THOMAS STACKIIOUSE 153 



whose wealth and public benefactions were alike 

 considered wonderful in his day. The most notorious 

 inhabitant was that scandalous Vicar of Beenham 

 Vallance, near by, who flourished flamboyantly here 

 between 1733 and 1752. Candour compels the ad- 

 mission that the Rev. Thomas Stackhouse, besides 

 being the learned author of the " History of the Bible," 

 was also a great drunkard. That history, indeed, he 

 chiefly wrote at an inn still standing on the Bath 

 Road near Thatcham, called " Jack's Booth." He 

 would stay there for days at a time, and write (and 

 drink), in an arbour in the garden, going frequently 

 from this retreat to his church on Sundays, where, 

 in the pulpit, he would break into incoherent prayers 

 and maudlin tears, asking forgiveness for his besetting 

 sin, and promising reformation of his evil courses. 

 But after service he was generally to be seen going 

 back to his inn. Here one day a friend found him 

 and reminded him that it was the day of the Bishop's 

 Visitation, a circumstance which he had quite for- 

 gotten. He went off, clothed disgracefully, and by 

 no means sober. " Who," asked the Bishop, indig- 

 nantly, on seeing this strange creature — " who is that 

 shabby, dirty old man % " The vicar answered the 

 query himself. " I am," he shouted, " Thomas Stack- 

 house, Vicar of Beenham, who wrote the 'History of 

 the Bible,' and that is more than your lordshij) can 

 do ! " The historian of these things says this reply 

 quite upset the gravity of the solemn meeting ; and 

 the statement may w^ell be believed. 



Camden says, " Newburie must acknowledge Speen 

 as its mother, and Newbury, in fact, was originally 



