This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1849 edition. Excerpt: ... history of england. chapter I. (From A.c. 50 to A.d. 870.) You have often, I dare say, wished to know something about the history of this beautiful island, in which we live. You have wondered who reigned over it before our present Queen, whom God long preserve, or her father or grandfather were born: what sort of people lived in it a thousand years ago; and how the Church was first founded, and the Government became what it is at this day. I intend telling you, in the following little book, something of all this. I shall not be able to give you a long account of any one part of English history, because I have much to say, and only a little space in which to say it. For the same reason I must leave out many interesting stories, which, as you grow up, you will read in larger histories. But if you attend carefully, I think I shall be able to give you some knowledge of what has happened in this land in the times which have long passed away; and more especially of the noble works which God wrought in the days of our fathers, and in the old times before them. At the timewhen we first hear anything of England, or as it was then called, Britain, which is about fifty years before the birth of our Saviour, it was possessed by a very brave but fierce race of savages. They painted themselves, to make their enemies afraid of them; in battle they used war chariots, with scythes fastened to the wheels: and though divided into a great number of little states, each governed by its own king, in time of danger they chose one chief, who managed the affairs of the whole nation. As to their religion, they were idolaters, worshipping images of wood and stone: but what was most remarkable was the great reverence they paid to their Priests, who were called...