I suppose most of you have read some at least of Charlotte Yonge’s books, and possibly “The Prince and the Page” among the rest. 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.” This book takes you into Scotland, and tells how Sir John de Walton vows to keep Castle Dangerous a whole year from its owner, the good and doughty Lord James, and of what followed this rash vow. You learn a good deal of how the barons behaved themselves, and what the people were up against in that century. Though things are a lot better than they were when Rufus rode the peasants down for sport, you will see that there was much still to be done, and that Magna Charta so far had not done the poor man a great deal of good. It existed, however—a tremendous fact in itself.
This, indeed, is part of the interest in reading our sequence of historic novels. You begin to see England growing up, like a child, Learning to do new things, learning to live more comfortably, to govern herself better, to ask for what she wants, and to try pretty hard to get it, What a different idea of how kings must behave you find, now that Edward is on the throne, than when the ruthless Normans ground the land for money, and murdered whom they chose. 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.
"IF IVANHOE MAD LIVED TO-DAY!"
