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partly included in Berks, but chielly in other counties. 5 : 

 total, 156. Tlic parishes which, though partly in 'lhiT 

 counties, may b most properly reckoned in Berkshire, are 

 Sunning, Landlord, and Shilton ( partly in Oxfordshire), and 

 Coleshill.Huiit'erford. Hurst (panxihialchupelry).Shalboiirn, 

 ShinBcld, and Wokinghara (partly in Wilts). The parishes 

 w Inch rather lielong to other counties arc Great Barrington 

 (chiefly in Gloucestershire), St. A Mate's (chielly in the city 

 of Oxford), StrathfieU- .\ iclnetly in Hants), audlnglcsbam 

 and Swallowfield (chiefly in Wili.M. 



There are twelve market-towns: Abingdnn, Fiiringdon, 

 Hungerford, East llsley, Lambourn, Maidenhead, Now- 

 bury, Reading, Wallingford, Wantage, Windsor, and 

 Wokingham. .Of these, Reading and Abingdon are the 

 assize-towns, and the latter is the chief place of county 

 election. 



Reading is on the Kennel, chiefly on the left bank, 

 about a mile or a mile and a half before it flows into the 

 Thames. It is a parliamentary borough, sending two 

 members, and had a population in 1831 of 15.A95. 



Abingdon, on the Gloucester road, fifty-six miles from 

 London, is on the right bank of the Thames, just at the 

 mouth of the Ock, and at the entrance into the Thames ol 

 the Wilts and Berks canal. Its population in 1831 wag 5259. 

 It returns one member to parliament. 



Windsor, properly New Windsor, twenty-two miles from 

 London by Colnbrook, on the right bank of the Thames, 

 contains a noble castle, a residence of the kings of England. 

 It is a parliamentary borough, returning two members, and 

 had in 18.il a population of 5650, including the inhabitants 

 of the castle and the lower ward, or 7103 including the 

 parish of Old Windsor.* 



\Vallingford, also a parliamentary borough, returning one 

 member, forty-six miles from London, had in 1831 a popula- 

 tion of 2563 ;t but the limits assigned to the borough by 

 the Boundary Act include a population of probably more 

 than double that number. [Sec ABINGDO.V, HEADING, 



WXLLINGFORD. WlNDSOR.] 



Next to the above places, the most important is Newbury, 

 on the Bath road, seventeen mile* from Reading, and fifty- 

 iix miles from London. It is on the river Kennet, at the 

 point where the navigation of that river unites with the 

 Kennet and Avon canal, and had in 1831 a population of 

 5959, or including Sandleford priory, which is in the parish, 

 6977. 



Great Faringdon, in the north-west part of the county, 

 *ixty-eight miles from London by Wallingford and Wan- 

 tage, or between seventy and seventy-one by Abingdon, 

 had in 1831 a population of 3033 for the whole parish. 

 Wantage, sixty miles from London by Wallingford, con- 

 tained in the whole parish, in 1831, 3282 inhabitants. [See 

 FARINCDOX, NKWBURY, WANTAGE.] 



The remaining five towns, Hungerford, East llsley, 

 Lambourn, Maidenhead, and Wokingham being too small 

 to require separate articles, may be mentioned more at 

 length here. 



Ilungerford is in the S.W. part of the county, on the 

 Bath road, eight or nine miles from Newbury, above twenty- 

 five from Reading, and sixty-four or sixty-five from London. 

 It is upon the river Kennet (which, however, is not navi- 

 gable), and upon the Kennet and Avon Canal. This town 

 bore in antient times the name of Ingleford Charnuun (or 

 Ckarnam) Street, which Mr. Gough (in his Additions to 

 Camden) thinks may be a corruption of the Ford of the 

 Angles on Herman Street, the antient Roman road. But 

 the Messrs. Lysons doubt whether the name Ingleford ap- 

 plied to more than the site of the manor of Hungerford- 

 Ingleford, which is in the parish, and observe that the name 

 Hungerford, as now spelt, occurs in a record as antient as 

 A.D. 1201. The name Charnam Street is still preserved 

 by one of the avenues to the town, and bv one of the 

 litliings into which the parish is divided. The town con- 

 iiH chiefly of one long street, in the centre of which are 

 the market-house and shambles, with a room over them in 

 which the town business is transacted. The church, which 

 is in the western quarter of the town, was erected in 1814, 

 in the place of an antient structure, which appeared to have 

 been built at different dates. In the former church were 

 several memorials of the antient family of the Hungerfords. 



* OU Wlad*or ochher WM nor It Included ID !ht pArliamirnUry borough. 



t Mojn lh ' Ab'tnrt of DM Antrr and Rrl.iti,, ' umlcr the Population 

 fun of 1831. IB dm Arroom. ID 4 Papon 1 lor ih.t muon of rwlunxnl 

 (Put. Paprn far 1831, tot it ill.) It ii fiten i J7 



The living is a vicarage, in the patronage of the dean and 

 chapter of Windsor, and in the peculiar jurisdiction of the 

 dean of Salisbury : the net income of the vicarage is 

 stated at 4:!9/. in the KcelrsiattiaU Kevetiue* Report, 

 1835. Near the church is the free grammar-school. 

 The Kennet in here divided into two streams, one of which 

 passes through the town, the other close by it on the north 

 side. The latter is crossed by a bridge at the entrance of 

 the town from Newbury. There appears to be no manufac- 

 ture in Hungerford of any importance. The market, which 

 is on Wednesday, has been held from time immemorial, 

 and is mentioned as an established market A.D. l-j'.t". 

 There are three fairs. The population of the whole parish, 

 which contains 4450 acres, and extends into Wiltshire, was, 

 in 1831,2715; but a considerable portion of this must In- 

 rural population. The town is governed by a constable 

 chosen annually by the inhabitants: the other municipal 

 ollicers are bailiff, steward, town-clerk, twelve feoffees and 

 burgesses, Sec. Hungerford was the birth-place of Dr. 

 Samuel Chandler, an eminent dissenting minister of the 

 last century. There was formerly an hospital of St. John 

 the Baptist in this town, but its site is not known. 



East llsley (antiently Huldesley or Hildesley) lies be- 

 tween Newbury and Abingdon, nine or ten miles from the 

 former, and eleven from the latter. It is fifty-four miles 

 from London through Reading. It is situated amidst the 

 downs formed by that range of chalk hills which has been 

 described above as crossing the county : on these downs a 

 great number of sheep are fed. Although East lUlcy is 

 a very small place, of not more than 738 inhabitants (in 

 1831), its sheep-market, which commences on the Wed- 

 nesday in Easter week, and is held every alternate Wed- 

 nesday till Whitsuntide, is supposed to be one of the largest 

 in England next to that of the metropolis. The sheep 

 are purchased by the Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire 

 farmers, and fattened for the London market. There 

 is a market on Wednesday throughout the year, but the 

 great sheep-market is for a limited season, as mentioned 

 above: there are also two fairs. The living is a rectory 

 in the deanery of Newbury, of the net annual value, 

 according to the Ecclesiatiical Revenues' Report (1835), 

 of 64 5/. 



Lambourn, or Chipping Lambourn, is situated upon the 

 little river of that name, which falls into the Kennet at 

 Newbury. Lambourn is near the edge of the downs men- 

 tioned in the account of East llsley, eleven miles from that 

 town, and sixty-five from London. In the market-place is 

 a tall plain pillar, with an ornamented capital, on an ascent 

 of steps. The church is a handsome Gothic structure in 

 the form of a cross, having two chantry chapels on the south 

 side : and near the churchyard is an hospital for ten poor 

 men, founded by some of the family of Isbury or Estbury. 

 The living is a vicarage in the gift of the dean and chapter 

 of St. Paul's, London, of the average net income of 104/ 

 The market is of very antient date, but has much declined 

 of late years : it is held on Fridays. There are three fairs. 

 The parish is very extensive, containing nearly 15,000 

 acres: it is divided into one township (that of Chipping 

 Lambourn) and three tithings. The population of the. 

 township of Chipping Lambourn in 1831 was 1166: that of 

 the whole parish 2386. At Upper Lambouni, an adjacent 

 hamlet, was formerly a free chapel, now destroyed. 



Maidenhead is a small but neat town, a little way from 

 the Thames on the Bath road, twenty-six miles from Lon- 

 don. The town was formerly called South Ealington, and 

 the name Maidenhead was said to have been given to it 

 from the veneration paid to the head .of one of the eleven 

 thousand British virgins who, according to an antient but 

 fabulous legend, were martyred-iiy Attila king of the Huns: 

 but as in the most antient records it is written Maidcnhithe 

 or Maydenehythe*, it is more likely that the name was first 

 given to the spot where Maidenhead bridge now crosses the 

 Thames, where was formerly a great wharfage of timber 

 and firewood. There, has been a bridge at this spot from 

 an early date, certainly from the thirteenth century, and 

 the erection of it diverted the course of the great western 

 n>;id, which appears before that time to have crossed the 

 river about two miles higher at Babham Ferry, near Cook- 

 ham. From this change of the road the town of Maiden 

 head took its rise, and it soon outstripped Bray, which may 



Ililhe U > word of SUxon origin (heh. a dllch or trracli). nd ii i.i.l ic 



