146 THE BATH ROAD 



a mile, l)ut has been known to afflict architects who 

 have made its close acquaintance with hopeless 

 melancholia. In fine, Theale church is a horrid 

 example of Early Victorian imitation of the Early 

 English style. 



And now the road wanders sweetly between the 

 green and pleasant levels beside the sedgy Kennet. 

 Road, rail, river, and canal run side by side, or l)ut 

 slightly parted, for miles, past AVoolhampton and 

 the decayed town of Thatcham, to Newbury, and so 

 on to Hunoferford. 



A short mile before reaching Woolhampton, there 

 stands, on the left-hand side of the road, quite lonely, 

 a wayside inn, the " Rising Sun," a relic of coaching 

 times. They still show one, in the parlour, the old 

 booking-office in wliich parcels were received for the 

 old road- waggons that plied with luggage betw^een 

 London and Batli, and talk of the davs when the 

 house used to own stabling for forty horses. A larger 

 inn is the " Angel," at Woolhampton, with a most 

 elaborate iron sign, from wliich depends a little carved 

 figure of a vine-crowned Bacchus, astride his barrel, 

 carved forty years ago by a wood-carver engaged on 

 the restoration of Woolhampton Church. Tramps 

 and other travellers unacquainted with the classics 

 generally take this vinous heathen god to be a repre- 

 sentation of the Angel after whom the inn was 

 named. 



Woolhampton, once blessed with two " Angels," has 

 now but one, for what was once known as the '' Upper 

 Ano-el" has been re-named the "Falmouth Arms." 

 Although Woolhampton village possesses a railway 



