PREFACE

All intelligent teachers of history realize the desirability of having their students do more reading of history than is contained in the text-book, and most of them agree that this is best found in records and writings contemporary with the events being studied. But the practical problem of providing such readings for classes is by no means easy to solve. Those who have tried to procure the necessary number of copies of books, to discover English translations, to find applicable passages, and to make practicable requirements best know the difficulties of the task. I hope this book of readings from the original sources of English history will help to overcome these obstacles. It provides in easily accessible form a body of such material as large as can be actually utilized by most classes. It is intended to be used as a close companion to my Short History of England. The matter contained in it is arranged in the same order as the subjects taken up in the text-book, and is selected with a view to the further explanation and illustration of the principal points there discussed. It differs also from previous collections in drawing on a somewhat greater variety of historical material, and in being, it is believed, the result of a more extensive and prolonged search for suitable illustrative passages.

I have, of course, utilized the suggestions of earlier collectors of similar material, and take this opportunity