Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A Child's History of England, And, No Thoroughfare: With Introduction, Critical Comments, Notes, Etc
Thus the book is not educational. It may be said that a child does not need to be taught the meaning of events, but only to learn (probably he will never learn more) about Alfred and the cakes, about the curfew-bell, Perkin Warbeck, Mary and Elizabeth, Fair Rosamond, the death of Charles I., the coming of the Prince of Orange, Jane Shore, and so on. Scientific writers on education may argue the point, but probably Dickens did not aim at a school-book. He wanted to interest (nor is it useful to write history which does not interest) and to propagate his own ideas, which are not historical, but are always op posed to cruelty and oppression.
It is super?uous to point out errors. Dickens denies to the early Celtic people of the island the use of coins: they made no coins. One appeals to Sir John Evans and the museums. Had Kent a white horse for standard before the English invasion? The neighings of the wild white horse are not British, in the Idylls of the King. Did the Druids erect Stonehenge, keeping the people out of sight while they made these buildings, which demanded the labour of a whole population? What hills in Scot land are supposed to be the cairns of the Caledonians who fell in resisting Agricola? Who supposes that they had this origin?
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