Havergal College - Magazine Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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Havergal College Magazine columns on every page, with marginal notes and dates. The pages are plentifully besprinkled with capital letters; every pro- per name, either of a person or a place, is written in italics, and every quotation is printed in the same way. Added to this the type is set up with the old long s, which always tempts one to read it as f, and with the c and t linked to- gether. There can be no doubt as to the genuine age of the book ! The Publisher has inserted two curious front pages ; on the left hand page is a picture of Charles II. ; on the right — a frontispiece of rather elaborate design. In the centre is the full title of the book — A Chronicle of the Kings of England, From the Time of the Romans Government unto the Death of King James, containing all Passages of State and Church, with all other observations proper for a Chronicle. Faithfully col- lected out of Authours Ancient and Moderne ; and digested into a new method hy Sr. Richard Baker Kt. The rest of the page is adorned with pictures of Charles I. — inter Reges ut Lilium inter Flores — (among Kings as the Lily is among flowers), and Archbishop Laud; four little pictures of the cities of Verulam, Lincoln, London and York — as they never could have been ; and four more representing a Roman, a Saxon, a Dane and a Norman, none of them in the least like any soldier that ever existed. There are many pages to be turned before the anxious reader can begin the History. There is a Preface, a Catalogue of Writers, a table showing the descent of Charles II, in a literally straight line from Egbert, a Catalogue of the Nobility, Arch- bishops, Bishops, Privy Councillors, Judges and Baronets of England (and there are 700 baronets!) and then at last the Chronicle. Sir Richard may have been qualified by nature to write a very pleasant and readable book, but he was not a scientific historian. One of the most difficult tasks for the historian is the distinguishing of fact from fable ; of discovering the sub- stratum of truth under the masses of fiction. Sir Richard Baker appreciated this difficulty, as the opening sentences of his his- tory show: As the first writers were poets, so the first writ- ings have been fictions. And nothing is delivered to Posterity of the most ancient times but very Fables. . . . And when we are once gotten out of Fables, and come to some truth, yet that truth is delivered in such slender draughts, and such broken pieces, that very small benefit can be gotten by the knowing of it. But the labour of separating fable from fact proved too great for the seventeenth century historian, and the History is a positive storehouse of amusing and improbable stories. Some- times Sir Richard seems conscience stricken, as for example, when he has quoted a somewhat improper story, he adds — But writers perhaps had been more compleat, if they had left this 25

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Havergal College Magazine Sir Richard Baker travelled on the Continent, was knighted by King James in 1603, and became sheriff for Oxfordshire. Here his good fortune ended. When he married he generously, but foolishly, made himself responsible for some debts contracted by his wife ' s family. He was never able to pay them, the burden of them increased, and he became debtor to the Crown. At last in 1635 his estates were confiscated, he was penniless, and he had to seek refuge in the Fleet — the debtors ' prison. There he stayed till his death in 1645, but life there was not unbear- able. He turned his mind to Literature and, at the age of 67, began to write. The storm of his estate, says Fuller, the Jacobean divine, forced him to flye for shelter to his studies and devotions. In prison he wrote poetry, meditations on the Lord ' s Prayer and the Psalms, and what chiefly concerns us here, compiled his Chronicle. How he gathered his materials, we do not know. The Chronicle is prefaced by a most formid- able list of authorities — 93 in all — but it is most improbable that Sir Richard had access to, or any first hand acquaintance with half of them. The book, however, wiled away the hours in prison, and he believed he was doing a great piece of work. In fact in the Epistle to the Reader the author states quite frankly his belief that if all other of our Chronicles should be lost, this only would be sufficient to inform Posterity of all Passages memorable or worthy to be known. Poor Sir Rich- ard ! He little dreamed of the disparaging remarks and damag- ing criticisms that would pursue his valuable Chronicle later; nor could he foresee that it would at last be the subject for an article in a School Magazine. The History was well received in his own day, and four years after his death was translated into Dutch. The narrative was carried on to 1658 by Edward Philipps, Milton ' s nephew, and the book passed through several editions, and was con- stantly brought up-to-date, till it was discarded altogether. The volume possessed by Havergal was printed and published in 1679 at Ye Golden Ball in Hosien Lane. From the middle of the seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century Baker ' s Chronicle was part of the equipment of every country gentleman ' s library. Sir Roger de Cover- ley kept a copy of it in his hall window; he studied it a whole summer, and it was the source of all the knowledge he dis- played when he went with the Spectator to see the tombs in Westminster Abbey. Fielding tells us that it was part of the furniture of Sir Thomas Booby ' s country house. We do well to respect a book that had such worthy patrons in its life-time. Sir Richard Baker ' s Chronicle differs in every respect from a modern History book. Its very size suggests the difference, and a glance at any page within accentuates it. There are two 24

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Havergal College Magazine story out of their writings. However he had not been able to resist the temptation of putting it in himself ! His account of each reign follows a very definite plan, and is divided up under a number of headings. The first section is generally devoted to a sketch of the King ' s doings during his reign ; then follow ' ' His taxations and wayes for raising of money, Laws and Ordinances of his time, Affairs of the Church in his time, Works of Piety [It is sometimes neces- sary in the case of Kings like AYilliam Rufus and John to vary this last heading, and to make it read Works of Piety done by him or by others in his time ], His Wives and Children, His Personage and Conditions, Casualties happening in his time, His death and burial, Men of special note in his time. It is in the last four or five sections that one must look to find a good deal that we do not learn now-a-days, and to gather Sir Richard ' s private opinions. Just as one always turns in a book of poetry to the poems one knows best, or in a new commentary looks first to discover the author ' s views on one ' s own pet subjects, so in a fresh history book it is quite natural to see what the historian has to say about the Kings and great men one has always admired or detested. Here to one ' s delight one finds quaint or refresh- ing criticisms, stories that show an amazing credulity, and an unexpected mingling of the important and unimportant. But it has proved a most difficult task to make a selection of such passages, for in an essay where space is limited, extracts must necessarily be brief, and so there are many good things in the book that must be passed over. Possibly the extracts that are quoted will send readers of the Magazine to the Chronicle it- self to search for more treasures for themselves. On Alfred, Sir Richard is undoubtedly disappointing (there is no mention of the cakes ; perhaps it seemed an undignified story to the Royalist historian, and he scorned to repeat the well-known legend). He seems to suspect something apocryphal in the records concerning Alfred: The virtues of this King, if they were not incredible, they were at least admirable ; and he hardly approves of Alfred ' s many-sidedness: Besides his great piety, he was also learned, and as far as it might be a commendation in a Prince, a skilful Musician and excellent Poet. Finally, the whole of that fascinating reign is dismissed in a single column. In discussing Edward the Confessor, Sir Richard shows a certain independence of judgment, and review- ing his reign is at a loss to discover his claim to saintship, so what the virtues were, for which after his death he should be reputed a St. doth not easily appear. However, he admits that he was raised above the pitch of ordinary Kings by his power of curing King ' s Evil by his touch. The reign of AYil- liam I. occupies many pages and receives a fairly just treatment 26