Hildegarde Hawthorne

“ But a new time was coming for England, Her great days were at hand—“the spacious times of great Elizabeth,” when the island was to extend its dominions to the New World, was to humble proud Spain, till then thought invincible, and was to breed a mighty race of heroes, men great in all the walks of life. The greatest playwright of the world was growing up to young manhood during the first half of the great queen's reign. ”

“ In the center was a Christmas tree, brilliantly lighted with candles and all hung over with shining ornaments, glowing fruit, and packages done up in colored paper. Several smiling grown-up people in quaint, old-fashioned clothes stood near the tree, and round it danced a circle of laughing children. As soon as they saw John and Rose and the fairy, they seized their hands too, and off every one went, laughing and shouting, round and round. ”

“ But he is not so lovable as the noble Harold, great though he be, and gallant. He loves too, and marries his beloved, but he breaks her heart, for he is not worthy of her.
In reading both these romances, you will see that the Saxon and the Dane both adored freedom with a real passion. The trouble with Hereward was that he loved himself best of all, however, and he brings harm and sorrow to England, and more to himself, and dies betrayed; but it is a brave death, a hero’s death, one against many. ”

“ NEVER has the story of England been more romantic and adventurous than under the early Plantagenet kings. Then was the day of the Crusades, when nobles, knights, and princes led the flower of the land to incredible hardships far oversea; then, too, was the day of Robin Hood, gallantest of outlaws, gentlest of robbers, lover of fair play and the fresh out of doors. ”

“ It does not always read like a story, and often you find it rather dull work; yet it is the tale of man’s existence, of his struggles from century to century, his advances and retreats, his immense adventures, his wonderful travels and discoveries—the most thrilling story there is!
The trouble with straight history is that it insists on dates and names; it has so much to tell that it is often forced to give no more than the dry fact, leaving out all the story part, all the heart interest, the personal feeling. The battles and cities get in the way of the people. ”

“ Once in a while, a real romance comes down through the ages picturing the story of the day rather than its facts; but these are rare. Nevertheless, by turning over many old documents and letters and fragmentary anecdotes, by steeping himself in his period, an author gets almost to believe that he is bodily, instead of simply mentally, in the thick of what he is writing; and if he is good, he makes us feel the same way. ”

“ Adventures follow each other thick and fast; we get to Wales and see a large part of England. And in the end we are brought with Purkess, who has long since gone to live in the New Forest as a charcoal-burner, far from the tyranny of the masters, to find the body of the king, who was shot while hunting, by no man knows whom, an arrow having glanced and pierced his heart. ”

“ The reading of such a line of books ought to be a help to you in your study of history. Often you will be able to discover mistakes the story-writers have made—but that will only make it more interesting. You will become a critic of the story from the historical standpoint, at the same time that your study of authenticated fact is made alive and vivid to you by the imagination of the romance. And you will surely be delighted to discover that history is no such dry affair as it occasionally appears to be in your school-books. ”

“ This time they opened their eyes to find themselves in another room, small and rather dark. But there was a big window at one end, before which stood two children, a boy and girl about as old as John and Rose. And through the window you could see clear into another house, where there was another tree, as fine as the one they had just left. Many children played around it, and ate cakes and laughed.
“Oh, come and look!” cried the two children at the window, as soon as they saw Rose and John. “Is n’t it wonderful! is n’t it beautiful!” And then they, too, began to dance. ”

“ Here are told the great hardships, the high endeavor, the noble endurance, and the wild enchantment of that western life, a life so recently passed away that its memory is distinct in the minds of living men, and yet so utterly vanished that it seems to have belonged to another age than ours, or to be a romantic story told at twilight when the fancy plays. ”

“ Bulwer is thoroughly in sympathy with his great hero, and has closely studied the entire period of which he writes. He gives a most careful, but not for that reason a tiring picture of English society in all its degrees, with all its pomp and glory, all its misery and suffering. He shows us, too, the beginnings of the new England that is to rise with the coming of the seventh Henry, and that will take another step toward the freeing of the individual, he he poor or rich, noble or simple.
He draws King Edward to the life, with all his virtues, all his faults. ”

“ Howard Pyle’s “Life and Adyentures of Robin Hood” (Scribner's, $3) is perhaps the best of all the modern Robin Hood books. Pyle loved a bold adventurer like Robin, and tells his story with the keenest joy—and what a story it is! Into it comes the noble figure of the king, and both Richard and John have adventures in Sherwood Forest. Many another brave knight and fair lady come gaily into the tale, with bad men too,—who get their deserts, most of them falling before the broad arrows of the outlaw band. ”

“ It is a book that takes you right into the England of Henry VI and Edward IV, and leads on from one adventure to the other. You can hardly set it down once you ’ve begun it. Its hero is as fine a young fellow as ever drew bow, and bears himself well, both in joy and trouble. The language has a quaint flavor of the ancient time, without being in the least difficult to understand, and we are taken all through England, with her lovely country, and old towns, and all her varied population. ”

“ Fun and frolic, intrigue, danger, courage, and excitement have crowded all the centuries, and your story-writer has found these entertaining things where the historian has missed them.
These books must necessarily be for the older among you, boys and girls in your ’teens, who like a good story, certainly, but who are beginning to be interested in the truth about this world and its people, and who do not mind helping out your school work with your home fun. Keeping your mind alert and keen is a more important thing than cramming it with facts. ”

“ Trains have rolled you over the vast plains or through the mountains, have brought you to the open door of the forest or the shores of lake or sea. If you went into the wilderness, you passed through sweet and flourishing farm districts and lively villages, and even though you crossed the prairies that roll up to the foot of the Rockies, you have seen the irrigated land turned green and gold with growing corn and hay. ”

“ With Henry VII, who came riding into London wearing dead Richard of Gloucester’s crown on his head, modern England may be said to have had its beginning. For now printing was coming into general use, gunpowder was being employed in warfare, and religious freedom was dawning in men’s minds, faint as the earliest Mush that ushers in a June morning. The homes of the people, all save the highest in the land, were still wretched enough from our point of view. ”

“ The yeomanry of England, stalwart, brave, clean-limbed, and honest of heart, has grown up, noticeably increasing under Robin Hood, with his picturesque idea of freedom and the worth of a good man, Houses are better, and the weapons men use, as well as their tools, have vastly improved, Altogether, if we could bring our friend Harold down to the day when Edward I ends his thirty-five years of kingship, and ask him to look around, this last of the Saxon rulers would be a most astonished being—yet barely two hundred and fifty years separated the two kings. ”

“ Kings and such are not always important in the story side of the world’s life. A king must manage to make himself interesting as a man before he gets into our story world. Just wearing a crown and issuing proclamations won’t help him. Perhaps it will be only the adventures of a little child or the life of two young lovers that we shall choose to tell the story of an entire reign. ”

“ In this book we look out on the England of the end of the eleventh century with the eyes of one of the lowliest of the country’s population. We rage with him at the overpowering insolence and rapacity of the great captains and noblemen; we are conscious of his helplessness and sharers in his bitter poverty. And we rejoice with him and his wife as gradually things get a little better; for luck is on Purkess’s side, as it is apt to be on the side of a fine, strong, fearless young fellow, faithful and trustworthy. ”

“ Sitting there and listening to him, you would get the thrill of the human side of it all, the little, but moving, personal adventures that are lost in the great impersonal adventure. History is the story of the impersonal adventure of this world; romance and fiction of the personal one. ”

“ If you have, you will remember what a very good story it is. It tells the life of Edward I, beginning while the old, weak Henry III is still on the throne, You see the king's feebleness and selfishness contrasted with the honor and manliness of his son, the tall, strong prince, who yet considers him so carefully. A true knight, this Edward. Then it takes you through Edward's reign, and makes you at home in Edward's England,
There is another excellent book in this same reign, Scott’s “Castle Dangerous.” ”

“ Nothing much more romantic than these Scotch wars has occurred in history, and in two books, both a little old-fashioned but none the less mighty good reading, you can follow the story of the two heroes. The first is Jane Porter’s “The Scottish Chiefs,” whose particular hero is Wallace, and the second, Grace Aguilar’s “The Days of Bruce.” There are countless adventures and excitements in these novels, and a tender sort of love story runs through them. They give excellent pictures of the times, a real “feel” of the Scotch enthusiasm and devotion ”

“ Here we stand at the beginning of a new year, with all its possibilities of development, its chances for doing things worth while, its lessons of one kind and another, stretching before us. It seems a good time to start a new idea to working, here in this department of books and reading. I have been telling you for a long while now about such books as I believe to be entirely worth your while, books that, if you missed them out of your experience, would mean a real loss, such as the missing of a fine friendship or a noble adventure would bring to you. ”

“ John Ball was a peasant of those days who first began to say that all men are equal, and should stand alike before the law. He preached this, at that time, astonishing doctrine all over England, and was the chief incitement to the revolt. In this story a working-man of modern England wakes up to find himself back in the age of Ball, and he has a series of adventures that take him to various parts of the kingdom, The book is short, and is admirably written, giving one unforgetable picture after another of the ways of living, the houses and inns, the people and their talk and their hopes. ”

“ Now that we are so far into England's story, you will see that some really modern ideas have begun to arise. Under Edward I, the Parliament becomes the same in form that it is to-day, and grows more powerful and more representative year by year, The poor man is beginning to think that he, too, deserves a voice in the laws of his land, and the English language as we know it has evolved from the mixture of Norman French and old Saxon. ”

“ As for interest and excitement, you won’t fail to find plenty. But the fact that the stories are thrilling does not make them the less true, which is one of the comforts of life. It is history—but it is adventure too! ”

“ The book is thrilling reading and extraordinarily alive. The character of Richard is different from the one usually attributed to him, but it is convincing, and for all its faults there is a reckless manliness, something kindly and gallant in the man, that makes you forgive his vacillation, his cruelty even; certainly he is made very real, and so too is the motley population over which his father rules, and rules well. You won't forget the England of Henry II after reading this book.
It was under this same Henry that Robin Hood is first heard of. ”

“ There was the same struggle for daily bread among the poor, and the rich lived as sumptuously as they knew how; people traveled, hunted, played, and studied then as now. So they can be re-created for us, in the midst of their so different surroundings and problems, because we are all human and related.
It is somewhat difficult to choose among all the many periods of history that have been turned into story by the writers. Ancient Greek, and Roman, and Persian, and Biblical times have produced their share of fiction, as have the shifting scenes in Italy and the tumultuous centuries in France. ”

“ Another story of the time of Edward III that you will like, is to be found in Maurice Hewlett’s “New Canterbury Tales.” It is called “The Countess Alys,” and is about the “at-home” England of that day, and not the adventuring prince, who, after all, was not the whole of England,though he lends himself so well to adventure stories that the writers like him for hero.
Richard II was only a baby when he became king, so that his uncles undertook to do the ruling for him, and it was not until he was twenty-four years old that he finally asserted himself, really becoming England’s ruler. ”

“ During the fifteenth century, England continued to fight ahout everything in sight, including herself. Under Henry IV, the Welsh rebellions waged fiercely; the French wars became acute again under Henry V, and Scotland had her own little wars to bring against England. But the great civil warfare that has come to be known as the Wars of the Roses is the distinguishing mark of the century. ”