BERKSHIRE, a county county (inland), bounded on the
north by the county of Oxford, and a small part of the
county of Buckingham, from both which it is separated
by the Thames; on the east by the counties of Buckingham
and Surrey} on the south by the county of
Southampton; and on the west by that of Wilts: it
extends from 51° 19' to 51° 48' (N. Lat.), and from 34£'
(E.) to 1° 43' (W. Lon.), and, including the detached
parts, contains about four hundred and sixty-four
thousand acres, or seven hundred and fifty-six square
miles. The population, in 1821, amounted to 134,700.
This county was anciently called Barocsdre, or Berocsdre,
softened in process of time into Barkshire and Berkshire,
and probably derived its name from a thick wood,
called Barroc, which occupied an extended tract between
Lambourn and Wantage, on or near the downs; though
some deduce its etymology from Berroc, a bare oak
in some part of Windsor Forest, beneath which the
Britons, as their custom was, assembled for devotional
and legislatorial purposes. The Bibrod occupied the
south-eastern extremity, and the Segontiad dwelt in
that part which borders on Hampshire, but the greater
part was inhabited by the Attrebatii. The Romans included
it within the district of Britannia Superior, and
subsequently in that of Britannia Prima. During the
Octarchy, it formed a part of the kingdom of the
West Saxons, or Wessex, and, after the reduction of
the Anglo-Saxon kingdom into one monarchy, it belonged
to the district called West Saxon Laege. Oifa,
King of Mercia, after his victory over Cynewulf, King
of the West Saxons, in 775, seized on all that territory
lying between Iknield-street and the Thames. The
Danes having made an irruption into Wessex, in 871,
were repulsed near Englefield by Earl Athelwolf, who
was slain in a subsequent battle between them and the
army under Ethelred; a few days after which, they
were again routed at Ashdown, and compelled to retreat
to Reading, where they passed the winter of 872. Alfred
gained a decisive victory over them at Eddington, in
878; but, in 1006, they committed great devastation in
the county, and defeated the Saxons near the river
Kennet. In 1011, Berkshire was under the dominion of
Ethelred II., and in the year ensuing, Sweyn, King of
Denmark, was at Wallingford. In the struggle between
Stephen and the Empress Matilda, the castle at Wallingford
was one of the strongest fortresses which were
garrisoned by the empress, and was the place of her
retreat when driven from Oxford: it was repeatedly besieged
by Stephen, but was successfully defended until
the termination of the war, when the amicable arranget
naent which ensued was concluded heneath its walls.
During the absence of King Richard I. on a crusading
expedition into Palestine, his brother John came over
from Normandy, and seized the castles of Wallingford
and Windsor, but the latter was retaken by the partizans
of the king. Two meetings for the redress of grievances
were held between John and the barons in 1213, one at
Wallingford and the other at Reading: three years afterwards,
the former place was fortified by the king, and
the latter besieged by the barons, whose army, under
Simon de Montfort, obtained possession of it in 1263:
a temporary reconciliation was effected at Reading between
Richard II, and the discontented nobles, in 1389.
During the parliamentary war, Berkshire was frequently
the scene of hostile operations. Wallingford was garrisoned
for the king, and Windsor for the parliament;
and each place continued in the possession of its own
party until the close of the war. Reading, which had
been seized on by the parliamentarians, was evacuated
by them on the approach, in October 1642, of a detachment
of the king's troops, the head-quarters of whose
cavalry were at Abingdon. At this period, the king held
the whole of the county, except the neighbourhood of
Windsor, which fortress sustained but one.attack during
the war, and that an unsuccessful one, from Prince
Rupert. In April 1643, Reading was retaken by the
parliamentary army; and in the month of September
following, the first battle of Newbury was fought, and
the victory claimed by both parties; a few days after
the action, Reading again fell into the hands of the king,
who also placed a garrison in Donnington castle, near
Newbury, under Col. Boys, by whom it was bravely and
successfully defended against repeated attacks of the
enemy. In the course of the ensuing year, Newbury,
Reading (which had been dismantled of its fortifications
by the king's troops), and Abingdon, fell successively
into the hands of the parliament, who obtained possession
of the whole county, except Wallingford. The second
battle of Newbury took place in the month of October,
in this year, the result of which was equally indecisive
with the first. In 1645, Sir Stephen Hawkins made an
unsuccessful attack on the parliamentary garrison at
Abingdon; and Cromwell, with like fortune, attacked
Farringdon, which was then held by the royalists, but
he soon after took Sir William Vaughan and Col. Littleton
prisoners, with two hundred of their troops, at
Radcutt bridge. Prince Rupert attacked Abingdon in
March 1646, but failed in his efforts to retake it; and
this was the last event of a military nature which took
place in Berkshire during the parliamentary war. Wallingford
and Farringdon were surrendered to the parliament
a few months afterwards, and the king passed
his last Christmas in confinement at Windsor. Subsequently
to the Restoration, a slight skirmish took
place near Reading, in December 1688, which, with the
exception of a more trifling affair at Twyford, was the
only engagement that happened in this county previously
to the Revolution.
Berkshire lies within the diocese of Salisbury and
province of Canterbury: it forms an archdeaconry, is
divided into the deaneries of Abingdon, Newbury, Read
ing, and Wallingford, and contains one hundred and fortyeight
parishes, of which seventy-two are rectories, sixtyfour
vicarages, and twelve perpetual curacies. For civil
purposes it is divided into twenty hundreds, namely,
Beynhurst,Bray,Charlton,Compton,Cookham,Faireross
Farringdon, Ganfield, Hormer, Kiutbury-Eagle, Lambourn,
Moreton, Ock, Reading, Ripplesmere, Shrivenham,
Sonning, Theale, Wantage, and Wargrave. It contains
the boroughs and market-towns of Abingdon, Reading,
Wallingford, and Windsor; the incorporated market
towns of Maidenhead, Newbury, and Wokingham; and
the market-towns of Great Farringdon, Hungerford, East
Ilsley,,Lambourn, and Wantage. Two knights are returned
to parliament, for the shire, and two representatives
for each of the boroughs, except Abingdon, which
sends one: the county members are nominated at Reading,
and elected at Abingdon, these being the chief
towns. This county is included in the Oxford circuit 5
the Lent assizes and the Epiphany sessions are held at
Reading, the summer assizes and Hilary sessions at
Abingdon, the Michaelmas sessions in either town, at
the option of the magistrates, and the Easter sessions at
Newbury. The county gaol and house of correction is
at Reading, and the county house of correction, or bridewell,
at Abingdon: there are ninety-three acting magistrates.
The rates raised in the county for the year
ending March 25th, 1827, amounted to £118,593, and
the expenditure to £114,970, of which £99,527. 4.
was applied to the relief of the poor.
Berkshire is not a manufacturing county, but there
are some cotton-manufactories and a large paper-mill
near Newbury, a paper-mill at Bagnor, and a large
manufactory for blankets at Greenham mills, near
Thatcham 5 the weaving of sheeting, sail-cloth, and
sacking, the manufacture of floor-cloth, and that of
silk ribands and galloons, are carried on at Reading;
sacking and sail-cloth were formerly extensively made
at Abingdon and Wantage; silk is manufactured at
Wokingham to a small extent, and copper bolts for
the navy, at the Temple mills in the parish of Bis:-
ham: there are also several large breweries in the
county, particularly at Windsor, which is celebrated
for its ale. The natural divisions of the county are
four, namely, the Forest district, commencing at the
eastern extremity of the county, and extending to the
river Loddon westward, and from Sandhurst on the
south to Maidenhead on the north; the Vale of the
Kennet, stretching from near Wargrave on the east
to Hungerford on the west; the Chalk hills, extending
nearly across the upper part of the county; and a
vale lying between Budcot and Streatley. The substratum
consists of chalk, or gravel, with portions of
clay at greater or less depths, according to the quality
of the soil. Stones of a fine silicious grit, vulgarly
called Sarsden-stones, or the Grey-weathers, are scattered
over the Berkshire and Wiltshire downs, and lie on
strata to which they do not naturally belong. The crops
commonly produced are those of wheat, barley, oats,
beans, peas, rye, buck-wheat, vetches or tares, rape of
cole-seed, turnips, and potatoes; those of limited culti^
vation are cabbages, carrots, hops, woad, flax, dill, and
lavender. The artificial grasses are red, broad, Dutch
clover, ray-grass, cow or marl grass, hop-trefoil, hearfc
trefoil, saintfoin, lucern, burnet, and corn spurry. For
pleasing and picturesque scenery, the eastern extremity
of the county is pre-eminent, particularly in Windsor
Forest, on the banks of "the Thames between Henley and
Maidenhead, and between Reading and Wallingford.
The waste lands chiefly consist of Maidenhead Thicket,
and some parts of Windsor Forest and its neighbourhood:
this forest was formerly of much greater circuit than it
is at present, having included a part of the counties of
Buckingham and Surrey, and the whole of the southeastern
part of Berkshire, as far as Hungerford; its
present circuit, in which is a part of Bagshot heath, is
about fifty-six miles. Windsor Great park was lessened
by George III., from three thousand eight hundred to
one thousand eight hundred acres, two thousand acres
having been brought into cultivation. From an estimate
made in the year 1806, it appeared that there were
in the county two hundred and fifty-five thousand acres
of arable land, seventy-two thousand in meadow and
dairy land, twenty-five thousand in sheep-walks, chiefly
unenclosed, on the chalk hills; twenty-five thousand
in other dry pastures, parks, &c., and thirty thousand
waste, chiefly barren heaths. The cattle are of the long
horned, or common country breed; many calves are
bred for stock, but suckling for the butcher is the
prevailing practice. There is a native breed of sheep,
strongly marked, but the pure race is not very common.
The horses are usually black, very strong and powerful,
and rather of full proportions than tall. The hogs, for
compactness and size, are excelled by none: in the dairy
tract, the piggeries are an important appendage to the farm.
The principal rivers are the Thames and the Rennet:
the -former skirts the county during a course of more
than one hundred miles, and is navigable as high as
Lechlade; the latter flows into Berkshire at Hungerford,
becomes navigable at Newbury, where it is joined by the
Lambourn, and falls into the Thames near Reading: the
river Loddon rises near Aldershot, in Hampshire, enters
Berkshire in the parish of Swallowfield, and runs into
the Thames near Wargrave; the Ock rises near Uffington
and flows into the Thames at Abingdon; the Auborn
rises near Inkpen, pursues an easterly course beyond
Hide-End, then taking a northerly direction, falls
into the Rennet a little below Wasing; the Lambourn
rises amongst the hills above the town of that name,
and falls into the Kennet near Shaw. The Wilts and
Berks canal extends from the Thames, at Abingdon, to
the eastern border of the county, in the upper part; and
the Kennet and Avon canal, from the river Kennet, a
little above Newbury, across the lower part of the county.
The great road from London to Bath enters at Maidenhead
bridge, and passing through Reading, quits near
the sixty-fifth milestone; the road from London to
Oxford enters at the same place, and leaves at Henley
bridge;. and the Cirencester road, which branches off at
Dorchester, re-enters Berkshire at Abingdon, and passing
through Farringdon, quits it at St. John's bridge, near Lechlade.
Within the county are many specimens of Saxon
ecclesiastical architecture: the most remarkable is
Avington church, which remains nearly in its original
state; the churches at Abingdon, Aldermaston, Chaddleworth,
Charney, Childrey, Cholsey, Hanney, Hatford,
North Hinksey, Hurley, Kintbury, Shalbourn, Shaw cum
Donnington, Stanford-Dingley, Sunninghill and Wallingford,
have doors with circular arches, and Saxon mouldings
and ornaments. Within the limits of the county
were anciently twelve religious houses, including one Alien
priory, and two preceptories of the Knights Hospitallers:
there were three colleges, of which, the royal chapel of
St. George at Windsor still remains; and ten hospitals,
five of which are now in existence, two at Abingdon,
and those at Donnington, Lambourn, and Newbury.
Of the magnificent abbey built by Henry I. at Reading,
little more than rude heaps of stones is now to be seen,
and the church of the Grey friars has been converted
into a bridewell: there are some remains of the ancient
monastery at Abingdon, of that of the Benedictines at
Hurley, and of the collegiate church at Wallingford.
The most distinctly marked Roman road is that from
Gloucester to London, which enters the county from
Baydon, and falls into the modern high road from Bath
to London, near the fifty-eighth milestone; the road
from Silchester to London passed through the southeastern
part, bearing for Old Windsor, or Staines; the
Iknield-street enters Berkshire at Streatley, and the
Portway on its north-westerly border from Wiltshire;
traces of the Old street are also visible between Wantage
and Thatcham. Of the many ancient camps, the most
remarkable are Letcomb Castle, enclosing an area of
twenty-six acres, the intrenchments and ditches containing
eight acres and a half; Uffington Castle, seven hundred
feet in diameter from east to west, and five hundred
from north to south, near which is the rude
figure of a horse, of very ancient execution, formed by
cutting away the turf on the side of the hill, which has
hence acquired the name of White Horse hill, and the
vale below, that of White Horse vale; Hardwell Castle,
in form approaching to a square; Caesar's Camp,
on Bagshot heath, five hundred and sixty paces in
length, and two hundred and eighty in width; Cherbury
camp, near Pusey, three hundred and ten paces across;
and Alfred's Castle, on the west side of Ashdown park,
one hundred and forty paces in diameter. The only
mineral springs of any note, are those at Cumner and
Sunninghill, the first a mild cathartic, the other a very
weak chalybeate; a strong chalybeate spring in the
parish of Wokingham, called Gorrick Well, and some
springs near Windsor, of the quality of the Epsom
waters.