THE CHILDHOOD OF THE ENGLISH NATION OR THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH HISTORY BY ELLA S. ARMITAGE BODL LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1877. All rights reserved ༢༤༣ PREFACE. THE aim of this little book is to awaken an interest in the study of English history in those who have never felt its charm. When first I began to write it, no short and simple History of England had appeared which made any attempt to give unlearned people an insight below the surface of the bare facts. Since then numerous works of the kind have appeared, and notably Mr. Green's 'Short History of the English People.' Yet, even after its publication, there appeared to me to be still room for a book of the kind I had attempted, a book which should act as interpreter to those who have no knowledge of history, and serve as an introduction to larger and better works. The early part of our history is so far removed from the thought of an average Englishman, that he cannot understand it without study; yet he is deceived by fancying that he understands it, and pronounces such words as monasticism, feudal system, English constitution, without knowing at all what lies behind them. Yet the interest of history lies in penetrating to the inner meaning of these things, in entering into the thought and feeling of past ages. To enable a modern reader of no great cultivation to do this, it seemed to me that some book was wanted which should be more diffuse in explanation than historians in general can find time to be; and in order to excite interest as |