Tlie Berkshire Farm Prize Competition, 1882. 535 
Till mea of spoil disdained the toil 
By which the world was nourished. 
And dews of blood enriched the soil 
Where green their laurels flourished : 
Now the world her fault repairs — 
The guilt that stains her story ; 
And weeps her crimes amid the cares 
That formed her earliest glory. 
— The glorj' earned in deadly fray, 
Shall fade, decay, and perish. 
Honour waits, o'er all the Earth, 
Through endless generations. 
The art that calls her harvests forth, 
And feeds the expectant nations." 
The competition was limited to tenant-farmers paying a 
'bo7id fide rent for at least three-fourths of the land in their 
occupation, the whole to be included in the certificate. Four- 
teen competitors entered the lists, onlj one of these being in 
Class 2, and two only outside the county of Berks. Before 
the Judges commenced their inspection, one competitor in 
Class 1 withdrew from the contest, leaving an area of about 
5000 acres to be visited. 
The occupations may all be described as mixed farms, the 
proportion of grass to arable land varying from an eighth to 
two-thirds, as set forth in the respective certificates of entry, the 
particulars of which are given in the annexed schedule. 
Before entering upon a detailed account of the farms, it may 
not be out of place to make some general remarks on this 
interesting district. 
Historically, Berkshire occupies r prominent position among 
the counties of England. The stately pile of buildings em- 
braced under the name of Windsor Castle, and so long a chief 
residence of our monarchs, has justly entitled the county to the 
appellation of Royal. It was at Wantage in this county that 
our great Saxon King, Alfred, was born, and here at Ashdown he 
broke the power of the invading Dane, and in the " White 
Horse " engraved upon the sward of his native hills has left an 
enduring monument of his prowess, and given a name to one of 
the most fertile valleys of our country, VVindsor Castle was the 
birthplace of Edward III. and Henry VI., and at Reading 
Abbey, Henry I. and his daughter, the Empress Matilda, mother 
of our Henry II., found a sepulchre. From the time of the 
Roman occupation to the strifes of the Commonwealth, Berk- 
shire has frequently witnessed and suffered from the ebb and 
flow of war. Mr. Walford, in his ' Guide to Berkshire,' speaks 
■of the town of Wallingford as one " which has grown up on the 
ruins of the old settlements of the Britons, the Romans, the 
Danes, and the Saxons." Of the old castle here little remains, 
