ΤΟ

WILLIAM HOWITT,

WHO HAS FAMILIARISED ALL READERS WITH

THE BEAUTIES AND GLORIES OF

OLD ENGLAND;

AND TO

MARY HOWITT,

WHOSE VERSES DELIGHT ALIKE IN

EVERY ENGLISH HOME,

IN

COTTAGE; PARLOUR; AND SCHOOL-ROOM,

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS INSCRIBED

WITH HEARTY RESPECT AND AFFECTION

BY

The Author.

OLD ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

OLD

ENGLAND.

"This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infestion and the hand of war-
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in a silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house

Against the envy of less happier lands-
England bound in with the triumphant sea."
SHAKSPEARE.

FAR up there, in the earliest confluence of the streams of the ages, deep, in the darkness of the distant night of Time, while as yet the roar of the voices of the mighty people was unheardbefore the seas were traversed by the innumerable keels-when the sea-kings were unbornwhen the East was the centre of throne and literature, of people and power, Britain, Albion, lay like a dot upon the waters; she and her children, the Orkneys and the Shetlands, the

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