216 
years taken possession of the mansion, 
he may be pronounced a century old in 
hospitality ; and never thinks of exhibiting 
his grounds to a visitur, except in the 
morning. 
Yet the grounds dependent on Ship- 
lake-house, are eminently beautiful. 
The mansion stands on a lofty hill; and 
the chief prospect is viewed through a 
glade, where majestic woodland, devious 
interstice, and a back-ground replete 
with all the mellow charms of distance, 
unite to soothe the feelings, and exalt the 
imagination : 
6¢ Vivid green, 
Warm brown, and black opake, the fore. 
ground bears 
Conspicuous ; sober olive coldly marks 
The second distance; thence the third 
declines 
In softer blue; or, less’ning still, is lost 
In faintest purple.” 
Atasmall remove from Mr. Hanscomb’s, 
ig the vicarage-house of Shiplake; a 
respectable dyelling that demands the 
attention of the traveller, from the cir- 
cumstance of it having been the residence 
of the Rev. Mr. Granger, who there 
wrote his Biographical History of Eng- 
land. The vicarage is embowered by 
trees; and the front windows command 
an extensive and agreeable prospect. 
The walks in the neighbourhood seem 
dedicated: to solitude and meditation. 
It was through these shades that Gran- 
ger rambled, while examining the merits 
of a Plantagenet or a Stuart; and cold 
indeed must be the bosom that does not 
repeat the sigh once heaved on this spot 
by the historian, as a tribute to those 
who have long since “ acted their parts,” 
and who live only in the tender fancy of 
their descendants. 
A farm-house, on a low plot of ground, 
termed Burrough Marsh, near which the 
pedestrian passes in his way to Wargrave, 
is worthy of examination. This lone 
dwelling is supposed to have formerly 
belonged to the knights of St. John of 
Jerusalem. Interspersed in_ various 
parts of the building are stones orna- 
mented with grotesque carving; and one 
large room (reported to have been for- 
mierly a chapel) is wainscoted with oak, 
and furnished with fixed oaken seats, 
Tt is certain, that the knights-templars 
had formerly considerable property in 
Berkshire ; and the mills in the parish of 
Bisham yet retain the appellation of the 
Temple Mills. Burrough Marsh, and 
its appendages, may therefore haye 
Walks in Berkshires 
[April 1 
belonged to these zealous members of the 
church-militant; but the sculptured tae 
blets, observable in many parts of the 
farm-house, are evidently the fragments 
of some more costly structure. 
At no great distance from Burrough 
Marsh, a branch of the river Loddon 
enters the Thames: and here is to be 
seen a piece of military antiquity, which 
has hitherto passed entirely unnoticed; 
though Berkshire has produced many 
literary men, and has been the subject 
of inquiry with several recent topogras 
phical writers. I allude to an embanka« 
“ment, which is thrown up on each side 
of the narrow bed of the Loddon, fur the 
extent of more than a mile ; but which is 
contrived in such an angular form, as to 
leave a considerable space between the 
interior of the bank, and the margin of 
the river. There appears every reason 
to suppose that this embankment was 
made by the Danes; who, in their 
Berkshire devastations, constantly ho- 
vered on the borders of the Thames, * 
and who possibly formed this intrench~ 
ment as. an artificial haven for the smalk 
vessels which attended their incursions. 
It certainly is not known that any battle 
was fought between the Danes and the 
English, in the neighbourhood of War- 
grave; but, from the suecess whicls 
crowned the efforts of the invaders at 
Reading and Wallingford, it is unlikely 
that the natives of the connty would ven- 
ture to attack the ravagers, in the com- 
paratively strong-hold constructed. by 
thém as a place vf resource in time of 
extreme peril. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HAVE lately-been reading the Es- 
says on Professional Education of 
Mr. Edgeworth. This work exhi- 
bits the same peculiar characteristics 
* Reading, Wallingford, and Hungerford, 
appear to have been the chief stations of the 
Danes; and it was in the neighbourhood of 
these three places, that their principal bat- 
tles with the English were fought. It was 
probably owing to a surprise from the natives, 
that they omitted to destroy the ** great 
barn,” at Cholsey, which bears the date of - 
1101, and belonged to that ancient abbey of 
Cholsey, which was destroyed by the Danes 
before Reading abbey was founded. ‘This 
barn (whichis accurately described by Gilpin, 
in his Forest Scenery) is above a hundred 
yards in length, and is eighteen yards broad. 
The roof is supported by carved pillars, and 
the barn contaggs four threshing-places. 
