly owing to the fidelityof five brothers, named Penderel, farmers andwoodmen, who were tenants of a gentleman thatwas warmly attached to the Royal family.They lent him a woodman’s dress, called himWill Jones; and rode about with him, to show[157]him what houses he might safely go to for shelterand entertainment.

23. On the third day after the battle, he wasobliged to hide in a wood, in Boscobel, on theborders of Staffordshire, where he met with afriend, Major Carlis, who was hiding himself.

24. They heard soldiers about the wood, sothey both got up into an old oak tree, with somebread and cheese and beer, that one of the Penderelshad brought to Charles, and while theywere there, they heard the soldiers talking closeunder the tree, and saying how glad they shouldbe to find the king, and that they were sure hemust be somewhere thereabouts.

25. The tree was afterwards called the RoyalOak; and there is a tree now on the same spot,raised from an acorn of the original one, whichis still distinguished by that name.

26. One time he travelled with a lady, as hergroom, and when they stopped at an inn, hewent into the kitchen, where the cook told himto wind up the jack, which he did so awkwardly,that she scolded him.

27. He made an excuse, saying that where hecame from, they did not have roast meat veryoften, and never used a jack; but I dare say,he laughed heartily afterwards, for he wasalways merry in the midst of his troubles.

28. At last, after being at hide and seek fornearly two months, he embarked at Shoreham,and reached the continent in safety.

29. Great Britain was now not a kingdom,for there was no king, but it was a Republic, orCommonwealth, which is a government managedby the people, or their representatives in parliament.

30. But Oliver Cromwell was an ambitiousman, and wanted to have all the power in hisown hands; so he got the soldiers on his side,and then told the members of parliament that itwas time for them to go out of office, that theremight be a new election; and on their refusal, hewent to the House of Commons with a regimentof soldiers, turned out the members, locked thedoors, and took away the keys.

31. He soon formed a new Parliament of menwho were devoted to his interest, and he wasmade chief ruler of the state, under the nameof Protector of the Commonwealth; but hemight as well have been called king, for he wasalmost as absolute a sovereign as any that hadyet reigned.

32. However, he made a good use of his powerby promoting trade, and foreign commerce, besideswhich, he had an excellent army, and agood navy, so that England was considered of[159]more importance, by other nations, than it hadever been before.

33. The English Admiral, Blake, gained somegreat victories over the Dutch at sea; and someconquests were made both in the East and WestIndies, particularly that of Jamaica, which wastaken from the Spaniards.

34. The English people obeyed Cromwell morefrom fear than love, yet he had so many greatqualities that he was respected, as well as feared.Milton, the poet, was one of his secretaries, andwas much attached to him, as I believe mostpeople were, who belonged to his domestic circle,for Cromwell was kind and mild in his family,although severe and determined in his publiccharacter.

35. There was not much merriment in England,while he was its ruler, for the Puritansthought it sinful to dance, or feast, or sing, orplay at any games; so all the theatres and otherplaces of public amusement were ordered to beshut up, even at Christmas, which had previouslybeen a very gay time, when everybody, rich orpoor, used to make holiday for twelve days; andin every country mansion, there was a goodChristmas dinner, and plenty of fun afterwards,old and young playing at forfeits, blindman’s[160]buff, and other Christmas gambols, in the greathall.

36. But these frolics were forbidden in Cromwell’stime, and if any merry-hearted folks indulgedin such doings, it was by stealth, andthey kept it secret.

37. The prim dress, and hats with highcrowns, were worn by both sexes; for if anypersons had dressed in a gayer fashion, theywould have been taken for Royalists. Cromwelldied six years after he was made Protector, andten from the death of Charles the First.

38. A great many improvements were madeduring the Commonwealth; for instance, coffee,sugar, and India muslins, were first brought tothis country.

39. When Oliver Cromwell was dead, his sonRichard was made Protector; but he liked aquiet life, and soon gave up the troublesometask of ruling the country; and as most peoplewere now of opinion it was better to have aking than not, the parliament resolved to recallCharles, who was residing in Holland, and messengerswere sent to tell him that he would berestored to the throne, on condition that all personsshould have liberty to follow their religiousbelief, and that no one should be punished for[161]having taken part against him, or his father,before.

40. He returned to England, and enteredLondon in great state, on the 29th of May,1660, on which day, every year, you may alwayshear the bells ringing, to commemorate the restorationof Charles the Second.

41. But the rejoicing is because the old formof government was restored; for Charles wasnot, by any means, a good sovereign, nor hadhe one quality to be admired, except that he wasgood natured to those about him, and liked tomake fun of every thing. However, I must notforget to say that he rewarded the Penderels,who had been so kind to him in his misfortunes.

42. England was now quite a different placefrom what it had been. Every body might beas merry as they chose; the theatres were re-opened;holidays kept; the villagers dancedround their may-poles as they used to do, andwere not afraid to laugh and sing; while thetowns-people had their pleasant social meetings,and the London citizens their grand feasts, andfine shows, as in the days of Elizabeth.

43. During the Commonwealth, there were nobishops, nor any music allowed in the churches;but now, the bishops were restored to their former[162]dignity, and beautiful church music wasagain heard.

43. But, I am sorry to say, the king did notkeep his promise to let all persons enjoy theirown religion, which caused a great deal of unhappiness,for numbers of families, to escapebeing put in prison, or having their propertytaken from them, left their comfortable homes,and went to settle in the new American colonies,where they had to endure many hardships, forit is a long time before the people in new settlementscan obtain the means of living in anydegree of comfort.

44. About five years after the return of kingCharles, the plague broke out in London, andcontinued to rage for many months with fearfulviolence.

45. The streets were, at that time, narrowand dirty; the houses mostly of wood, and notairy; nor was the city so well paved or cleansed,nor so well supplied with water, as at present,consequently it was not so healthy; and then,the doctors were not so clever as they are now,so that many died, who perhaps might have beensaved.

46. It was a melancholy time. The houseswere all shut up; no business was transacted,and scarcely anybody was to be seen in the[163]streets, which were sad and silent, for death wasin almost every house.

47. The king and queen, and most of thegreat people, went out of town, but some of theclergymen and other benevolent persons, stayedto do what good they could, and some of themcaught the infection, and died.

48. At last, when the heat of the summer wasover, the plague began to abate, and those whohad survived it, returned to their usual occupations;but with sorrowful hearts, for most ofthem had to mourn the loss of their dearestfriends.

49. The plague had often raged in Londonbefore, but had never been so bad; and perhapsthe great fire that followed it, tended greatly toremove the cause of this dreadful distemper.

50. The memorable fire of London happenedSeptember, 1666. It began at a baker’s shop,near London-bridge, and spread rapidly fromstreet to street, till almost all the town was inflames.

51. It continued to burn for three days, anddestroyed nearly the whole city, with most ofthe churches and public buildings; but therewere very few lives lost, as the people fled fromtheir houses when they saw the fire approachingthe street in which they lived.

52. Many, however, were ruined by the lossof their property, and all were left houseless, sothat they had to set up tents in the fields, toshelter themselves till they could find some placeto go to; and subscriptions were made for therelief of those who were most in need, for generallythe respectable citizens had saved theirplate, jewels, and money.

53. The fire put an end to the pestilence, andso far proved a benefit, in the end; for the citywas rebuilt with wider streets; the houses werebuilt of brick or stone, and altogether it washandsomer and more healthy; one proof ofwhich is, that the plague has not been known inLondon since.

54. The visitation of the cholera, in 1829-30,although partaking somewhat of the characterof a plague, was a different disease, and yieldedto cleanliness and medical treatment.

55. It was about this time, that tea was firstbrought to England, from China, by the EastIndia Company; but it was so very dear, that apound of tea was thought a handsome present,and it was a very long while before people drankit as they do now.

56. Except in London, Liverpool, and someof the principal towns, nobody had ever heardof such a thing as tea; for there was but little[165]intercourse between London and the countrytowns at that time, as the roads were still bad,and there were no stage coaches till a few yearsafter the death of Charles the Second, and thenonly on three or four of the principal roads.

57. The rich country gentlefolks lived in aplain homely way, and their daughters werebrought up to assist in domestic duties, such aswashing, ironing, cooking, knitting, and manyother useful things; but they seldom had anyother accomplishments, and very few could reador write.

58. Charles the Second died in 1685, twenty-fiveyears after his restoration, and was succeededby his brother James, who was a Catholic,and tried to restore the Catholic religion,although he had promised not to do so.

59. The people soon began to feel that he didnot mind breaking the laws to accomplish thisobject; so a great many Protestant noblemenand gentlemen agreed that it would be better totake the crown from him, and to place on thethrone a prince of another family, for they said,the laws would never be rightly observed so longas the Stuarts, or a Catholic king, reigned; sothey sent to William, prince of Orange, who wasmarried to the king’s daughter, Mary, and asked[166]him to become king of England, and he consented.

60. He came, with a large army, to Torbay,in Devonshire; but there was no fighting, forking James, with his wife and infant son, fled toFrance, where he was kindly received by theFrench king, Louis the Fourteenth, who promisedto try and replace him on the throne; but theattempt was unsuccessful, as you will presentlysee.

61. James the Second had only reigned inEngland three years, and during that time theProtestants were so cruelly treated in France,that thousands of industrious artisans came overhere, chiefly silk weavers, but also watchmakers,cutlers, and manufacturers of glass, writingpaper and many other things; from whom theEnglish learned to make all these things as wellas the French.

62. The middle classes were much better offthan at any former time, on account of the increaseof trade; but the lower orders were notso well off, for wages were less, in proportionto the prices of bread and meat, than they wereat earlier periods of our history.

1. The changes made in the government bytaking the crown from James the Second, andgiving it to William the Third, was called theRevolution, and was a good thing for England,as it was then settled that no sovereign, inthe future, should follow his own will, or actcontrary to the laws of the country; that allnew laws should be proposed by the parliament,[169]and not by the king; who was only to have thepower of giving or refusing his consent to them;which is very different from being able to makelaws without asking any one, as the kings andqueens of England had hitherto often done.

2. The way, now, is this:—when a gentlemanof the House of Commons, or a nobleman ofthe House of Lords, thinks of any thing thatwill be good for the nation, he mentions it to therest and they all consult about it, every one givinghis opinion whether he thinks it good or not;and if the greater number think it will be good,it is settled that it shall be done, if both Housesof Parliament and the sovereign agree to it;for whichever House of Parliament begins andagrees to a measure, it is sent to the otherHouse for approval:—this is called passing thebill.

3. When both Houses have done what theyconsider good and necessary, it is submitted tothe queen or king, who generally approves of italso; and then it becomes a law.

4. Another rule made at the Revolution was,that the parliament should meet every year, andthat there should be a new election at least oncein three years, to give the people an opportunityof choosing other members, if they had not approvedthe votes of the old ones; but, in the[170]reign of George the First, this arrangement wasaltered to seven years, and so it has continuedever since.

5. It was also agreed that none but a Protestantshould ever be king or queen of England;and all these, with many other regulations, werewritten down, and signed by king William, andthis is called the Bill of Rights.

6. No one was to be persecuted on accountof his or her religion; but the Catholics werenot allowed to hold landed property, or to bemembers of parliament; and it was not till thereign of George the Fourth that people of theCatholic faith were restored to their ancientrights and privileges.

7. Soon after William was made king, he hadto go to Ireland, to fight against James the Second,who had landed there with a French army,thinking the Irish would assist him to recoverthe throne. But he was defeated in a battlefought on the banks of the river Boyne, andobliged to go back to France, where he lived inretirement for the rest of his life.

8. His daughter, Mary, the wife of king William,was a very amiable woman, and much belovedby the English. It was she who inducedthe government to convert the palace at Greenwich[171]into an asylum for poor old sailors; and theking gave money for the purpose.

9. The East Indian trade was very much increasedduring this reign, so that all things thatcame from China and India, such as tea, silk,cotton, spices, porcelain or china ware, and manyother beautiful and useful things, became moreeasy to be procured in this country.

10. I must also tell you that the Bank ofEngland was now first established, for the purposeof raising money for the government tocarry on war against Louis the Fourteenth, ofFrance; and this was the beginning of what youwill sometimes hear called the National Debt;for when people put money into the bank, it isthe same as lending it to the king or the government;and as long as they choose to lend it,they are paid so much a year for doing so, andthis is called their dividend, which they go tothe Bank twice a year to receive.

11. The war in which king William was engaged,had nothing whatever to do with theEnglish, but was only for the sake of helpingthe Archduke of Austria, to fight out his quarrelswith the king of France; yet, after William’sdeath, these wars were carried on duringthe whole reign of queen Anne, who succeeded[172]William the Third, in the year 1702, after hehad reigned thirteen years.

12. These wars caused great distress in England,where the taxes were increased, to pay theexpenses of the soldiers, and trade was muchinjured, as we were at war with both France andSpain.

13. There was a duty, for the first time, laidupon many things that people have to use everyday, such as soap, starch, and paper, so thatall these articles became much dearer.

14. The meaning of a duty is this:—The parliamentsays, no person may make any paper,unless he give to the government so much moneyfor every ream he makes; so the paper-makerspay the money, and charge more for their paperto the shopkeepers, who buy it of them; thenyou and I, and everybody who uses paper, mustpay more for it than if there was no duty; andthe same with all things on which there areduties. So you see the expenses of war fallupon every one, in some way or other.

15. Queen Anne was a daughter of Jamesthe Second, but as she was a Protestant, no objectionwas made to her accession, although herbrother was excluded from the throne, as beinga Catholic.

16. The most important event that took place[173]in the reign of queen Anne, was the completeunion of England and Scotland, for althoughthey had been governed by one king, since thetime of James the First, they had separate parliaments,and different laws; but it was now settledthat a certain number of the Scottish lordsand commons should sit in the English housesof parliament, and that all the laws about trade,and every thing that did not interfere with thehabits or religion of Scotland, should be thesame.

17. This union of the parliaments took placein 1707, from which time England and Scotlandhave been one country, called Great Britain.

18. There was a celebrated General, the Dukeof Marlborough, who won some famous battlesin Germany in the reign of queen Anne; andthere was a brave Admiral, Sir George Rooke,who took the fortress of Gibraltar, which wasa conquest of some importance to England,because it stands at the entrance of the Mediterraneansea, and may be said to command thepassage taken by ships trading to the Grecianislands, Egypt, Turkey, &c. Queen Annedied in the year 1714, having reigned twelveyears.

1. When queen Anne died, the crown ofEngland went to a German prince, namedGeorge, the elector or sovereign of Hanover,whose mother was grand-daughter of James theFirst.

2. He was rather advanced in age, and beinga stranger to the manners of the people, and to[176]the language and laws of the country, was notlikely to become a popular monarch; yet it wasthought better that he should succeed to thethrone, than to let the son of James II., whowas now about six-and-twenty, be king of GreatBritain.

3. But there were a great many people inScotland who wished to see the family of theirancient kings restored, and some of the greatmen, there, raised an army, and invited princeJames Stuart, who is usually called the Pretender,to place himself at the head of it, and goto war with George the First.

4. The Pretender went to Scotland, and twobattles were fought, one near Dumblane, and theother near Preston, in Lancashire; but the Englishtroops gained the victory at both places,and the prince was glad to get back to Franceagain.

5. A great many English had joined in thisrebellion, for, as I said before, the new king wasnot very generally liked; and it was mostly theEnglish party that fought for the Pretender atPreston, and, I am sorry to say, all who weremade prisoners were very cruelly treated. Theleaders were put to death, and those who hadfought under their command, were mostly sentto America, and sold for slaves.

6. You remember how the American colonieswere first settled. Well, they had now becomelarge populous places, and cities had been builtthere; but the people were cultivators, and hadno manufactures of any kind, for they wereobliged to have all they wanted of manufacturedgoods, either for clothing, or any other purpose,from England, which was a great advantage tothis country, by furnishing employment for Englishmanufactures.

7. Perhaps you will say, why could they nothave things from other countries, as well asfrom England?—but you must bear in mind thatthe American states were then under Britishgovernment, and remained so till the reign ofGeorge the Third, when the Americans establisheda government of their own, and went towar with Great Britain, as you will presentlyread, and with the assistance of France, madethemselves independent of this country.

8. George the First died in 1727, havingreigned nearly thirteen years, and he was succeededby his son, George the Second.

9. There had been a great change in themode of dress since the time of the Stuarts, forqueen Anne had introduced a fashion of settingout the gowns with hoops; and gentlemen worecoats with broad square-cut tails, waistcoats with[178]long flaps, colored stockings drawn up over theknee, lace ruffles, large shoe buckles, wigs withrows of stiff curls, three-cornered hats boundwith gold-lace, and swords.

10. Towards the close of the eighteenth centurythis formal inconvenient style of dress wasaltered gradually; swords were left off; the hairwhich, in the early part of the reign of Georgethe Third, was frizzed out, pomatumed and powdered,was dressed in a more natural manner;round hats came into fashion, and people beganto look something like what they do now.

11. The reign of George the Second, whichlasted thirty-three years, was on the whole rathera prosperous one, the greater part of it beingspent in peace. There was no war for abouttwelve years, and during that time improvementswere going on all over the country.

12. Most of the great towns were made larger,and new manufactories built, for the trade ofEngland was increasing every year, and greatquantities of manufactured goods were sent outto foreign countries; besides which, new roadswere opened, waste lands cultivated, canalsformed, and new harbors made for shipping, sothat there was plenty of employment for thelaboring people.

13. We had a good navy at this time, and the[179]first war that broke out was carried on entirelyat sea. It was with the Spaniards, who hadtaken possession of a great part of SouthAmerica, and, as they chose to keep all thetrade to themselves, they had ships constantlysailing about, to prevent the ships of other nationscoming there, which was all very fair; butnot content with guarding their own possessions,they interfered with British merchants, whowere going to or from other places, plunderedsome of their vessels, and behaved so ill, thatthe British government was obliged to declarewar, and sent out a great many ships to fightthe Spaniards.

14. I dare say you have heard stories aboutpress-gangs taking away poor men against theirwill, to make sailors of them. This cruel expedientfor getting plenty of sailors, was resortedto in all the wars during the reigns of Georgethe Second and George the Third, when many apoor fellow, in going to or returning from hisdaily labor, was met by a party of armed men,called a press-gang, and carried off, by force, toa ship, without being allowed to go home, ortake leave of his family. Such things ought notto be done in a free country, and I hope theynever will be done again, even if we should havethe misfortune to be at war.

15. At this time, the French had large possessionsin India, as well as the English, and itseemed doubtful which of the two nations would,in the end, be masters of the country; but thisquestion was decided in the reign of George theSecond, for, while the war with Spain was goingon, a war broke out between France and England,about the affairs of Germany, where ourking himself commanded the army, and foughtat the battle of Dettingen; but the fighting betweenthe French and English in India, was ofmore consequence, as several great victories weregained by a brave commander, named Clive, bywhich the superiority of the English in Indiawas quite established, and ever since that time,we have gained one place after another, in thatextensive and rich country, until a large portionof India has become a province of the Britishempire.

16. While these wars were going on abroad,there was another great rebellion in Scotland;for prince Charles Edward Stuart, the son ofthe old Pretender, being now a man, had comethere to make another attempt to recover thethrone for his father; and being joined by someof the Highland chiefs, and numbers of Scotchpeople, as well as by many English who werediscontented with the government, he went to[181]Holyrood house, the old palace of his ancestors,at Edinburgh, where he held a court, and behavedas if he had been sovereign of the country.

17. Of course, an army was sent from England,to put down this rebellion, which caused agreat deal of misery; for, besides the numbersof brave men that were killed in the severalbattles which took place, many were afterwardsexecuted as traitors, which must have been moredreadful for their families than if they had fallenin battle.

18. If Charles Edward had any good feeling,I think he must have been very sorry for themischief he caused. He was finally defeated atthe battle of Culloden, and obliged to escape,like Charles the Second, after the battle ofWorcester, and his adventures are very similar,but more full of suffering, than those of themerry monarch. This is usually called the Rebellionof ’45, because it was in the year 1745.

19. There is only one thing more of importanceto mention in the reign of George the Second,and that is the conquest of the large countryof Canada, in North America, which hadbelonged to the French, who had settled thereas the English had in the United States, andbuilt several good towns, one of which wasQuebec.

20. There had frequently been quarrels betweenthe French and English in America,respecting their possessions, which, at length,occasioned a war there, and soldiers were sentout both from France and England, the Frenchwanting to conquer the British states, the Englishto gain possession of Canada.

21. This war had lasted about five years,when the renowned General Wolfe gained agreat victory at the battle of Quebec; afterwhich, the French gave up Canada, which hasbelonged to England ever since, and is a veryuseful possession, supplying abundance of finecorn, and timber for building.

22. General Wolfe was killed on the field ofbattle, just as the victory was won, and hisdeath was much lamented in England, where thenews of the conquest arrived a few days beforethe death of the king, which happened in October,1760, after he had reigned thirty-threeyears.

23. The eldest son of George the Second wasdead, but he had left a son, named George, whosucceeded his grandfather, and was about twenty-twoyears old. He was a very good man andwas highly respected, although many people sayhe was more fitted for a country gentleman thana king.

24. He married a German princess, whosename was Charlotte, and they had many children,some of whom are yet living. Our queenis the grand-daughter of George the Third.

25. About two years after the new king cameto the throne, peace was made with France andSpain, and there were no more wars for thirteenyears, when the Americans became dissatisfiedwith the English government, and resolved tohave a government of their own.

26. But let us see what useful things weredone in England during that thirteen years ofpeace. First of all, the manufacture of Chinaware was begun in Staffordshire, by a gentleman,named Wedgewood, who built large factoriesand employed a great number of people inthis new branch of art. Then a machine wasinvented for spinning cotton, by which we wereenabled to manufacture cotton goods in muchlarger quantities than before, and as they couldbe sold abroad, this was a great benefit.

27. It was also discovered how very usefulsteam engines might be made; but I fancynobody then imagined that we should ever travelby steam, or print by steam, or do many otherwonderful things, that are now done by thatmeans.

28. Turnpike roads were established all over[184]the kingdom, and travelling thus rendered saferand more expeditious. People were in generalmuch better educated than in the preceding century,and all arts and sciences were greatly improved.

29. And now I will tell you something aboutthe American war. The quarrel began aboutsome taxes which the British government imposedon the Americans, to help to pay the expensesof the wars with France and Spain, whichthe Americans thought they had nothing to dowith; and considered it unjust that they shouldhave to find money towards paying for them.

30. British troops were sent out, to forcethem to obey the orders of the government; butinstead of complying, all the colonies agreed tojoin together and fight for their liberty; and avery brave and good man, named General Washington,took the command of the Americanarmy.

31. This war lasted many years, and theFrench and Dutch assisted the Americans withtroops, ships, and money.

32. There were many gentlemen in the Englishparliament who wanted to put an end to thewar, by giving up all control over the Americans;but others would not consent, the kingwas unwilling to do so, till, at last, finding there[185]was little chance of success, the English governmentgave up the contest, and the Americancolonies became independent of England, andtook the name of the United States.

33. This event took place in 1783, after which,there were a few more years of peace, and thenthe long wars with France were begun, whichlasted above twenty years, and were ended bythe famous battle of Waterloo.

34. The cause of the war was this. Therehad been a great revolution in France. Thepeople rose up against king Louis the Sixteenth,who was made prisoner, and beheaded; just asCharles the First was treated here, and formuch the same cause. Then a number of personstook the government into their own hands, andgoverned without a king, and declared waragainst the king of Great Britain, and alsoagainst the stadtholder of Holland, and the kingof Spain, for disapproving of what the Frenchpeople had done.

35. The Spaniards and Dutch were afterwardsobliged to join the French, and manybattles were fought both on land and at sea, andsome naval victories were gained by the BritishAdmirals Duncan, Howe, and Nelson, and otherofficers.

36. The greatest man in France at this time[186]was Napoleon Bonaparte, an artillery officer,who raised himself to the head of the state, justas Cromwell did here, by getting the soldiers toside with him. He was called consul, at first,but afterwards he was made emperor, and heconquered a great part of Europe, and he madethe governments of those countries which he didnot conquer do just as he pleased, except England,for he had the largest armies of any sovereignin the world.

37. The most celebrated of our generals inthe war against Bonaparte, were Abercrombie,Sir John Moore, and the Duke of Wellington,the last of whom won a great many battles inSpain, and at last, with the assistance of thePrussians, gained the great victory at Waterloo,near Brussels, on the 18th of June, 1815, afterwhich, Bonaparte surrendered to the English,and was banished to a small island, called St.Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean, where hedied in a few years. The fall of Bonaparte wasfollowed by a general peace.

38. George the Third was still living, but hehad been out of his mind, and blind, for sometime, so that his son George, prince of Wales,had been made regent in the year 1810, andconducted the government with that title, till hisfather’s death, which happened in the year 1820,[187]he having reigned above fifty-nine years, whenGeorge the Fourth became king, instead ofregent.

39. But I must now go back some years totell you of something that was done at the beginningof this century. You have been toldthat Ireland had been subject to England, eversince the time of Henry the Second; but therehad constantly been quarrels and warfare betweenthe native Irish, and the new Irish, whowere the descendants of the English, who hadsettled there, after the conquest.

40. Then the new Irish were just as ready toquarrel with new English settlers, as the oldIrish were with them; and, till the last fiftyyears, little had been done to make the peopleof Ireland a better or a happier race. Theyhad a parliament of their own, but it did notencourage the people to be industrious, so theywere, of course, very poor.

41. A few years after the war with Francebegan, there was a great rebellion in Ireland,and soldiers were sent from England, to put astop to it, which I am afraid was not done withouta great deal of cruelty; but it was in consequenceof this rebellion that the English governmentresolved that the parliament and country ofIreland should be united to that of England; as[188]the parliament and country of Scotland had been,and this union took place on the first of January,1801, which you will easily remember, becauseit was the first day of the nineteenth century.

42. Many good laws have been made sincethen, for the benefit of Ireland, and much beendone to improve the country; but numbers ofthe Irish people still remain in a very distressedcondition, and some of them wanted to have aseparate Parliament again; and this is what ismeant by Repeal of the Union; but this feelingis now fast dying away.

43. In the reign of George the Third, therewere National and Sunday schools established inalmost every part of England, so that the poorpeople might be able to have their childrentaught to read and write, which was a greatblessing to them; for although there had longbeen charity schools in London, there were fewin the country, and many of the shopkeepers incountry towns, who had become quite respectablepeople by their industry, were so ignorant thatthey could not even make out their own bills, orkeep their own accounts.

44. There were two more great improvementsbefore the death of George the Third; the onewas the invention of gas lights, which make thestreets much lighter at night than the dim oil[189]lamps that were formerly used; and the otherwas the introduction of steam boats, which hadlately been invented in America.

1. George the Fourth, who had been regentten years, reigned as a king from 1820, to 1830.During that time, every improvement that hadbeen begun was carried to a greater extent.The education of all classes of people was conductedon a better system, and greater numbers[191]of cheap books were published for the instructionof the working classes.

2. London was greatly improved by the building,in some parts, of wide handsome streets, inthe place of narrow, dirty, crowded ones, andthe manners of the English were improved also,by their intercourse with foreign nations; forafter the peace, people began to visit France,Italy, and other parts of Europe, while a greatnumber of foreigners came here, and we adoptedsuch of their customs as were superior to ourown; for people may always improve from eachother.

3. The French, German, and Italian languagesbegan to be more generally studied inEngland: and the arts and sciences, especiallypainting and music, were more highly cultivated.

4. But I am sorry to say that, amid all thesebenefits, there was a great deal of distressamong the laboring people, for the expenses ofthe war had been so heavy that it was someyears before the blessings of peace could be felt;and thus all the necessaries of life continued tobe very dear, and wages, in proportion, very low,which occasioned riots in many parts of thekingdom; for the poor people had expected that,as soon as there was peace, most of the taxespressing on them would be taken off.

5. But the government thought it right firstto take off the property tax, and then foundthey could not do without the money the othertaxes produced. Then the people, not gettingrelief from the taxation, thought some alterationsin the laws might remedy their distress, andsent petitions to parliament praying that thesealterations might be made. The principal thingthey wanted was, what you have perhaps heardcalled the Reform Bill.

6. This was a law to give the right of votingfor members of parliament to a greater numberof people, and also to make alterations with regardto the places that were allowed to sendmembers to parliament; for there were manyold boroughs that were formerly importantplaces, but now had scarcely a house left standing,yet still were represented by two membersin parliament; which was ridiculous, because theobject of sending a member to parliament is,that he may do all the good he can for the peopleof the place he represents, as well as for thenation; then there were many large towns, suchas Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, &c., thathad grown into importance since the time whenit was settled what places should have representatives,and these had none at all.

7. Another thing desired by the people, was[193]an alteration in the Corn Laws, so that breadmight be cheaper; and this alteration was to bemade by letting corn be brought from abroadwithout paying duty. Neither of these pointswere gained while George the Fourth was king;but the Reform Bill was passed during the reignof his successor, William the Fourth; and, inthe year 1846, some important alterations weremade in the corn and provision laws.

8. William the Fourth was the brother ofGeorge the Fourth, and on the death of thatmonarch, in 1830, succeeded to the throne.

9. That same year is memorable for the openingof the first Railway for travelling, whichwas that between Manchester and Liverpool; acircumstance that may be mentioned as the commencementof one of the greatest changes ofmodern times, and when we consider the numberand extent of the railways now in use, we cannotbut admire the immense works of the kindthat have been performed in so short a space oftime.

10. The speed with which we can now travel,both by sea and land, would astonish our goodold ancestors, who used to think it a great anddangerous undertaking to set out on a journeyof twenty or thirty miles.

11. In the time of Charles the Second, the[194]poet Cowley, who had a country house at Chertsey,which is only twenty-two miles from London,invited a friend in town to pay him a visit, sayingin his letter, that as he could not performthe whole journey in one day, he might sleep atHampton.

12. I think he would have been glad of arailway, which would have taken him all theway before breakfast. In 1706, the stage coachfrom York was four days coming to London;and so late as 1763, there was only a coach oncea month from Edinburgh to London; and it wasa whole fortnight on the road; so I think youwill see the advantages of our present mode oftravelling.

13. The custom of buying and selling negroeshad been abolished by parliament during thereign of George the Third, but there were manythousands of slaves in the West India islands,belonging to the British planters there.

14. During the reign of William the Fourth,the British government gave twenty millions ofmoney to buy all the slaves of their masters andthen set them free. The day when the negroesbecame free people was the first of August,1838.

15. I told you that the Reform Bill was passedin this reign. One consequence of this measure[195]was, the lessening of the duties, or taxes, onmany articles of necessity, thereby reducingtheir prices, so that the poor people could livemuch better than they had formerly.

16. The harvests were also plentiful for severalyears, so that bread was very cheap, and theprices of all kinds of clothing were less than inprevious years.

17. Upon the whole, there had never been abetter time in England than the seven years thatWilliam the Fourth occupied the throne. Hedied in 1837, and was succeeded by her presentMajesty, queen Victoria, who was the daughterof his deceased brother, the Duke of Kent.

18. In 1840, she married her cousin, PrinceAlbert, of Saxe Coburg and Gotha. Theirfamily now consists of eight children, four princes,and four princesses.

19. The most remarkable events that haveyet happened in the reign of queen Victoria,are the wars in China and India: but I ought tohave mentioned an alteration made in the lastreign, with regard to the East India trade,which you, perhaps, remember was carried onsolely by the East India Company, according toa charter granted by queen Elizabeth, and renewed,from time to time, by other sovereigns.

20. In 1813, however, it was made lawful for[196]private merchants to trade to India; but thisright was not extended to the trade with China,which was still confined to the Company till1833, when a new law was made with regard tothat also, and any person then was at liberty togo to China for tea, silk, and other commodities,which have since been much cheaper in consequence.Tea is little more than half the priceit used to be, which is a great benefit and comfortto the poor.

21. But this had nothing to do with the warin China, which arose from a dispute about theBritish merchants selling opium to the Chinese,who were forbidden by their emperor to buy it,because it injures the health of those who takeit, like drinking spirits.

22. Still the merchants continued to carryopium to China, and the people to buy it; so thegovernor at Canton, the only Chinese town inwhich foreigners were allowed to trade, seizedand burnt some ship-loads of opium, for whichhe would not pay the owners; and this was thecause of the war.

23. There were several battles fought, inwhich the Chinese were always defeated, forthey were not much acquainted with the presentart of war; but, at last, after three years ofwarfare, peace was made with the British; and[197]the Chinese emperor agreed to pay a sum ofmoney, and to cede, or give up, to the Britishgovernment, the Island of Hong Kong; besidesagreeing that English ships might land goodsfor sale, at five ports, instead of one only, andthat British merchants might have warehouses,and reside at those places. A treaty to thiseffect was signed in August, 1842.

24. The war in India, was much more serious,and lasted a great deal longer. It was begunfor the purpose of restoring to his throne an Indianprince, the king of Caboul, who had beendeprived of his kingdom by another prince.

25. The wars occasioned by this usurpationbeing likely to endanger the safety of the Britishpossessions, the Governor General thought itnecessary to interfere; and from the year 1839to that of 1846, the British armies in India wereengaged in terrible and destructive wars withthe Affghans, and other nations in the north andwest of India.

26. These calamitous strifes were happilyended by two great victories gained on the banksof the Sutlej, at the beginning of 1846, the oneby General Sir Harry Smith, the other, by GeneralSir Hugh Gough. By the conquests madeduring these wars, the British empire is extendedover the greater part of India.

27. Among the important inventions of thisreign, may be mentioned that of the ElectricTelegraph, by means of which communicationscan be made between places a hundred milesapart in one moment, or indeed to any imaginabledistances.

28. I have already mentioned the distressedcondition of great numbers of the Irish people;and am sorry to have now to say that theirmisery has been greatly increased in the lastthree years, by the failure of the potato crops,on which the lower orders in Ireland depend fortheir subsistence.

29. This food they can, with two or threemonths labor in the year, grow for themselves;and as they are, unfortunately, contented withsuch poor living, it is a very sad thing for themwhen a bad season occurs, and the potatoes arespoiled; which happens generally once in six orseven years.

30. But there have now been three bad seasonsfollowing each other; and this calamity hascaused so much distress, that thousands havedied of fevers and other diseases, occasioned bywant of wholesome and sufficient food.

31. The Parliament expended several millionsof money in relieving their distresses, and providingthem employment. Large sums of money[199]were also subscribed by individuals in England,Scotland, and America, for the relief ofthe people in Ireland; and charitable committeeswere formed in many parts of that country toreceive the money, and distribute the food andclothing purchased with it.

32. New poor laws have also been made bythe government, to afford greater relief to thedestitute; and every thing has been done, thathumanity could suggest, to better their conditionand relieve their wants.

33. The year 1848 will ever be memorable forthe revolutions that have taken place in Franceand other parts of the continent. Louis Philippe,the French king, was dethroned on the24th of February, 1848, and fled with his family,to England.

34. At Berlin, the capital of Prussia, therewas also an insurrection in March, 1848, whena frightful battle was fought in the streets, betweenthe soldiers and the people.

35. Great numbers of persons were killed onboth sides, and many houses were destroyed;and although peace was restored by the kinggranting the demands of his subjects, yet thatcould not bring back happiness to those who hadlost their fathers, husbands, or brothers, in thefatal conflict.

36. Besides those already named, revolutions,attended with great loss of life and destructionof property, have taken place at Vienna, thecapital of Austria, and other parts of Germany.Italy, too, has shared in the spread of revolution;Naples, Milan, and Venice, having beenscenes of fearful tumult and destruction of life.

37. In most of the places I have mentioned,the people having been fighting for a constitutionalform of government, similar to that of ourown happy united kingdom; conveying thestrongest proof that we ought not to wish for achange. Yet there have been some attemptsmade to disturb the peace of this country, byill-informed or worthless persons.

38. Perhaps the desire for some increase inthe number of the electors, and in the placesrepresented in parliament, by uniting the adjacenttowns to the small boroughs, is not unreasonable.

39. But when we think of the dreadful stateof things in France, Italy and Germany, whereso many thousands of people have lost theirlives, where trade is ruined, where the middleclasses are reduced to poverty, and the workingpeople, in consequence, starving, for want ofemployment, we cannot be too thankful for the[201]peace, the liberty, and prosperity, we enjoy inthis more favored and happier country.

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CHAPTER I.
	PAGE
The Ancient Britons,	9
CHAPTER II.
The Romans in Britain,	16
CHAPTER III.
The Saxon Heptarchy,	24
CHAPTER IV.
Manners of the Saxons,	33
CHAPTER V.
The Danes and Alfred the Great,	41
CHAPTER VI.
From the Death of Alfred to the Norman Conquest,	50
CHAPTER VII.
The Norman Conquest,	59
CHAPTER VIII.
The Norman Period—1087 to 1154,	68
CHAPTER IX.[8]
Henry the Second, Richard the First, and John—1154 to 1216,	82
CHAPTER X.
From the Death of King John to the Accession of Richard the Second—1216 to 1377,	95
CHAPTER XI.
From the Accession of Richard the Second to the War of the Roses—1377 to 1422,	110
CHAPTER XII.
The Wars of the Roses—1422 to 1461,	119
CHAPTER XIII.
From the Battle of Bosworth, to Queen Elizabeth—1461 to 1558,	128
CHAPTER XIV.
Queen Elizabeth—1558 to 1603,	140
CHAPTER XV.
The Stuarts. From the Union to the Revolution—1603 to 1689,	150
CHAPTER XVI.
The Revolution—1689 to 1714,	168
CHAPTER XVII.
House of Hanover—1714 to 1830,	175
CHAPTER XVIII.
From the Death of George the Third, 1830, to the Present Time,	190

Movatterモバイル変換

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Child's Pictorial History of England

THE
CHILD’S PICTORIAL
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

PREFACE

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

Contents.

CHAPTER I.

THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

CHAPTER II.

THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN.

CHAPTER III.

THE SAXON HEPTARCHY.

CHAPTER IV.

MANNERS OF THE SAXONS.

CHAPTER V.

THE DANES AND ALFRED THE GREAT.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE DEATH OF ALFRED TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CHAPTER VII.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE NORMAN PERIOD.—1087 TO 1154.

CHAPTER IX.

HENRY THE SECOND, RICHARD THE FIRST, ANDJOHN.—1154 TO 1216.

CHAPTER X.

FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THEACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND.—1216 TO 1377.

CHAPTER XI.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND TOTHE WAR OF THE ROSES.—1377 TO 1422.

CHAPTER XII.

THE WARS OF THE ROSES.—1422 TO 1461.

CHAPTER XIII.

FROM THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH, TO QUEENELIZABETH.—1461 TO 1558.

CHAPTER XIV.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.—1558 TO 1603.

CHAPTER XV.

THE STUARTS. FROM THE UNION TO THEREVOLUTION.—1603 TO 1689.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE REVOLUTION.—1689 TO 1714.

CHAPTER XVII.

HOUSE OF HANOVER.—1714 TO 1830.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FROM THE DEATH OF GEORGE THE THIRD,1830, TO THE PRESENT TIME.

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

Movatterモバイル変換

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Child's Pictorial History of England

THECHILD’S PICTORIALHISTORY OF ENGLAND.

PREFACETO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

Contents.

CHAPTER I.THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

CHAPTER II.THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN.

CHAPTER III.THE SAXON HEPTARCHY.

CHAPTER IV.MANNERS OF THE SAXONS.

CHAPTER V.THE DANES AND ALFRED THE GREAT.

CHAPTER VI.FROM THE DEATH OF ALFRED TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CHAPTER VII.THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CHAPTER VIII.THE NORMAN PERIOD.—1087 TO 1154.

CHAPTER IX.HENRY THE SECOND, RICHARD THE FIRST, ANDJOHN.—1154 TO 1216.

CHAPTER X.FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THEACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND.—1216 TO 1377.

CHAPTER XI.FROM THE ACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND TOTHE WAR OF THE ROSES.—1377 TO 1422.

CHAPTER XII.THE WARS OF THE ROSES.—1422 TO 1461.

CHAPTER XIII.FROM THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH, TO QUEENELIZABETH.—1461 TO 1558.

CHAPTER XIV.QUEEN ELIZABETH.—1558 TO 1603.

CHAPTER XV.THE STUARTS. FROM THE UNION TO THEREVOLUTION.—1603 TO 1689.

CHAPTER XVI.THE REVOLUTION.—1689 TO 1714.

CHAPTER XVII.HOUSE OF HANOVER.—1714 TO 1830.

CHAPTER XVIII.FROM THE DEATH OF GEORGE THE THIRD,1830, TO THE PRESENT TIME.

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

THE
CHILD’S PICTORIAL
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

PREFACE

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

CHAPTER I.

THE ANCIENT BRITONS.

CHAPTER II.

THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN.

CHAPTER III.

THE SAXON HEPTARCHY.

CHAPTER IV.

MANNERS OF THE SAXONS.

CHAPTER V.

THE DANES AND ALFRED THE GREAT.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE DEATH OF ALFRED TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CHAPTER VII.

THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE NORMAN PERIOD.—1087 TO 1154.

CHAPTER IX.

HENRY THE SECOND, RICHARD THE FIRST, ANDJOHN.—1154 TO 1216.

CHAPTER X.

FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THEACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND.—1216 TO 1377.

CHAPTER XI.

FROM THE ACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND TOTHE WAR OF THE ROSES.—1377 TO 1422.

CHAPTER XII.

THE WARS OF THE ROSES.—1422 TO 1461.

CHAPTER XIII.

FROM THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH, TO QUEENELIZABETH.—1461 TO 1558.

CHAPTER XIV.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.—1558 TO 1603.

CHAPTER XV.

THE STUARTS. FROM THE UNION TO THEREVOLUTION.—1603 TO 1689.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE REVOLUTION.—1689 TO 1714.

CHAPTER XVII.

HOUSE OF HANOVER.—1714 TO 1830.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FROM THE DEATH OF GEORGE THE THIRD,1830, TO THE PRESENT TIME.