Bygone Berkshire

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Shouts of joy welcomed the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. In Reading there were great rejoicings, and a stage was set up in the market-place for the purpose of issuing the...

During the reigns of George IV. and William IV., James Wyatt's brother, Jeffry Wyatt, whom George IV. knighted and called Wyatville, continued the work of restoration, and gradu...

Earl Richard probably did more both for the castle and the town than any other of its lords. He lived here in great state, enriching the townsmen by the liberal expenditure of h...

It has been repeatedly reasoned that novelists should be permitted a certain licence, and in actual fiction this may possibly be; but if the subject and characters chosen are bo...

In 1566, seven years after Amy's death, Dudley's marriage with the queen was debated by the Privy Council, when it was reported to them that Appleyard, had in a moment of irrita...

The word guild is probably derived from the Saxon word _geldan_ or _gildan_, which means "to pay," and signifies that the members of the association were required to contribute...

[Footnote 4: 1545--By Statute 37 Henry VIII., An Act for dissolution of colleges, it was recited that divers colleges, free chapels, chantries, hospitals, fraternities, brotherh...

"I have requested of my lord abbot the relics of his house, which he seledeted unto me with gudde will. I have taken an inventory of them, and have locked them up beside the hig...

April 27th.--The surrender takes place. "He was pardoned," says Clarendon, "without much grace; his regiment was given to another, and he resolved as a volunteer; in this capaci...

Had Charles maintained a purely defensive position, Essex would have been compelled to force the fighting. His inferiority in cavalry would have told heavily against him, and hi...

There is no doubt that besides the Dancastles and the other Papist families at Binfield, there were numerous Roman Catholics settled in the neighbourhood. In particular we find...

Some of the verbs are original, while others bear signs of being simply mispronunciations. To _quilt_ is to swallow; to _plim_ to swell, like rice in the boiling; to _huck_ to d...

CONTENTS:--Under Watch and Ward--Under Lock and Key--The Practice of Pledging--The Minstrel in the Olden Time--Curious Landholding Customs--Curiosities of Slavery in England--Bu...