Anne. O! thank you, mamma, for this entertaining account of Rome, I shall be very glad when I am old enough to read the Roman History.
Mrs. Harley. Age, my dear, is not the only thing necessary for the accomplishment of your wish. Let me see you attentive to your present employments, and I shall have much pleasure in reading with you a history that I am sure will engage your attention. I will now tell you a very little about our own country.
Britain was little known to the rest of the world, till about 52 years before the common æra; when Julius Cæsar invaded the country with a powerful army: the natives, assisted by their Druids or priests, opposed his landing, but they were unable long to resist so warlike a people as the Romans, who soon after making themselves masters of the island, maintained possession of the most fertile parts of it near 500 years. Their own affairs then requiring their attention at home, they abandoned it, and the Saxons made their appearance. These people came from a province in Germany, and when they had subdued Britain, they divided it into seven kingdoms called the Saxon Heptarchy.
Kent, which included the isles of Thanet and Sheppey.
Northumberland, contained Northumberland, Durham, Lancashire, and Yorkshire.
East Anglia, contained Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk.
Mercia, contained all the middle countries from the Severn between East Anglia and Wessex.
Essex, or East Saxony, contained Essex, Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire.
Sussex, or South Saxony, contained Surry, Sussex, and the New Forest.