The Land of the Angles

ENGLAND is an island.

Angles once lived on the island—no, not Angels—but people called Angles.

So it was called Angle-land.

We now spell it Eng-land

But we call it “Ingland.”

There are, however, two other countries on the island—Wales and Scotland—as well as England; so we should call the whole island “Great Britain.” Next door to the island of Great Britain is another is-land. It is Ire-land.

A ship, when it reaches England, cannot land its passengers wherever it chooses. There are only certain places. The shore may be too shallow and the ship would run aground and turn over, or the shore may be too rocky or too high with cliffs. Most people who go to England usually land on the west side at a place called Liverpool—Liver pool: what a peculiar name!— or at Southampton, which we can tell from the name is on the south side of England; or at London, which is on the east side. If they land at London the ship must go up a river spelled Thames but called “Temz.” English people spell many things one way and pronounce them another. The Thames runs right through London, but big ships cannot go up any farther than London Bridge. Have you ever played the game “London Bridge is Falling Down”? Well, London Bridge has fallen down several times, but each time it has been built up again; and the London Bridge that is there now I don’t believe will ever fall.

London was a city when Christ was born, but it was then so small and so far off that Christ never heard of it. London is now the largest city

New York is tall, London is broad. New York buildings climb to the sky, fifty, seventy, a hundred stories high. London buildings seldom go higher than a few stories, but the city spreads out in every direction, mile after mile. People travel about London chiefly on buses, double-decker ones with seats on top as well as inside, but they also travel about London on trains that run under the ground.

London is the capital of England. The capit-o-1 of England—the building—is, of course, in London and it is on the banks of the Thames. It is called the Houses of Parliament, which means the Houses of Talk. It is the place where people not only talk but make the laws for England. A king rules over England, but the English people send men to Parliament to make their laws. As I had lived in sight of our Capitol in Washington for many years, I thought all capitols had to have domes, just as all cows had horns. It was therefore a shock for me to see that the English Capitol, the Houses of Parliament, had no dome—only square towers with a large clock in one of them, with a huge bell, called “Big Ben,” that strikes the hours.