BISCUITS, SEEDS, AND SAUCE 



135 



is rapidly adding to tliem. Tliis prosperity proceeds 

 from several causes, Reading being — 



" 'Mongst other things, so widely known, 

 For hiscuits, seeds, and sauce." 



Tiie town, of course, stands for biscuits in the minds 

 of most people, and the names of Huntley and Palmer 

 have become household words, somewhat eclipsing 

 Cock's Readino- Sauce, and the seeds of Sutton's ; 

 while few people outside Reading are cognizant of 

 its sreat enoineerinor industries. So much for modern 

 Reading, whose principal hero is George Palmer. 



Mr. Georse Palmer, whose death occurred in 1897, 

 enjoyed the distinction of having 

 a statue erected to him during 

 his lifetime, an unusual honour 

 which he shared with few others 

 — Queen Victoria, the great 

 Duke of Wellington, Lord 

 Roberts, Reginald, Earl of 

 Devon, and, of course, Mr. Glad- 

 stone. Mr. Palmer's fellow- 

 townsmen elected to honour him 

 in this way, and decided to have 

 a statue which should be in 

 every way true to life, and show 

 the man " in his habit as he 

 lived " — one in which the clothes 

 should be as characteristic as 

 the features. Our orandfathers 



would have represented him wrapped in a Roman 

 too:a, but those notions do not commend themselves 

 to the present age, and so the effigy stands in all the 



PALMER S STATUE. 



