The Old Berkshire. 211 



doubling the journey) — are, once arrived at, much 

 more commanding as points in the Old Berkshire 

 Country. Of the two, Faringdon is to be preferred, 

 as not only dominating all the best of the Berkshire 

 Vale, but as placing you also within reach of most of 

 the fixtures of the Yale of White Horse. 



The Old Berkshire take the field three days in the 

 week — viz., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 

 Monday is in the best of their Vale ; Wednesday 

 is on the eastern or Abingdon side ; while Friday 

 is in the semi-circle embracing Faringdon on the 

 west and north — an occasional Monday or Friday 

 being taken to account for the Bampton Corner, north 

 of the Thames, and in every second month Monday is 

 devoted to Tar Wood, neutral with the Heythrop. 



The Monday country, though limited, embraces the 

 pick of the beautiful grass lowland through which 

 runs the Great Western on its way between Didcot 

 and Swindon. It cannot be said but that the railway 

 is exactly where it is least wanted — but this is a 

 drawback so frequent all over the hunting-fields of 

 Great Britain that it calls for no special comment. 

 Wantage on the east, and Knighton Crossing on the 

 west are, roughly speaking, the limits of the Monday 

 district ; which, again, runs up to the Ridgeway of the 

 Lambourn Downs on the south, and embraces as far 

 as Hatford on the north. Sloping down from the 

 heights on which the outline of the White Horse is 

 annually scoured, the face of the country gradually 

 merges into a deep grass vale, through which — to the 

 north of the railway — runs the Rosey, sluggish and 

 formidable. The fences of the Vale are mostly to be 



