An Introductory History of England (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from An Introductory History of England<br><br>The presumption of adding another to the long list of Histories of England for boys needs some apology. The venture was suggested to me by certain uncomplimentary young gentlemen (near relations of my own), who were always complaining that they found History intolerably dull.<br><br>My own view is that English History should be an inheritance of childhood; that its legends and its romance should grow into our thoughts from very early years, and should expand themselves with the expansion of our minds; that we should feel History and dream of it rather than learn it as a lesson. Happy is that boy who, having so "grown up with" the story of his country, can people the fields and lanes of his home with the figures of the past; can hear the clatter of Rupert's horsemen down his village street, and can picture the good monks catching baskets-full of trout in the stream (there were more trout in it before the Reformation) wherein he is failing to get a rise.<br><br>For English History as part of a school "curriculum," or as a means of education, I have no such regard at all. Education is not the acquisition of information, as those people appear to think who wish to turn Eton and Winchester into cramming establishments for the army, or "useful avenues for commercial life," or, at best, into copies of a German Realschule.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.