31 CTC5

THIS Reader has been constructed to meet the requirements of the New Code (Article 19, c. 1), as explained in the circular issued by the Education Department to H.M. Inspectors of Schools, bearing date 14th September, 1880.

It professes to be a Reading-Book, and not a mere catalogue of geographical facts. An effort has been made to associate locality with events of human interest, and thus to attract the scholar to the subject of each lesson.

The plan which has been pursued is this :--A rapid run round England brings before the pupil the leading features of the coast line, the principal rivers, bays, capes, and seaport towns. The scholar is then conducted through England, and made to observe the lie of the land, the course of the rivers, and the situation of the leading manufacturing towns. It is of prime importance that, in every lesson, the map be constantly consulted. By this means the scholars will acquire correct ideas regarding the relative situation of places.

Much has been omitted which the Editor would fain have inserted; but the limited space rendered careful selection absolutely necessary. The omissions can, in regard to each particular district, be supplied from local knowledge; but, after all, the main purport of teaching geography is not so much to cram the memory with isolated facts, as to communicate geographical ideas which may tend to train and cultivate the mind. This, it is hoped, the Reader may help in accomplishing.

It has only further to be observed that the Summary at the end of the volume may be advantageously used for giving detailed information, which could not be introduced into the text without injury to the book as a Reader.

T. M.

GLASGOW, May, 1881.

G

SHAKESPEARE, the greatest poet the world ever saw, in speaking of England, calls it

"This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall

Against the envy of less happier lands,

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.” We intend, in this book, to speak to you about this

5

England, of which so many poets have sung, and of which, I am sure, every English boy and English girl is proud. And, first, we should like you to know why the land you live in is called England.

The old name of England was Britain. It bore the name of Britain more than two thousand years ago. A great Roman soldier, Julius Cæsar, who invaded England fiftyfive years before the birth of Christ, and who has given us a brief account of it, always calls it Britain. For more than 800 years after Cæsar's invasion it was still called Britain. How, then, did it come to be called England?

I have no doubt you have read in your history, or have been told, that the Romans, who first came to Britain, as I have said, fifty-five years before the birth of Christ, conquered the island, and ruled over it for many years. After a time, however, their own country was invaded by many barbarous tribes, and they were obliged to withdraw all their soldiers from Britain to defend their own homes. The last of the Roman soldiers left Britain about the year 408 after the birth of Christ.

When the Romans left Britain about the time I have mentioned, the natives were exposed to terrible suffering from invasions made into their country by the Picts and Scots, wild tribes from Scotland and Ireland, who poured in swarms upon the land, and carried off the flocks and herds, and even the harvests from the fields, leaving the Britons to all the miseries of famine.

In their distress, the Britons determined to ask help from certain tribes living in Germany near the mouth of the river Elbe. These tribes were known as Saxons, Jutes, and Angles. The Saxons were the most numerous and powerful; but all the tribes are described as brave, highspirited, lovers of freedom, and singularly beautiful in form and countenance.