I50 THE BATH ROAD 



protection which Hemy the Third aflforded the phacc 

 against the " Newbury men." But, kingly help not- 

 withstanding, the " Newbury men " have long since 

 snatched its trade away from Thatcham, which has 

 become a village, while Newbury has grown to be a 

 town of 20,000 inhabitants. The only interesting 

 object in the long street is Thatcham Chapel, an 

 isolated Perpendicular building, purchased for IO5. by 

 Lady Frances Winchcombe in 1707. She presented 

 it to a Blue Coat school which slie founded in the 

 village. 



XXV 



Newbuky, the " hated rival," is thi-ee miles down 

 the road. Within a mile of it in coachiug times, 

 but now not to be distinouished from the town itself, 

 is Speenhamlaud, the site of that famous coachiug 

 inn, the " Pelicau," whose charges were of so monu- 

 mental a character that Quin has immortalized them 

 in the lines : — 



" The famous inn at Speenhamlaud, 

 That stands beneath the hill, 

 May well be called the Pelicau, 

 From its enormous bill." 



Alas ! how are the mighty fallen ! The Pelican is 

 no longer an inn, but has been divided up, and part 

 of it is a veterinary establishment. 



The most famous inhabitant of Newbury was that 

 fifteenth-century clothier, that J' Jack of Newbury," 



