Beautiful old Shaw House, one of the finest in Berkshire, still shows traces of the fight in the earthworks that partly encircle it.  The mansion was built by another celebrated clothier of Newbury, one Thomas Dolman, whose namesake and descendant was knighted at the Restoration.

Newbury Church was rebuilt by “Jack of Newbury,” and the date of its completion (1532) may be seen on a corbel.  This was after Smallwood’s death, the work being finished by his son.  The clothier’s brass (1519) may be seen among others.  The appointments of the church are fine and imposing; the Jacobean pulpit, dated 1607, should be noticed, also the history of the church, in the form of an illuminated chart, on the west wall.  The hero of the town was married in the chapel of the old Hospital of St. Bartholomew which was turned into a school in the reign of Edward VI.  Some of the school buildings are of a later date than this.  The most picturesque old house in the town, which really contains few that are ancient, is Newbury Museum, once the Cloth Hall.  There is a pleasing glimpse of the Kennet from the short high bridge in the main street and a still pleasanter view of the bridge itself from the river path below.

[Illustration:  CLOTH HALL, NEWBURY.]

A charming excursion can be taken to Lambourne, up in the heart of the chalk hills to the north-west.  This was one of King Alfred’s towns, and until the coming of the light railway one of the most unknown and remote in the kingdom.  Railway and road follow the course of the Lambourne, a delightful river, clear and cold from the chalk and never seeming to run dry, as do other streams of a like nature in exceptionally hot summers.  Another railroad goes directly north from Newbury and forms the main route between Oxford and Winchester.  This also penetrates the heart of the Berkshire uplands and taps a district inexhaustible in charm and interest, in the centre of which is Wantage, famous as the birthplace of Alfred.  But this country has been fully described by Mr. Ditchfield in “Byeways in Berkshire.”

The Bath road in a little over three miles from Newbury reaches Thatcham, once, by all accounts, a large and prosperous market town, but this was in the days of the Angevin kings.  The great market square probably dates from their time and the battered remains of the old market cross may have replaced a still more ancient one.  The fine church has a Norman door and Transitional arcading, but a very thorough “restoration” has obliterated most of the ancient features.  The Danvers and Fuller tombs should be seen, also an interesting brass to Thomas Loundye.  The fabric of a chantry chapel at the other end of the village dates from 1334, but it was much altered in externals in the early eighteenth century, when it was turned into a school.