Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and Present

Second Edition with Illustrations By Author of “Strange Stories of the Animal World,” “Things Not Generally Known”

Preface
CH1 Early English Life
Dwelling-Places of Early Britons
Britain before Roman Colonization
Romans in England
Domestic Life of Saxons
Meals
CH2 Castle Life
English Castle-Building
CH3 Household Antiquities
Old English House
Englishman’s Fireside
Private Life of Queen of England
English Housewife
Herefordshire Lady in Time of Civil War
House-Furnishing
Dress
Pins and Pin-Money
CH4 Peasant Life
Operative Tenants
Services of Tillage
Olden Harvest
Hock-Day
Sheep-Shearing
Conveyance Service
Watch and Ward--Beadle
Olden House-Marks
CH5 Olden Customs and Ceremonies
May-Day Carol on Magdalen College Tower
Banbury Cakes--Congleton Cakes
Horselydown Fair in Reign of Queen Elizabeth
Wake Festivals in Black Country
Keeping Birds in Middle Ages
CH6 Historic Sketches
Story of Fair Rosamund
Cardinal Wolsey at Esher Place
Traditions of Battle-Fields
Curiosities of Hatfield
Grand Remonstrance
Cavaliers and Roundheads
Evelyns at Wotton
Lord Bolingbroke at Battersea
Last of Epping Forest
Ancient British Dwellings

Pictures of the Domestic Manners of our forefathers, at some of the most attractive periods of English History, form the staple of the present volume. These Pictures are supplemented by Sketches of subordinate Scenes and Incidents which illustrate great changes in Society, and tend to show, in different degrees, the Past as the guide for the Present and the Future.

The value and interest of Archæological studies in bringing home to our very doors the information required of special localities, and their former life, have, it is hoped, been made available by the Author of this work, so far as to render it acceptable as well for the soundness of its information as for its entertaining character. The antiquary of old was but, in many instances, “a gatherer of other men’s stuff;” whereas the archæologist of the present day adds to the worth of antiquarian studies by placing their results in new lights, and thus extending the utility and amusement which they afford.

The materials for writing English History are inexhaustible; and one of the aims of this work is to seize upon and group from such stores leading facts and transitions, and by means of condensation to present their narratives in a more tangible form than that in which they were originally written. In this task the Author has brought to bear, from a variety of accredited sources, evidences of the condition of the English people--in their “woods and caves, and painted skins”--their homes and modes of living, in cavern and castle, mansion and cottage; the origin of their Domestic Inventions and Contrivances in the several stages of comfort; House-furnishing, Dress and Personal Ornament; Provisions and Olden Cookery, and Housewifery; Peasant Life, with its curious Customs, Laws, and Ceremonies; Fairs and Festivals and Amusements. To these succeed a few Historic Sketches: Traditions of Battle-fields, and other memorable sites; Mansions and their Families: romantic Narratives, Portraits of eminent Persons, etc.
The authorities and sources of information conveyed in the following pages, are fully acknowledged. “Quotation,” said Johnson, “is a good thing; there is a community of mind in it;” although some writers seem to ride upon their readers, like Pyrrhus on his elephant, forgetting that “there is not so poor a book in the world, that would not be a prodigious effort, were it wrought out entirely by a single hand, without the aid of prior investigation.” Real antiquarianism has been well defined as a lively knowledge of the Past, comprehending the spirit of a period through the details of its customs, events, and institutions; the language of its writers, the movements of its sciences and arts; and, by keeping in view these points, the writer of the present volume hopes he has succeeded in producing a recreative result worthy of the acceptance of the reader.