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NOTES.

1. Landing of Henghist at Thanet (p. 22, ¶ 1).-"It is with the landing of Henghist and his war band at Ebbsfleet, on the shores of the isle of Thanet, that English history begins. No spot in Britain can be so sacred to Englishmen as that which first felt the tread of English feet. There is little indeed to catch the eye in Ebbsfleet itself, a mere lift of higher ground, with a few gray cottages dotted over it, cut off nowadays from the sea by a reclaimed meadow and a sea-wall. But taken as a whole, the scene has a wild beauty of its own. To the right, the white curve of Ramsgate cliffs looks down on the crescent of Pegwell Bay; far away to the left, across gray marsh levels, where smoke-wreaths mark the sites of Richborough and Sandwich, rises the dim cliff-line of Deal. Everything in the character of the spot confirms the national tradition which fixed here the first landing-place of our English fathers, for great as the physical changes of the country have been since the fifth century, they have told little on its main features."-Green-A Short History of the English People.

2. Ravages of the Saxons (p. 23, ¶ 3).—"In the year of grace 462, the Saxons bound King Vortigern and threatened him with death, unless he gave up his towns and places of defence, to save his life. He granted them whatever they demanded, in order to obtain his life and freedom. After exacting an oath from him, they let him go. They first took possession of London, and then successively of York, Lincoln, and Winchester, committing in the meanwhile great devastations. They fell on the natives in every quarter, like wolves on sheep forsaken by their shepherds; the churches and all the ecclesiastical buildings they leveled with the ground; the priests they slew at the altars; the holy Scriptures they burned with fire; the tombs of the holy martyrs they covered with mounds of earth; the clergy who escaped the slaughter fled with the relics of the saints to the caves and recesses of the earth, to the woods and deserts, and the crags of the mountains. At the sight of such devastation, Vortigern, not knowing how to check the impious race, retired into Wales, and shut himself up in the town of Genorium.”—Roger of Wendover-Flowers of History.

3. The Heptarchy (p. 23, ¶ 4).—" The old notion of an Heptarchy, of a regular system of seven kingdoms, united under the regular supremacy of a single overlord (or Bretwalda), is a dream which has passed away before the light of historic criticism. The English kingdoms in Britain were ever fluctuating, alike in their number and in their relations to one another. . . . Yet it is certain that, among the mass of smaller and more obscure principalities, seven kingdoms do stand out in a marked way, seven kingdoms which alone supplied candidates for the dominion of the whole island. First comes the earliest permanent Teutonic settlement in Britain, the Jutish kingdom of Kent. The direct descendants of Henghist reigned over a land which, as the nearest portion of Britain to the continent, has ever been the first to receive every foreign immigration, but which, notwithstanding, prides itself to this day on its specially Teutonic usages, which have vanished elsewhere Besides Kent, the Jutes formed no other strictly independent state. Their only other settlement was a small principality, including the Isle of Wight and part of Hampshire, whose history is closely connected with that of the great Saxon kingdom in its immediate neighborhood, in which it was at last merged. The remainder of the English territory south of the Thames, together with a small portion to

the north of that river, formed the three kingdoms of the Saxons, the East, the South, and the West, whose names speak for themselves. Among these, Sussex and Essex fill only a secondary part in our history. . . . Very different was the destiny of the third Saxon kingdom. Wessex has grown into England, England into the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom into the British Empire."-Freeman's History of the Norman Conquest.

4. The Britons and King Arthur (p. 24, ¶ 6).-"In the fastnesses of Wales, on the heights of Caledonia, and on the friendly land of Amorica, are yet tracked the fugitive and ruined Britons. It is most generally conceded that they retreated to the western coasts of England, and that, often discomfited, they took their last refuge in those 'mountain heights' of Cambria. Their shadowy Arthur has left an undying name in romance, and is a nonentity in history. Whether Arthur was a mortal commander, heading some kings of Britain, or whether religion and policy were driven to the desperate effort for rallying their fugitives by a national name and a hope deferred,' like the Sebastian of Portugal, this far-famed chieftain could never have been a fortunate general; he displayed his invincibility but in some obscure and remote locality; he struck no terror among his enemies, for they have left his name unchronicled; nor living, have the bards distinguished his pre-eminence. The grave of Arthur is a mystery of the world,' exclaimed Taliessin, the great bard of the Britons. But the mortal who vanished in the cloud of conflict had never seen death; and to the last, the Britons awaited for the day of their redeemer, when Arthur should return in his immortality, accompanied by 'the Flood-King of the Deluge,' from the Inys Avallon, the Isle of the Mystic Apple-tree, their Eden or their Elysium. Arthur was a myth, half Christian, half Druidical. In Amorica, as in Wales, his coming was long expected, till Espérance brétonne' became proverbial for all chimerical hopes."-Disraeli-Amenities of Literature.

5. Introduction of Christianity into England (p. 25, ¶ 9).—“ About eighteen or twenty years before the arrival of the Roman missionaries, in the reign of Alla, King of Deira, some young children were sent from thence to Rome to be sold. That sort of trade was then commonly done by the English, who made no scruple of selling their children when overstocked. These young slaves being exposed for sale in the public market, drew the eyes of vast numbers of people upon them, who could not admire them enough. Among the rest, Gregory, Archdeacon of Rome, beheld them very attentively. He inquired particularly after the place of their birth, and the religion there professed. As soon as he knew they were Eng. lish, and born of idolatrous parents, he resolved to go and preach the gospel to that nation. Being unable from his duties in Rome (having become pope) to carry out his good intention in person, he sent those whom he thought capable of inspiring the people with a relish for the gospel. He chose for this purpose four Benedictine monks, with Austin (St. Augustine) at their head, in quality of abbot. Austin and his companions, having passed through France, arrived at the Isle of Thanet in the year of our Lord 597.”—Rapin.

6. Egbert, King of England (p. 26, ¶ 11).-" So King Ecgbehrt was Lord from the Irish Sea to the German Ocean and from the English Channel to the Frith of Forth. So it is not wonderful if, in his charters, he not only called himself King of the West-Saxons, or King of the West-Saxons and Kentishmen, but sometimes Rex Anglorum, or King of the English."-Freeman-Old English for Children.

p. 27-2

PART II.

ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE

AGES.

SECTION I.

THE ANGLO-SAXON AND DANISH KINGS.

Extending from the Foundation of the English Monarchy under Egbert (A. D. 827) to the reign of William the Conqueror (A. D. 1066).

1. Egbert and his immediate successors styled themselves "Kings of Wessex;" since it was that kingdom which absorbed into itself all the smaller states in the south, and finally succeeded in making tributary to itself the larger kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria. These kingdoms continued for some time to be ruled by their own monarchs, and governed by their own. laws. The sway of Egbert, however, extended over the whole of Roman Britain except Cumbria and Strathclyde; for he had waged repeated wars with the Welsh, both in North and West Wales, and defeated them in so many great battles, that nearly all submitted to his power.

MAP QUESTIONS.-(Progressive Map, No. 3.) What was the situation and bound aries of Wessex? Of Essex? Of Mercia? Of East Anglia? Of Northumbria! Of Strathclyde? Of Wales? Of West Wales? Where was Kent? Where was the country of the Picts? Of the Scots? What was the situation of Canterbury ! Winchester? York? Worcester? Bath? Exeter? St. Albans? Shrewsbury! Lincoln ? Berwick? Glastonbury? Athelingay? Edinburgh? Where is the Thames R.? Severn R. ? Trent R.? Humber R.? Tees R.? Tyne R.? Tweed R.? Forth R. Clyde R.? Solway Frith? Anglesey Island? Isle of Man? Isle of Wight?

1. What did Egbert and his successors style themselves? Why? How far did Egbert's sway extend?

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