Life and Adventures of Wat Tyler, the Good and the Brave (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 edition. Excerpt: ... life of wat tyler. "walter Hilliard, commonly called Wat Tyler, the only son of Martin Hilliard, was born, in the year 1320, in the little village of Broxley, in the county of Kent. Of the earlier years of Wat little is known, except that his father, being among the better class of peasants, our hero was permitted to spend his time much as he pleased, and became expert in all the youthful sports of the period; and while he increased in stature, he surpassed all his village competitors in the more athletic amusements, and became by general consent the leader in all their juvenile expeditions, for-which he was eminently qualified, not only by the moral qualities of undaunted courage, by a genius naturally sagacious, fertile, and expedient, and a readiness of eye and retentiveness of memory, but by physical powers which appear to have been, even in his youth, greater than those allotted to the strongest man in a warlike age. At the age of sixteen Wat was of a tall and almost gigantic stature; broad-shouldered and large-boned, with long and muscular arms, of an open and cheerful countenance and gracious address; and his skill in all warlike exercises was such as to conciliate the confidence and insure him popularity with the villagers. With regard to the condition of England at the period when Wat Tyler was born, the village of Broxley was situated in the centre of an immense wood, infested, as the other forests in most-parts of the country, with wild animals--chiefly wolves and wild cats--and robbers, which rendered it extremely dangerous for single travellers to pass through the wood, as murder frequently accompanied robbery, especially when disappointed in the amount of the booty. The impunity with which these robbers had been allowed to...