Streatley certainly cannot fail to yield the palm to Goring for beauty. For Goring is considered by many critics to be the very prettiest village on the river, a claim which its quaint main street, falling down the hillside to the river at right angles, does much to establish. But the surroundings of Streatley, the splendid sweep of heights, which back it up, cannot be rivalled by Goring. The road running through both crosses the river, and it is ancient in very truth. It was used by the Romans and formed part of the famous Icknield Way, but was made long before their time. For generations before history begins bands of furtive men, ready for surprise, and as suspicious as wild animals, must have padded on bare feet down one line of hills, across the river ford, and mounted the heights again, keenly scanning the country for possible enemies. No neat creeper-covered red brick cottages then, no church even, though Goring church is very old, dating back to Norman times, and having been the church of an Augustinian priory. No mills even, not the most primitive, and though neither village can be accused of ruining its beauty in a frantic search after modernism--the mill at Goring, in spite of its mossy roof, gleaming green and russet, frequented by the flocks of white pigeons, has adopted an electric generating station! From the electric-power methods to the Ancient Britons is indeed a far cry! Pangbourne and Whitchurch, taken as a couple, cannot vie with Goring and Streatley; though Pangbourne is pretty enough, and the river near it is island-broken, and particularly attractive. The reach succeeding Goring and Streatley is dull right up to Wallingford. In some points Wallingford and Abingdon may claim brotherhood, they are of the same size and about them hangs the same atmosphere, but the river at Abingdon is incomparably more interesting. Of Wallingford something more must be said in the historical reminiscences, and for the time we may leave it, and, skipping Dorchester, already mentioned, and Sutton-Courtney, another beauty spot, with an incomparable "pool", go on to Abingdon. Of the bridge we have already spoken--there it stands, Burford Bridge, old and irregular, with straggling arches, some round, some pointed. The bridge is long and rests partly on an island on which is built the Nag's Head Inn, whose garden occupies the island. The abbey buildings, still partly standing, founded by Cissa in 675, is one of the most interesting features of the town. The long range of wall, and the mighty exterior chimney, probably built about the fourteenth century, show up in season amid masses of horse-chestnut blossom, for which the town is famous. Henry I, the learned Beauclerc, was here educated from his twelfth year. Christ's Hospital, as it is called, with a hall dating from 1400, is one of the sights of Abingdon, and the day to see it is that on which eighty loaves of bread are distributed to the poor people of the town. This occurs once a week.