tagc is a Roman camp, of a quadrangular form ; and there are other remains of encampments at East Hampstead near Wokingham, at Pusey, on White-Horse Hill, and at Sino- dun Hill, near Wallingford. At Lawrence Waltham there is a Roman fort, and near Dench worth a fortress said to have been built by Canute the Dane, called Cherbury Castle. Barrows are very numerous in the downs in the N.W. of the county, particularly between Lambourn and Wantage. Dragon Hill is supposed to have been the burying-place of a British prince called Uther Pendragon, and near to it is Uffington Castle, supposed to be of Danish construction. On White-Horse Hill, in the same vicinity, is the rude figure of what is called a horse, although it bears a greater resemblance to a greyhound. It has been formed by cut ting away the turf and leaving the chalk bare. It oc cupies nearly an acre of land, and is said to have been executed by Alfred to celebrate a victory over the Danes in the reign of his brother Ethelred, in the year 872. This memorial, not having been "scoured" for many years, is nearly obliterated by the growth of the turf over the chalk.
It is part of the property of the earl of Craven.Berkshire comprehended the principality inhabited by the Atrebates, a tribe of people who originally migrated from Gaul. Under the Romans it formed part of Britannia Prima, and during the Saxon heptarchy was included in the kingdom of the West Saxons. When Alfred divided the country into shires, hundreds, and parishes, it obtained the name of Berocscire, which was subsequently changed to that which it now bears. It was frequently the scene of military operations from the time of Offa down to the troubles in the reign of Charles I. During the civil war two battles were fought at Newbury. In 1643, after a siege, Reading was taken by the Parliamentary forces, and the Royalist party were expelled from the whole of the county except Wallingford.
BERLIN is the chief city of the province of Branden burg, the capital of the kingdom of Prussia, and since 1871 the metropolis of the German empire. It is situated in 52 30 16" N. lat. and 13 23 16" E. long., and lies about 120 feet above the level of the Baltic. Its longest day is 16 hours 47 minutes; its shortest day is 7 hours 36 minutes. Its average annual temperature is 4 8 2 Fahr., the maximum recorded heat being 99 - 5 in 1819, and the maximum cold - 16 1 Fahr. in 1823. The average rain fall is 21 - 74 Prussian inches, and Berlin has on the average 120 rainy, 29 snowy, and 17 foggy days in a year.
The city is built on what was originally in part a sandy and in part a marshy district on both sides of the River Spree, not far from its junction with the Havel, one of the principal tributaries of the Elbe. By its canals it has also direct water communication with the Oder. The Spree rises in the mountain region of Upper Lusatia, is navi gable for the last 97 English miles of its course, enters Berlin on the S.E. as a broad sluggish stream, retaining an average width of 420 feet, and a depth of 6 or 7 feet, until it approaches the centre of the city, where it has a sudden fall of 4 feet, and leaves the city on the N.W., after receiving the waters of the Panke, again as a dull and sluggish stream, with an average width of only 160 feet, but with its depth increased to from 12 to 14 feet. Within the boundaries of the city it feeds canals, and divides into branches, which, however, reunite. The river, -with its canals and branches, is crossed by about 50 bridges, of which very few have any claim to architectural beauty. Among these latter may be mentioned the Schlossbriicke, built after designs by Schinkel in the years 1822-24, with its eight colossal figures of white marble, representing the ideal stages of a warrior s career. The statues are for the most part of high artistic merit. They stand on granite pedestals, and are the work of Drake, Wolff, and other eminent sculptors. The Kurfiirsteiibrucke is another bridge which merits notice, on account of the equestrian bronze statue of the Great Elector by which it is adorned.
The etymology of the word " Berlin" is doubtful. Some Xame. derive it from Celtic roots ler, small, short, and lyn, a lake. Others regard it as a Wend word, meaning a free, open place. Others, again, regard it as coming from the word werl, a river island. Professor Paul Cassel, in a recently published dissertation, derives it from the German word " Briihl," a marshy district, and the Slavonic termina tion " in; " thus Briihl, by the regular transmutation Biirhl (compare Germ, breti-nen and Eng. burn), Biirhlin. The question is likely to remain in the stage of more or less probable conjecture.
Similar obscurity rests on the origin of the city. The hypotheses which carried it back to the early years of the Christian era have been wholly abandoned. Even the Margrave Albert the Bear (d. 1170) is no longer unquestion ably regarded as its founder, and the tendency of opinion now is to date its origin from the time of his great-grand sons, Otho and John. When first alluded to, what is now Berlin was spoken of as two towns, Coin and Berlin. The first authentic document concerning the former is from the year 1237, concerning the latter from the year 1244, and it is with these dates that the trustworthy history of the city begins. Fidicin, in his Diplomatische Beitrage zur Geschichte der Stadt Berlin, vol. iii., divides the history of the town, from its origin to the times of the Reformation, into three periods. The first of these, down to the year 1307, is the period during which the two towns had a separate administration; the second, from 1307 to 1442,. dates from the initiation of the joint administration of the two towns to its consummation. The third period extends from 1442 to 1539, when the two towns embraced the reformed faith.
In the year 1565 the town had already a population of 12,000. About ninety years later, after the close of the Thirty Years War, it had sunk to 6000. At the death of the Great Elector in 1688, it had risen to 20,000. The Elector Frederick III., afterwards King Frederick I., sought to make it worthy of a royal "residence," to which rank it had been raised in 1701. From that time onwards Berlin grew steadily in extent, splendour, and population. Frederick the Great found it, at his accession in 1740, with 90,000 inhabitants. At the accession of Frederick William IV. in 1840 it had 331,894, and in the month of July 1874, thirty-four years later, the population had nearly trebled, the exact numbers in that year being 949,144. The two original townships of Coin and Berlin have grown into the sixteen townships into which the city is now divided, cover ing about 25 English square miles of land, and Berlin now takes its place as the fourth, perhaps the third, greatest city in Europe, surpassed only by London, Paris, and possibly Vienna. Its importance is now such that a bill, at present submitted by the Government to the consideration of the Legislature, proposes to raise it to the rank of a province of the kingdom.
Progress and prosperity have, however, been chequered by reverses and humiliations. The 17th century saw the Imperialists and Swedes, under Wallenstein and under Gustavus Adolphus, as enemies, within its walls ; the 18th century, the Austrians and Russians, during the Seven Years War; the 19th century, Napoleon I. and the French; and the year 1848 witnessed the bloody scenes of the March Revolution. But the development of constitutional government, and the triumphs of 1866 and 1870, have iviped out the memory of these dark spots in the history of the Prussian capital.
