an inland county of England, in the diocese of Salisbury, divided on the north and north-east by the Thames from Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, on the west it is bounded by Gloucestershire and Wiltsire, on the south-east by Surrey, and on the south by Hampshire. It is 120 miles in circumference, and contains about 527,000 acres. The air is sweet, and soil fruitful. It has plenty of corn, cattle, wild-fowl, wool, and timber, especially oak and beech. The rivers are the Thames, Kennet, Ock, Loddon, and Lambourn. The Kennet is now made navigable by act of parliament. This county sends nine members to parliament, has 140 parishes, and 12 market towns. The principal towns are Reading, Abingdon, Windsor, Wallingford, Maidenhead, Hungerford, Newbury, Faringdon, Wantage, Lower Lambourn, East Ilsley, and Oakham. The royal palace and castle at Windsor, built by Edward III., are remarkable for their fine situation, rich furniture, paintings, and many other curiosities. In St George's chapel are held the chapters of the order of the garter instituted by the above king Edward III. A few miles to the south-east of this town is the figure of a white horse, covering an acre of ground, cut in a hill of chalk, from whence it may be seen at a great distance, and is said to have been made by direction of king Alfred, in memory of a great victory he obtained.

The neighbouring people have from time immemorial a kind of festival, called scouring the horse, when they cleanse it of weeds, whereby the chalky bottom still preserves a fine effect at a considerable distance.

Near Reading is a natural curiosity, thought to have remained ever since the flood. It is a bed of oyster shells and sand, 30 or 40 feet under the surface of a hill, and covered with different strata. These shells retain the true figure and colour, but moulder with a small pressure. In this county are also remains of Roman antiquities and fortifications, with some of the famous causeway called Icknield-street.