'Next to the Bible in time, and soon superseding it in practice were four volumes of Cassell's Illustrated History of England, which my father got bound up from a set of weekly parts. They carried the story down to the accession of George III; but even so they were a mine of treasure it took years to ramsack. I read first all the battles... After the battles I read the murders; then the executions; and then, at last, as much as I could stomach of the connecting bits in between.'