OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2801, 20 November 1907, Page 85

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

FOR SENIORS AND JUNIORS.

[Conducted by Magistkh, to whom »B sommunioations must be addressed.]

[Maoistm will he glad to receive N»tur« notes, marked papers containing educational articles, diagrams, details of experiments, etc , of scholastic interest to teachers and pupils. Correspondents using »< pen name must alia jtnd samt And address.]

"HIGHROADS OF HISTORY."

Two or three months ago I made reference to the I, 11, and 111 books of this series. Readers will remember that 1 said the series was designed on the concentric plan Book IV has just been published and what was said of the previous books equally applies to this. The subtitle is "Other Days and Other Ways," and it deals with the main historical event* from the earliest times to 1545. Among the beautifully coloured illustrations are "Caxton's Printing Office in the Almonry at Westminster," from a picture by DanieS Maclire, R.A. ; "The Last Chapter," illustrating the beautiful incident in Coed mon' 9 life, so beautifully described in Green's " Shorter History of the English People " ; *' Alfred submitting his Laws to the Witan " ; Portion of the Bayeaux Tapestryshowing scenes from the Battle of Hastings; " A Tournament on London Bridge," from an old painting in the Guildhall Arfc Gallery; "King John signing Magnr Oharta," from the fresco by Ernest Normand in the Royal Exchange, London ;j " Tintern Abbey," from a picture by B*. W. Leader, A.R.A., belonging to the Corporation of Birmingham; Westminster Abbey; "Edward the Third at the Siege of Calais," from the painting by Sir John Gilbert, R.A., in the possession of the Corporation of London; "The Pilgrimage to Canterbury," from Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales," and copied from the pioture of Thomas Stothard, R.A., in the National

Gallery; "First Trial by Jury." % W. T Cope, R.A. ; " Serf Emancipation," from a j painting by E Armitage, R.A., in the j possession of the Corporation of Liverpool ; ' "Baptism of Ethelbcrt," from the fresco in the House of Lords, by William Dyee, R.A. ; and "Building the Great Wall," ; from the design for a fresco by William ! Bell Scofc, R.S.A. Add to these a score j or two of process blocks or woodcuts of 1 other great paintings, manuscripts, and photographs of historic places, then complete the design with well-written matter 1 as a complement to the pictures, and we j have a history which, for ohildren, must be 1 the last word for some time in bookmak- ! ing. The coloured pictures alone of the ' series, are a gallery of great historical | paintings by eminent artiste : but as these are complemented by a much larger number in black and white, and by reading matter, prose, and poetry which, as the series progresses, fill in a complete history in detail, in accordance with the latest conceptions of what history teaching should be, . the series when completed will be un- I equalled in all that go to make up an ideal hvrtory for children. There are to hand several other new educational publications by tihis firm, but I oannot refer to them to-day.