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Horace Woollaston Monckton

PHYSICAL MAP OF BERKSHIRE

The Cambridge University Press

Copyright, George Philip & Son L^td.

CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES

General Editor: F. H. H. Guillemard, M.A., M.D.

BERKSHIRE

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, Manager

Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS
New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.

All rights reserved

Cambridge County Geographies

BERKSHIRE

by

H. W. MONCKTON, F.L.S., F.G.S.

With Maps, Diagrams and Illustrations

Cambridge:

at the University Press

1911

Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

CONTENTS

PAGE

1.

County and Shire. Meaning of the Words

1

2.

General Characteristics

6

3.

Size. Shape. Boundaries

8

4.

Surface and General Features

15

5.

Watershed. Rivers and their Courses. Lakes

18

6.

Geology and Soil

25

7.

Natural History

41

8.

Climate and Rainfall

47

9.

People—Race. Population

52

10.

Agriculture

55

11.

Industries and Manufactures

57

12.

Minerals. Building Materials

61

13.

The History of Berkshire

65

14.

History (continued)

75

15.

Antiquities—(a) Prehistoric

80

16.

Antiquities—(b) Roman and Saxon

89

17.

Architecture—(a) Ecclesiastical. Churches

91

18.

Architecture—(b) Religious Houses

102

19.

Architecture—(c) Military

109

20.

Architecture—(d) Domestic

113

21.

Communications—Ancient and Modern

117

22.

Administration and Divisions—Ancient and Modern

125

23.

Public and Educational Establishments

128

24.

The Forest in Berkshire

135

25.

Roll of Honour

137

26.

The Chief Towns and Villages of Berkshire

146

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Windsor Castle from the North-West

2

The Ridgeway—Uffington Castle in the distance

7

The Thames near Pangbourne

10

The Thames at Maidenhead

12

The River Kennet at Hungerford

13

Crown Hill, South Ascot

16

Cookham Dean

17

Streatley from Goring

19

The Pang at Pangbourne

21

Pangbourne

22

The Thames near Abingdon

24

Diagram to illustrate the Geology of Berkshire

30

Diagram-section of the Berkshire Rocks

31

Corallian Rock, Shellingford

33

Specimen from the Reading Leaf-Bed

37

Bagshot Heath Country from Bog Hill

39

Sarsens in Gravel, Chobham Ridges

40

The Pine Plantations near Wellington College

45

Wellingtonia Avenue near Wellington College

46

Factory Girls leaving Work at Reading

58

Whitening Factory, Kintbury

61

Christ’s Hospital, Abingdon

63

White Waltham Church

64

Statue of King Alfred, Wantage

67

St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle

69

St George’s Chapel: the Interior

71

Abingdon Abbey

74

St George’s Hall: Windsor Castle

78

Statue of Queen Victoria at Windsor

79

Wayland Smith’s Cave

83

Flint Implements of the Neolithic Period found in Berkshire

84

The White Horse

87

Blewburton Hill, near Blewbury

88

St Nicholas’s Church, Abingdon

92

Abbey Gateway, Abingdon

94

North Door, Faringdon Church

96

South Door, Faringdon Church

97

Finchampstead Church

98

Faringdon Parish Church

99

The Upper Cross: East Hagbourne Village

100

Abingdon Parish Church

101

Ruins of Reading Abbey

103

Part of the Hospitium of St John, Reading Abbey

104

The Refectory, Hurley Priory

105

The Abbey Barn, Great Coxwell

106

Bisham Abbey

107

The Round Tower, Windsor Castle

110

Gateway, Donnington Castle, Newbury

112

Cottage at Cookham Dean

115

Wayside Cottages, Bisham

116

The London Road near Sunninghill

118

Hungerford Canal

120

Hambleden Weir

121

Disused Canal between Abingdon and Wantage

122

Boulter’s Lock

123

The Town Hall, Abingdon

127

The Cloth Hall, Newbury

129

The Town Hall, Wallingford

130

Royal Military College, Sandhurst

131

The Town Hall, Faringdon

132

Gate of the Old Grammar School, Abingdon

133

Ascot Race Course

136

Archbishop Laud

139

The Hoby Chapel, Bisham Church

141

Miss Mitford

144

Abingdon Bridge

146

Binfield Rectory

148

Bray Church

149

Cookham Lock

151

East Hagbourne Village

153

Hurley Church and Site of Lady Place

154

Pangbourne

156

Shottesbrook Church from the Park

158

Streatley Mill

159

Wallingford Bridge

161

The Stocks at White Waltham

163

Diagrams

165

MAPS

Berkshire, Topographical

Front Cover

Berkshire,

,,

Geological

Back Cover

England and Wales, showing Annual Rainfall

50

The illustrations on pages 7, 33, 61, 84, 88, 96, 106, are from photographs by Mr Llewellyn Treacher, of Twyford; those on pages 83 and 87 are from photographs by Mr H. A. King, of Reading; those on pages 37, 40, 46, 64, 74, 105, 158, 163 are from photographs by the author. The portraits on pages 139 and 144 are reproduced from photographs supplied by Mr Emery Walker; while the illustrations on pages 67, 69, 71, 92, 94, 97, 99, 100, 103, 110, 112, 122, 127, 129, 130, 132, 133, 153, 156, are from photographs supplied by the Homeland Association; and those on pages 2, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 24, 39, 45, 58, 63, 78, 79, 98, 101, 104, 107, 115, 116, 118, 120, 121, 123, 131, 136, 141, 146, 148, 149, 151, 154, 159, 161, are from photographs supplied by Messrs F. Frith & Co., Ltd., of Reigate.

1. County and Shire. Meaning of the Words.

If we take a map of England and contrast it with a map of the United States, perhaps one of the first things we shall notice is the dissimilarity of the arbitrary divisions of land of which the countries are composed. In America the rigidly straight boundaries and rectangular shape of the majority of the States strike the eye at once; in England our wonder is rather how the boundaries have come to be so tortuous and complicated—to such a degree, indeed, that until recently many counties had outlying islands, as it were, within their neighbours’ territory. We naturally infer that the conditions under which the divisions arose cannot have been the same, and that while in America these formal square blocks of land, like vast allotment gardens, were probably the creation of a central authority, and portioned off much about the same time, the divisions we find in England have no such simple origin. Such, in fact, is more or less the case. The formation of the English counties in many instances was (and is—for they have altered up to to-day) an affair of slow growth, and their origin was—as their names tell us—of very diverse nature.

Windsor Castle from the North-West

Let us turn once more to our map of England. Collectively, we call all our divisions counties, but not every one of them is accurately thus described. Some have names complete in themselves, such as Kent and Sussex, and we find these to be old English kingdoms with but little alteration either in their boundaries or their names. To others the terminal shire is appended, which tells us that they were shorn from a larger domain—shares of Mercia or Northumbria or some other of the great English kingdoms.

The division of England into counties or shires has often been attributed to King Alfred (A.D. 871–901), but the shire of Berks is mentioned as early as the time of Ethelbert (A.D. 860–866), and Berkshire very probably existed as a county from the days of Egbert (died 836).

The words county and shire mean practically the same thing, but the former is derived from the Latin comitatus through the French comté, the dominion of a comes, or Count, and the latter from the Saxon scir (from sciran to divide). The termination “shire” is generally used for Berkshire and four of the neighbouring counties, viz. Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire. The next neighbouring county is usually called Hampshire, but in Acts of Parliament and official papers it is called the county of Southampton. For the remaining county, Surrey, the termination shire is not used: its name—Suthrege—tells us that it was “the South Kingdom.”

The boundary of the county follows in great part the river Thames or its tributaries but in many places it is not distinguished from the neighbouring counties by any natural features. On the west the chalk downs run from Wiltshire into Berkshire with no change at the boundary of the county, and on the south there is little distinction between the forest and moorland of Berkshire and of the adjoining tracts of Hampshire and Surrey.

Berkshire has thus existed as a county for about 1100 years; previously it was part of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex, which also comprised Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and part of Cornwall. The Saxons were called in by the Britons to assist them against the Picts and Scots (A.D. 429–449). This was a short time after the departure of the Romans, A.D. 418, or nearly fifteen hundred years ago. The Roman rule in our district may be taken as from A.D. 40 to 418, a period of 378 years. We shall realise the length of their rule if we remember that 378 years ago Henry VIII was reigning in England.

When the Romans came to the district they found it occupied by a tribe of Britons named the Atrebates; and Silchester, just over our county boundary in Hampshire, was their chief town or settlement.

The written history of the district does not go further back than the Atrebates, but we find many relics of man of a much earlier date. There are in our museums human bones found in old graves, but it is not possible to give them a date or to name the tribe or tribes to which they belonged. There are also early gold coins without any inscription, but bearing a rude figure of a horse not unlike the celebrated white horse cut in the chalk hill above Uffington. These coins take us back to about B.C. 200. There are also various weapons and implements of iron, bronze, and stone, found in graves or barrows or in the beds of our rivers, about which we shall say more in a subsequent chapter. All these remains belong to a period when the surface of the county, though no doubt covered to a great extent with forest, was not very different from what it is to-day. The streams and rivers followed to some extent the same courses and flowed at much the same level as now.

But there are remains of man which carry us back to a very much earlier date. In what is known as the Palaeolithic Period our rivers flowed at much higher levels than now; possibly the land has risen since that time, but however that may be, there are beds of gravel of the river Thames as much as 114 feet above the present river, and these gravels contain implements made by man. These, which are at least as old as the gravel in which we find them, are nearly all of flint, and often beautifully made. A large collection from Berkshire is in the Reading Museum.

Several animals now extinct were living at that time. The mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and the Irish elk roamed through the forest of Berkshire, and in all probability were hunted by Palaeolithic man.

2. General Characteristics.

Berkshire is an inland county separated from the English Channel by the full width of Hampshire. The river Thames, however, gives a waterway to the sea, and the county town, Reading, is especially well served by railways and has mainly on that account become the centre of trades of great importance. Reading biscuits and Reading seeds have a world-wide celebrity, and printing is now extensively carried on in the town.

Berkshire is, however, essentially an agricultural county, and some of the most fertile corn land in England is found in it. Until quite modern times great tracts were waste, or woodland and moorland. But these, though of no agricultural value, are for the most part very good to live in and are now being rapidly built over.

The county is divided by nature into three well-marked districts. The first of these natural divisions is formed by the Vale of White Horse and the part of the county north of it, as well as the low-lying ground between Wallingford and Steventon. The soil is clay and sand, and a few beds of limestone occur in places.

The second division is the great chalk district forming central Berkshire, with Ashbury, Wantage, and Wallingford on the north and Hungerford, Kintbury, Chieveley, Bradfield, and Tilehurst on the south. The tract included in the curve of the river Thames between Twyford and Maidenhead also belongs to the chalk district. The chalk is not always at the surface of the ground, for it is often covered by thin beds of clay or gravel, but it will always be found at a little depth below the surface in this district.

The Ridgeway—Uffington Castle in the distance

The third division comprises the forest country of the southern and south-eastern parts of the shire. Its northern boundary runs from Inkpen in the west to Maidenhead in the east, but in places tracts north of this line belong to the third division and in other places the chalk comes to the surface south of it. The soil in the third division consists of clay and sand with no limestone. These clays and sands are very thick in the south-east of the county, but everywhere the chalk is below them if we go deep enough.

The chalk downs of the central division are dotted over with mounds and earthworks, probably for the most part the work of man before the Roman occupation, for it was an inhabited part of the county in the time of the Britons. On the other hand the Vale of White Horse division was in those days mainly or wholly uncultivated, but it is now the most fertile part of Berkshire. The south or forest division has been thinly populated up to quite modern times, though the Roman town of Silchester stood in the Hampshire part of this forest country.

Berkshire is almost all within the drainage area of the river Thames and its tributaries, and the natural line of communication between our county and the sea is by river, Windsor being some 85 miles from the Nore.

The estuary of the Severn is less than 32 miles from Faringdon, and there seems to have been a tolerably good road from Berkshire to the west coast in quite early times. Formerly a very usual line of communication between our county and the sea was from the south coast across the chalk downs. Hungerford is only 35 miles from Southampton, and the roadways across the Chalk are very old and fairly direct.

3. Size. Shape. Boundaries.

The length of Berkshire on an east and west line is 41 miles. It may be described as a rectangle with a somewhat square projection at the south-eastern corner. Ashmole compares it to a lute and Fuller to a slipper. The northern boundary is practically formed by the river Thames, and is in consequence most irregular. Where the river curves in a southerly direction, the width of the county is contracted until it is less than seven miles at Reading. Until 1844 Three Mile Cross and the country between that place and the Hampshire border was an outlying part of Wiltshire, so that the width of Berkshire at Reading was less than four miles. This little bit of Wiltshire has however now been joined to Berkshire.

Berkshire as it is shown upon most maps is known as the “Geographical” or “Ancient County” of Berkshire, and its area is 462,208 acres, that is about one-seventieth of the area of England.

For administrative purposes the boundaries are slightly different, and the area of Administrative Berkshire including the county borough of Reading is 462,367 acres. By deducting from this the area under water, i.e. rivers, ponds, lakes, etc., we arrive at the figures 459,403, which are used as the area of Berkshire in acres for the purpose of agricultural and other returns issued by Government. The county of Berks for registration purposes, that is for Parliamentary elections, etc., includes all the Administrative County and also Egham in the east, Culham and Crowmarsh in the north-east, small bits of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire in the north, and the rural district of Ramsbury in the west, giving a total area of 573,689 acres.

The Thames near Pangbourne

Berkshire was, as we have said, a part of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and it has inherited from that kingdom its northern boundary, the river Thames. It is interesting to note that some rivers have been selected as boundaries to a much greater extent than others. Thus the Thames forms a county boundary for a great part of its course, whilst the river Severn flows through the middle of counties.

The Thames at Maidenhead

The Thames forms the county boundary at Old Windsor from a point a little above Magna Charta Island and separates Berkshire from Buckinghamshire, and later on from Oxfordshire, the boundary sometimes running in midstream, sometimes on one bank, and sometimes on the other bank. Near Oxford the boundary passes for a short distance a little to the west of the river, that is on the Berks side. The Upper Thames or Isis becomes the boundary between Berkshire and Oxfordshire, and then for a very short distance between Berkshire and Gloucestershire, until near Buscot the river Cole joins the Isis and the boundary turns in a southerly direction near to the bank of the Cole, the adjoining county being then Wiltshire. The county boundary runs by or close to the river Cole to near Bourton, and it then crosses the chalk country with no definite marks. At one point it crosses an old earthwork, Membury Fort, and reaches the river Kennet a little east of Chilton Foliat. From this point to near Woodhay, a distance of some 14 miles, the boundary of the county for administrative purposes differs from the boundary of the ancient or geographical county (see page 9), indeed considerable alterations have been made in this part of the county boundary at various times. The present administrative boundary after crossing the Kennet, turns in a westerly and then in a south-easterly direction following the border of Hungerford and Inkpen parishes and runs on to a point at the south-western corner of Combe parish where Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire meet. The Berkshire boundary then runs west to Pilot Hill and then turning takes a northerly or north-easterly course until it reaches the stream Emborne which it follows for several miles until near Brimpton the stream bends sharply northwards to join the river Kennet, while the county boundary continues its easterly course through a forest country to the Imp Stone plantation. It then makes a wide detour to the north leaving Mortimer West End and the Roman town of Silchester in Hampshire. This part of the boundary has at more than one date been subject to alteration and for a time it ran close to Silchester and is thus marked on many maps. Stratfield Mortimer is in Berkshire, and about a mile to the east of Silchester the county boundary reaches a Roman road which it follows pretty closely for a considerable distance, crossing the river Loddon at Stamford End Mill. On the east of the Loddon we come to a small tract which, until modern times, was an outlying part of Wiltshire, bounded in part by Berkshire and in part by Hampshire. It is now included in the former county, and the Berkshire boundary continues its easterly direction on or near the Roman road until it reaches the stream Whitewater close to its junction with the Blackwater. The county boundary reaches the latter river close to a ford, no doubt a well-known place, for these fords are in most cases very old crossing-places and this one certainly goes back to Roman times and may very likely have been used in still earlier days. The boundary then turns along the Blackwater, and though it does not always follow the present course of the stream, it keeps near to it for some eight miles, until we reach the Blackwater Bridge on the London and Southampton Road. This is another ancient crossing-place, and here the counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, and Surrey meet. The Berkshire and Surrey boundary now runs in a north-easterly direction, through the grounds of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, up a small stream to a place named Wishmoor Cross, possibly the site of a cross in former days, and evidently a well-known place, for five parishes meet there. From this point the boundary crosses the forest district of Bagshot Heath, celebrated in connection with highwaymen, and eventually reaches the Thames near Old Windsor.

The River Kennet at Hungerford

In old maps it will be noticed that there are detached portions of Berkshire surrounded by Oxfordshire, and also detached portions of Wiltshire partially or wholly surrounded by Berkshire, but in modern times the county boundaries have been much modified for purposes of convenience. Thus an Act of Parliament was passed in 1844 to annex detached parts of counties to the counties in which they are situated. This Act transferred from Wiltshire to Berkshire parts of the parishes of Shinfield, Swallowfield, and Wokingham. Shilton and Little Faringdon were transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and part of Inglesham was given to Wiltshire. The boundaries of counties were still further simplified by an Act of Parliament of 1887, one of the objects of which was to arrange that no Union, Borough, Sanitary District, or Parish should be in more than one county.

4. Surface and General Features.

We have already mentioned that Berkshire may be divided into three natural divisions. The northern or Vale of White Horse district is for the most part rather low-lying ground, but there is a small range of hills along the course of the Thames or Isis from Faringdon towards Oxford. Badbury Hill, 530 feet above the sea, and Faringdon Clump, 445 feet, are quite prominent from a distance, and some of the other hills from Buckland to Wytham look imposing when seen from the river. Much of this district was to a large extent swampy and boggy ground in old days, and a part of it is still spoken of as “the moors” by the country people. Some of the village names end in “ey,” suggesting that they were islands in the marsh district. Goosey and Charney are examples. A good deal of the district is stiff clay, and there is difficulty in getting a supply of good water, hence we find a number of towns and villages, like Wantage for instance, close to the chalk downs, where there are many springs.

The second or central division of Berkshire is the district of the chalk land. The downs of Berkshire are separated from the Chiltern Hills, which are the chalk hills of Oxfordshire, by the valley of the river Thames, whilst on the west the chalk downs run on into Wiltshire without any natural break. The chalk ridge rises sharply up from the Vale of White Horse, and a large part of the crest is over 700 feet above the sea. White Horse Hill attains a height of 856 feet, and the village of Farnborough is 712 feet above sea level. There is a general slope of the chalk surface downwards towards the south, so that even the high part of Lambourn Downs is well below the 700-feet contour line, and long and beautiful valleys run up from the Newbury district into the chalk downs.

Crown Hill, South Ascot

(Showing characteristics of a sandy district)

The northern border of the chalk district is a well defined line; not so the southern border. The chalk gradually bends downwards underground and is covered by sand, gravel, and clay, so that in many places we find the upper part of the hills sandy or clayey whilst the valleys beneath them are chalk. Thus Bussocks Camp and Snelsmore Common near Newbury are situated upon a ridge of gravel, sand, and clay, but the road from Chieveley to Newbury in the valley below the camp runs for most of the way along a chalk valley, and the chalk extends all around, but underneath the sand, gravel, and clay. Hence there is no definite southern boundary to the chalk district, and there is a bit of chalk country near Inkpen. The projecting part of Berkshire, bounded on the south by a line drawn from Twyford to Maidenhead and on the other sides by the river Thames, is also mainly a chalk district.

Cookham Dean

(Showing characteristic chalk country)

The southern division of the county has in consequence no definite northern border, but a line drawn from Hungerford in the west to Maidenhead in the east will have very little of chalk district to the south and very little forest country to the north, and is consequently a good practical boundary between the second and third divisions of Berkshire.

The scenery of the southern division is quite different from that of the other two divisions. The country consists to a great extent of wide and flat table-land 300 to 400 feet above the sea, in which the rivers and streams have cut valleys. There are also extensive tracts of clay land, but the clay is often concealed under a few feet of gravel.

5. Watershed. Rivers and their Courses. Lakes.

With the exception of a small tract in the south-western corner the county is wholly drained by the river Thames and its tributaries; that is to say, with a very few exceptions, every brook and stream in Berkshire is more or less directly a tributary of the Thames.

Streatley from Goring

The river Thames or Isis becomes the boundary between Berkshire and Gloucestershire near Lechlade, and it flows in an easterly direction over a clay country, keeping a little to the north of the ridge of limestone hills upon which the villages of Buckland and Hinton Waldrist stand. Near Appleton the river bends to the north, curving round the outlying patch of limestone which forms Wytham Hill, and being joined by the river Evenlode. The united streams soon take a southerly course, and a little below Oxford are joined on the north by the Cherwell. The river then crosses the limestone formation near Sandford, and curves round by Radley to Abingdon. From Abingdon the river pursues a somewhat serpentine course with a general south-easterly trend towards Benson, being joined on the north near Dorchester by the river Thame. A little south of Benson the river, now the Thames proper, enters upon the chalk formation, across which it flows in a southerly direction to Streatley, and then takes a south-easterly course to Reading. At Streatley the river valley is deep, with steep sides separating the chalk downs of Berkshire from the chalk hills known as the Chilterns. The illustration above shows the Berkshire downs in the distance and the valley of the Thames in the foreground.

At Reading the Thames is joined by the Kennet, and it is interesting to notice that the main stream adopts the direction of the tributary and flows with a north-easterly course to Wargrave, near which place the river Loddon meets it from the south, and again the direction of flow of the tributary is adopted, the Thames taking a northerly course past Henley. It is also of interest to observe that the river has turned away from the soft clays which form the ground south and east of Reading, and has cut a deep valley in the hard chalk from Wargrave onwards. Beyond Remenham the course of the river becomes easterly, and near Cookham it turns south and flows past Maidenhead to Bray.

Near Bray the Thames leaves the chalk over which it has flowed for some 40 miles and enters upon a clay country, making its way in a fairly direct line to Windsor, the one place in the district where a knob of chalk sticks up through the clay. Windsor Castle stands upon this knob of chalk. The course of the river from Bray to Windsor is on the whole south-east, and after a big curve north at Eton the course becomes more southerly, with another big curve near Old Windsor. At Runnymede House the Berkshire boundary leaves the river, which flows on to London and the sea.

The river Cole rises on the chalk not far from Ashbury, and flowing in a northerly direction joins the Upper Thames or Isis at the extreme western boundary of the county.

The river Ock rises on the chalk near Uffington, and flows down the Vale of White Horse to join the Thames at Abingdon.

The Pang at Pangbourne

The river Pang rises on the chalk not far from Compton, and flows in a southerly direction to near Bucklebury, where it turns eastward, passing through a beautiful valley by way of Stanford Dingley and Bradfield to a point near Tidmarsh. It then makes a sharp turn to the north and joins the Thames at Pangbourne. This lower part of the course of the Pang is worthy of study, for there is a continuous band of river alluvium along the valley from the Thames at Pangbourne to the Kennet at Theale. The source of the river, too, is well worthy of investigation. In dry times it will be found in the valley near Compton, but in wet seasons it is much further up in a branch valley towards East Ilsley.

The Lambourn also rises on the chalk near the place of that name, and it flows in a south-easterly direction and joins the Kennet close to Newbury. The Pang and the Lambourn flow in chalk valleys for the whole of their course.

Pangbourne

The river Kennet rises in Wiltshire, enters Berkshire near Hungerford, and flows with an easterly course by way of Kintbury, Newbury, and Theale, finally joining the Thames close to Reading. It is a chalk river, and obtains a considerable amount of water from springs in the valley along its course.

The Emborne is not a chalk stream. It rises in the Inkpen district and flows in an easterly direction, forming, as we have seen, the county boundary for a considerable distance. Its course is almost parallel to that of the river Kennet, the two valleys being separated by hills or plateaux of clay, sand, and gravel. Near Brimpton the Emborne turns sharply to the north-east, and joins the river Kennet near Sulhampstead Bannister.

The Foudry Brook rises in a clay district of Hampshire, not far from Silchester, and runs by way of Stratfield Mortimer and Grazeley to the river Kennet near Reading. It is a small stream now, but there is a good deal of alluvium along its course, showing that it was of more importance in former times.

The river Loddon rises in Hampshire and enters Berkshire at the edge of Strathfieldsaye Park, its direction being northerly. Soon, however, it turns to the north-east and flows in a tolerably straight line to join the river Thames near Wargrave.

The Blackwater rises near Aldershot and reaches Berkshire at Blackwater Bridge, where, as we have said, the counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, and Surrey meet. From this point the river flows in a north-west or west direction and forms the Berkshire boundary for eight miles to a point near Little Ford below Farley Hill. The Blackwater then turns into Berkshire, running in a north-westerly direction to Swallowfield, where it joins the river Loddon.

There are no natural lakes in Berkshire, though there are the deposits of a former lake in the valley of the Kennet near Newbury.

The Thames near Abingdon

There was formerly a sheet of water near Twyford named Ruscombe Lake, which had some claim to be called a natural lake, in that it was a low-lying bit of ground which was flooded owing to the absence of a good outlet. Its natural outlet was into the river Loddon, and there is a patch of alluvium extending from its site through Stanlake Park to that river. It was eventually drained by making a deep channel called the “Cut,” draining a considerable area into the Thames near Bray. It has been asked why the river Thames did not follow the line of Ruscombe Lake and the Bray Cut, all soft clayey soil and low ground, instead of cutting the great and deep valley through the chalk by way of Wargrave, Henley, Great Marlow, and Maidenhead. The explanation probably is that the river Thames existed before any of these valleys, and that its course was determined by local features which have long since been destroyed by rain and streams, and by the river itself.

6. Geology and Soil.

Before giving further account of the physical geography of the county it is necessary to learn somewhat of its geology, as the physical conditions are to a large extent dependent upon geological structure.

By Geology we mean the study of the rocks, and we must at the outset explain that the term rock is used by the geologist without any reference to the hardness or compactness of the material to which the name is applied; thus he speaks of loose sand as a rock equally with a hard substance like granite.

Rocks are of two kinds, (1) those laid down mostly under water; (2) those due to the action of heat.

The first kind may be compared to sheets of paper one over the other. These sheets are called beds, and such beds are usually formed of sand (often containing pebbles), mud or clay, and limestone, or mixtures of these materials. They are laid down as flat or nearly flat sheets, but may afterwards be tilted as the result of movement of the earth’s crust, just as you may tilt sheets of paper, folding them into arches and troughs, by pressing them at either end. Again, we may find the tops of the folds so produced worn away as the result of the constant action of rivers, glaciers, and sea-waves upon them, as one might cut off the tops of the folds of the paper with a pair of shears. This has happened with the ancient beds forming parts of the earth’s crust, and we therefore often find them tilted, with the upper parts removed. Tilted beds are said to dip, the direction of dip being that in which the beds plunge downwards, thus the beds of an arch dip away from its crest, those of a trough towards its middle. The dip is at a low angle when the beds are nearly horizontal, and at a high angle when they approach the vertical position. The horizontal line at right angles to the direction of the dip is called the line of strike. Beds form strips at the surface, and the portion where they appear at the surface is called the outcrop. On a large scale the direction of outcrop generally corresponds with that of the strike. Beds may also be displaced along great cracks, so that one set of beds abuts against a different set at the sides of the crack, when the beds are said to be faulted.

The other kinds of rocks are known as igneous rocks, which have been melted under the action of heat and become solid on cooling. When in the molten state they have been poured out at the surface as the lava of volcanoes, or have been forced into other rocks and cooled in the cracks and other places of weakness. Much material is also thrown out of volcanoes as volcanic ash and dust, and is piled up on the sides of the volcano. Such ashy material may be arranged in beds, so that it partakes to some extent of the qualities of the two great rock groups.

The production of beds is of great importance to geologists, for by means of these beds we can classify the rocks according to age. If we take two sheets of paper, and lay one on the top of the other on a table, the upper one has been laid down after the other. Similarly with two beds, the upper is also the newer, and the newer will remain on the top after earth-movements, save in very exceptional cases which need not be regarded by us here, and for general purposes we may regard any bed or set of beds resting on any other in our own country as being the newer bed or set.

The movements which affect beds may occur at different times. One set of beds may be laid down flat, then thrown into folds by movement, the tops of the beds worn off, and another set of beds laid down upon the worn surface of the older beds, the edges of which will abut against the oldest of the new set of flatly deposited beds, which latter may in turn undergo disturbance and removal of their upper portions.

Again, after the formation of the beds many changes may occur in them. They may become hardened, pebble-beds being changed into conglomerates, sands into sandstones, muds and clays into mudstones and shales, soft deposits of lime into limestone, and loose volcanic ashes into exceedingly hard rocks. They may also become cracked, and the cracks are often very regular, running in two directions at right angles one to the other. Such cracks are known as joints, and the joints are very important in affecting the physical geography of a district. As the result of great pressure applied sideways, the rocks may be so changed that they can be split into thin slabs, which usually, though not necessarily, split along planes standing at high angles to the horizontal. Rocks affected in this way are known as slates.

If we could flatten out all the beds of England, and arrange them one over the other and bore a shaft through them, we should see them on the sides of the shaft, the newest appearing at the top and the oldest at the bottom. Such a shaft would have a depth of between 50,000 and 100,000 feet. The beds are divided into three great groups called Primary or Palaeozoic, Secondary or Mesozoic, and Tertiary or Cainozoic, and at the base of the Primary rocks are the oldest rocks of Britain, which form as it were the foundation stones on which the other rocks rest, and are termed Precambrian rocks. The three great groups are divided into minor divisions known as systems.

Names of Systems

Subdivisions

Characters of Rocks

TERTIARY

Recent Pleistocene

Metal Age

Deposits

Superficial Deposits

Neolithic

Deposits

,,

Palaeolithic

Deposits

,,

Glacial

Deposits

,,

Pliocene

Cromer Series

Sands chiefly

Weybourne Crag

Chillesford and Norwich Crags

Red and Walton Crags

Coralline Crag

Miocene

Absent from Britain

Eocene

Fluviomarine Beds of Hampshire

Clays and Sands chiefly

Bagshot Beds

London Clay

Oldhaven Beds, Woolwich and Reading Groups

Thanet Sands

SECONDARY

Cretaceous

Chalk

Chalk at top Sandstones, Mud and Clays below

Upper Greensand and Gault

Lower Greensand

Weald Clay

Hastings Sands

Jurassic

Purbeck Beds

Shales, Sandstones and Oolitic Limestones

Portland Beds

Kimmeridge Clay

Corallian Beds

Oxford Clay and Kellaways Rock

Cornbrash

Forest Marble

Great Oolite with Stonesfield Slate

Inferior Oolite

Lias—Upper, Middle, and Lower

Triassic

Rhaetic

Red Sandstones and Marls, Gypsum and Salt

Keuper Marls

Keuper Sandstone

Upper Bunter Sandstone

Bunter Pebble Beds

Lower Bunter Sandstone

PRIMARY

Permian

Magnesian Limestone and Sandstone

Red Sandstones and Magnesian Limestone

Marl Slate

Lower Permian Sandstone

Carboniferous

Coal Measures

Sandstones, Shales and Coals at top Sandstones in middle Limestone and Shales below

Millstone Grit

Mountain Limestone

Basal Carboniferous Rocks

Devonian

Upper

Devonian and Old Red Sandstone

Red Sandstones, Shales, Slates and Limestones

Mid

Lower

Silurian

Ludlow Beds

Sandstones, Shales and Thin Limestones

Wenlock Beds

Llandovery Beds

Ordovician

Caradoc Beds

Shales, Slates, Sandstones and Thin Limestones

Llandeilo Beds

Arenig Beds

Cambrian

Tremadoc Slates

Slates and Sandstones

Lingula Flags

Menevian Beds

Harlech Grits and Llanberis Slates

Pre-Cambrian

No definite classification yet made

Sandstones, Slates and Volcanic Rocks

In the preceding table (p. 29) a representation of the various great subdivisions or ‘systems’ of the beds which are found in the British Islands is shown. The names of the great divisions are given on the left-hand side, in the centre the chief divisions of the rocks of each system are enumerated, and on the right-hand the general characters of the rocks of each system are given.

Diagram to illustrate the Geology of Berkshire

Berkshire is now part of an island and is a long way from the sea, but there have been times when the arrangement of land and sea on the globe was very different from what it is now. Our district has during some periods been part of a continent, and in others it has been overflowed by the sea.

These changes in the distribution of land and water were due to movements of the crust of the earth, and very largely to movements of compression from the sides, causing folding of the strata of which the crust of the earth is composed.

After many and great changes, at a time geologically recent, but still long before the beginning of history in the usual sense of the word, the district now known as Berkshire rose above the sea for the last time.

Diagram-section of the Berkshire Rocks

Since that date deposits of clay, sand, etc., have been formed in our area, and their formation is indeed still going on to some extent, but though these are true geological deposits they are of no great thickness, seldom as much as 20 feet. They are, however, at or near the surface of the ground, and consequently exercise considerable influence on the character of the country. We will, however, leave them out of account for the moment and consider the deposits formed before the district finally rose above the sea.

These deposits are usually spoken of as forming the solid geology of the area, and the three divisions, into which as we have said Berkshire is divided, are characterised as follows:—

• 1. In the northern part of the county, including the Vale of White Horse, the geological strata are older than the chalk formation.
• 2. In the central part of Berkshire the chalk formation is at or near the surface of the ground.
• 3. In the forest country of south and east Berkshire, the surface is formed of geological formations newer than the chalk, but the chalk is always to be found underground if one goes deep enough.

If we look at a sectional plan of geological strata we shall see that none of the formations which come to the surface in our county are of any great antiquity, but somewhere deep down, say over a thousand feet below us, there is a platform of much older rocks, upon which those that come to the surface rest in an irregular manner. What these old rocks may be we do not know, but probably New Red Sandstone and possibly beds of coal may occur amongst them.

Speaking generally, we pass from older to newer geological formations as we go from the north-west towards the south-east, and we find that the Oxford Clay is the oldest formation which comes to the surface in Berkshire.

The Oxford Clay forms a strip of low land along the banks of the Isis from the Cole to the Cherwell near Oxford. It was originally mud deposited in a sea which extended over a great part of England. It is dark coloured, often shaley, with a little clayey limestone. A large oyster is one of its common fossils. Its thickness is about 450 feet, and it is not a water-bearing formation. The Oxford Clay dips underground to the east and is covered by newer rocks, the first of which is the Corallian.

Corallian Rock, Shellingford

The Corallian forms a very well-marked band running across the county from the Cole to the Thames. Wytham Hill is formed of it, and Shrivenham, Coleshill, Faringdon, Buckland, Fyfield, Appleton, and Cumnor are situated upon it. It is essentially a calcareous formation with some hard limestone beds, and has a thickness of from 50 to 80 feet. It was formed in the sea; probably a shallow sea with shoals, sand, and coral banks. Fossil corals are abundant, and many specimens of Ammonites and other marine shells are to be found. There are some good examples of these from Marcham in the Reading Museum. Supplies of good water may often be obtained from this formation. The Corallian beds are quarried for building stone and road material in many places.

The Kimmeridge Clay, which comes above the Corallian, is, like the Oxford Clay, a bed of hardened marine mud. It has now become a shaley clay, and is about 140 feet thick. It forms a narrow east and west band across the county. Much of the Vale of White Horse is on this clay, and the town of Abingdon stands upon it. It is not a water-bearing formation.

The Portland Beds. A small patch of this formation is found resting upon the Kimmeridge Clay in Berkshire. It caps the rising ground south of Shrivenham, and the village of Bourton stands upon it. Its thickness is about 20 feet.

After the deposition of the Portland rocks, which are of marine origin, there is reason to believe that our district became land and a part of a continent, but no relics of this period remain here. They were all swept away when the land sank again and the Cretaceous sea flowed over Berkshire.

The Lower Greensand—our next deposit—was formed after a long interval, and, owing to earth movements which had taken place during that interval, it rests upon the older rocks in an irregular manner. It is a marine formation, and only occurs in patches, the largest of which extends from Uffington to near Faringdon. Its greatest thickness is about 60 feet, and it consists of sand with some ironstone and chert, pebble beds, and a calcareous sponge gravel. The sponge gravel, so-called from the number of fossil sponges it contains, is dug for garden paths and walks, and is exported to long distances. The fossil sponges in the gravel are abundant and beautifully preserved, and they seem to have lived on the spot. The ironstone was at one time worked near Faringdon. At New Lodge, in the parish of Winkfield, the Lower Greensand was reached in a boring at a depth of 1234 feet. A good supply of water was obtained, but it contains a large quantity of common salt.

The Gault, the next formation, consists of grey clay in the lower part and of a silty marl in the upper part, with a total thickness of some 220 feet. It crosses the county as a band, from one to three miles in width, from Ashbury to the Thames between Abingdon and Wallingford. It is a marine formation, and does not give a water-supply.

The Upper Greensand runs across the county as a narrow and irregular band about 90 feet thick, and consists of green sands and grey marl, with beds of stone in places. It is of marine origin, and provides a supply of excellent water, and consequently many villages stand upon or close to it. Ashbury, Childrey, Wantage, Hendred, and Harwell are examples.

The Chalk. This is far the most important geological formation in Berkshire, for it occupies a large portion of the surface of the county, and in the eastern part, when not at the surface, it is to be found underground. It is a light-coloured limestone, usually soft and earthy, but in parts very hard. Its full thickness is over 700 feet, and being a porous rock, the rain which falls on its great surface sinks in and furnishes a water-supply over its whole area whether the chalk be at the surface or underground. It was deposited in a sea which not only covered our district but spread over much of Europe. There was, however, probably land to the west which included Cornwall, parts of Wales, and of Ireland. The upper part of the Berkshire Chalk contains many layers and nodules of flint.

There is a long break in our geological record after the newest beds of the Chalk found in Berkshire had been deposited, for both the top of the Chalk and the bottom of the next series are wanting here, and in order to fill the interval we have to study rocks in other parts of England, in Belgium, and in Denmark. During this great interval in time the chalk sea retired, and much of Britain became land.

The Reading Beds repose upon a water- and weather-worn surface of chalk. They consist of clays and sands, and were deposited in the bed of a great river. Their thickness is from 70 to 90 feet, and good water may be obtained from the sands. In the lower part we find a bed of oysters, and rather higher up there is in some places a bed of leaves, known as the “Reading Leaf-Bed,” a specimen of which is shown below. It will be noticed that the leaves are crowded together, and were no doubt buried in the mud of the river.

Specimen from the Reading Leaf-Bed

The Basement Bed of the London Clay comes next in order and the fossils are marine, showing that the sea was again spreading over our area. It is from 6 to 16 feet in thickness, and consists of loam and clay with green sand and pebbles. A set of shells from this bed is arranged in the Reading Museum.

The London Clay is a marine formation of very uniform character, a stiff clay, blue underground, but becoming brown near the surface, owing to the action of surface water. It contains layers of cement-stones. The thickness in the east of the county is nearly 350 feet, but the formation thins to the west, and is under 50 feet thick at Inkpen. Fossils are not uncommon, and there is a fair collection of Berkshire London Clay fossils in the Wellington College Museum. It is not a water-bearing formation. Most of Windsor Park is on London Clay, and a number of places the names of which end with “field” are upon this formation, such as Arborfield, Binfield, Burghfield, Shinfield, Swallowfield, Warfield, and Winkfield.

The Bagshot Beds, named after Bagshot Heath, consist of sand with a few beds of clay. The maximum thickness is nearly 350 feet. They are probably mainly of marine origin, but formed near the estuary of a large river. Fossils are rare in this formation in Berkshire, but a few specimens will be found in the Museums at Reading and at Wellington College. The Bagshot Beds are a water-bearing formation, but the water is not always of a satisfactory character. The scenery of the sandy Bagshot country is well shown by the view opposite.

Some indefinite time after the deposition of the Bagshot Beds considerable earth movements took place in the south of England, and Berkshire became, and has since remained, dry land. The Bagshot Beds are consequently the last marine formation in our district, and we thus complete our account of the solid geology of the county.

Bagshot Heath Country from Bog Hill

The solid strata are, however, to a considerable extent covered with a variety of geological deposits due to rain, frost, streams, and rivers. These deposits, often termed Drift, though not marked on the majority of geological maps, have a great importance for the dwellers in our county, simply because they form the actual surface and determine the character of the soil.

Clay with Flints is a formation covering a good deal of our Chalk. It is partly débris of the chalk formation and partly of clay beds which once rested on the Chalk. In places it is 20 feet thick. Some of the best timber in the county grows upon it.

Gravel covers a good deal of the surface in Berkshire. It is found both on the high ground and in the valleys. The high-level gravels are often over 10 feet thick and the valley gravels are more than 20 feet thick in several places. Windsor, Bray, Maidenhead, Cookham, Twyford, Wokingham, Reading, Theale, Pangbourne, and Newbury stand partly or wholly upon gravel.

Sarsens in Gravel, Chobham Ridges

Alluvium, the modern deposit of the rivers, covers a good deal of ground in some places, more especially in the valley of the Kennet.

Sarsens are blocks of sandstone which are found on or near the surface of the ground or in the beds of gravel. They were probably derived in part from the Reading Beds and in part from the Bagshot Beds. The illustration on page 40 shows three sarsen stones lying at the bottom of a thick bed of gravel in a gravel pit on Chobham Ridges. The locality is in Surrey, but not far from the Berkshire border, and similar examples occur in Berkshire.

7. Natural History.

The fertile district of the Vale of White Horse, the wide chalk downs, and the forest country with its sandy tracts covered by heather or pines, together with the river Thames and its tributaries, give us a considerable variety of soil, of climate, and of general conditions; and we consequently have a large variety of species both of animals and of plants, though being an inland county, many forms which people the coast are absent, or merely come as rare visitors. Naturally, too, the increase of population and the advance of civilisation have caused a great change in animal and plant life. Many species, once common, are no longer to be found and many new species have been introduced.

Probably the most imposing of the animals which have roamed over our district since the advent of man was the form of elephant known as the mammoth. It possessed enormous tusks and was covered with long coarse hair with an under pelage of short woolly hair so as to be fitted for life in a cold climate. Its bones have been found in several places in Berkshire, and teeth from Abingdon and Reading are in the Reading Museum.

The rhinoceros once lived in Berkshire, for bones, probably belonging to a woolly species, have been found in a railway cutting near Chilton. Bones of the bear, wolf, and bison have been found in the Drift deposits, and the wild boar was hunted in Berkshire in historic times.

The badger is a harmless animal which lives a quiet life, spending the daytime in a burrow, often in a fox earth, and only coming out at night. It is in consequence much more common than is generally supposed, and our county forms no exception.

The history of the various forms of deer in Berkshire is of considerable interest. The red deer is a native of the county, for its remains have been found in the marsh deposits. It lived in various parks until the Commonwealth, when most of the deer were killed. It has been reintroduced and is now to be seen in Windsor Park, Calcot Park, and at Hampstead Marshall. The fallow deer lives in a more or less tame state in several parks in the county, and it is probably an original inhabitant of Berkshire, for it occurs as a fossil at Brentford, in Middlesex. The roe is certainly a native, for remains have been found in the Newbury marshes. It now lives in the woods about Virginia Water and Sunningdale. The reindeer has been found as a fossil at Windsor.

An imperfect skull of the musk ox was found in a bed of gravel near Maidenhead in 1855, and is now in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. It was the first discovery of the remains of this animal in Britain.

As might be expected there are no very outstanding features in Berkshire ornithology. The midland position of the county is against any long list of foreign visitors, and there are no fens or broads to tempt the special birds affecting such localities. The heron is often to be seen, and there is a heronry at Virginia Water, and others at Coley Park, Buscot, and Wytham Abbey. Woodpeckers, as might be supposed, are more especially common in the forest districts of eastern Berkshire. The carrion crow is a resident but is very local in occurrence. The hooded crow is a rather uncommon winter visitor. The peregrine falcon often visits us, but the buzzard, which used to live and breed in the county, is now but a rare visitor. The great bustard was a resident up to the end of the eighteenth century but is now no longer to be counted as a British bird. The swans which we see on the rivers and on many lakes and ponds are for the most part private property, but there are often wild birds amongst them.

Of reptiles found in Berkshire, the slow-worm, common snake, and lizard abound on the moorlands, and the first of these on the chalk; the adder is not at all common.

Time was, and that not so very long ago, when the salmon might be caught in the Thames. In the reign of Edward III (1341), a petition was made to the King, complaining that salmon and other fish in the Thames were taken and destroyed by engines placed to catch the fry, which were then used for feeding pigs. The King was asked to forbid the use of these engines between London and the sea, and also to decree that no salmon be taken between Gravesend and Henley bridge in winter. A book on angling published in 1815 speaking of salmon says, “some are found in the Thames which the writer believes were justly considered to be superior to any bred in other rivers.”

In recent years an attempt has been made to reintroduce the salmon into the Thames, and many young salmon have been turned out in the river, but so far without any useful result.

But though the salmon has been, and again may be an inhabitant of the Thames, the brown trout is, and always has been, the fish of Berkshire. It attains a large size, and fish of from 8 to 12 lbs. are frequently caught in the Thames. There is, however, a scarcity of suitable breeding-places for trout in the river, and the stock, during recent years, has been kept up by introducing young fish, and not only brown trout but also Lochleven trout and rainbow trout have been turned into the river in great numbers. Many of the tributaries of the Thames are excellent trout streams, the Lambourn being a particularly good one.

The pike is found in the rivers and in many a lake and pond throughout Berkshire. Grayling occur in the Kennet and are occasionally caught in the Thames. The gudgeon is a well-known Thames fish; and perch, roach, dace, barbel and minnows abound. The little ruff or pope is fairly common in the Thames, and the miller’s thumb, another small fish belonging to the cooler parts of the world, is to be seen in most of our streams darting from place to place with great rapidity. The rudd, which is generally distributed through the more level part of England, is not common in Berkshire. The bream is occasionally caught in the Thames, but it is not a native and was probably introduced from Norfolk.

The Pine Plantations near Wellington College

The great variety of soil found in the river valleys, on the chalk downs, and in the forest district gives rise to much difference in the vegetation in different parts of the county. The beds of bullrush, the yellow and purple loosestrife, and the white and yellow water-lily are intimately associated with the beauty of the Thames.

The ling, the bell heather, and the cross-leaved heath cover large tracts in the eastern part of the county, and the bilberry is found in the woods of the same district. The bramble abounds in the forest parts, and of cultivated fruits we have large orchards of plums and cherries in the northern part of the county. Some rare orchids are to be found on the chalk, and in the peat districts the interesting little sundew is quite common.

Wellingtonia Avenue near Wellington College

In the chalk district the holly and beech grow well, and fine oaks are to be seen in many parts of our county. Herne’s Oak, in Windsor Park, has given rise to much discussion, but there can be little doubt that the tree known by that name to Shakespeare was cut down in 1796. There are some avenues of fine elms in Windsor Park—notably the Long Walk.

Of the conifers, the yew is a native of our district and grows well on the chalk, and the so-called Scotch fir (in reality a pine), a native of Scotland, has been introduced and forms extensive woods in the sandy parts of the county. The cedar of Lebanon, various kinds of cypress, the araucaria of Chile, the cryptomeria of Japan and the Wellingtonia (Sequoia) of California have been introduced into the county. On the opposite page is a view of an avenue of the Wellingtonia near Wellington College.

8. Climate and Rainfall.

The climate of a country or district is, briefly, the average weather of that country or district, and it depends upon various factors, all mutually interacting, upon the latitude, the temperature, the direction and strength of the winds, the rainfall, the character of the soil, and the proximity of the district to the sea.

The differences in the climates of the world depend mainly upon latitude, but a scarcely less important factor is proximity to the sea. Along any great climatic zone there will be found variations in proportion to this proximity, the extremes being “continental” climates in the centres of continents far from the oceans, and “insular” climates in small tracts surrounded by sea. Continental climates show great differences in seasonal temperatures, the winters tending to be unusually cold and the summers unusually warm, while the climate of insular tracts is characterised by equableness and also by greater dampness. Great Britain possesses, by reason of its position, a temperate insular climate, but its average annual temperature is much higher than could be expected from its latitude. The prevalent south-westerly winds cause a drift of the surface-waters of the Atlantic towards our shores, and this warm-water current, which we know as the Gulf Stream, is the chief cause of the mildness of our winters.

Most of our weather comes to us from the Atlantic. It would be impossible here within the limits of a short chapter to discuss fully the causes which affect or control weather changes. It must suffice to say that the conditions are in the main either cyclonic or anticyclonic, which terms may be best explained, perhaps, by comparing the air currents to a stream of water. In a stream a chain of eddies may often be seen fringing the more steadily-moving central water. Regarding the general north-easterly moving air from the Atlantic as such a stream, a chain of eddies may be developed in a belt parallel with its general direction. This belt of eddies or cyclones, as they are termed, tends to shift its position, sometimes passing over our islands, sometimes to the north or south of them, and it is to this shifting that most of our weather changes are due. Cyclonic conditions are associated with a greater or less amount of atmospheric disturbance; anticyclonic with calms.

The prevalent Atlantic winds largely affect our island in another way, namely in its rainfall. The air, heavily laden with moisture from its passage over the ocean, meets with elevated land-tracts directly it reaches our shores—the moorland of Devon and Cornwall, the Welsh mountains, or the fells of Cumberland and Westmorland—and blowing up the rising land-surface, parts with this moisture as rain. To how great an extent this occurs is best seen by reference to the map of the annual rainfall of England on the next page, where it will at once be noticed that the heaviest fall is in the west, and that it decreases with remarkable regularity until the least fall is reached on our eastern shores. Thus in 1906, the maximum rainfall for the year occurred at Glaslyn in the Snowdon district, where 205 inches of rain fell; and the lowest was at Boyton in Suffolk, with a record of just under 20 inches. These western highlands, therefore, may not inaptly be compared to an umbrella, sheltering the country further eastward from the rain.

The above causes, then, are those mainly concerned in influencing the weather, but there are other and more local factors which often affect greatly the climate of a place, such, for example, as configuration, position, and soil. The shelter of a range of hills, a southern aspect, a sandy soil, will thus produce conditions which may differ greatly from those of a place—perhaps at no great distance—situated on a wind-swept northern slope with a cold clay soil.

Berkshire is an inland county but no part of it is as much as 75 miles from the coast. The chalk downs have a fine bracing climate, and though some of the valleys may be relaxing and some of the moorland tracts bleak, the general climate of the county is exceedingly healthy. Compared with the south coast of England Berkshire is rather cooler, with somewhat less sunshine and less rain than the coast.

(The figures give the approximate annual rainfall in inches)

Temperature, it should be remarked, varies according to height above sea level, falling about 1° Fahr. for each 100 to 300 feet upwards. In a comparatively level district, like Berkshire, this is not a very serious consideration. The mean temperature for the year varies in different parts of England from about 47·3 in the north-eastern counties to about 49·6 in the south-east. The mean temperature is about 49·0 in northern Berkshire and about 47·5 in south-western Berkshire. It may be of interest to give the mean temperature for one year at places in and close around Berkshire. We take the year 1907 and the figures are as follows—Maidenhead 49·4, Wokingham 47·7, Swarraton in Hampshire 47·9, Marlborough in Wiltshire 47·4, and Oxford 48·9.

The average temperature in the month of January varies from 37·0 to 38·0 in different parts of the county, and the average temperature for July from 59·7 to 62·0.

In England bright sunshine is most prevalent on the coast and decreases inland. The annual total amount for the south and east coast from Cornwall to Norfolk is nearly 1800 hours, whilst in the northern midland counties the amount is about 1200 hours. There are no definite data available for giving the amount for Berkshire, but there are probably about 1500 hours of bright sunshine in the year.

The rainfall varies a good deal in different parts of the county. The amount is lowest in the north-east and highest in the south-west. Thus Wallingford and Cookham have a rainfall of about 23 inches a year on an average. At Reading, which is somewhat to the south-west, the amount is nearly 24 inches a year, and on a line running through Wellington College and Yattendon the amount is nearly 25 inches. Letcombe Regis and Ashbury have a rainfall of between 25 and 26 inches. At Faringdon the figure is above 26, and in the south-western corner of the county there is a rainfall of about 29 inches a year. The average yearly rainfall for the whole of England is 31·62 inches, and for the British Isles it is 39·25 inches. Looking at the extremes of rainfall in England we find the lowest at Shoeburyness with an average of 19·7 inches for the year, whilst Seathwaite in Cumberland has an average rainfall of 133·53 inches per annum.