HOME LESSONS.

Northland Age, Volume 24, Issue 50, 9 April 1925, Page 6

HOME LESSONS.

HISTORY NOTES. (Compiled by C C McADAM). A fewyearsafterHenry’s death came the short reign of Mary. Then came the “spacious times of Queen Elizabeth” for nearly fiftv years, with its sailors such as Drake and Raleigh, and writers, including Shakspear?. America had been descovered early in the Tudour Period, and small Spanish settlements made in CentralandSouth America, the sea near these settlements being i known as the Spanish Main. English ships alsq went to the Spanish Main. Quarrels arose and English ships often plundered Spanish settlements and Spanish ships. At last a fleet, the Armada, was fitted out in Spain to carry soldiers to invade England, but the English ships which came to check them were better built for fighting, and weather conditions and bad management assisted to sealthefate of the Great Armada.

Hard lines for Spain, which had already suffered considerable loss owing to England. But the Spaniards had not always treated the natives of America as well as they might, so we need not waste any great sympathy over the

troubles of Spain. The people of England in Elizabeth’s time seem to have been happier and better off than they had been since before the Norman Conquest. Very few had any say in their government, but Elizabeth’s policy was to please the people.

Archery was still one of the village sports, i here was also bull baiting, that is setting dogs on to a bull. Imported bears were also used for “sport”, tethered and worried by dogs. Such things would not be allowed now a$ public amusement in English speaking countries. But in Spain bull-fights, with their cruelty to horses, are still public amusements.

So in some ways, anyway, the English speaking races have advanced further from the cruelties of the past. Elizabeths nearest relative was James, King of Scotland, the son of her cousin, so when Elizabeth died, he became king of both countries. England had several times as many people as Scotland, and London was much more important than any other town in either England or Scotland, so it was arranged that the king of both countries' should live in London.

There is not any record of tears shed either by James or by the people of Scotland on his departure for England, and there does not seem to be any record of his ever going back to Scotland even on a visit. Kings were thought more highly of in England, and no doubt James would get more money in England. Scotland had always been a more democratic country than England, not so much in Scotland of one class of people being considered above another. The people of Scotland are of much the same race as the people of England, The original Celt had been outnumbered by Anglo Saxons, and the language, as in England, was founded on the Anglo Saxon language. The Highlands, Wales and Ireland still spoke Celtic languages. Normans had also gone to Scotland but there had been no Norman Conquest or well marked feudal system which in England gave rise to decided class distinctions, effects of which may be seen now.

English peasants were taught even in fairly modern times to pray “Bless the squire and his relations and keep us poor folk in our stations.” The Scottish prayer has been t@ “Gi'e us a good conceit of ourselves.” James was a good natured enough man, but in many little ways was not much to be proud of as a king. However, he was treated quite well in England. Perhaps it was thought that you can’t expect much from Scotland anyway.

Three hundred years before, the English bad gone to a lot of trouble over Scotland, but the most cherished treasure they got from there was a big stone, probably of much the same material as road metal. It is still in London in Westminster Abbey. It shows what can be got from Scotl nd i eople visiting the

Abbey during the Great War of a few years ago did not see the stone, because it was then in a place beneath the Abbey for safety. A German Zeppelin bomb might have destroyed the Abbey, including the coffin of Edward First, who brought the stone to England, but it would never have done to risk any injury to the stone. The Stuart Period in England

started with James and lasted through the 17th Century, which is from 1601 to 1700. (To be exact, the Stuart Period w'as from 1603 to a little after 1700.) A name had to be found to apply to the kingdom composed of two countries. When the Anglo Saxons had come over a thousand years before, the name Scotland was only partly changed but the land south of Scotland was changed in name altogether, from Britain to Anglo land or England. The old word Britain was brought up again in 1603, and with the word “Great” before j it, became the name for England and Scotland together. But it j was not till the end of the Stuart Period that the two countries really became one, with one Parliament for both. There are more people in England than in Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and India (white people) put together. England has nine times the population of of Scotland, and people often use the word England when they mean Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland.) This is using the name of a ! part (though certainly the most

important part), for the whole. In speaking of America we usually mean only one country of America —the United States, and we are then using the name of the whole for a part.