The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Child's History of England, by Charles
Dickens, Illustrated by F. H. Townsend

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Title: A Child's History of England

Author: Charles Dickens

Release Date: May 6, 2007 [eBook #699]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND***

Transcribed from the 1905 Chapman & Hall "Works of Charles Dickens"
edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND

By CHARLES DICKENS

With Illustrations by F. H. Townsend and others

LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LD.
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1905

CHAPTER I--ANCIENT ENGLAND AND THE ROMANS

If you look at a Map of the World, you will see, in the left-hand upper
corner of the Eastern Hemisphere, two Islands lying in the sea. They are
England and Scotland, and Ireland. England and Scotland form the greater
part of these Islands. Ireland is the next in size. The little
neighbouring islands, which are so small upon the Map as to be mere dots,
are chiefly little bits of Scotland,--broken off, I dare say, in the
course of a great length of time, by the power of the restless water.

In the old days, a long, long while ago, before Our Saviour was born on
earth and lay asleep in a manger, these Islands were in the same place,
and the stormy sea roared round them, just as it roars now. But the sea
was not alive, then, with great ships and brave sailors, sailing to and
from all parts of the world. It was very lonely. The Islands lay
solitary, in the great expanse of water. The foaming waves dashed
against their cliffs, and the bleak winds blew over their forests; but
the winds and waves brought no adventurers to land upon the Islands, and
the savage Islanders knew nothing of the rest of the world, and the rest
of the world knew nothing of them.

It is supposed that the Phoenicians, who were an ancient people, famous
for carrying on trade, came in ships to these Islands, and found that
they produced tin and lead; both very useful things, as you know, and
both produced to this very hour upon the sea-coast. The most celebrated
tin mines in