PREFACE. 



CAINT GEORGE, as every one knows, is the pa- 

 ^ tron Saint of old England. But who this Saint 

 George was, what was his origin, when and where he 

 was born and what he did to deserve martyrdom are 

 matters of dispute down to the present day. It has 

 been claimed, for example, that this revered Saint 

 of England was one George, Bishop of Alexandria, 

 " a furious Arian and bloody butcher of the true 

 Christians," who was born at Cappadocia in the 

 third century, and was slain in a tumult among his 

 own people, A. D. 361. That such a barbarous 

 and bloody tyrant as history tells us this man was 

 should be canonized and his memory honored by the 

 dignity of martyrdom, even at a period when virtue 

 and honesty were less reverenced than now, sur- 

 passes belief, and we have therefore unhesitatingly 

 to discard his claims for distinction and look else- 

 where for tfie origin of our worthy Saint. 



The true Saint George was likewise born in Cap- 

 padocia, or, as some assert, in Syria, of Christian 

 parents in exalted position, by whom he was 

 brought up in the true religion and fear of God. 

 He had no sooner reached the years of discretion 

 than he lost his father, but bravely encountering the 

 enemies of his faith he departed with his bereaved 

 mother into Palestine, of which she was a native, 



