The antiquities of England and Wales . remaining jthey were of rough flint, and were formerly cafed with fquaredHone ; but of this they have been ftripped. There is likewife tobe feen, the remainder of our ladys chapel and the refectory; thislaft 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-limed. 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 . remaining jthey were of rough flint, and were formerly cafed with fquaredHone ; but of this they have been ftripped. There is likewife tobe feen, the remainder of our ladys chapel and the refectory; thislaft 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-limed. 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 moftly of lime, was removed, for General Conwaysufe, to build a bridge in the road betwixt Wargrave and Henley,adjoining to his park. This view, drawn in 1762, reprefents the great gate of theabbey, which was formerly embattled j about thirty years ago itwas judged neceffary to take off the embattlements: this hasconfiderably hurt its appearance. PLATE. BERKSHIRE. ( PLATE II.) This plate fhews the fouth view of the remains of this oncemagnificent abbey, majeftic even in its ruins ! The following circumftances relative to this monaftery occurin Prynnes Hyftory of Papal Ufurpations. 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-chefter, for the promulgating the excommunication agamft theBarons concerned in the oppofition to King John; as aifo 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 fum of money from fome of the great abbies, among whichwere Weftminfter, St. Albans, Reading, and Waltham, was po-fitively refufed by the abbot of Reading. Fuller in his Church Hiftory has this anecdote of one ofthe
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Keywords: ., bookidantiquitiesofen01gros, bookpublisherlondonsh, bookyear1785
