“Miss Corner has acquired a deserved celebrity for the singularly-attractive and intelligible manner she has in narrating history.”--_London Critic._ Contents. CHAPTER I. PAGE THE ANCIENT BRITONS, 9 CHAPTER II. THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN, 16 CHAPTER III. THE SAXON HEPTARCHY, 24 CHAPTER IV. MANNERS OF THE SAXONS, 33 CHAPTER V. THE DANES AND ALFRED THE GREAT, 41 CHAPTER VI. FROM THE DEATH OF ALFRED TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 50 CHAPTER VII. THE NORMAN CONQUEST, 59 CHAPTER VIII. THE NORMAN PERIOD--1087 TO 1154, 68 CHAPTER IX. HENRY THE SECOND, RICHARD THE FIRST, AND JOHN--1154 TO 1216, 82 CHAPTER X. FROM THE DEATH OF KING JOHN TO THE ACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND--1216 TO 1377, 95 CHAPTER XI. FROM THE ACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND TO THE WAR OF THE ROSES--1377 TO 1422, 110 CHAPTER XII. THE WARS OF THE ROSES--1422 TO 1461, 119 CHAPTER XIII. FROM THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH, TO QUEEN ELIZABETH--1461 TO 1558, 128 CHAPTER XIV. QUEEN ELIZABETH--1558 TO 1603, 140 CHAPTER XV. THE STUARTS. FROM THE UNION TO THE REVOLUTION--1603 TO 1689, 150 CHAPTER XVI. THE REVOLUTION--1689 TO 1714, 168 CHAPTER XVII. HOUSE OF HANOVER--1714 TO 1830, 175 CHAPTER XVIII. FROM THE DEATH OF GEORGE THE THIRD, 1830, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 190 CHAPTER I. THE ANCIENT BRITONS. [Illustration: ANCIENT BRITONS.] 1. Would you not like to read about your own country, and to know what sort of people lived in it a long while ago, and whether they were any thing like us? Indeed, they were not; neither was England, in ancient times, such as it is now. 2. There were no great cities, no fine buildings, no pleasant gardens, parks, or nice roads to go from one place to another; but the people lived in caves, or in the woods, in clusters of huts, which they called towns. 3. The country was not then called England, but Britain; and its inhabitants were called Britons. They were divided into many tribes; and each tribe had a king or chief, like the North American Indians; and these chiefs often went to war with one another.