Built upon the site of an ancient nunnery, the abbey ruins are beautifully situated on an eminence overlooking the river Kennet to the south and the Thames to the north. From the remaining portions it can be seen that the abbey church consisted of a nave and choir, both with aisles, transepts with eastern chapels, and also a Lady chapel--the entire length being 420 feet. The chapter-house on the east side of the cloister adjoins the south transept and possessed an apse in which were five large windows. On the south side of this cloister garth stood the Norman refectory. The stone facings of the buildings have been removed, leaving only flintstone, but fortunately the abbey mill still stands intact. Henry I. and his two queens, Matilda and Adeliza, were buried in Reading Abbey, though by some strange fancy of disseveration the king’s bowels, brains, heart, eyes and tongue were buried at Rouen. Many real or fancied relics of saints were presented to the abbey. Among other singular objects of the time was one assumed to be the head of the Apostle James--later the hand of this Apostle was brought from Germany by the Empress Maud--carefully enclosed in a case of gold, of which it was afterwards stripped by Richard I. It seems like some curious pioneer movement of foreign missions when one reads that the “maintenance of two Jewish female converts” was imposed on this house by King Henry III. ABINGDON (_Mitred Benedictine_). 675, Built and endowed by Heane, Viceroy of Wiltshire--955, Monks reinstalled by Edred, King of all England, after the ravages of the Danes--_c._ 955, Abbot Ethelwold builds the church, dedicates it to St Mary and institutes the rule of St Benedict--1071, Egclwya, Bishop of Durham, dies after imprisonment in the dungeons of the abbey--1084, William the Conqueror keeps the Easter festival at Abingdon--1146, Pope Eugenius III. grants many privileges to the Abbey--15--, Dissolved. Annual revenue, £1876, 10s. 9d.