158 



THE BEITISH ISLES. 



communication by water bctv^^ecn London and Bristol, and many of the bulky 

 articles of commerce pass along it. Nenhury, lower down the Kennet, is built on 

 a peat bed. Battles took place near it, in 1G43 and 1044, during the Civil War. 

 In the nei^libourliood are Donnington Castle and Shaw House — the latter, not- 

 withstanding the injury it suliered during the war, the most stately Elizabethan 

 mansion in the county. 



Beading, a flourishing commercial town, stands on the river Kennet, 1 mile 



Fig. 86.— Reading. 

 From the Ordnance Survey. Scale 1 : n:i..'?RR. 



iMile. 



above its junction with the Thames. It is a place of considerable historical fame, 

 battles having been fought in its neighbourhood, and Parliaments held within its 

 walls. But the only object likely to interest the antiquary is the remains of a 

 Benedictine abbey founded in 1121, and com-erted by Henry YIII. into a royal 

 palace. At the present day Reading is known chiefly on account of its biscuit 

 factory, which dispatches train-loads of them daily to every quarter of the 

 globe. There does not probably exist an article of food more widely dispersed 



