The Romans held Britain from the invasion of Julius Caesar till their voluntary withdrawal from the island, A.D. 420,- that is, about five hundred years.

The preparatory education of candidates for knighthood was long and arduous.

Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated.

Religion united its influence with those of loyalty and love, and the order of knighthood, endowed with all the sanctity and religious awe that attended the priesthood, became an object of ambition to the greatest sovereigns.

We thus see that the Greeks of the early ages knew little of any real people except those to the east and south of their own country, or near the coast of the Mediterranean.

It was not till toward the end of the thirteenth century that the prose romances began to appear.

The sunflower is a favorite emblem of constancy