MY DEAR BOY, LETTER I AS you are likely to be absent from me for a considerable time, I know you will be glad to hear from me frequently; and, that my Letters may not be entirely unprofitable to you, I intend to send you something like a History of England, our own country: it will be but a short one, yet it may do instead of a longer, till you grow bigger. Now, as you are at present but a very little gentleman, you must expect me to tell you about some very little matters,—such, however, as little people are not always acquainted with. And first I shall tell you that Great Britain is an "island," which perhaps you know very well already; and you know also that " an island" means 'a piece of land wholly surrounded by water." By "Great Britain" we mean England, Scotland, and Wales. . Look at your map, and you will see that Scotland is the most northern part of the island, and that Wales is on the western side. Ireland, too, makes a part of our nation, but that, you will see, is a distinct island, lying across the sea, on the left-hand, or west of us so that, if you or I wanted to go to Scotland or B Wales, we might go in a stage-coach; but if we wanted to go to Ireland we must go in a ship. France lies to the south of us, across that part of the sea which is called the "British Channel," within a few hours' sail. The French were formerly called Gauls: and the Roman emperor, Julius Cæsar, who was a great warrior more than eighteen hundred years ago, got possession of the greater part of France, or Gaul; and, not content with that, he must needs send over his troops to take possession of our little island too. This was the beginning of the Roman power in England. The Britons were, in those days, a very different sort of people from what they are now. They had nothing better for clothing than the skins of beasts; and such of their limbs as were not covered they painted blue. Some people may, perhaps, tell you that they were a very mild, and gentle, and harmless set of people: but don't believe a word of it. These good dispositions do not come naturally; they come from right education and true religion; and as these people had neither, you may depend upon it that they were a very fierce and savage race. But still they were a brave people; and the Romans, you may be sure, did not get possession of our island without a great deal of struggling and fighting: however, they kept a sort of possession here for about four hundred years. After the Romans came the Saxons, a people from Germany. The English had, very foolishly, sent for the Saxons to help them against their troublesome neighbours the Picts and the Scots, who lived in the northern part of the island; and when once these Saxons had got into * Not so easily now as when this little History was first written. |