The antiquities of England and Wales . ing ;they were of rough flint, and were formerly cafed with fquaredftone; but of this they have beeil llripped. There is likewife tobe feen, the remainder of our ladys chapel and the refe6lory ; thislafl: is eighty-four feet long, and forty-eight broad : and is, ac-cording to Willis, the room in which was held the parliamentbefore mentioned. The cloifters have long been totally demo-Jiflied. About eight years ago, a very confiderable quantity ofthe abbey ruins, fome of the pieces as much as two teams ofhorfes could draw, compofed of gravel and flints, cem
The antiquities of England and Wales . ing ;they were of rough flint, and were formerly cafed with fquaredftone; but of this they have beeil llripped. There is likewife tobe feen, the remainder of our ladys chapel and the refe6lory ; thislafl: is eighty-four feet long, and forty-eight broad : and is, ac-cording to Willis, the room in which was held the parliamentbefore mentioned. The cloifters have long been totally demo-Jiflied. About eight years ago, a very confiderable quantity ofthe abbey ruins, fome of the pieces as much as two teams ofhorfes could draw, compofed of gravel and flints, cemented to-gether with what the bricklayers now call grout, a fluid mortar,confifting moflly of lime, was removed for General Conways ufe,to build a bridge in the road betwixt Wargrave and Henley, ad-joining to his park. This view, drawn in 1762, reprefents the great gate of theabbey, which was formerly embattled; about thirty years ago itwas judged neceflary to take off the embattlements; this hasconflderably hurt its appearance. PLATE. BERKSHIRE. 17 (PLATE II.) This plate fliews the Ibuth view of the remains of this oncemagnificent abbey, majeflic even in its ruins ! The following circumftances relative to this monaftery occurin Prynnes Hiftory of Papal Ufurpatlons. In the year 1215,the abbot of Reading was one of the delegates appointed by thepope together with Pandulph the legate, and the bifhop of Win-chefler, for the promulgating the excommunication againft thebarons concerned in the oppofition to King John; as alfo inthe fucceeding year, when divers of thofe barons were excommu-nicated particularly and by name. In 39 Henry III. the mainte-nance of two Jewifh converts, both women, was impofed on thishoufe; and in the fame reign, the king attempting to borrow alarge Turn of money from fome of the great abbies, among whichwere Weftminfter, St. Albans, Reading, and Waltham, was po-fitively refufcd by the abbot of Reading. Fuller in his Church Hiftory has this anecdote of one o
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