plant, besides some other useful things which I have forgotten.

But what was much better than all the rest, the Romans built some schools, and had school-masters to teach their children to read and write, and the little Britons were allowed to go to these schools as well as the little Romans, and, as the Britons were very clever, you may think how soon they learned to read and write, and how glad their fathers and mothers were to see them so improved.

You see, therefore, that when God allowed the Romans to conquer the Britons, he made them the means of teaching them a great many useful things; above all, how to read.

In a short time after the Romans first took the country for themselves there came some very good men, who brought the Bible with them, and began to teach both the Romans and the Britons, who could read, all about the true God, and how they ought to serve Him, and love Him. And they told them to love one another, instead of fighting. And, by degrees, they made the Britons forget the Druids, and leave off praying under the oaks. And they built several churches, and a great many Britons became Christians, and learned to thank God for sending the Romans to their country to teach them to be wiser, and better, and happier than they were before.

You may suppose that all these things took a good deal of time to do; indeed, they took a great many years, and in that time there were many different Roman governors. And when you are a little older, and know more about England, you will read something about them in the large History of England, and in some other books.

CHAPTER V.

How the Romans made a market in London, and used money, and built a wall and a tower; and how they improved Bath, and many other towns.

I TOLD you what poor and small places the British towns were before the Romans came here. They soon taught the Britons to make them better. London was one of their towns; it was so hid among trees that it could hardly be seen, but the Romans soon cut down a good many of the trees round it, and built large houses there to live in. And they made a market, which you know is a place where people go to sell what they do not want themselves, and to buy other things. At first they only changed one thing for another; I mean, that if one man wanted a pair of shoes, he went to the shoemaker, and said, Give me a pair of shoes and I will give you a shirt, or some chickens, or something that I have, and do not want myself, if you will give me the shoes. But this was troublesome, because people could not easily carry enough things about to make exchanges with. So, when the Romans came, they began to use money to buy the things they wanted, and the money was made of the silver and copper found in England.

Well, besides the good houses and the market the Romans made in London, they built a good wall, made of stone and brick mixed, round it, and a tower. Now a tower is a very high and strong building; and it was used long ago to put money and other things into, to keep them safe. And if any enemies came to fight the people of a country, they used to put the women and children into their towers, while the strong men went to fight their enemies, and drive

them away. Towers are chiefly used now to keep guns and swords in, and curious things; and sometimes we put wild beasts in them, to keep them safe, while we go to see what they are like. Another sort of tower, you know, is built by the side, or at the end, of a church, to hang the bells in, that people may know it is time to go to prayers, when they hear the bells ring.

Though the Romans took so much pains with London, they did not forget the other towns of the Britons, but made them all much better. I will tell you the names of some they did most good to. First, there was Bath, where the Britons showed them some springs of warm water, which were used to cure sick people. Drinking the water was good for some, and bathing in it for others. Now, Bath was a very pretty place, and the Romans made it prettier, by building beautiful houses to bathe in, and making fine gardens to their own houses; and many of the great men, and some Roman ladies, loved to live there. And the Britons followed their example, and began to have fine houses, and to plant beautiful gardens, and some of them went to Rome to learn more than they could learn in Britain; and when they came back, they taught others what they had learned.

Then there was York, the largest town next to London, of those that the Romans took the trouble to make much better than the old Britons had done.

Besides houses, and towers, and walls, the Romans built some good schools in York, and I have even heard that there was a library in York, in the time of the Romans; but I am not quite sure of this.

But I should never finish my chapter, and you would be very tired, if I were to try to tell you every one of the names of the British towns that the Romans improved; in all, I dare say, they are more than a hundred.

CHAPTER VI.

How the Romans left Britain; and how the Saxons and Angles came and conquered the country, and behaved cruelly to the people.

EVERYTHING seemed to be going on well with the Britons and Romans, when a great misfortune happened, which I must tell you about.

Most of the great men in Rome had grown very idle and careless, because they had become so rich and strong that they could do what they pleased, and make everybody else obey them. And they let the soldiers in Rome be quite idle, instead of keeping them busy about useful things. So they forgot how to fight properly, and when a great many enemies came to fight against Rome, the soldiers there could not drive them away, and they sent, in a hurry, to Britain, for all the good Roman soldiers that were there, as well as the strongest and best Britons, to go and defend them; so Britain was left without enough men to take care of the towns, and the old men, and the women, and the children.

It happened that very soon after the best Britons had gone away to Rome, a number of people, called SAXONS, came in great ships to Britain, and landed; and finding nobody to defend the country, they took all the gold and silver, and clothes, and food they could find, and even some of the little children to make servants of, and carried them off in their ships to their own country.

And when the other Saxons and their neighbours saw what good and useful things were to be had in Britain, they determined to go too. Some of them

said they would only rob the Britons, and some said they would try to conquer the whole country, and take it for their own; and so, after a deal of fighting, they did. But although a great many of the bravest Britons were taken to Rome, some of the others joined together, to try and defend their country.

One of the first of them was King Arthur, who was one of the bravest men in the world, and he had some friends who were called his knights. They helped him to fight the Saxons, but the Saxons were too strong for them; so after fighting a long time, King Arthur was obliged to give up to them. You will read many pretty stories about King Arthur and his knights, when you are older.

I have heard that they were all so good and so brave, that nobody could tell who was the best, and that the king himself did not know which to like best, so he had a large round table made, that they might all sit at it, and be equal; because you know that at a round table the places are all alike, but at a long table one place may seem better than another. But I cannot tell you more about the knights now, for we must think about the Saxons.

The two bravest Saxons that came at first were brothers; they were called HENGIST and HORSA, and they made themselves kings over part of England. Soon after them more Saxons came, and brought over some of their neighbours, called ANGLES, besides others, whose names you would not remember if I told them to you; but you will remember the Angles, because these were the people who changed the name of half of Britain into Angleland, which we now call England.

By little and little, the Saxons and Angles drove the natives out of almost all Britain. The greatest