CHAPTER IX READING Its Antiquities and Churches - Its Parish Registers and Church-wardens' Accounts. Before taking boat again the tourist should devote one full day at least to exploring the county town of Berkshire. At first sight Reading appears nothing more than an ordinary thriving English town, with several engineering shops, a large trade in seeds grown in its vicinity, and the largest and best known biscuit manufactory in the world, that of Messrs. Huntley & Palmer, both gentlemen liberal benefactors of the town. But in reality Reading is much more than this. The town is situated in the midst of a most picturesque country, and many places are easily accessible from it, Sonning being only three and a half miles and Henley nine and a half miles down the river, while up stream the beautiful reaches of Maple-Durham are three and a half, and Pangbourne five and a half miles. Several places equalling or exceeding Three Mile Cross in interest, are within easy reach inland — Bradfield, Englefield, Shinfield, and Aldermaston. Reading is thirty-seven miles from Oxford and thirty-nine miles from London. History of A brief recital of a few of the facts which make up the history of the town will enable the visitor to better appreciate the quaint memorials with which Reading's numerous churches abound. Reading has been the theatre of many memorable events. In 871 the Danes brought their warships up the Thames as far as Kennet, and selected Reading as the base for their aggressive operations in the West of England. Driven from London by periodical visitations of the Plague, the English Parliament has many times sat at Reading. It did so as late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In 1625 the National Law Courts were temporarily removed to Reading from Westminster from the same cause. In 1643 the town was besieged by the Parliamentary troops commanded by the Earl of Essex, and suffered great damage; and again in 1688, when the Prince of Orange defeated the King's troops. St. Giles's church was badly damaged by the Roundheads, and the fine old Benedictine Abbey, founded in 1121 by Henry I, was almost destroyed. After the destruction wrought by Cromwell, the people of Reading seem to have regarded the ruined abbey as a quarry, and to have carried away the stone, and other materials of which it was composed, and used them for building operations elsewhere, so that to-day all that remains of this once magnificent structure are some broken arches, and flint and rubble walls of great thickness. A portion of the walls, eight feet thick, were used more than a century ago in building a bridge between Henley and Wargrave. The abbey ruins are approached from Forbury Gardens. St. Lawrence St. Lawrence Church is at the corner of Friar Street, near the market place. It is built of flint and stone common to the architecture of this part of England, and has a square tower in the Perpendicular style. The church contains brasses to the memory of Edward Butler and his wife (1585), John Kent and his wife, and W. Barton (1538). A curious painted monument of John Blagrave, in a cloak and ruff, with a quadrant and globe in his hands, will be found in the south aisle. The monument is supported by two skulls and a plump gilt cherub ornamenting each side of the tablet. The inscription reads: "Johannes Blagravus totus mathematicus cum matre sepultus." A stained glass window in three compartments, in the south side of the chancel, should not be missed. It is inscribed: "Memorial to Charles Lamb: Henry and Rachel, children of T. N. Talfourd; erected 1848." (Thomas Noon Talfourd was a native of Reading, which town he represented in Parliament. He was successful lawyer and brilliant essayist, and intimately acquainted with all the literary men of his period. Dickens dedicated his "Pickwick" to Talfourd.) A strange figure in marble kneeling at a prie-dieu commemorates the death, in 1636, of Martha, wife of Charles Hamley, and is especially valuable, as indicating the costume of the period. Church of a The Church of St. Mary, in Minster Street, is chiefly noticeable for its curiously chequered tower (1551), surmounted by pinnacles added by John Kendrick in 1624. This church, which was originally built with portions of the abbey ruins, received some judicious restoration a few years ago. The oak roof is very fine |