INTRODUCTION 



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the Ogbourne, and shortly after the Aldbourne, so that it is a consider- 

 able stream when it enters Berkshire near Hungerford. It then runs 

 in a nearly straight course, whose direction is west to east, draining 

 the synclinal Chalk which rises in the north to a height of 840 feet at 

 the White Horse Hill, and in the south, at Walbury Camp, to a height of 

 957 feet, the escarpment on the north side being gentle, while that of 

 the Inkpen range on the south side of the Kennet is very steep. Near 

 Newbury, the river discloses a considerable surface of peat resting on 

 layers of gravel and sand — a mark of stagnant water ; in the Eocene 

 valley of Newbury, at an elevation of 254 feet above sea level, it is 

 reinforced by ihe Lambourn. This purely Cbalk stream rises in the 

 Lambotirn downs, and has a rapid, and in many places a picturesque 

 course of about 16 miles by the Sheffords, 333 feet above the sea, and 

 by Welford (the Willow ford) to Newbury. From this ancient town 

 to Pad worth the Kennet, here 180 feet above sea level, flows through 

 Eocene strata, and is bordered by irrigated meadows and frequent 

 reed-beds; on the south, the well-wooded estates of Wasing and 

 Aldermaston stretch for some distance, while the slopes on the north 

 by Thatcham and Bucklebury Common are also interesting. The 

 Emhorne, or Auborne, rises in the Chalk near Inkpen in Berkshire, but 

 soon becomes the boundary between Hampshire and Berkshire for 

 about ten miles, from Redhill to Holt Common, when it takes a 

 northerly direction and falls between Brimpton and Wasing into the 

 Kennet. In its course it drains the great heathy commons of Green- 

 ham and Crookham, where it is a pretty stream. 



Another brook, coming from Aldermaston and Mortimer, drains 

 a small part of the country south of the Kennet from these places to 

 Reading. The Kennet, as it passes towards the end of its course by 

 Theale and Southcote, is still a pleasant stream ; but it then loses 

 its country charm, and entering the populous town of Reading, passes 

 into the Thames, which now flows through a broader valley where 

 the hanging woods of Sonning ^ border the Berkshire side of the 

 stream, and passes under the very ancient bridge to Shiplake^ situate 

 on an abrupt cliff. Here the river displays one of its finest bends ; 

 at Shiplake Lock it receives the Loddon, here divided into several 

 branches, whose banks are adorned with the lovely Snow-flake, 

 Leucojum aestivum. 



' The Loddon slow, with verdant alders crowned,' rises in Hamp- 

 shire, near Ramsdell and Basingstoke, and enters Berkshire near the 

 seat of the Duke of Wellington at Strathfieldsaye. Shortly after, near 

 Swallowfield, once the home of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and where 



>• Leland describes Sonning 'as an upland town set on fair and com- 

 modious ground, beneath which the Tamise runneth in a pleasant vale.' 

 2 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was married here. 



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