THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
X.XXVIII.--BERKSHIRE, OXFORDSHIRE BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. THIS Province, as we have seen, was divided between the prin- cipalities of the West Saxons and Mercians, and most of it was held successively by the princes of both those States. Of the general character of the West-Saxon social system we have already spoken at length. That of the Mercians will fall more naturally under our notice of the Midland Counties of England, which con- stituted the heart of their possessions. It differed, indeed, but little from that of the Gewissas, the value assigned to the King and noble relatively to the ceorl or simple freeman being the same in both, but no trace of distinct grades in the class of nobles appearing in the case of Marcia.
Turning to the particular counties included in this Province, and employing Sir Henry Ellis's useful summary of the Domesday census, we find in Berkshire in the reign of William the Conqueror the names of 80 tenants in chief and 185 under-tenants ; in Oxfordshire, 81 tenants in chief and 207 under-tenants and occupiers ; in Buckinghamshire, 70 tenants in chief and 223 under- tenants. In Berkshire, again, there are enumerated 1,827 bordarii (cottagers) and 750 cotarii ; in Oxfordshire, 1,889 bordarii (no cotarii) ; in Buckinghamshire, 1,326 bordarii and 10 cotarii. The villani amount in Berkshire to 2,623; in Oxfordshire to 3,545; in Buckiughamshire to 2,893. The absolute sieves number, in Berkshire, 792; in Oxfordshire, 963; in Buckingham- shire, 833. At Bertone, now Burton in Abingdon, in the parish of St. Helen's, there are enumerated 10 merchants dwelling in front of the door of the church.
Of the twelve market towns within the boundaries of Berkshire several date from Saxon times. Of the removal of the monastery to the site of Abingdon, and its consequent change of name, we have already spoken. Offa, King of the Mercians, had a palace there, and it was a place of importance in the time of the Hep- tarchy, as well as subsequently. When William the Conqueror departed from Abingdon, where he had passed his Easter in the year 1084, he entrusted the education of Henry, his youngest son, to the inmates of that monastery, and the reputation for learning which obtained for that Prince the epithet of Beauclerk may be attributable in some respects to the teaching of the good fathers of Abingdon. Grave accusations of incontinency were brought against the monks at the time of the Dissolution, and those against the abbot, Thomas Pentecost, alias Rowland, were especially enormous. The abbot, however, whether guilty or not, succeeded in making his peace with King Henry, for on subscribing to the Royal supremacy in 1534, and surrendering his monastery a few years later, he was invested with the park and mansion of Cumnor and other lands, and had a pension of 2001. a year. The abbot seems to have shared the creed of his fellow-countymen, which gave rise to nearly the only proverb recorded of this county, "The Vicar of Bray will be Vicar of Bray still." Bray is a village near Maidenhead, and its Vicar, Simon Aleyn, who became suc- cessively a Papist, a Protestant, a Papist, and a Protestant again, under the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, "being taxed by one for being a turncoat and an inconstant changeling, Not so,' said he, for I always kept my principle, which is this,—to live and die the Vicar of Bray.'" A Vicar of Bray in the reign of James I. was less favoured in time- serving, for, as the story goes, his churlishness to the King, whom he encountered incognito after one of the Royal hunting parties, disappointed him of promotion, which was obtained by his more courteous curate. Henry III. held a Court at Abingdon. The erection, however, of two bridges (Burford and Culham) in 1416, Geoffrey Barbour giving the money, Sir Peter Bails the stone, and John Huchyns being the architect, appears to have laid the foundation of the independent life of the borough, it having been previously dependent for its prosperity on the monastery. In Leland's time (Henry VIII.) the woollen manufacture flourished here, but the place had become so decayed in the time of Mary that on the representation of its poverty to the Queen by Sir John Mason, the diplomatist, she granted lands to enable the town to pay the fee-farm rent and to maintain its ancient state. She also granted it a charter of incorporation in the year 1557. It sent a representative to Parliament once previous to its incorporation, upon receiving a peremptory summons in the 10th of Edward III. Its insignificant trade now consists of malting, hemp-dressing, and sack and sail-cloth making. There is at Abingdon a curious old Hospital of the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross, a society existing here before 1389, and incorporated in 1442 with a grant of lands worth 40/. per annum, to enable them to keep the road between Abingdon and Dorchester in repair ; to maintain thirteen poor men
and women, and to provide a chaplain for St. Helen's. Thomas Chaucer, son of the poet, was one of the original trustees. The guild, dissolved by Henry VIII., was refounded by a charter from Edward VL in 1553, at the request of Sir John Mason. The stone cross erected by the Brotherhood in the market-place was destroyed during the Civil War of the reign of Charles I. The town was then garrisoned first by the King, and then after the year 1644 by the Parliament, the Royalists failing in their attempts to recover it, though Prince Rupert for a time maintained 500 men in the abbey.
Wallingford was, we have said, the site of a Roman fortress. Situated on the Thames, it must always have been a place of great natural strength, and, indeed, the fortress of this part of England. In Saxon times it again revived, and in the time of Edward the Confessor that king held 276 hagx or householdings in that burgh. At the time of the Domesday Survey these had been reduced to 263, eight out of the thirteen which formed the defi- ciency having been removed to make way for the buildings of the Norman castle. The total number of houses enumerated in the Record at Wallingford is 491. In a charter of Henry II. to Wallingford mention is made of a guild of merchants in that burgh, with extensive privileges in the reign of Edward the Confessor. William the Conqueror seized Wallingford as a stepping-stone to his occupation of London, and he bestowed the heiress of Wigot, the Saxon who had held it, on Robert D'Oyley. This nobleman enlarged and strengthened the castle, which appears to have existed in Saxon times. It played an important part during the civil wars of Stephen and Matilda, and here the pacification was made between the two parties. Edward II. gave the castle to his favourite Pier § Gaveston, and it was afterwards given to Queen Catherine, widow of Henry V. It was the last place in Berkshire which held out for Charles I. in the Civil War, and was taken by Fairfax in 1646. The castle was dismantled by order of Cromwell, and very small remains of it are now left. The town of Wallingford continued to thrive and increase until the year 1348, when a great plague checked its progress. In the time of Henry VIII. it is described by Leland as surrounded by a wall going in compass a good mile or more, and he says that there were once fourteen churches in the town, but his time only three poor parish churches. The decay of Walling- ford is attributed (besides the plague) to the building of Culham and Dorchester bridges, which gave Abingdon a great advantage. The balance is now reversed, Wallingford having a fair trade in corn, flour, malt, and coal, and being a respectable representative of the smaller class of country towns. It is a borough by pre- scription, and sent two members to the House of Commons from 1295 to the Reform Bill of 1832, which reduced the number to one.
Reading, situated on the Kennet, one mile and a half above its junction with the Thames, is now the real capital of Berkshire. It is first mentioned in Saxon times, in the year 868, when Ivor the Dane made it his head-quarters. A monastery is said to have been built here by Queen Elfrida, to expiate the murder of her stepson. But the origin of the prosperity of the place was the Benedictine abbey founded here by Henry I. in 1121, which was once the third in size and wealth of all English abbeys. Henry I. held a Parliament here, and was a great benefactor to the place. His body was buried in the abbey, as well as that of his second wife, Adelize, and probably his first wife, " Molde," also. Here also was buried the Empress Maud, his daughter. In subsequent reigns the kings of England frequently resided at Reading. A grand tourna- ment was held there by Edward III., and four Parliaments by Henry VI. and Edward IV. Two ecclesiastical councils were also held here. Great havoc was committed among the tombs and buildings of the abbey at the Dissolution in the reign of Henry VIII., in conse- quence of the obstinate resistance made by the Abbot, Hugh Faring- don, who was hung, drawn, and quartered. Henry VIII, converted the abbey into a palace, and often resided there, as did subsequent sovereigns, till it was destroyed in the Civil War of the reign of Charles I. As early as the reign of Edward I. the town was famous for its cloth manufacture, but this disappeared after the war of the reign of Charles I. The town was then occupied alternately by each party, and suffered greatly in all respects by being so long a garri- son town. But it must not be forgotten that one of the chief authors of this Civil War—Archbishop Laud—was born at Read- ing, being the son of a clothier of the town. Harry Marten here learnt that he was no soldier, and thenceforward wisely abandoned the camp for the senate. Reading, which has greatly increased in size and prosperity within the last twenty or thirty years, is now a great mart for corn and agricultural produce. Reading bis- cuits are also a well known article of consumption, and there are several other more or less important manufactures and trades established in the town. The borough has sent members to Par- liament ever since the 23rd of Edward I. The charter by which it was governed till the Municipal Corporations' Reform Act in the reign of William IV. was granted by Charles I., but its incorpora- tion is of a much earlier date.
Windlesora, at the time of the Domesday Survey, contained 100 hags or householdings. This must have been Old Wind- sor, now a mere village, where is • said to have been an ancient palace of Edward the Confessor. That King gave Windlesora to the Abbey of Westminster ; but William the Con- queror, who saw the natural advantages of the site on which the present castle is built (two miles distant from Old Windsor), erected a fortress there, exchanging the lands thereabouts with the abbey for lands in Essex. Henry L enlarged and improved the Castle, and held his Court there, and from that time it seems to have been a frequent Royal residence. Henry III. greatly added to the castle, among other things a chapel. But it was in the reign of Edward III. that the present building may be said to have had its origin. Edward IV. and Henry VII. made further important additions, and Queen Elizabeth added the famous terraces which gave it its truly palatial character. The Stuart. Kings, after the Restoration, did what they could to spoil the older architecture. Charles II. added the present State apart- ments. George III. restored the interior of St. George's Chapel (Edward IV.'s erection), but it was reserved to Sir Jeffrey Wyat, in George IV.'s reign, to give its present general character to this Royal residence. Situated close to the Thames, and on the verge of that portion of the old forest district which still retains the general name of Windsor Forest, it would be difficult to find anywhere a more suitable site for a residence of our Kings", at once a commanding military stronghold and a natural palace ground.
A new town had sprung up graduallyin the Castle precincts which obtained the name of New Windsor, and naturally received many marks of Royal favour. It had been a mere chapelry of the parish, of Clewer, but it was constituted a separate parish. Edward I. made it a free borough, and in his time it first sent members to Par- liament. It has only done so regularly, however, from the 25th of Henry VI. (1447). It has no manufactures, but has beep celebrated for its ale breweries. There are barracks here for- infantry and cavalry. We need not do more than mention the name. of the College of the Blessed Mary of Eton beside Windsor, founded on the opposite side of the Thames by Henry VI. in 144L At Maidenhead, formerly Maidenhythe, existed in Saxon timetk a great wharf for timber.
Newbury is the representative of the old Roman station a &lave, which was at Speen and Speenhamland, the part of the town north of the river Kennet, on which it stands. In 821 King Kenwulf gave all the wood which is called Speue to Abingdon. Abbey. "At the time of Domesday Book, the villages Spone and Bagnor occupied this site, and Ulmitone, or Ulward's Town, had sprung up in the neighbourhood, then nearly twice the size of Reading." The name Newbury first appears in the form Newbir. It was bestowed by William the Conqueror on Erulf de Ilasdin, Earl of Perche, whose great grandson being killed at the siege of Lincoln, his heir, the Bishop of Chalons, sold it to William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, from whose family it passed into that of' Bigot, who forfeited it to the Crown in the reign of Henry iU it returned two members to Parliament from the 30th of Edward L, and in the 11th of Edward III. it was represented by three persons in a great Council of Trade, held at Westminster.' It was- then one of the most flourishing seats of the cloth man- facture. John Winchcombe, or Jack of Newbury, as he was. called, a clothier of the town, who had raised himself by his industry, kept in the reign of Henry VIII. 100 looms at work,. and answered a summons on the Scotch invasion of England by marching northward at the head of fifty "tall men well mounted, and fifty footmen." He was also the principal means of obtaining an order from the King for freedom of intercourse and trade be- tween foreign merchants and the clothiers of England, which had been much interrupted by the frequent foreign wars. A very large corn market is now held here, where everything has to be paid in ready money, whence a saying :— The farmer doth take back
His money in his Back.
We need hardly Bay that the neighbourhood of Newbury was the scene of two celebrated battles in the Civil War in the reign of Charles L—the one in September, 1643, the other in October, 1644—both somewhat indecisive, but each attended with important consequences, the latter by the remodelling of the Parliamentary Army and the ascendency of Cromwell.
Previous page
