In respect to the character of its surface and soil, the county may be conveniently regarded as consisting of two divisions—the eastern, containing the six districts east and inclusive of Bradfield, and the western, embracing the remaining six districts. The surface of the eastern division is partly level and partly undulating, and in many places, as at Windsor, it is beautifully wooded. The highest ground is at Bagshot Heath, a sandy plateau 460 feet high, at the south-east comer of the county. The character of the soil in the eastern division is considered poorer than in the west, and consists mostly of blue clay and gravel, resting on a chalk formation. In this division, tillage, dairy farming, and manufacturing are more extensively pursued than in the other, and it is consequently more thickly populated. The western or upland division contains a large proportion of elevated ground, and its soil is a reddish gravelly loam. Here a line of chalk hills, reaching from Aid worth to Ashbury (which includes the ∏sley Downs), runs east and west, separating the two fertile valleys of the Kennet and the Thames. Another range of chalk downs, known as the Cuckamsley Hills, extends from the neighbourhood of Wantage to the border of Wiltshire, the highest point being White-Horse Hill, 893 feet high. In this part of the county the rearing of sheep is largely carried on, while in the district of Hungerford, which is situated in the basin of the Kennet, the soil allows a large breadth of tillage, and a greater number of persons are engaged in agricultural pursuits there than any other district in the county.

Wheat and beans are extensively cultivated; and a species of peat found on the banks of the Kennet yields ashes that are of great value to the soils near that river. In the vales of Kennet and White-Horse dairy farming predominates. Near Faringdon pigs are extensively reared, and the breed is celebrated. The estate of Pusey, in the district of Faringdon, presents one of the best examples of high class farming, while in the eastern division the model farms in the district of Wokingham, the property of John Walter, Esq., M.P. for the county, may be referred to as the best specimens of the recent improvements in agriculture. Mr Walter’s mansion at Bearwood, too, is an instance of a baronial residence seldom equalled in extent and admirable disposition.

Few parts of England are better supplied with the facilities of water communication than the county of Berks. It is connected by means of the Thames with London on the one hand, and on the other with the Severn at two separate points on that river;—one through the Thames and Severn canal, some miles below Gloucester, the other through the River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon canal by Bath and Bristol. Besides the navigable rivers, it enjoys the benefit of the Wilts and Berks canal, which connects the Thames at Abingdon with the Avon at Trowbridge in Wiltshire, and communicates with the Kennet and Avon canal. The other rivers, which all finally fall into the Thames, are the Ock, the Loddon, the Enborne, and the Lamboum.

The turnpike roads are generally good. The principal of these are the roads from London to Bath and Oxford, both of which enter the county at Maidenhead, and soon afterwards separate, the former running S.W. to Reading, the latter nearly N.W. to Henley. Eight branches of railway intersect the county, viz., the Great Western, from Maidenhead to Reading, and from Reading to Shriven ham; the branch from Didcot to Hincksey and Oxford; the Berks and Hants railway branches from Reading to Mortimer and Basingstoke, and from Reading to Newbury and Hungerford; the Reading, Guildford, and Reigate line; and the Reading, Wokingham, and Staines branch of the South-Western Railway.

Berkshire is not a manufacturing county, although the woollen manufacture was introduced here as long ago as the time of the Tudors. There are some paper-mills, particularly in the neighbourhood of Newbury, and an extensive biscuit manufactory at Reading. The chief trade consists in agricultural produce.

From its vicinity to the metropolis, the salubrity of the climate, and the general beauty of the country, few counties have more numerous seats of the nobility and gentry than are to be found in Berkshire. Among these stands preeminent the royal castle of Windsor, the favourite residence of our monarchs during many centuries. There may also be mentioned Wytham Abbey (earl of Abingdon); Ashdown Park and Hamstead Marshall (earl of Craven); Coleshill (earl of Radnor); Shrivenham House (Viscount Barrington); Easthampstead Park (marquis of Downshire); Englefield House (R. Benyon, Esq., M.P.); Aldermaston House (Higford Burr, Esq.); South Hill Park (Rt. Hon. Sir W. G. Hayter, Bart.); Pusey House (Sydney Bouverie Pusey, Esq.); Bearwood (John Walter, Esq., M.P.); and Lockinge House (Col. Loyd Lindsay, V.C., M.P.)

The county comprises 20 hundreds, 6 municipal boroughs, and 142 parishes, besides 14 others chiefly or partially included in Berks. The county is in the diocese of Oxford and the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury. It forms an archdeaconry by itself, and is divided into the four rural deaneries of Abingdon, Newbury, Reading, and Wallingford. It is in the Oxford circuit, and the assizes are held at Reading. County courts are held at Abingdon, Faringdon, Hungerford, Maidenhead, Newbury, Reading, Wallingford, Wantage, Windsor, and Wokingham.

Berkshire returns 3 members to parliament for the county, 2 for the borough of Reading, and 1 for each of the boroughs of Abingdon, Wallingford, and Windsor.

At the three decennial enumerations the population of the county was as follows :— [table]

The chief increase has taken place in the eastern division of the county, where the density of the population amounted in 1871 to about 1 person to 1 , 5 acre; while in the western it was 1 person to 3 , 5 acres. The principal towns in the county are Reading (pop. 32,324), Windsor (11,769), Newbury (6602), Maidenhead (6173), Abingdon (5799), Wantage (3295), and Wallingford (2972). The population of the parliamentary districts differs from the above, as these districts include persons located beyond the boundaries of the boroughs.

Antiquities, both Roman and Saxon, are numerous in various parts of this county. Watling Street enters Berkshire from Bedfordshire at the village of Streatley, and leaves it at Newbury. Another Roman road passes from Reading to Newbury, where it divides into two branches, one passing to Marlborough in Wiltshire, and the other to Cirencester in Gloucestershire. A branch of Icknield Street passes from Walling!ord to Wantage. Near Wantage Ï3 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 cutting away the turf and leaving the chalk bare. It occupies 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.