A School History of England

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A School History of England (1911)
C. R. L. Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling

From the Earliest Times to the Departure of the Romans

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A textbook “written for all boys and girls who are interested in the story of Great Britain and her Empire”, embellished with 23 poems by Kipling and vibrant illustrations by Henry Ford. Fletcher supplied the historical material, while Kipling proofread and approved the text. The poems “[range] from the jingoistic to the riverine” and the text is “unremittingly, unapologetically anti-parliamentary and racist, with particular strains of anti-Irish sentiment, and deep commitment to the stratification of races.” It was condemned by J. Cathcart Watson, a Scottish member in the House of Commons, who sought it banned “in view of the very distinct libel on the Irish race contained in the book.” It was reissued in 1983 as Kipling’s Pocket History of England.[1]

3244231A School History of England1911C. R. L. Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling

Layout 2

Emery Walker sc.

A SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND

by

C. R. L. FLETCHER

and

RUDYARD KIPLING

PICTURES BY HENRY FORD

OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1911

LONDON

HENRY FROWDE	HODDER & STOUGHTON
AMEN CORNER	WARWICK SQUARE
E. C.	E. C.

PREFACE

This book is written for all boys and girls who are interested in the story of Great Britain and her Empire.

C. R. L. F.

R. K.

March, 1911.

The publishers desire to express their thanks to the Manager and officials of the United Services Museum, Whitehall, for their courtesy in giving facilities to the artist for making studies of the military and naval material in the museum.

CONTENTS

chap.		page
I.	From the Earliest Times to the Departure of the Romans	9
II.	Saxon England	26
III.	The Norman Kings, 1066–1154	47
IV.	Henry II to Henry III, 1154–1272; the Beginnings of Parliament	62
V.	The Three Edwards, 1272–1377	83
VI.	The End of the Middle Ages; Richard II to Richard III, 1377–1485	97
VII.	The Tudors and the Awakening of England, 1485–1603	111
VIII.	The Early Stuarts and the Great Civil War, 1603–1660	140
IX.	The Fall of the Stuarts and the Revolution, 1660–1688	163
X.	William III to George II, 1688–1760; the Growth of Empire	177
XI.	The American Rebellion and the Great French War, 1760–1815; Reign of George III	199
XII.	George III to George V, 1815–1911	220

POEMS

page
The River’s Tale	9
The Roman Centurion	19
The Pirates in England	26
The Saxon Foundations of England	31
What ‘Dane-geld’ means	39
William the Conqueror’s Work	46
Norman and Saxon	51
The Reeds of Runnymede	75
My Father’s Chair	81
The Dawn Wind	109
The King’s Job	111
With Drake in the Tropics	134
‘Together’	138
Before Edgehill Fight	155
The Dutch in the Medway	168
‘Brown Bess’	177
‘Twas not while England’s Sword unsheathed’	199
After the War	202
The French Wars	218
The Bells and the Queen, 1911	222
Big Steamers	235
The Secret of the Machines	247
The Glory of the Garden	249

LIST OF COLOURED PLATES

The Cave People	To face page	11
The Landing of the Danes	To face„ page„	37
William I at Hastings	To face„ page„	43
Richard I in the Holy Land	To face„ page„	70
Edward III at Calais	To face„ page„	94
Richard II and Wat Tyler	To face„ page„	99
An Imaginary Map of America, 1500	After	109
With Drake in the Tropics	To face page	134
Prince Rupert at Oxford, going to battle	To face„ page„	156
Waterloo, 7 p.m., June 18, 1815	To face„ page„	217
A Glimpse of the Future	To face„ page„	248

LIST OF DRAWINGS

page
The Landing of the Romans	17
The Building of the Wall	23
St. Augustine preaching to Ethelbert	34
The Murder of Becket	67
King John signs the Great Charter	74
Edward I's Wars with the Welsh—how the King shared the hardships of his men	84
English Archery wins at Agincourt	101
How Henry VIII had the Monks turned out of the Monasteries	119
Henry VIII sees that England has a good Fleet	122
At the time of the Armada—Elizabeth reviews the Troops at Tilbury	135
Brown Bess	178
Nelson shot at the Battle of Trafalar, October 21, 1803	213

LIST OF MAPS

page
Britain, to illustrate history from the Coming of the Romans to the Norman Conquest		25
France		93
Great Britain, to illustrate history from the Norman Conquest to the present day		142
Ireland		152
British Colonial Empire after the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713		187
Western Europe	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ End papers
The World, showing the British Empire

The Glory of the Garden.

Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.

For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,You'll find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all,The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dungpits and the tanks,The rollers, carts and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.

And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and ’prentice boysTold off to do as they are bid and do it without noise;For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words.

And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows;But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come.

Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not madeBy singing:—‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade,While better men than we go out and start their working livesAt grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.

There’s not a pair of legs so thin, there’s not a head so thick,There’s not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick,But it can find some needful job that’s crying to be done,For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one.

Then seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders,If it’s only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders;And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden.

Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him seesThat half a proper gardeners work is done upon his knees,So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and prayFor the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away!And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away!

Oxford: Horace Hart, Printer to the University

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1941, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 83 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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