The Leading Facts of English History

The Most of the materials for this book were gathered by the writer during several years' residence in England. The attempt is here made to present them in a manner that shall illustrate the law of national growth, in the light thrown upon it by the foremost English historians. The present edition has been carefully revised throughout, and, to a considerable extent, rewritten. England was inhabited for many centuries before its written history began. The earliest races that possessed the country were stunted, brutal savages. They used pieces of rough flint for tools and weapons. From flint too they produced fire. They lived by hunting and fishing, and often had no homes but caves and rock shelters. The new people were good farmers; they exported grain, cattle, and hides to Gaul (France), and mined and sold tin ore to merchants who came by sea from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.