The Whole History of Grandfather?

In writing this ponderous tome, the author's desire has been to describe the eminent characters and remarkable events of our early annals by relating the adventures to a chair. The chair is made to pass from one to another of whom he thought it most desirable for the young reader to have vivid and familiar ideas, and whose lives and actions would best enable him to give picturesque sketches of the times. On its sturdy oaken legs it trudges diligently from one scene to another, and seems always to thrust itself in the way, with most benign complacency, whenever an historical personage happens to be looking for a seat.