Our Fathers Have Told Us Part I. The Bible of Amiens   By: John Ruskin (1819-1900)

THE COMPLETE WORKS

OF

JOHN RUSKIN

ARROWS OF THE CHACE OUR FATHERS HAVE TOLD US THE STORM CLOUD OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY HORTUS INCLUSUS

NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NEW YORK CHICAGO

"Our Fathers Have Told Us"

SKETCHES OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTENDOM

FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

WHO HAVE BEEN HELD AT ITS FONTS

PART I.

THE BIBLE OF AMIENS

CONTENTS.

PAGE

PREFACE iii

CHAPTER I. BY THE RIVERS OF WATERS 1

" II. UNDER THE DRACHENFELS 26

" III. THE LION TAMER 58

" IV. INTERPRETATIONS 88

APPENDIX I. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS REFERRED TO IN THE 'BIBLE OF AMIENS' 143

" II. REFERENCES EXPLANATORY OF PHOTOGRAPHS TO CHAPTER IV 144

" III. GENERAL PLAN OF 'OUR FATHERS HAVE TOLD US' 153

INDEX 155

PLATES.

ST. MARY ( Frontispiece ) see page 131

To face page

PLATE I. THE DYNASTIES OF FRANCE 8

" II. THE BIBLE OF AMIENS, NORTHERN PORCH BEFORE RESTORATION 26

" III. AMIENS, JOUR DES TRÉSPASSÉS, 1880 58

PLAN OF THE WEST PORCHES 140

Transcriber's Notes:

1. Italic characters have been represented by xxxxx

2. Superscript characters have been represented by xxx^yy

3. A macron, or bar over a letter, is shown as [=letter]

4. In the paragraph that begins, "Sketch for yourself, first, a map of France" there are images in the paragraph. I have represented back slanting diagonal shading with "\\\" and forward slanting diagonal shading with "///" and horizontal shading with "=".

5. In the original text, footnotes in Chapter I are represented with numbers, and footnotes in all the rest of the text, including the notes on Chapter I, are represented with symbols. I have converted all of them to numbers, since there is no overlap, and they seem to be used in the same way in the text.

PREFACE.

The long abandoned purpose, of which the following pages begin some attempt at fulfilment, has been resumed at the request of a young English governess, that I would write some pieces of history which her pupils could gather some good out of; the fruit of historical documents placed by modern educational systems at her disposal, being to them labour only, and sorrow.

What else may be said for the book, if it ever become one, it must say for itself: preface, more than this, I do not care to write: and the less, because some passages of British history, at this hour under record, call for instant, though brief, comment.

I am told that the Queen's Guards have gone to Ireland; playing "God save the Queen." And being, (as I have declared myself in the course of some letters to which public attention has been lately more than enough directed,) to the best of my knowledge, the staunchest Conservative in England, I am disposed gravely to question the propriety of the mission of the Queen's Guards on the employment commanded them. My own Conservative notion of the function of the Guards is that they should guard the Queen's throne and life, when threatened either by domestic or foreign enemy: but not that they should become a substitute for her inefficient police force, in the execution of her domiciliary laws.