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IN THE

HISTORY OF ENGLAND;

FORMING A SERIES OF

INTERESTING NARRATIVES

OF THE

MOST REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES IN EACH REIGN:

WITH

REVIEWS OF THE MANNERS, DOMESTIC HABITS, AMUSEMENTS,
COSTUMES, ETC., OF THE PEOPLE.

BY CHARLES SELBY.

TWENTY-SIXTH EDITION,

WITH ADDITIONS BRINGING THE WORK DOWN TO THE MARRIAGE OF
THE PRINCE OF WALES.

LONDON:

LOCKWOOD AND CO., STATIONERS'-HALL COURT.

1864.

LONDON

PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.

NEW-STREET SQUARE

ADVERTISEMENT.

THIS little book has been compiled with great care, and considerable labour, from the best authorities, in the hope that all classes of readers may find something in it not only amusing but instructive.

It is not offered as an entire History of England; but as a succession of narratives of the principal Events, not as already known from school abridgments, but here presented in their integrity from the contemporary chronicles, or from the pages of modern historians, whose facile style has invested the stern facts of their predecessors with so many new readings, that even old stories appear in a new light.

In addition to many minute pictures of the more salient events in our history, will be found a correct chronicle of memorable dates; descriptions of costume, manners, and domestic habits, of the different periods; offering to the student many new and useful authorities, and to the general reader much amusement and information.

Great care has been taken to render the work unobjectionable to the most fastidious person, by excluding everything that could not be read aloud in schools and families; and by the abstinence from all party spirit alike, in politics as in religion.

It is with the utmost respect to copyright, that the works of modern authors are quoted; the extracts have been made in pure admiration of their excellence, and will, by presenting

the public with so pleasant a taste of their quality,' enhance the interest of the original pages.

As in a skeleton map, which gives but the landmarks of the different countries, and leaves the cities, towns, and villages, to be filled in by the research of the student; this volume presents simply the outlines of our history, but points to the best sources for further study.

At the same time the work presents, in the most attractive form the great and leading events of English history, so as to point out the means by which England has attained her present greatness in the scale of nations.

CHARLES SELBY.

NOTE

BY THE PUBLISHERS OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH EDITION.

This Edition has been extended by the addition of the leading events of the present reign, described from the best authorities, and brought down to the auspicious event of the marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Princess Alexandra of Denmark.

EVENTS TO BE REMEMBERED

IN THE

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF BRITAIN

Geoffrey, of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk, who lived in the twelfth century, penned, in Latin, a history of Britain, and dedicated it to Robert, Earl of Gloucester, a natural son of Henry I., King of England. In this pretended history Britain is said to receive her name from Brutus, the first of her kings. What the historian relates is as follows:-Brutus, son of Sylvius, grandson of Æneas, had the misfortune to kill his father as he was shooting at a deer. As he could not, or would not, after this fatal accident, stay any longer in Italy, he retires into Greece, where, gathering together the descendants of the Trojans that were put thither after the destruction of their city, he puts to sea with them, and, after long wandering on the Mediterranean, enters the Atlantic ocean, and performs wonders in several places, particularly at Gaul, against Goffarius, King of Aquitain. At length, guided by an oracle, he comes and lands on the island of Albion, at a place where Totnes now stands, in the county of Devon.* The island was at that

*The very stone upon which Brutus, the nephew of Æneas, landed at Totnes stili remains! It is inserted in the footway, nearly opposite the Mayoralty House, in the Fore-street. "From Totnes, the neighbouring shore was heretofore called Totnese. And the British History' tells us that Brutus, the founder of the British nation, arrived here." And Havillances (John de Alvilla, or Hauteville, according to Mr. Wright), as a poet, following the same authority, writes thus:

"Inde dato cursa, Brutus comitatus Achate
Gallorum spoliis cumulatis navibus æquor
Exarat, et superis auraque faventibus usus
Littora felices entrat Totnesia portus."

"From hence, great brute, with his Achates steered,
Full fraught with Gallic spoils their ships they appear'd

The winds and gods were all at their command,

And happy Totnes shew'd them grateful land."-Gibson's Camden.
Notes and Queries, vol. i., page 233.-J. Milner Barry, M.D.

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