FLOEA OF BEEKSHIRE 



INTRODUCTION. 



TOPOGRAPHY. 



Berkshire, or, as it is frequently called, Berks, is a southern inland 

 county lying between 5i°-2o' and5i°-48' north latitude and between 

 35' and i°-43' west longitude. The name, according to Camden, was 

 given from a 'stripped or bark-bare oak,' used as a signal-place to 

 which the people repaired in time of trouble to make their general 

 defence. As&er Menevensis, according to Lysons in the Magna Britannia, 

 says that it was derived from a wood called Barroc, in which Box-trees 

 abounded, but this view does not appear to have any good foundation. 

 A Barroc Wood is mentioned in a charter of King John quoted in 

 Dugdale's Monasticon, and the other estates mentioned in the charter 

 are situated between Wantage and Lambourn. Maps of no very 

 distant date show a Berric Wood in the neighbourhood of Wokingham. 

 By some writers the name is supposed to come from • Beorce,' the 

 Beech, by others from the Bibroci, the tribe inhabiting West 

 Berkshire. 



In Saxon times the county was known as Berroc-scyre, By the 

 Latin authors it was called Bercheria. After the Danish conquest it 

 was known as Barcssyre. The coimty is of a very irregular shape. 

 Fuller, writing about it in The Worthies (published in 1662), says * it may 

 be fancied . . . like a lute lying along, whose belly is towards the west, 

 whilst the narrow neck or long handle is towards the east.' On the 

 north it is bounded by Oxfordshire, on the east by the same county 

 and Buckinghamshire, on the south-east and south by Surrey and 

 Hampshire, and on the west by Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. These 

 boundaries will be fully described later on. 



Various statements have been made as to the superficial area : in 

 Rocque's Map of Berkshire, published in 1761, the county is said to 

 contain 438,977 acres. Dr. Beeke, a botanist referred to in the Botano- 

 logia, writing about the year 1790, estimated the number of acres 

 at 464,500. The Report published by the House of Lords in 1805 

 gave the area at 744 statute miles or 476,160 acres, but Arrowsmith 



