BERKSWELL. 247 BERMONDSEY. ] ia a, gigantic figure of a horse galloping, formed by i noving the turf and surface soil, on the steep side of t) hill. It is nearly 400 feet in length, and under i'ourable conditions is visible at a distance of ten or i elve miles. The " scouring of the White Horse," i.e. Ming away the encroaching turf, which takes place iery three years, is the occasion of a rustic festival. . very high antiquity ia assigned to this singular work. Besides the royal residence of Windsor Castle, Berk- ,!re contains a great number of seats of the nobility . d gentry. Among the principal of them are the fol- ving : Wytham Abbey, the seat of the Earl of . .ingdon ; Ashdown Park and Hampstead Marshall,
- ite of the Earl of Craven; Coleshill House, the seat
Earl Radnor ; Billingbear Park, of Lord Braybrooke ;
- ndleford Priory, of Lord Rokcby ; Beckett Park, of
iscount Barrington ; Basildon Park, of Sykes, Bart. ; senharn House, of Rich, Bart. ; Bear Place, of Ximenes, irt. ; Stanlake, of l>ukiii<ield, Bart. ; Warfield House, Walsh, Bart. ; Lockynge Park, of Martin, Bart. ; .dennaston House, Burton Court, Bear Wood, Binfield, sham Abbey, Donnington Castle, Eiiglefield House, idworth, Swallow-field House, &c. &c. The principal ilway in Berkshire is the Great Western, which enters Maidenhead, and passes by Twyford, Reading, Wal- igt'ord Road, Didcot, and Stcventon, to Swindon in "iltshire ; running nearly parallel with the Thames as ir as Didcot. From Didcot a branch line runs to Ox- rd and Birmingham. Several branch railways run om Reading: one through Theale to Newbury and ungerford ; another by Mortimer to Basingstoke, on le South- Western line ; one to Guildford and Reigate, tt the South-Eastern and Brighton railways; another y Wokingham to Staines. Windsor is connected by iort branch linos with the Great Western and South- Western railways ; and from Maidenhead a branch of le former runa to High Wycombe. Berkshire is crossed y the great roads from London to Bath and Oxford, hich enter at Maidenhead, whence the former runs_ by eading, Newbury, and Hungerford, into Wiltshire ;
- id the latter quits the county near Henley. Other
>ads are from Reading to Strcatley,Wallingford, Abing- n, and Oxford, a distance of 28 miles ; from the same nc". by .Streatley and Upton to Wantage, past the ."hiie Horse Hill, to Ashbury and Swindon, 41 miles ; om Reading to Wokingham, and by SunniughiU and Windsor Park to Staines; and several others. This iiinty is intersected by two important canals, the 'ilts and Berks, and the Kennet and Avon canal. The
- ngth of the former, from the Thames near Abingdon,
here it commences, to the border of Wiltshire, is about miles. Its course is through the Vale of White Corse, past Wantage, TJffington, and Shrivenham. It ttains a level about 160 feet above that of the Thames t Abingdon, and meets the Kennet and Avon canal ?ar Melksham. Of the latter, about nine miles are in lerkshire, from Newbury, where it meets the Kennet, -> Hungerford. It is connected with the Avon near iath. PERKSWELL. See BEKKF.SWEI.L, Warwickshire. BERKSWICK. See BASWICK, Staffordshire. BERHONDSEY, a par. within the borough of South- .ark, in the hund. of Brixton, and co. of Surrey, forming art of the suburbs of London on the south-east side. t is situated on the south bank of the river Thames, nd is intersected by the London Bridge railways. It is a ery ancient parish, and its name is but slightly changed om its original Saxon form of Burmundeseye. At the .me of the Norman survey it was a royal demesne, and ?came an occasional residence of the Conqueror and is successor. At that period it contained 25 riUt r servile husbandmen, and 24 bordcmotini ', or cot- igers. A Cluniac priory was founded here in 1082 iy Aylwin Child, a citizen of London, as a cell to i abbey in France. It was endowed by William Rufus ith the manor of Bermondsey, and by Henry I. with " ic manor of Rotherhithe and Dulwich, and the royal alace erected by his predecessor. Part of the palace as, however, retained ; and King John afterward occupying it, it acquired the name of King John's Palace. The wealth and importance of the monasteiy ncreased, and two hospitals, dedicated to St. Thomas and St. Saviour, were subsequently attached to it. In 1380, it was made denizen by Edward III., who ap- pointed an English prior ; and in 1399, it was erected nto an abbey by Boniface IX. The establishment con-
- inued to nourish till the Dissolution, when it had a
revenue of 548. The buildings covered a large space of ground, but there are no remains of them existing
- he last portion, a gateway, having been taken down
about 1810. Two queens spent their last days in this abbey Catherine, widow of Henry V., who died here n 1437, and Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV., who, being deprived of her property by Henry VII., passed ler last days in the nunnery in solitude and poverty. Soon after the Dissolution, the site was purchased by Sir Thomas Pope, who took down the abbey church, and built a mansion in its place. The mansion became the seat of the Earls of Sussex, one of whom died there in 1583. Several eminent persons were interred in the abbey church William de Morton, Earl of Cornwall, in the reign of Henry I. ; Margaret de la Pole, who died in 1473 ; and the" widow of John, Lord Andley, in 1497. The town gradually rose around the monastery. The inhabitants were numerous enough in the reign of Edward III. to require a church ; and the prior erected one for their use. The town has two principal streets diverging from the church, and crossed by many smaller ones. Many modern buildings are now intermixed with the ancient houses, and the streets are paved and lighted with gas. According to the Official Tables for 1861, there were at that time, 8,211 inhabited houses, with a population of 58,355, showing an increase of 10,227 in the last ten years; the excess of registered births over deaths for that period being 7,903, and the remainder due to immigration from the country. The neighbourhood is flat, and part of the land is laid out in market-gardens. Bermondsey is the seat of numerous important trades and manufactures, the chief of which are the leather and wool trade. In the preparation of leather and skins about 900 hands are employed. The Bermondsey tanners were incorporated by a charter granted by Queen Anne in the second year of her reign. Ship-building is carried on, and the con- nected branches of rope-making, sail-making, &c. Other manufactures are those of brushes, corks, glue, paper, parchment and vellum, &c. There is a spacious market 1'or the sale of leather. Bermondsey is the seat of a Poor-law Union, which is co-extensive with the parish itself. The living is a rect.* in the dioc. of London, of tlie val. of 300, in the patron, of Mrs. Ram. The church, a plain edifice with a low tower, was erected in 1680 on the site of one of great antiquity. It is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. Three new churches have been erected. One in 1829, in the Spa-road, dedicated to St. James, the living of which is a perpet. 'nir., val. 200, in the gift of the rector of the parish. The church was built from a design by Savage, and is in the Grecian style of architecture. The other two churches are dedi- cated to Christ and St. Paul respectively. The former was erected in 1848. The livings of both are perpet. curs., each of the val. of 20_0, and in the alternate patron, of the crown and the bishop of the diocese. There are chapels belonging to the Independents, Wesleyan Me- thodists, and other Dissenters. The charitable endow- ments of the parish amount to 490 per annum. The principal foundations are the free school, and the united charity schools. The former was founded in 1709 by Josiah Bacon, for the instruction of GO boys, and has a revenue of about 210 ; over the entrance to the school- house, which stands in the Grange-road, is a statue of the founder. The latter was founded a few years later, and is supported chiefly by subscription^its income from endowment being about 100 per annum. The pupils consist of 220 boys and 130 girls. The site of the plea- sure-grounds, established on the discovery of a chaly- beate spring in the Spa-road, in 1770, is now built over. A branch sewer runs from Bennondsey to join the main,
