about them; and often a vigour of mind, a vein of strong and serious thought which leads them to express themselves in a straightforward homely style, and with a store of plain expressive English words that reminds one of the racy heartiness of Bunyan and Cobbett. A good deal of this may be seen, for instance-by such as do not mind putting up with some peculiarities for the sake of information, -in those men who get to be "local preachers and class-leaders" among the Wesleyans in these parts.

Before quitting Pangbourne, I would just point out that it, or Streatley, is an admirable place for a young landscape-painter to escape to for a few days from the smoky atmosphere of London. He may with little trouble, and at small expense, bring here his colours and canvas, and then, in some of those delicious spots already spoken of, fix his easel in the open air, and, without darkened windows or reflected lights, or any other atelier contrivances, and forgetting atelier conventionalisms, try to represent what he sees just as he sees it-aiming only to distinguish what is essential and characteristic-giving himself up unrestrainedly to the teaching of Nature, whom he will find to be a far better guide than any connoisseur or picturedealer. The young painter who will do this-who will come and dwell here for awhile, watching in the early dawn the changing effects of the breaking mists, the deep thick shadows, and the pearly sparkling dew; the brightness and glitter of the noon-tide, as he looks out over the river from the shelter of the rich groves; the mellow radiance which the setting sun flings over trees and river and cloudless sky; and, as 66 the risin' moon begins to glowr," trace the power of chiaroscuro, of those

marvellous combinations of light and shadow which genius has sometimes been able to fix on the canvas, but which Nature is ever lavishing with unsparing hand before him who is abroad to see :-he who will do this, will find that the bounty of Nature is not yet exhausted; that even in such unromantic spots as these, there are to be found passages of river scenery still unappropriated by any of our admirable landscape-painters, and unnoticed by the great painters of old. And he will find also plenty of employment for his sketch-book. There are, as architectural studies, Goring Church, both in parts and as a whole; Hardwick, a capital exercise, and the bays and oriels of Maple-Durham; of homely picturesque buildings he will see plenty about the villages; the mill at Maple-Durham will yield more than one sketch; and he could not desire better models for landscape "figures" than the folks hereabout.

One other person ought not be overlooked-I mean the angler. Pangbourne is a famous spot for him. If he cast the fly, Thames will yield plenty of work: trout abound and rise kindly, and the little Pang brook which enters the Thames by the village (and gives it its name) is also a good trout stream. If he prefer trolling, there are some stout jack which will not let him want sport; and if he be content to fish at bottom, he may always reckon on a good basket of barbel, roach, or chub, if he know how to handle his tackle.

CHAPTER X.

READING.

THE town of Reading has been often described, its history often written. Whoever has read Belford Regis--and who has not?-knows something of the sunny side of its present condition; and the readers of this series of volumes have had a lively picture set before them of its state at one period of its olden existence. Now, if I were in the habit of making sunny pictures, or telling a lively tale, I should be deterred from adventuring to do so on the present occasion; as it is, I shall take the safer course, and plod through a dry general account, leaving the wiser of my readers to skip the chapter. "To write," says Dr. Johnson, in his oracular way, Ito write of the cities of our own island with the solemnity of geographical description, as if we had been cast upon a newly discovered coast, has the appearance of very frivolous ostentation; and yet- and yet as something of the sort must be done, it had better be done quickly and quietly: we will, therefore, leave the ostentation to shift for itself, and endeavour to support the solemnity. Reading, then, stands a few hundred yards from the Thames; the Great Western road runs through the centre of it, and the Great Western railway on one side between it and the river. It is a large irregularly arranged place (though I believe the

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historians of the town have found out some definite shape for it, but whether triangle or hexangle, I forget); and it holds somewhere near nineteen thousand inhabitants. It is the county-town, and a parliamentary borough, sending two members to the Imperial Parliament. The assizes are held in it; and it has a market twice a week, a large annual fair for cheese, and three others for horses and cattle. Moreover it has a good trade and some manufactures, and is altogether the most bustling business-like place we have yet visited. So large a town has of course a good many houses, and they are of different sizes and kinds. It has too the ordinary number of buildings belonging to the corporation, and more than the ordinary number belonging to charitable institutions. It has three old churches, which have been all miserably defaced, and look miserable; one or two new ones, which look very smart; and one or two others, which look very shabby. It has also the usual number of dissenting chapels, which present the usual varieties of deformity. Finally there are the workhouse and the county gaol. So that it has altogether a very comfortable, respectable, social, substantial, every-day English look.

So far we are safe enough-now for its history. This unluckily is rather long, and chiefly interesting to its inhabitants; we may, therefore, run over it rapidly. Antiquarians have not decided whether the name is of British or Saxon origin; nor whether, consequently, it came to be called Reading from being built in a ferny country; or because it was placed by an old ford; or because it was built in a meadow subject to be flooded. But there seems to be no doubt that it was a town at a very early date,