A Child's History of England

If you look at a Map of the World, you will see, in the left-hand upper corner of the EasternHemisphere, two Islands lying in the sea. They are England and Scotland, andIreland. England and Scotland form the greater part of these Islands. Ireland is the next insize. The little neighbouring islands, which are so small upon the Map as to be mere dots, are chiefly little bits of Scotland, -broken off, I dare say, in the course of a great length oftime, by the power of the restless water.In the old days, a long, long while ago, before Our Saviour was born on earth and lay asleepin a manger, these Islands were in the same place, and the stormy sea roared round them, just as it roars now. But the sea was not alive, then, with great ships and brave sailors, sailing to and from all parts of the world. It was very lonely. The Islands lay solitary, in thegreat expanse of water. The foaming waves dashed against their cliffs, and the bleak windsblew over their forests; but the winds and waves brought no adventurers to land upon theIslands, and the savage Islanders knew nothing of the rest of the world, and the rest of theworld knew nothing of them.It is supposed that the Phoenicians, who were an ancient people, famous for carrying ontrade, came in ships to these Islands, and found that they produced tin and lead; both veryuseful things, as you know, and both produced to this very hour upon the sea-coast. Themost celebrated tin mines in Cornwall are, still, close to the sea. One of them, which I haveseen, is so close to it that it is hollowed out underneath the ocean; and the miners say, thatin stormy weather, when they are at work down in that deep place, they can hear the noiseof the waves thundering above their heads. So, the Phoenicians, coasting about the Islands, would come, without much difficulty, to where the tin and lead were. More