1310.) 
top of which. may be seen an elevation 
on the Portsmouth coast;) and to the 
wight the dwelling and lands of a farmer 
who dately served the office of sheriff for 
the county. As mere extent of prospect 
scarcely compensates the fatigue of 
climbing a bil; and the contemplation of 
those lucky chances which sometiies aid 
industry, and enable men to found 
houses, is not likely to produce much 
amusement to any other than the person 
who reaps benefit from them; I pass 
both these objects, and conduct the 
reader acress several level inclosures of 
rich and weil-cultivated land, to the vil- 
lage of Twyford. All here is life and 
bustle. Weare now on the great Bath 
road ; and high-crested Folly, and droop- 
ing suppliant Sicknegs, press with equal 
speed to the teinple of Bladud; each 
Jeaving a lesson of instruction as he 
passes. 
Twyford is chiefly memorable for a 
skirmish between a detachment of Trish 
dragoons, and a few of the soldiers be-. 
longing to the prince of Orange, in 1688... 
Tt may be remembered, that the only 
military opposition of ary moment made 
to the approaches of the protestant Wil- 
liam, occurred at Reading. A serious 
conflict there took place between some 
Scottish* and Irish troops, and an ad- 
vanced party of the prince’s horse. But 
the rovalists were speedily routed. In- 
deed, if the complaint preferred by the 
partizans of James be founded on truth, 
it is no wonder that they were compelled 
to fly; for it was asserted by the adherents 
of the court, that the townspeople of 
Reading tired from the house-windows on 
the backs of the Irish soldiers, while the 
prince’s cavalry charged them in front. 
Et is certain that James was very unpo- 
pular at Reading ; and a song was com- 
posed in memory of this fight, adapted 
to the tune.of lillibullere. é 
A few of the vanquished party rallied 
at Twyford, and faced their pursuers on 
a little hill contiguous to the village; 
but they were again compelled to take 
flight, and the greater part succeeded in 
joining their friends at Colubrook. On 
this little mound, the traveller must in.‘ 
evitably pause,t and geze with satisfac- 
a 
* Lord Ogilvie fought at the head of the 
Scottish regiment, though he was then more 
than eighty years of age. 
+ Many human bones, and one entire ske- 
leton, have been found by the followers of 
the plough, carelessly deposited in the soil 
of this hill; and, though several soldiers 
_ Were certataly slain in the conflict described 
Walks in Berkshire. 
327 
tion on every rood of land connected 
with the spot where the last sword was 
drawn with a view’of preventing the ine 
terference of William in the political 
affairs of Enyland. os 
If any instance of unusual gratitude, 
or liberality of feeling, (though united 
with the founding of a chapel) lie in the 
perambulator’s way, he isto blame if he 
do not stop and pick it up. On one of 
the most cold and dreary nights of a 
winter, towards the middle of the 17th 
century, a cluid was found, balf-famished 
and half-frogen, at the doer of a hamble 
cottage in Twyford. About his neck was 
tied a label, in which the writer im- 
plored pity on the unguarded forehead 
of the poor babe, and stated the name 
by which he might be called, should he 
survive. ‘Lhe child’s look was more 
eloquent than the periods of this writer ; 
7 the cottager sheltered the found 
ling, and caused him to be instructed in 
those rudimental parts of learning which 
are found, by experience, to impart, quite 
sufficient erudition for the purpose of 
making a fortune. Tated, as it would 
seem, toan eccentric lot, the boy quitted 
Twyford, and, after various rambles, sey 
tled in London, where he amassed a con- 
siderable property. Abandoned by these 
who should have possessed a claim on 
his heart, he knew no bome except the 
village which had protected his perilous — 
infancy; and, in commemoration of the 
humanity of his benefactor, and under 
the hope of exciting a similar compas- 
sionate feeling in the breasts of others, he 
built a chapel of ease at Twyford, and 
founded a charity-school for ten children 
un’ the spot where he had once been 
exposed, forlorn, and frierdless, to the 
inclemency of a December’s night, 
Ruscomb, a little rural parish, which 
you# are sure to be told contains neither 
shop nor public house, adjoins the village 
poe rd 
above, no entry respecting their burial occurs 
in the register of the parish for that period. 
It appears probable therefore, that the in- 
habitants of Twyford contemptuously threw 
the bodies of friend and foe inte shallow 
graves on the field of action. 
On searching the ‘registers of Ruscomb 
parish, I noticed the foliowing entry, which 
appears to prove that no seclusion of resi- 
dence was a preservative from that dreadful 
pestilence which so frequently halt-depopu- 
lated the metropolis; ‘* 1646, Edward Pol- 
lentine, and five of his children, which died 
of the plague in Twyford, with some others 
who died of that disease, were buried on and 
about May 17.” 
af 
