Excerpt from The Visions of England
As the scheme which the Author has here endeavoured to execute has not, so far as he knows, the advantage of any direct precedent in any literature, he hopes that a few explanatory words may be offered without incurring censure for egotism.
Our history is so eminently rich and varied, and at the same time, by the fact of our insular position, so stamped with unity, that from days very remote it has supplied matter for song. To judge by the still surviving fragments, single events, which moved men of English or Celtic blood deeply, were the earliest subjects thus dealt with; and the true instincts of spontaneous art guided the poets to a lyrical treatment. The Norman conquest of England, and the English conquest of Wales, slackened or broke up these primitive efforts; and when we reach the gradual settlement of the island into the forms which it has since substantially retained, awakening national self-consciousness, we find, was followed by a series of endeavours to render our history in consecutive annalistic verse.
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