



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 Cornwall are, still, close to the sea.  One of them, which I
have seen, is so close to it that it is hollowed out underneath the
ocean; and the miners say, that in stormy weather, when they are at work
down in that deep place, they can hear the noise of the waves thundering
above their heads.  So, the Phoenicians, coasting about the Islands,
would come, without much difficulty, to where the tin and lead were.

The Phoenicians traded with the Islanders for these metals, and gave the
Islanders some other useful things in exchange.  The Islanders were, at
first, poor savages, going almost naked, or only dressed in the rough
skins of beasts, and staining their bodies, as other savages do, with
 earths and the juices of plants.  But the Phoenicians, sailing
over to the opposite coasts of France and Belgium, and saying to the
people there, 'We have been to those white cliffs across the water, which
you can see in fine weather, and from that country, which is called
BRITAIN, we bring this tin and lead,' tempted some of the French and
Belgians to come over also.  These people settled themselves on the south
coast of England, which is now called Kent; and, although they were a
rough people too, they taught the savage Britons some useful arts, and
improved that part of the Islands.  It is probable that other people came
over from Spain to Ireland, and settled there.

Thus, by little and little, strangers became mixed with the Islanders,
and the savage Britons grew into a wild, bold people; almost savage,
still, especially in the interior of the country away from the sea where
the foreign settlers seldom went; but hardy, brave, and strong.

The whole country was covered with forests, and swamps.  The greater part
of it was very misty and cold.  There were no roads, no bridges, no
streets, no houses that you would think deserving of the name.  A town
was nothing but a collection of straw-covered huts, hidden in a thick
wood, with a ditch all round, and a low wall, made of mud, or the trunks
of trees placed one upon another.  The people planted little or no corn,
but lived upon the flesh of their flocks and cattle.  They made no coins,
but used metal rings for money.  They were clever in basket-work, as
savage people often are; and they could make a coarse kind of cloth, and
some very bad earthenware.  But in building fortresses they were much
more clever.

They made boats of basket-work, covered with the skins of animals, but
seldom, if ever, ventured far from the shore.  They made swords, of
copper mixed with tin; but, these swords were of an awkward shape, and so
soft that a heavy blow would bend one.  They made light shields, short
pointed daggers, and spears--which they jerked back after they had thrown
them at an enemy, by a long strip of leather fastened to the stem.  The
butt-end was a rattle, to frighten an enemy's horse.  The ancient
Britons, being divided into as many as thirty or forty tribes, each
commanded by its own little king, were constantly fighting with one
another, as savage people usually do; and they always fought with these
weapons.

They were very fond of horses.  The standard of Kent was the picture of a
white horse.  They could break them in and manage them wonderfully well.
Indeed, the horses (of which they had an abundance, though they were
rather small) were so well taught in those days, that they can scarcely
be said to have improved since; though the men are so much wiser.  They
understood, and obeyed, every word of command; and would stand still by
themselves, in all the din and noise of battle, while their masters went
to fight on foot.  The Britons could not have succeeded in their most
remarkable art, without the aid of these sensible and trusty animals.  The
art I mean, is the construction and management of war-chariots or cars,
for which they have ever been celebrated in history.  Each of the best
sort of these chariots, not quite breast high in front, and open at the
back, contained one man to drive, and two or three others to fight--all
standing up.  The horses who drew them were so well trained, that they
would tear, at full gallop, over the most stony ways, and even through
the woods; dashing down their masters' enemies beneath their hoofs, and
cutting them to pieces with the blades of swords, or scythes, which were
fastened to the wheels, and stretched out beyond the car on each side,
for that cruel purpose.  In a moment, while at full speed, the horses
would stop, at the driver's command.  The men within would leap out, deal
blows about them with their swords like hail, leap on the horses, on the
pole, spring back into the chariots anyhow; and, as soon as they were
safe, the horses tore away again.

The Britons had a strange and terrible religion, called the Religion of
the Druids.  It seems to have been brought over, in very early times
indeed, from the opposite country of France, anciently called Gaul, and
to have mixed up the worship of the Serpent, and of the Sun and Moon,
with the worship of some of the Heathen Gods and Goddesses.  Most of its
ceremonies were kept secret by the priests, the Druids, who pretended to
be enchanters, and who carried magicians' wands, and wore, each of them,
about his neck, what he told the ignorant people was a Serpent's egg in a
golden case.  But it is certain that the Druidical ceremonies included
the sacrifice of human victims, the torture of some suspected criminals,
and, on particular occasions, even the burning alive, in immense wicker
cages, of a number of men and animals together.  The Druid Priests had
some kind of veneration for the Oak, and for the mistletoe--the same
plant that we hang up in houses at Christmas Time now--when its white
berries grew upon the Oak.  They met together in dark woods, which they
called Sacred Groves; and there they instructed, in their mysterious
arts, young men who came to them as pupils, and who sometimes stayed with
them as long as twenty years.

These Druids built great Temples and altars, open to the sky, fragments
of some of which are yet remaining.  Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, in
Wiltshire, is the most extraordinary of these.  Three curious stones,
called Kits Coty House, on Bluebell Hill, near Maidstone, in Kent, form
another.  We know, from examination of the great blocks of which such
buildings are made, that they could not have been raised without the aid
of some ingenious machines, which are common now, but which the ancient
Britons certainly did not use in making their own uncomfortable houses.  I
should not wonder if the Druids, and their pupils who stayed with them
twenty years, knowing more than the rest of the Britons, kept the people
out of sight while they made these buildings, and then pretended that
they built them by magic.  Perhaps they had a hand in the fortresses too;
at all events, as they were very powerful, and very much believed in, and
as they made and executed the laws, and paid no taxes, I don't wonder
that they liked their trade.  And, as they persuaded the people the more
Druids there were, the better off the people would be, I don't wonder
that there were a good many of them.  But it is pleasant to think that
there are no Druids, _now_, who go on in that way, and pretend to carry
Enchanters' Wands and Serpents' Eggs--and of course there is nothing of
the kind, anywhere.

Such was the improved condition of the ancient Britons, fifty-five years
before the birth of Our Saviour, when the Romans, under their great
General, Julius Caesar, were masters of all the rest of the known world.
Julius Caesar had then just conquered Gaul; and hearing, in Gaul, a good
deal about the opposite Island with the white cliffs, and about the
bravery of the Britons who inhabited it--some of whom had been fetched
over to help the Gauls in the war against him--he resolved, as he was so
near, to come and conquer Britain next.

So, Julius Caesar came sailing over to this Island of ours, with eighty
vessels and twelve thousand men.  And he came from the French coast
between Calais and Boulogne, 'because thence was the shortest passage
into Britain;' just for the same reason as our steam-boats now take the
same track, every day.  He expected to conquer Britain easily: but it was
not such easy work as he supposed--for the bold Britons fought most
bravely; and, what with not having his horse-soldiers with him (for they
had been driven back by a storm), and what with having some of his
vessels dashed to pieces by a high tide after they were drawn ashore, he
ran great risk of being totally defeated.  However, for once that the
bold Britons beat him, he beat them twice; though not so soundly but that
he was very glad to accept their proposals of peace, and go away.

But, in the spring of the next year, he came back; this time, with eight
hundred vessels