*WALLINGFORD, (Berkshire) on the b. of Oxfordshire, 10 m. from Reading, 38 cm. 46 mm. from London, made a good figure in
the time of the Saxons and Danes, the latter of whom are said to have destroyed it anno 1006; yet in the R. of Edward the
Confessor, it was counted a Bor. and had a castle afterwards, which the Ld. of the T. surrendered to William the
Conqueror. It was often besieged by K. Stephen, bet. whom and Henry II. a peace was at length concluded at this place. The
castle was repaired by Richard, (K. of the Romans) brother to Hen. III. who kept his wedding here, at which he entertained
the K. Q. and the nobility. His son Edmund, to whom this Bor. came after his death, founded a collegiate chapel in this
castle, and endowed it, for a dean, 6 prebends, 6 clerks, and 4 choristers. On his death, the honour of Wallingford came
to the crown, and the manor was settled on the heir apparent, to support his dignity as D. of Cornwall. K. Ja. I. assigned
this Lp. to his Q. as part of her dowry, and afterwards to his son, Prince Charles. In Q. Elizabeth's time, the castle
bel. as it does now, (though in ruins) to Christ-Ch. Coll. Oxford, whose students, Camden says, used to retire hither.
Leland says, this T. was formerly walled above 3 m. in com. from the castle to the bridge, that it suffered much by a
great plague in the R. of Edw. III. that on the petition of the inh. to Richard II. the fee-farm rent of it was reduced
from 40 to 17 l. and that there were only 3 poor Chs. remaining in his time, out of 12 that it had once. But the inh.
ascribe its decay rather to the turning off the Glocester road, by the bridges erected at Abington and Dorchester; yet of
late years it has much increased, both in houses and inh. and at this present 'tis a large handsome T. having a stately
stone-bridge, above 300 yards long, over the Thames, with nineteen arches, and 4 draw-bridges. It has a Mt.-house and a
town-hall, where the assizes are held sometimes, and where the mayor and justices always hold the quarter-sessions for
this Bor. which is a distinct jurisdiction. The Mts. are T. and Fr. the Fairs April 3 and 25, Th. before Easter, Whitson-
M. June 24, September 18, Nov. 1, Dec. 6. The rents and profits of the Mts. are, 'tis said, by lease from the crown,
vested in the corp. which, by charter of K. James I. consists of a mayor, high-steward, recorder, 6 ald. (who are justices
of the peace within the Bor.) a town-clerk, 2 bailiffs, a chamberlain, and 18 burgesses, or assistants. The chief support
of the T. is the malt trade, and its carriage of corn, &c. by water to London. It still retains the name of 4 Chs. though
2 of them were entirely demolished in the civil wars, and but a small part of another left standing, so that there is only
one in use now. Here is a fr. sc. and this T. was dignified by K. James I. with giving title of Visc. to Will. Knolles,
afterwards Earl of Banbury. Part of Grimesditch, which comes up to this T. was formerly double, as it is about Nutfield-
woods. This Bor, like Reading, has sent members to Pt. ab origine, who are chosen by the corp. and inh. paying scot and
lot (who are above 150) and returned by the mayor.