INTRODUCTION Ixvil 



which have yet to be described. The Pang district is separated from 

 the Kennet district by the turnpike road, which is practically on the 

 watershed, from East Ilsley southwards by Ashridge, which is 545 

 feet, to Chieveley, which is 398 feet above the sea. Here the road, 

 which turns in a south-easterly direction by the base of Oai-e Hill, 

 397 feet high, to Hermitage, is chosen as the boundary line ; this 

 crosses first the railway below Hermitage, and then the road up to 

 Cold Ash Common, where an elevation of 513 feet is attained. From 

 this point the line of delimitation is the southern road across the 

 commons of Upper and Lower Bucklebury till Horn's Copse, which 

 from an elevation of 382 feet overlooks the Kennet valley, is reached ; 

 from thence the watershed of the Kennet and the Pang is followed to 

 Beenham Street, and there it is exchanged for the road which runs over 

 Mare's Ridges to Englefield, where the summit of the watershed is about 

 275 feet above the sea, and then to North Street, Nunhide, Langley Hill, 

 and Tilehurst, which last is 300 feet in elevation. From Tilehurst the 

 boundary is the road through Pig's Green to Reading, which is 150 feet 

 above the sea. The eastei-n boundary is the Thames, which, separating 

 the Pang district from Oxfordshire, flows from Mongewell-on-Thames 

 southwards to Reading, passing on its way Moulsford, Streatley, 

 Pangbourn, Maple Durham, and Tilehurst. 



The country comprised in the Pang district may be divided into two 

 drainage systems, one of which belongs to the Pang stream, and the 

 other to the main stream of the Thames. The watershed between the 

 Pang stream and the Thames is Lowbury Hill and the high ground, 

 which at the ancient village of Aldworth with its gigantic yew trees 

 is 503 feet above the sea, and stretches as far south as Yattendon, where 

 the elevation is 373 feet above the sea ; here the line of demarcation 

 crosses Ashampstead Common to Pangbourn. A third area is the 

 small strip which drains into the main stream of the Thames and 

 stretches from Pangbourn, Purley, and the higher ground by Kentwood 

 Farm and Prospect Hill, to Reading. 



The northern part of the Pang district is bare and bleak ; it is 

 formed of Chalk downs covered by short grassy turf and almost 

 destitute of trees, and affording extensive views over the Ock district ; 

 the air is delightfully bracing, even when an enervating atmosphere 

 prevails in the valley below. It appears probable that the great battle 

 of ^scesdune was fought on the downs of Ilsley and Compton ; the 

 latter Hundred was called in Domesday Book ' Nachededorne,' that is 

 the Hundred of the Naked-thorn ; and Asser in his description of the 

 battle speaks of a small thorn tree, ' Unica spinosa arbor, brevis 

 admodum,' round which the hostile armies met in the conflict which 

 resulted in the utter rout of the Danes and in the death of King 

 Bsegsseg and many of his Jarls. 



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