Wales. The poot Cowper was born in the rectory in 1731. | both of which enter the county at Maidenhead, and soon Population in 1872, 4083. BERKSHIRE, one of the south-eastern counties of England, bounded on the N.E. by Buckinghamshire, from which it is separated by the Thames; N. by Oxfordshire and a small portion of Gloucester; W. by Wilts; S. by Hants; and S.E. by Surrey. It is of a very irregular figure, extending from east to west fully 60 miles; while from north to south, in its widest part, it is about 35 miles, and in its narrowest part, at Reading, not more than 7. Area, 450,132 acres. 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 corner 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 Aldworth to Ashbury (which includes the Ilsley 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 Lambourn. The turnpike roads are generally good. The principal of these are the roads from London to Bath and Oxford, 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 Shrivenham; 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 rience 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 :— 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 popula tion 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 Wallingford to Wantage. Near Wan tage is 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 Sinodan 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 occupics 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 Biege, Reading was taken by the Parliamentary forces, and the Royalist party were expelled from the whole of the county except Wallingford. BERLIN is the chief city of the province of Brandenburg, the capital of the kingdom of Prussia, and since 1871 the metropolis of the German empire. It is situated in 52° 30′ 16′′ N. lat. and 13° 23′ 16′′ E long., and lies about 120 feet above the level of the Baltic. Its longest day is 16 hours 47 minutes; its shortest day is 7 hours 36 minutes. Its average annual temperature is 48.2° Fahr., the maximum recorded heat being 99.5° in 1819, and the maximum cold - 16·1° Fahr. in 1823. The average rainfall is 21-74 Prussian inches, and Berlin has on the average 120 rainy, 29 snowy, and 17 foggy days in a year. The city is built on what was originally in part a sandy and in part a marshy district on both sides of the River Spree, not far from its junction with the Havel, one of the principal tributaries of the Elbe. By its canals it has also direct water communication with the Oder. The Spree rises in the mountain region of Upper Lusatia, is navigable for the last 97 English miles of its course, enters Berlin on the S.E. as a broad sluggish stream, retaining an average width of 420 feet, and a depth of 6 or 7 feet, until it approaches the centre of the city, where it has a sudden fall of 4 feet, and leaves the city on the N. W., after receiving the waters of the Panke, again as a dull and sluggish stream, with an average width of only 160 feet, but with its depth increased to from 12 to 14 feet. Within the boundaries of the city it feeds canals, and divides into branches, which, however, reunite. The river, with its canals and branches, is crossed by about 50 bridges, of which very few have any claim to architectural beauty. Among these latter may be mentioned the Schlossbrücke, built after designs by Schinkel in the years 1822-24, with its eight colossal figures of white marble, representing the ideal stages of a warrior's career. The statues are for the most part of high artistic merit. They stand on granite pedestals, and are the work of Drake, Wolff, and other eminent sculptors. The Kurfürstenbrücke is another bridge which merits notice, on account of the equestrian bronze statue of the Great Elector by which it is adorned. The etymology of the word "Berlin" is doubtful Some derive it from Celtic roots-ber, small, short, and lyn, a lake. Others regard it as a Wend word, meaning a free, open place. Others, again, regard it as coming from tho word werl, a river island. Professor Paul Cassel, in a recently published dissertation, derives it from the German word "Brühl," a marshy district, and the Slavonic termination "in;" thus Brühl, by the regular transmutation Bürhl (compare Germ. bren-nen and Eng. burn), Bürhlin. The question is likely to remain in the stage of more or less probable conjecture. Similar obscurity rests on the origin of the city. The hypotheses which carried it back to the early years of the Christian era have been wholly abandoned. Even the Margrave Albert the Bear (d. 1170) is no longer unquestionably regarded as its founder, and the tendency of opinion now is to date its origin from the time of his great-grandsons, Otho and John. When first alluded to, what is now Berlin was spoken of as two towns, Cöln and Berlin. The first authentic document concerning the former is from the year 1237, concerning the latter from the year 1244, and it is with these dates that the trustworthy history of the city begins. Fidicin, in his Diplomatische Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Berlin, vol. iii., divides the history of the town, from its origin to the times of the Reformation, into three periods. The first of these, down to the year 1307, is the period during which the two towns had a separate administration; the second, from 1307 to 1442, dates from the initiation of the joint administration of the two towns to its consummation. The third period extends from 1442 to 1539, when the two towns embraced the reformed faith. In the year 1565 the town had already a population of 12,000. About ninety years later, after the close of the Thirty Years' War, it had sunk to 6000. At the death of the Great Elector in 1688, it had risen to 20,000. The Elector Frederick III., afterwards King Frederick I., sought to make it worthy of a royal "residence," to which rank it had been raised in 1701. From that time onwards Berlin grew steadily in extent, splendour, and population. Frederick the Great found it, at his accession in 1740, with 90,000 inhabitants. At the accession of Frederick William IV. in 1840 it had 331,894, and in the month of July 1874, thirty-four years later, the population had nearly trebled, the exact numbers in that year being 949,144. The two original townships of Cöln and Berlin have grown into the sixteen townships into which the city is now divided, covering about 25 English square miles of land, aud Berlin now takes its place as the fourth, perhaps the third, greatest city in Europe, surpassed only by London, Paris, and possibly Vienna. Its importance is now such that a bill, at present submitted by the Government to the consideration of the Legislature, proposes to raise it to the rank of a province of the kingdom. Progress and prosperity have, however, been chequered by reverses and humiliations. The 17th century saw the Imperialists and Swedes, under Wallenstein and under Gustavus Adolphus, as enemies, within its walls; the 18th century, the Austrians and Russians, during the Seven Years' War; the 19th century, Napoleon I. and the French; and the year 1848 witnessed the bloody scenes of the March Revolution. But the development of constitutional government, and the triumphs of 1866 and 1870, have wiped out the memory of these dark spots in the history of the Prussian capital. The town has grown in splendour as it has increased in numbers. Daniel, in the fourth volume of his Handbook III. 75 found to be represented in the following proportions:732,351 were Protestants of the State Church, 2570 Dissenters, 51,517 Roman Catholics, 36,015 Jews, 34 of nonChristian creeds, 3854 persons whose creed was uncertain. In secular public buildings Berlin is very rich. Enter ing the city at the Potsdam Gate, traversing a few hundred yards of the Leipzigerstrasse, turning into the Wilhelmstrasse, and following its course until it reaches the street, Unter den Linden, then beginning at the Brandenburg Gate and going along the Unter den Linden until its termination, there will be seen within the limits of half an hour's walk the following among other buildings, many of them of great architectural merit :-The Admiralty, the Upper House of the Prussian Legislature, the Imperial Parlia Schloss Brücke (Castle Bridge) D, Monument to Frederick William 1. British Embassy. 2 Admiralty. & Industrial (Gewerbe) Museum. Plan of Berlin. 4 Palace of Princes Alexander and George. & Ministry of the Interior 6. Aquarium. 7. Russian Embassy. 8. Royal Academy 9. University. 10. Palace of the Emperor. ment, the War Office, the residence of the Minister of Commerce, the palaces of Prince Carl and the Princes Pless and Radziwill, the Foreign Office, the Imperial Chancery, the palaces of the Ministers of the Royal House and of Justice, the palaces of the Princes Alexander and George, the Brandenburg Gate, the Royal School of Artillery and Engineering, the residences and offices of the Ministers of the Interior and of Worship, the Russian Embassy, the Great Arcade, the Netherland Palace and the palace of the Emperor, the Royal Academy, the University, the Royal Library, the Opera, the Arsenal, the palace of the Crown Prince, the palace of the Commandant of Berlin, the Castle Bridge, the Academy of Architecture, the Castle, the Cathedral, the Old and New Museums, and the National 11. Royal Library. 12. Орега. 13. Königswache. 14. Zeughaus (Arsenal) 16. Palace of the Crown Prince 16. Palace of the Commandant of Berlin. 17. Bauakademie (Architecture). 18. Münze (Mint) 19. Royal Theatre. 20. Circus (Renz). 21. Palace of the General Stail 22. Kammergericht (Chamber) 28. Count Raczynski's Picture Gallery. 24 Catholic Hospita 25. Infirmary Gallery. At a short distance from this line are the Exchange, the Rathhaus, the Mint, the Bank, and the Royal Theatre. Further away are the various barracks, the palace of the general staff, and the eight railway termini. Berlin differs from other great capitals in this respect, that with the exception of the castle,-a large building enclosing two courts, and containing more than 600 rooms, and which dates back in its origin to the 16th century,-all its public buildings are comparatively modern, dating in their present form from the 18th and 19th centuries. The public buildings and monuments which render it famous, such as the palaces, museums, theatre, exchange, bank, rathhaus, the Jewish synagogue, the monuments and columns of victory, date almost without exception from later than 1814, the close of the great conflict with Napoleon I. | Bois-Reymond, tell of the French refugees who found a home here in the cold north when expelled from their own land. Daniel, in his Geography, vol. iv. p. 155, says that there was a time when every tenth man in the city was a Frenchman. Flemish and Bohemian elements, to say nothing of the banished Salzburgers, were introduced in a similar manner. Add to these the 36,013 Jews now resident in the city, and the picture of the commingled races which make up its population is pretty complete. The 826,341 inhabitants of the city were found at the census of 1871 to be living in 14,478 dwelling-houses, and to consist of 178,159 households. These numbers show that the luxury of a single house for a single family is rare, and this holds good also of the wealthier classes of the people. These numbers fall far short of the present (1875) number of houses and of households, as will be seen from the fact that the value of the household property of the city in 1874 exceeded that of 1871 by £18,000,000 sterling, of which the greatest part falls to newly-built houses or houses enlarged. In 1871 the average number The streets, about 520 in number, are, with the excep- of persons comprised in a household was found to be 4.6, tion of the districts in the most ancient part of the city, the number of households dwelling in a house 12·3, and long, strait, and wide, lined with high houses, for the old the number of persons dwelling in a house 57.1. These typical Berlin house, with its ground floor and first floor, numbers throw light on the moral and social life of the is rapidly disappearing. The Unter den Linden is 3287 city, and compared with the past, show the change in the feet long by 160 broad. The new boulevard, the Königgrätz domestic habits of the people. In 1540 the average erstrasse, is longer still, though not so wide. The Fried- number of inmates in a house was 6, in 1740 it was 17, richstrasse and the Oranienstrasse exceed 2 English miles in 1867 it had risen to 32, and in 1871 to 57. Between in length. The city has about 60 squares. It has 25 the years 1864 and 1871 the one-storied houses of the city theatres and 14 large halls for regular entertainments. It decreased 8 per cent., the two and three-storied houses 4 has an aquarium, zoological garden, and a floral institution, per cent., while the number of four-storied houses increased with park, flower, and palm houses. It has several hospi-11 per cent., and the five-storied and higher houses 50 per tals, of which the largest is the Charité, with accommo- cent. With the increase of high houses, the underground dation for 1500 patients. The Bethany, Elizabeth, and cellar dwellings, which form so striking a feature in the Lazarus hospitals are attached to establishments of Pro- house architecture of the city, increase in a like proportion, testant deaconesses. The St Hedwig's hospital is under and these and the attics are the dwellings of the poor. In the care of Roman Catholic sisters. The Augusta hospital, 1867 there were 14,292 such cellar dwellings, in 1871 they under the immediate patronage and control of the empress, had increased to 19,208. Taking the average of 1867is in the hands of lady nurses, who nurse the sick without 4 inmates to a cellar dwelling-we get 76,832 persons assuming the garb and character of a religious sisterhood. living under ground. In 1871 there were 4565 dwellings The people's parks are the Humboldt's Hain, the Friedrich's which contained no room which could be heated. This Hain, the Hasenheide, and, above all, the Thiergarten, a class of dwelling Lad doubled between the two census wood covering 820 Prussian acres of ground, and reaching years of 1867 and 1871. Taking 3 inmates (the ascer up to the Brandenburg Gate. tained average of 1867) to such a dwelling, we have 13,695 persons who pass the winter in unheated dwellings, in a climate where the cold not unfrequently sinks below the zero of Fahrenheit. Of the remaining dwellings of the city, 95,423 had only one room which could be heated. This number, at 4 persons to a dwelling, give us an insight into the domestic life of 381,692 of the inhabitants of the city; that is, with the 13,695 persons mentioned above, of nearly half the population. Such dwellings engender no feeling of home, and the habits of the people are in a certain sense nomadic. In 1872, 74,568 changes of dwelling took place, involving an expense at a very moderate calculation of £158,900. In the poorer townships there were 70 removals to every 100 dwellings ! As has been seen, the population has trebled itself within the last 34 years, naturally not so much by the excess of births over deaths, as by an unbroken current of immigration. In 1873 the births were 35,954, the deaths 26,427, leaving an excess of 8527 births. But the increase in the population of the city in the same year was 50,184, leaving 41,657 as the increase through the influx from without. It will thus be seen at a glance that only a minority of the population are native Berliners. In the census of 1867 it was found that, taking the population above 20 years of age, only one-third were natives of the city. The immigration is almost exclusively from the Prussian provinces, and among these principally from Brandenburg and from the eastern and north-eastern provinces. In 1871 it was The rate of mortality is high. In 1873, a favourable found that out of every 10,000 inhabitants, 9725 were Prus- year, it was 28 to every 1000 of the population. Taking sian subjects, 165 were from other German states, 55 from the deaths as a whole, 58 per cent. were of children under foreign lands, and 47 were of a nationality not ascertained. 10 years of age. The rate of mortality is on the increase. The foreign element almost vanishes, and the German Professor Virchow, in a report to the municipal authorities, element is represented principally by the north, so that in stated that, dividing the last 15 years into periods of 5 blood and manners Berlin remains essentially a north-years each, the general mortality in each of the three periods eastern German city, i.e., a city in which German, Wend, and Polish blood flows commingled in the veins of the citizens. In past times Berlin received a strong infusion of foreign blood, the influence of which is perceptible to the present day in its intellectual and social life. Such names as Savigny, Lancizolle, De la Croix, De le Coq, Du was as 5, 7, 9. The mortality of children under 1 year in the same three periods was as 5, 7, 11; that is, it had more than doubled. In the year 1872, out of 27,800 deaths, 11,136 were of children under 1 year. The city is well supplied with water by works constructed by an English company, which have now become English and German companies | which is, of course, not a municipal, but a national institu- the property of the city. With the exception of a few of the higher schools, which are under the direct supervision of the provincial authorities, the Berlin schools are either under the direct supervision of the municipal body or of its committee for school purposes. The schools, public and private, are divided into higher, middle, and elementary. In 1872 there were 24 higher public schools. Of these, 10 were gymnasia or schools for the highest branches of a learned education. In these schools there were 138 classes and 5073 pupils, of whom 2142 were over, and 2931 under, 14 years of age. The second class of high schools, the so-called Realschulen, give instruction in Latin, but otherwise devote almost exclusive attention to the departments of mathematics, science, history, modern languages, and the requirements of the higher stages of general or commercial life. Of this class of school there were also 10, with 143 classes, 5770 pupils, of whom 1931 were over, and 3839 under, 14 years of age. The remaining 4 high schools were for girls, with 54 classes, 2522 pupils, of whom 529 were over, and 1993 under, 14 years of age. In addition to these public schools there were 7 higher schools for boys, with 55 classes and 2098 pupils, and 36 higher schools for girls, with 243 classes and 6629 pupils. Within the last five years (1875) no new school of this class has been established, but several are in process of erection. Between 1869 and 1873 the city voted about £328,747 sterling for the purchase of sites, and for enlarging and rebuilding schools of this class; and the sum still required for schools of this class, up to 1877, is £352,500 sterling. The total number of schools of all sorts, higher, middle, and elementary, public and private, in 1872, was 232, with 1072 boys' classes, 1009 girls' classes, and 4 mixed classestogether, 2085; attended by 50,316 boys, 44,959 girls together, 95,275 children, of whom 7309, or 7.35 per cent., were over 14 years of age. The extent to which the schools are used under the law of compulsory education is very difficult to determine. In 1867 there were 103,383 children of the school age, but only 71,814, or 69.5 per cent., were in the schools. Dr Schwabe, by a criticism of these numbers, reduces the percentage of nonattendance to 13 per cent., and maintains that even these are not all to be regarded as absolutely without instruction. In 1871 it was found that out of every 10,000 persons of 70 years of age and upwards, there were 1529 who could neither read nor write; and that out of a like number from 60 to 70, there were 860; 50 to 60, 446; 40 to 50, 234; 30 to 40, 158; 25 to 30, 155; 20 to 25, 71; 15 to 20, 58; and from 10 to 15, 48. The scholastic life of Berlin culminates in its university, In addition to its schools and its university, Berlin is rich in institutions for the promotion of learning, science, and the arts. It has a Royal Academy of Sciences, with 46 members, 23 in the class of physics and mathematics, and 23 in the class of philosophy and history. It was founded on the 11th of June 1700, and the name of Leibnitz is associated with its foundation. It was raised to the rank of a Royal Academy by Frederick the Great in 1743. Berlin has also a Royal Academy of Arts, consisting of 39 ordinary members (1875), under the immediate protection of the king, and governed by a director and a senate, composed of 15 members in the departments of painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving, and 4 members in the section for music. Berlin has also its academy for vocal music, and its royal high school for music in all branches, theoretical and applied, and learned bodies and associations of the most various kinds. It has 9 public libraries, at the head of which stands the royal library, with 710,000 volumes and 15,000 manuscripts. In addition to these, there are 15 people's libraries established in various parts of the city Berlin possesses eight public museums, in addition to the Royal Museums and the National Gallery. The Royal Museums are the Old and the New Museums. The former, which stands on the north-east side of the Lustgarten, facing the castle, is the most imposing building in Berlin. It was built in the reign of Frederick William III., from designs by Schinkel. Its portico, supported by 18 colossal Ionic columns, is reached by a wide flight of steps. The museum covers 47,000 square feet of ground, and is 276 |