country churchyard. It may be he met death suddenly amid the din
and horror of battle.

BOOKS TO READ

In illustration of this chapter may be read "Edinburgh after
Flodden" in Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers, by W. E. Aytoun. The
best edition of the Poems of Dunbar in the original is edited by
J. Small.







Chapter XXXI AT THE SIGN OF THE RED PALE

IF the fifteenth century has been called the Golden Age of
Scottish poetry, it was also the dullest age in English
literature. During the fifteenth century few books were written
in England. One reason for this was that in England it was a
time of foreign and of civil war. The century opened in war with
Wales, it continued in war with France. Then for thirty years
the wars of the Roses laid desolate the land. They ended at
length in 1485 with Bosworth field, by which Henry VII became
King.

But in spite of all the wars and strife, the making of books did
not quite cease. And if only a few books were written, it was