OF THE

HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN:

AN HISTORICAL VIEW

OF THE

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, DRESSES, LITERATURE,
ARTS, COMMERCE, AND GOVERNMENT
OF GREAT BRITAIN;

FROM THE TIME OF THE SAXONS, DOWN TO THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY.

BY RICHARD THOMSON, AUTHOR OF "CHRONICLES OF LONDON BRIDGE,

" &c.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

EDINBURGH:

TOR LIBRAR

NEW-YORE

PRINTED FOR CONSTABLE & CO. EDINBURGH;
AND HURST, CHANCE, & Co. LONDON.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

INTRODUCTION.

Sources and Materials of British History-Character

and classes.-SECT. I. Ancient and contemporary

Historians, Chronicles, and Memoirs-Their gene-

ral character before the Roman Invasion-Oppres

sion of the Saxons, and emigration of the Ancient

Britons-1. Bardic and British Historians:-the

Triades, Genealogies, Merlin, Llywarch Hen,

Aneurin, Taliesin-Giidas-Chronicle of Brute,

Geoffrey of Monmouth, Tyssilio, Nennius-Laws

of Hoel Dha-Caradoc-Books and Authori

ties. 2. Greek and Roman Authors :--their cha-

racter-Cæsar-Diodorus Siculus--Strabo-Pomp.

Mela-Tacitus Lucan-Ptolemy, Itinerary of

Antoninus, and the Notitia Imperii-Suetonius-

Pliny-Solinus-Polyænus-Dion Cassius-He-

rodian-Writers of the Augustan History: Spar-

tianus, Capitolinus, Vopiscus, Lampridius, Mar-

cellinus-Eutropius. 3. Saxon Histories :-their

character-the Saxon Chronicle-Bede-Asser-

Spelman-Ethelwerd - Lives of Saxon Kings-

Modern Authors. 4. Northern Historians :-their

character-Sæmund, Aras Frode, Theodoric, Snor-

ro Sturleson, Saxo Grammaticus - Olaus Wor-

mius-Bartholinus-Modern Authors-5. English

Historians after the Norman Invasion:-their cha-

racter--Eleventh Century:-Ingulph, Marianus ;

Lives of William I. Twelfth Century:-Florence

of Worcester, Eadmer, Alfred of Beverley, Wil-

liam of Malmesbury, Simeon of Durham, Ailred,

Henry of Huntingdon, William de Newbridge—

Lives, &c. of Henry I., Stephen, Henry II., and

Richard I. Thirteenth Century :-Gervase of

Canterbury, Roger de Hoveden, Ralph de Diceto,

Gervase of Tilbury, John Wallingford, Walter

of Coventry, Ralph Coggeshal, &c.-Matthew

Paris, Robert of Gloucester and Robert de Brunne,

Chronicle of Mailros; inferior historians, and no-

tices of monastic histories and chronicles, includ-

ing the histories of Ely, Annals of Ramsey, Peter

Blesensis and the histories of Croyland, Annals of

Margan, annals of Burton, annals of Waverley,

histories, &c. of Peterborough, Thomas Stubbs,

William Thorne-Lives, &c. of John, Henry III.,

and Edward I. Fourteenth Century :-Thomas

Wikes, Nicholas Trivet, John of London, John

Brompton, Walter Hemingford, Richard of Ciren-

cester, Ranulph Higden and Roger of Chester,

John of Tynemouth, Matthew of Westminster,

Henry Knighton, William Packington, and infe-

rior historians; Lives, &c. of Edward II., Edward

III. Richard II., and Henry IV.-Fifteenth

Century:-Sir John Froissart, Otterburn, &c. Wal-

singham, Harding, Caxton, Rous; Lives, &c. of

Henry V., Henry VI., Edward IV., Edward V.,

Richard III., and Henry VII. Sixteenth Century:

Polydore Vergil-Chronicles of Arnold, Wildon,

Fabyan, Rastell, Hall, Lily, Godet, Grafton,

Languet, and Raphael Holinshed; Lives, &c. of

Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth.

Seventeenth Century:-Stow, White, Daniel, Speed,

Martyn, Sir Richard Baker, Vicars, Heath, John-

stone, Milton, Sir Winston Churchill, Sandford,

Howell, Whitelock, Dr Brady, Tyrrell: Memoirs,

&c. of James I., Charles I., Interregnum Civil

Wars, &c. Charles II., James II., the Revolution,

and William III.-Eighteenth Century:-Lord

Clarendon, Echard, White, Kennet, Rapin, Bur-

net, Ralph, Guthrie, Carte, Hume and abridg-

ments, Dr Smollett, Henry, and T. P. Andrews,

Stutt; Lives, &c. of Anne, George II. Nine-

teenth Century:-Sharon Turner, Bertrand de

Moleville and Chronological Histories, Dr Lin.