Reading is a large and populous town upon the fall of the Kennet into the Thames; in the angle of which it stands upon a rising ground, overlooking the meadows, which have a fine appearance all along the rivers. There are three churches, built of flint and square stone in the _quincunx_ fashion, with tall towers of the same. Arch-bishop Laud was born here. The abbey stood in a charming situation: large ruins of it still visible, built of flint; the walls about eight foot thick at present, though the stone that faced them be pillaged away: the remainder is so hard cemented, that it is not worth while to separate them: many remnants of arched vaults a good height above ground, whereon stood, as I suppose, the hall, lodgings, &c. there is one large room about sixteen yards broad, and twenty-eight long, semi-circular towards the east end, with five narrow windows, three doors towards the west, and three windows over them: it was arched over, and seems to have supported a chapel, in which we fancy king Henry I. was buried with his queen: he founded this abbey upon an old one, that had been formerly erected by a Saxon lady. There are the remains of bastions, part of the fortifications, when garrisoned by the parliament army in the civil wars: the abbey gate-house is yet pretty intire. Here was a famous old castle, but long since demolished, perhaps originally Roman. Near the trench the Danes made between the river Kennet and the Thames, is Catsgrove hill, a mile off Reading: in digging there they find first a red gravel, clay, chalk, flints, and then a bed of huge petrified oysters five yards thick, twenty foot below the surface: these shells are full of sea sand.[45] Dr. Plot, in _Oxfordshire_, p. 119. who supposes these appearances only the sports of Nature, solves this matter after a way that will induce one to think his cause reduced to extremity. On the right hand, just beyond Theal, is Inglefield, where king Ethelwolf routed the Danes. [Illustration: 26 _Ruins of Reding Abby Augᵗ. 14. 1721._ _Neustrius Henricus situs hic, Inglorius urna nunc jacet ejectus, tumulum novus advena quærit Frustra_——] [Illustration: 23 GATEHOUSES _Reading Abby Gatehouse. 14 Aug 1721_ _The College Gate at Worcester. 30 Aug 1721_ _Stukeley delin._ _I Harris Sculp._] [Illustration: 60 Ad SPINAS _Prospect of_ Newberry _from the South between_ Winchester _and_ Silchester _Road_ _Iun. 28, 1723. Stukeley del_: _A._ _Icening Street._ _B._ _Donington Castle._ _C._ _Way to Winchester._ _D._ _Speen._] [Illustration: 10·2ᵈ. +Spinae+ _Iun 28 1723_ _Stukeley delin._ _Parker Sculpᵗ._] [Illustration: 62 _Cunetio_ _Castrum_ _6 July. 1723_ _Algernonio Com de Hartford d.d. W. Stukeley._ _Stukeley delin._] [Illustration: 63 _Prospect of_ Marlborough _from the South. 29 Iun 1723._ CVNETIO.