i-,8 THE BATH ROAD 



o 



have been your physician to cure you, and here, as I 

 deserve, I demand my fee for the same." 



The Abbot was enlightened. He, as Fuller says, 

 " down with his dust, and, glad he escaped so, returned 

 to Reading, as somewhat lighter in purse, so much 

 more merry in heart, than when he came thence." 



Little remains at Readino- to tell of the coachino- 

 age. Where are the "Bear," the "George," the 

 " Crown " ? G-one, with their jovial guests, into the 

 limbo of forgotten things, almost as thoroughly as 

 the civilization of Roman Calleva — the Silchester of 

 modern times — situated at some distance down the 

 road from Readinsr to Basinostoke, and whose relics 

 may be seen gathered together in the Reading Museum. 

 To that collection should be added a set of articles 

 used in the everyday business of coaching. They 

 would be just as curious to-day as those Roman 

 potsherds of a thousand years ago. 



XXIV 



The Bath Road climbs, with some show of steep- 

 ness, out of Reading, presently to enter upon that 

 stretch of nearly seventeen miles of comparatively 

 flat sandy gravel road which, for speed cycling, is the 

 best part of the whole journey. The surface is nearly 

 always splendid, save in very dry seasons, when the 

 sand renders the going somewhat heavy, and the 

 cyclist may well be surprised to learn that it was 

 here, between Reading and Newbury, that Pepys and 



