IN THE

HISTORY OF ENGLAND,

ITS SOVEREIGNS AND ITS PEOPLE;

FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT,

RELATED IN THE WORDS OF THE BEST WRITERS,

THE

Old Chroniclers, Poets, and Modern Historians;

FORMING A

SERIES OF INTERESTING NARRATIVES

OF THE

MOST REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES IN EACH REIGN;

WITH

REVIEWS OF THE MANNERS, DOMESTIC HABITS,
AMUSEMENTS, COSTUME, ETC., OF THE PEOPLE;

Now Publishing, by Subscription, uniform with the present work,

EVENTS TO BE REMEMBERED

IN THE

HISTORY OF FRANCE.

Subscriber's Names received by Messrs. DARTON and Co., 58, Holborn-hill, and through any Bookseller in Town or Country.

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 pretended to offer an entire History of England; but simply a railway chart of the principal events, which, although many of them may be already known from school abridgments, are 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 novel and interesting particulars, that even the most hacknied event appears in a new light, and escapes the dulness of a twice-told tale.

In addition to the many minute, and sometimes lengthy relations of the more salient events in our history, will be found a correct chronicle of memorable dates, reviews 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, 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 hoped no offence can be taken by any one.

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 land marks of the different countries, and leaves the cities, the towns, the villages, the woods, the fields, the mountains, and the rivers, to be filled in by the research of the student; this volume presents but the outlines of our history, and points to sources from which materials can be gained to give them "form and feature;" to those who are familiar with our chronicles it may be useful as a "Dictionary of Dates," and serve as an incentive to those who are commencing their study, to seek in the pages of the great authors, whose names are affixed to every article, for the substance of which they will find here but the faint shadow.

London, December, 1851.

CHARLES SELBY.

INDEX.