Little Arthur's history of England

by Lady Maria Callcott

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.

Many years 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 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 round it, made of stone and brick mixed, 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 the 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 have not these uses now-a-days, when by God’s blessing we enjoy peace and safety in our open houses and the police protect us from thieves; while towers and castles fall into ruin and are looked at as curiosities. 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.