the idea of the passage above quoted from Pope is evidently derived. The whole of the northern side of Berks is bounded by the beautiful windings of this river, which divides it from Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It enters the county about a mile south of Lechlade; and in its progress waters the several towns of Abingdon, Wallingford, Reading, Henley, Maidenhead, Windsor, &c. and having received the homage of various tributary streams, soon afterwards flows between the confines of Surry and Middlesex. The KENNET enters the county at Hungerford, and passing Newbury, laves the rich meadows on the south with divided streams; then flowing through Reading, gently winds among the adjacent meadows, and unites its waters with the Thames. "It is remarkable," says Mr. Gough, "that at Caversham, those wells, between which and the Thames the Kennet has its course, rise and fall with the Thames, not with the Kennet. Hence it is argued, that the bed of the Thames is much lower than that of the Kennet, and detaches its springs under the bed of the latter." The LAMBORN rises near the town of that name, and, after a short course of eleven miles, falls into the Kennet about one mile below Newbury. This small river has been much celebrated for a circumstance that seems to have no foundation in truth; we mean the story of its being always fuller in summer than in winter. The various ways of accounting for this fancied peculiarity, forcibly remind us of the question concerning the weight of a salmon, which Charles the Second is said to have proposed to the Royal Society. Some very ingenious hypotheses have been invented G 4 "What is the reason," said the witty Monarch, "why a dead salmon is heavier than a living one?" When the day arrived on which the question was to be solved, the King himself attended to hear the arguments. A learned disser, tation was read, in which much physical, and more metaphysical, reasoning was displayed, to account for the well known phænomenon. But equal ingenu. ity was exerted to invalidate those arguments, and establish another hypothesis in place of the first. This was again refuted in its turn, and the debate waxed warm, without any indications being given that they were ever likely to come to invented to explain the cause of its waters failing in the winter season; and one of them is particularly curious. It has been supposed that the hill whence the water issues, contains a large cavity, with a duct, in the form of a syphon or crane, and that the rain which falls in the autumn or winter season, having filled this extensive reservoir, the water continues to flow through the duct, till it sinks beneath that foot of the syphon which is inserted in the cavity, and that the current then ceases till its exhausted source is replenished by the rains. If the subject was of sufficient importance to be interesting, it might be asked, why, if this hypothesis be true, the bed of the river is not entirely emptied every time the water sinks beneath the foot of the syphon? Where a position is controverted by one argument, it would be childish to offer more. The fact is, the current of the river is nearly the same at all times; and the reason why the stream does not materially increase in winter, seems to arise from the paucity of neighbouring eminences, by which alone the current would be swelled from the torrents poured into its bosom. The ОCK derives its source from the Vale of White Horse, near Kingston-Lisle, and flowing by the side of Abingdon, unites its waters with the Thames. The LODDEN rises near Bagshot-rails, and passing Oakingham, reccives several small streams from the eastern extremity of the county, and empties itself into the Thames near Wargrave. Berkshire is in the diocese of Salisbury, in the Oxford circuit. It sends nine members to parliament; viz. two for the shire, two for Reading, two for Wallingford, two for New Windsor, and one for Abingdon; pays eleven parts of the Land-tax, and supplies the militia with 560 men. The Lent assizes, and the Epiphany county to a conclusion. At length, a grave member, who had hitherto taken no share in the dispute, arose, and addressed the president with these words: "Sir, I beg leave humbly to doubt the fact; and, therefore, I move that all further arguments on this head be suspended until the fact shall be proved to the satisfaction of this society, by the undoubted evidence of clear and satisfactory experiment." Aye,” said the King, smiling, "had you begun with this, you might have saved yourselves a great deal of trouble; but at the same time you would have deprived me of a luxurious entertainment." county sessions, are constantly held at Reading; the Easter sessions at Newbury; the Summer assizes at Abingdon; and the Michaelmas sessions alternately at Abingdon and Reading. READING, THE principal town in this county, is supposed by Camden to have derived its name from the great quantities of fern that grew in its neighbourhood, and in the language of the ancient Britons, was called Redyng. This etymology gathers strength from the circumstance of the town being generally denominated Reddynge at the time when the above celebrated antiquary compiled his Britannia. The modern way of spelling the word is evidently corrupt. The origin of this town is shrouded in the mist which the lapse of ages has generated to infold the records of history. Whether it was a British settlement previous to the Roman invasion, or whether it then only was first inhabited, the meagre pages of antiquity are insufficient to enable us to determine. Dr. Salmon, indeed, has asserted, that it is the SPENCE of the Itinerary; and, to establish his opinion, refers to its situation at the confluence of two rivers, and also to its distance from the other stations, which, according to his system, perfectly agree with the numbers of Antoninus. The statements of this gentleman, however, cannot always be depended on, unless they are strengthened by the arguments of other writers; for he commenced his undertaking with two fundamental errors, which ruined and perverted his whole design.* First, that the itinerary miles were the same as the modern computed miles, and that they had remained invariably the same from the Roman times to the present. Second, that the great roads, so visibly strait, and raised all over the kingdom, had no connection with the routes of the itinerary." The conclusions deduced from such incorrect data can never be deserving of implicit confidence. * See Introduction to Gough's Camden, This This town has certainly claims to high antiquity, though its origin is unknown. It was inhabited by the Saxons many years before the piratical Danes began to pour out the vial of destruction upon the fertile plains of Britain: and it appears clearly, from the observations prefixed by Hearne to Browne Willis's Account of the Mitred Abbeys, † that two Castles have at different times been erected and destroyed in this neighbourhood, though neither walls nor fortifications are now remaining. The first stood on the spot where King Henry founded the abbey, part of which was constructed with the ruins of the fortress. Asser Menevensis relates, that the Danes, who were in possession of the town, retreated to this castle after their defeat at Englefield, by Ethelwulf. The other was raised by the usurper Stephen, and demolished by the orders of his successor, Henry the Second. Where it was situated is uncertain; though the term Castle-Street seems to imply that it was near the spot thus denominated; yet, as mere entrenchments of earth have frequently received the apellations of CastleHill, and Castle-Field, this cannot be regarded as satisfactory. Elfrida, the mother-in-law of Edward the Martyr, as he was styled by the courtesy of the monks, founded several religious houses, in expiation of the base murder of that prince, who was sacrificed from her desire of placing her own son Ethelred on the throne. Among these monuments of her guilt and penitence, was a nunnery in this town, built on the spot that is now occupied by St. Mary's church. The nunnery was suppressed on the endowment of the abbey, and its revenues appropriated to the use of that foundation, The abbey was a very magnificent structure, founded by Henry the First, for the maintenance of 200 Benedictine monks, and the refreshment of travellers. The building was begun in the year 1121, and compleated in 1125. The charter recites, that "The abbeys of Reading, Chelsey, and Leominster, having been destroyed for their sins, and their possessions fallen into the hands. of the laity, the King, with the advice of his prelates, &c. had built a new monastery at Reading, and endowed it with the monasteries * Lelandi Collectanea, Vol. VI. |