THE HISTORIC NOTE-BOOK: WITH AN APPENDIX OF BATTLES. BY THE REV. E. COBHAM BREWER, LL.D., THE DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE," "THE READER'S PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 3,50 TO THE RIGHT HON. THE COUNTESS MANVERS WHOM TO KNOW (TO USE THE WORDS OF SIR RICHARD STEELE) 'IS A LIBERAL EDUCATION' These ‘Historic Notes' are with permission Dedicated BY THE AUTHOR PREFACE THIS volume, entitled 'The Historic Note-Book,' is the third and last of a series. The first was the 'Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,' the object of which was to explain the meaning of words and expressions in which an allusion is made to some fable, custom, or character, more or less familiarly known. The 'Reader's Handbook,' the second of the series, undertook to unfold in a few lines the tale of the best known epic poems of ancient and modern times, the plots of novels and plays, ballads and romances, and to give short biographical sketches of their respective authors. The present book does for history what the first of the series did for phraseology, and the latter did for poetry and romance. It is purely historical, and explains with the utmost possible brevity allusions to historical events, acts of parliament, treaties, and customs, terms and phrases, made in books, speeches, and familiar conversation. Probably no one could turn over a couple of pages of this book and not find some item which he would be at a loss to explain or to find in any book near at hand. It may be hidden in some corner of history, some modern or ancient encyclopædia, some law dictionary, periodical, or book of antiquities; but, being neither tabulated nor inserted in the index, would be as hard to light upon as the traditional grain of wheat in a bushel of chaff. It might require hours, perhaps days, of research to hunt out, and the handling of many books. This is the sort of lore here set |