is an inland county of England, which contained the whole of that British principality inhabited by the Atrebati, who are supposed to have been originally from Gaul. When Constantine divided the island into Roman provinces in 310, this principality was included in Britannia Prima, the first division, whose boundaries were the English channel on the south, and the Thames and Severn on the north. On the Romans quitting the island, and civil dissensions enabling the Saxons to establish the Heptarchy, this part of the country was included in the kingdom of the West Saxons, which commenced in 519, and continued till 828, when it became the only remaining sovereignty, having conquered all the others, and they were incorporated by the name of England, under Egbert; whose grandson, Alfred, a native of Wantage, in this county, in 889 divided his kingdom into counties, hundreds, and parishes, and at this time this division first received its appellation of Berkshire, or Berochire. At present it is in the Oxford circuit, the province province of Canterbury, and diocese of Salisbury. The general shape of it somewhat resembles the form of a flipper or sandal. It contains an area of 654 square miles, or 327,000 square acres; is 39 miles long, 29 broad, and about 137 in circumference. It supplies 560 men to the national militia; is situated north-west of London; has 140 parishes, 62 vicarages, 12 market towns but no city, 671 villages, 135,000 inhabitants, 11,560 houses that pay the tax; is divided into 20 hundreds; sends nine members to parliament, two for the county, two for Windsor, two for Reading, two for Wallingford, and one for Abingdon; and pays 10 parts of the proportion of the land-tax. Its principal river is the Thames. It also has the Kennet, great part of which is navigable; the Loddon, the Ock, and the Lambourne, a small stream, which, contrary to all other rivers, is always highest in summer, and shrinks gradually as winter approaches. The air of this county is healthy even in the vales; and though the soil is not the most fertile, yet it is remarkably pleasant. It is well stored with timber, particularly oak and beech, and produces great plenty of wheat and barley. Its principal manufactures are woollen cloth, fail-cloth, and malt.

Its market towns are Abingdon, Faringdon, Hungerford, East Ilsley, Lower Lambourne, Maidenhead, Newbury, Ockingham, Reading, Wallingford, Wantage, and Windsor, remarkable for its royal castle, as the county is for White-horse-hill, near Lambourne, where is the rude figure of a horse, which takes up near an acre of ground on the side of a green hill, said to have been made by Alfred in the reign of his brother Ethelred, as a monument to perpetuate a victory over the Danes in 872, at Ashdown, now Ashburg-Park.

The Roman Watling-street, from Dunstable, enters Berkshire at the village of Streatley, between Wallingford and Reading, and crossing this county proceeds to Marlborough. Another Roman road from Hampshire enters this county, leads to Reading and Newbury, the Spinae of Camden, where it divides: one branch extends to Marlborough in Wilts, and the other to Cirencester in Gloucestershire. A branch from the Icknield-street proceeds from Wallingford to Wantage.

There is a Roman camp near Wantage on the brow of a hill, of a quadrangular form; there are other remains of encampments at East-Hamptonstead, near Ockingham, near White-horse-hill, near Pufey, and upon Sinodun-hill, near Wallingford. At Lawrence Waltham is a Roman fort, and near Denchworth is Chertsey castle, a fortress of Canute. Uffington castle, near White-horse-hill, is supposed to be Danish; and near it is Dragon-hill, supposed to be the burying-place of Uter Pendragon, a British prince. Near White-horse-hill are the remains of a funeral monument of a Danish chief slain at Ashdown by Alfred. In this county the following antiquities are worthy the notice of travellers: Abingdon church and abbey; Aldworth castle, near East Ilsley; Bysham monastery; Dunnington castle; Lambourne church; Reading abbey; Summing chapel; Wallingford church and castle. Windsor castle beggars all description for situation, &c. Berkshire is an earldom belonging to a branch of the Howard family, the representative being earl of Suffolk and Berkshire.