England: Dragon Hill

Dragon Hill:

A New and Comprehensive Gazetteer, Volume 1

By: George Newenham Wright

1834

The first historical book reference we will begin with, was written in 1834 by  By George Newenham Wright.  A man of high nobility and honor within his homeland of Ireland. George was born in 1794, very little is known about his life, other than he was a clergyman for the Anglican Church as well as a well noted writer of his era. 
George had written 7 books within his lifetime, with the following book being his second to last. The following segment comes from the book A New and Comprehensive Gazetteer, Volume 1, (Gazetteer : geographic reference book: a dictionary or index of places, usually with descriptive or statistical information).

" The hills of Surrey and Hampshire an extensive prospect and the eminences on the W command a prospect over Gloucester Wilts and Oxford The extreme length of the co that is from Old Windsor to Buscot is 48 m and its extreme breadth is between Witham and Sandhurst Pop 145,380 The area contains 472,270 acres which are divided naturally into 1 The White Horse vale extending from Bus cot to Streatley bounded on one side by Thames on the other by the White Horse hills by 2 The Chalk hills which occupy the part of the county 3 The vale of Kennet 4 The Forest division commencing E of I odd on and extending the whole way across the co to Old Windsor The chief rivs are the Thames Kennet Loddon Lambourn Ock Aubourn Emme and Broadwater The soil in general reclines upon chalk and calcareous matter sometimes on a mixture of gravel and clay The vale is uniformly fertile the prevailing soil being a strong grey calcareous loam in which vegetable mould is intimately mixed with cretaceous earth Amongst the chalk hills fertile spaces intervene where the surface con sists of vegetable mould mixed up with chalk flint and gravel The hills are everywhere clad with verdure and form excellent sheep walks a species of peat is found in the vale of Kennet used both as fuel and manure Near Reading is a bed of chalk 30 feet in thickness reclining upon flint above the chalk is a stratum of sandy clay covered by a layer of oyster shells two feet in depth A species of ochre is found depth species here echini fossil shells sharks teeth marine remains of infinite varieties pipe clay potters clay and shell marl in Kennet vale Chalybeate springs exist at Cumnor Sunning hill and Gorrick well The soil produces wheat and barley superior in quality and profuse in quantity and malting is a trade pursued extensively Large dairy farms occupy White Horse vale and the Berkshire sheep large tall with black faces and long tails are much esteemed and fatten easily The swine here are also famous poultry are reared in great numbers at Oakingham timber chiefly oak and beech are grown here and constitute a good trade The manufactures consist of sail cloth woollen and paper At Bisham are very extensive copper works Berkshire is divided into copper works twenty hunds namely Beynhurst Bray Charlton Compton Cookham Faircross Faringdon Ganfield Hormer Kirilbury Eagle Lambourn Moreton Ock Reading Ripplesmere Shriveo ham Sonning Theale Wantage Wargrave besides the boroughs of Abingdon returning member Reading two Wallingford one and Windsor two members The co returns members and the boroughs together six There are twelve mkt tns in Berkshire namely Abingdon Faringdon Hungerford East llsley Lambourn Maidenhead Newbury Oakingham Reading Wallingford Wantage and Windsor This co is also distinguished as containing the royal residence of the kings of England viz Windsor Cast le besides rovalpalaces atFrogmore Cumberland lodge and Iran bourn Lodge The advantages arising to the inhabitants from inland navigation here are very considerable of one dist of a triangular shape no part is distant 12 m from water carriage on the Thames on the Kennet on the Wilts and Berks canal or on the Basingstoke navigation The Kennet and Avon canal runs parallel to the Kennet river until it enters Wiltshire in the vicinity of Hungerford Berkshire includes the ancient British principality occupied by the Attribatii originally from Gaul Upon Constantine's division of the island in the year 310 into provs this par was included in Britannica Prima under the Saxon Heptarchy it was comprehended in the kingd of the West Saxons and when Alfred a native of Wantage in this co ad 889 divided England into cos hunds and pars this was lor the first time named Berocshirc or Berkshire There are many evident traces still subsisting of Roman and Danish occupation The Roman Watling street enters Berkshire a Streatley between Wallingford and Reading and crosses the county to Marlborough Another Roman road enters from Hampshire and at Newbury divides one branch extending to Marlborough the other to Cirencester A branch also from the Icknield street extends from Wallingford to Wantage Several Roman encampmetits metits may be traced the most obvious remain aie at Wantage East Harapstead Oakingham White Horse hill Siuodun hill and Pusey UAingham castle is supposed to be Danish Deal White Horse hill is the monument of a Danish chief slain by Alfred and Dragon hill is believed to be the burial place of Jther Pen dragon There is a figure of a horse distinctly marked in the front of the chalky hill called from this curious resemblance which is supposed to have been formed by the ancient Britons and to have some connexion in customs or superstitions with a similar figure observed upon ancient British coins Berkshire has been the scene of military operations from the time of king UHa to the period of the revolution BERKS".