LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE FRONTISPIECE.-QUEEN ELIZABETH REVIEWING HER ARMY AT TILBURY. KING ETHELBERT DECLARES HIMSELF A CHRISTIAN KING EDWARD STABBED BY ORDER OF ELFRIDA WILLIAM RALLIES THE NORMANS AT HASTINGS.. KING DERMOT DOING HOMAGE TO HENRY II. KING RICHARD I. MADE PRISONER BY THE DUKE OF AUSTRIA 56 66 69 KING JOHN SIGNING MAGNA CHARTA .. 71 80 .. 94 HENRY OF HEREFORD CLAIMING THE CROWN OF ENGLAND THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET ACCUSING HIS BROTHER BEFORE LADY JANE GREY REFUSING THE CROWN QUEEN ELIZABETH REVIEWING HER ARMY AT TILBURY CROMWELL TURNS OUT THE PARLIAMENT KING CHARLES II. ENTERS LONDON AT HIS RESTORATION THE PRETENDER AT HOLYROOD HOUSE 199 203 ... 221 LITTLE ARTHUR'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. The ancient Britons: their houses - clothes - and food. You know, my dear little Arthur, that the country you live in is called ENGLAND. It is joined to another country called SCOTLAND, and the two together are called GREAT BRITAIN. Now, a very long time ago, Britain was so full of trees, that there was very little room for houses, and still less for corn-fields, and there were no gardens. The houses were made of wicker-work; that is, of sticks put together like baskets, and plastered over with mud, to keep out the wind and rain; and the people, who were called Britons, used to build a good many together, and make a fence round them, to keep the bears, and the wolves, and the foxes, which lived in their woods, from coming in the night to steal their sheep, or perhaps to kill their children, while they were asleep. These fences were made of great piles of wood and trunks of trees, laid one upon another till they were as high as a wall; for at that time the Britons B did not know how to build walls of stone or brick, with mortar. Several houses, with a fence round them, made a town; and the Britons had their towns either in the middle of the woods, where they could hardly be found out, or else on the tops of high hills, from which they could see everything, and everybody that was coming near them. I do not think the insides of their houses could have been very comfortable. They had wooden stools to sit on, and wooden benches for bedsteads, and their beds were made of skins of wild beasts, spread over dry grass and leaves. In some places they used the pretty heath that grows upon the commons for beds, and in others, nothing but dry leaves spread upon the ground. They had great wooden bowls to hold their meat, and wooden cups to drink out of; and in some parts of the country I am almost sure they had coarse earthen plates and bowls. They had very few tools to make the things they wanted; and yet, by taking great pains, they made them very neatly. Their boats were very curious; they were nicely made, of basket-work covered over with leather; they were called corracles. You may think, that as the Britons had such poor houses and beds, that they were not much better off for clothes. In the winter they used to wrap themselves up in the skins of the beasts they could shoot with their bows and arrows. In the summer they were naked, and instead of clothes they put paint upon their bodies. They were very fond of a fine blue colour, which they made of a plant, called Woad, which they found in their woods. They squeezed out the juice of the Woad, and then stained themselves all over with it, so that in summer they looked as if they were dressed in tight blue clothes. They were as ill off for eating as for clothes. Only a few of the very richest Britons could get bread, the rest of the people ate acorns and berries, which they found in the woods, instead of bread. They had beef, mutton, and deer, and hares, and wild birds. But then, as they had no nice fields to feed the sheep and cattle in, they were forced to spend a great deal of time in hunting for them in the woods, and often went without their dinners when they could not get near enough to a beast or bird to shoot it with their bows and arrows. Now you have read enough about the houses, and furniture, and boats, and clothes, and food of the Britons, that is, of the people who used to live in England long ago. Another time you shall read more about them. I AM Sorry to say that the old Britons had no churches; and that they did not know anything about the true God. Their oldest and cleverest men only thought God must be somewhere, and because they saw that oaks were the largest, and oldest, and best trees in the woods, they told the people that God must be where the oaks grew; but they were mistaken, you know, for God is in heaven, and He made the oaks, and everything else that you can see, and everything |