ABSTRACT
Berkshire, the ancient Berroc (box-tree) scir, takes its peculiar shape from skirting the right bank of the winding Thames, which everywhere bounds it northwards, first as far as Oxford, and then flowing on, past Old Windsor Park at the eastern point of the county, continues its course and divides Surrey from Middlesex. In its southern part, Berkshire is dominated by the far-reaching chalk range which presents on its northern face the “Great Escarpment” of the geologists, save where its smaller eastern portion merges into the pine-clad heaths of Surrey. Between Walling-ford northwards and Reading southwards, the Thames has, in ages long passed, carved its course through the chalk, while, all the way from Oxford to Windsor, it yields a long succession of lovely river-scenes for our delight.
