ASCOT AND NEWBURY 301 



would, I think, go with the Bishop of Bath and 

 Wells, and take both. Anyway, to me water has 

 a very powerful charm, running water especially, 

 q,nd the Newbury and Lambourne rivers are just 

 the sort I do like. Give me something to lean 

 against — the coping of a bridge for choice — and 

 I have amusement for hours indefinite, especially 

 if said bridge is high enough for the swallows 

 and house-martins and sand-martins to sail under, 

 and if there is a lusty trout about, here and there 

 a grayling, and may be a shoal of sizable roach, 

 with perhaps a warlike-looking old warrior of a 

 perch investigating where a bit of woodwork 

 occurs. I recommend all and sundry to do their 

 Newbury properly, and if possible take Lam- 

 bourne's light railway, for that quaint Httle 

 settlement on the edge of the great spread of 

 downs ; or working towards Didcot on another 

 line, where are Compton, and Chilton, and Ilsley 

 (if you haven't seen Ilsley, a collection of sheep- 

 pens and public-houses, about one of the latter to 

 every inhabitant and a half, pray do so). 



