KING JAMES I. WITH STEENIE AND BABY CHARLES 193 STRAFFORD GOING TO EXECUTION 200 PARTING OF KING CHARLES AND HIS CHILDREN 206 KING CHARLES I. ON THE SCAFFOLD 207 CROMWELL TURNS OUT THE PARLIAMENT 213 KING CHARLES II. ENTERS LONDON AT HIS RESTORATION 217 MARLBOROUGH AT BLENHEIM 235 THE PRETENDER AT HOLYROOD HOUSE 244 FARMHOUSE OF HOUGOUMONT ON THE FIELD OF WATERLOO 250 THE MARRIAGE OF QUEEN VICTORIA 261 LITTLE ARTHUR’S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. [Illustration: Decoration] CHAPTER I. The ancient Britons: their houses—clothes—and food. You know, my dear little Arthur, that the country you live in is called ENGLAND. It is joined to another country called SCOTLAND, and the two together are called GREAT BRITAIN. Now, a very long time ago, Britain was so full of trees, that there was very little room for houses, and still less for corn-fields, and there were no gardens. The houses were made of wicker-work; that is, of sticks put together like baskets, and plastered over with mud, to keep out the wind and rain; and the people, who were called Britons, used to build a good many together, and make a fence round them, to keep the bears, and the wolves, and the foxes, which lived in their woods, from coming in the night to steal their sheep, or perhaps to kill their children, while they were asleep. These fences were made of great piles of wood and trunks of trees, laid one upon another till they were as high as a wall; for at that time the Britons did not know how to build walls of stone or bricks with mortar. Several houses, with a fence round them, made a town; and the Britons had their towns either in the middle of the woods, where they could hardly be found out, or else on the tops of high hills, from which they could see everything and everybody that was coming near them. I do not think the insides of their houses could have been very comfortable. They had possibly wooden stools to sit on, and wooden benches for bedsteads, and their beds were made of skins of wild beasts, spread over dry grass and leaves. In some places they used the pretty heath that grows upon the commons for beds, and, in others, nothing but dry leaves spread upon the ground. They had great wooden bowls to hold their meat, and wooden cups to drink out of; and in some parts of the country they had coarse earthern, earthen bowls and pitchers, some of which you may now see in museums. They had very few tools to make the things they wanted; and yet, by taking great pains, they made them very neatly. Their boats were very curious; they were nicely made, of basket-work covered over with leather; they were called coracles.