Excerpt from A Concise History of England and English People A history of England, given in a few hundred pages, must necessarily be a sketch. In the present volume the main purpose has been to make as prominent as possible the personal career of the chief actors in the several parts of the great drama. The work is in tended strictly as an introduction to a more continuous study of the subject 5 and the matter, it is hoped, has been so put as to awaken and call into action the reader's powers of thought and judgment. Unless these are exercised throughout, the task of reading history is of not the smallest use. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from A Short History of England, Vol. 1 of 2 In this brief history of England I have endeavored to present within the compass of about four hundred pages the main features of England's story from the earliest times to the present day. It retains, on a smaller scale, the essential characteristics of my larger work, with many omissions of details and some additions, chiefly of a geographical and biographical character. The aim of the book is to be instructive as well as interesting. In it I have tried to tell a clear and simple story, avoiding technical expressions, and yet passing over no important features of the history that are necessary for the proper understanding of the subject. The narrative is made as continuous as possible, that the reader may follow in unbroken sequence the thread of the story. It is accompanied with a large number of newly selected illustrations, and an ample supply of maps and chronological tables. The elaborate bibliographies contained in the larger work have been omitted, and only a brief but selective list of the best books of moderate length has been retained. The history has been brought down to date in matters of scholarship as well as chronology, and contains many opinions and statements not to be found in the larger work. The book traces in rapid survey the development of the people and institutions of England from Anglo-Saxon times to the close of the year 1911, and shows by what steps the primitive organization of a semi-tribal people has been transformed into the highly complicated political and social structure of the United Kingdom and the British Empire. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from A Short History of the English People, Vol. 3 But it was his elder brother, John Wesley, who embodied in himself not this or that side of the new movement, but the movement itself. Even at Oxford, where he resided as a fel low Oi Lincoln, he had been looked upon as head of the group of Methodists, and after his return from a quixotic mission to the Indians of Georgia he again took the lead of the little society, which had removed in the interval to London. In power as a preacher he stood next to Whitefield; as a hymn writer he stood second to his brother Charles. But while com bining in some degree the excellence of either, he possessed qualities in which both were utterly deficient; an indefatigable industry, a cool judgment, a command over others, a faculty of organization, a singular union Of patience and moderation with an imperious ambition, which marked him as a ruler Of men. He had besides a learning and skill in writing which no other of the Methodists possessed; he was older than any Of his colleagues at the start of the movement, and he out lived them all. His life indeed almost covers the century, and the Methodist body had passed through every phase of its history before he sank into the grave at the age Of eighty eight. It would have been impossible for Wesley to have wielded the power he did had he not shared the follies and extravagance as well as the enthusiasm of his disciples. Throughout his life his asceticism was that of a monk. At times he lived on bread only, and he Often slept on the bare boards. He lived in a world of wonders and divine interpositions. It was a miracle if the rain stopped and allowed him to set for ward on a journey. It was a judgment of Heaven if a hail storm burst over a town which had been deaf to his preach ing. One day, he tells us, when he was tired and his horse fell lame, I thought - cannot God heal either man or beast by any means or without any? - immediately my headache ceased and my horse's lameness in the same instant. With a still more childish fanaticism he guided his conduct, whether in ordinary events or in the great crises of his life, by draw ing lots or watching the particular texts at which his Bible Opened. But with all this extravagance and superstition, Wesley's mind was essentially practical, orderly, and conserv' ative. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from A Short History of the English People Provide for the evil day they saw approaching. Some begged of 1540 TO their own will for dissolution. It was worse when fresh ordinances 1553. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from A Short History of the English People, Vol. 1 The Short History was the first book which distinguished the great part played in the history of the English people by the burghers of the towns, and it still remains the only history where the fight of those little scattered communities is pictured in its true significance and given its just place in the developement of the national life. Since, in Mr. Green's own words, the mill by the stream, the tolls in the market-place, the brasses of its burghers in the church, the names of its streets, the lingering memory of its guilds, the mace of its mayor, tell us more of the past of England than the spire of Sarum or the martyrdom of Canterbury (intr. Xviii), there will be found here the circuit of ancient walls and. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from A Short History of the English People, Vol. 2 A lord's caprice into rights that could be pleaded at law. The number of teams, the fines, the reliefs, the services that a lord could claim, at first mere matter of oral tradition, came to be entered on the court-roll of the manor, a copy of which became the title-deed of the villein. It was to this that he owed the name of copy holder which at a later time superseded his older title. Disputes were settled by a reference to this roll or on oral evidence of the custom at issue, but a social arrangement which was eminently. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.