ast _variety_ of character and events.--They
are associated with the gloom, "the dim religious light" of Anglo-Saxon
history, with the stormy character of the Conquest and the Norman
domination; they bring before us the lofty Plantagenet, the proud Tudor,
and the tyrannical but unfortunate House of Stuart, in all the pomp, and
strife, and vanity of their respective pretensions.

But the general reader will require a _clue_ to this symbolical kind of
instruction: a companion to his recollections of such an exhibition,
which, without destroying the vividness and pleasure of the pageantry,
shall connect its objects with the march of history, the advance of
civilization, and the final settlement of our laws and liberties. "To
converse with historians," says an accomplished writer, "is always to
keep good company;" while, "to carry back the mind _in uniting_ and to
make IT old," is the one great difficulty which Lord Bacon points out in
the study of history. Every effort, therefore, to smooth this difficult
path, and to introduce the rising generation to such company, will be
properly appreciated by the anxious and intelligent parent; and such is
the design of this little volume. It is the especial business of the
historian, certainly, to instruct; but the more he can keep alive our
_interest_ without flattering either our passions or vices, the more
effectually will he accomplish his great object, and swell the train of
the votaries of truth.

CORONATION ANECDOTES,

_&c. &c._

Sec. 1. ANECDOTES OF THE REGALIA AND ROYAL VESTMENTS.

"History--the picture of man--has shared the fate of its original.
It has had its infancy of _Fable_; its youth of Poetry; its manhood
of Thought, Intelligence, and Reflection."--ANON.

No. 1. _The Regal Chair._

The Regalia of England are the symbols of a monarchical authority that
has been transmitted by coronation ceremonies for upwards of ten
centuries. But the incorporation of England, Scotland, and Ireland, into
one united kingdom,--an event peculiar to the coronation of George IV,
to have recognised,--has connected the history of the Imperial Regalia
with some tales of legendary lore, the truth of which, if this
circumstance does not demonstrate, be assured, gentle reader, nothing
will. Irish records are said to add at least another thousand years of
substantial history to the honours of that solid regal seat, or
coronation chair, in which our monarchs are