The fertile district of the Vale of White Horse, the wide chalk downs,
and the forest country with its sandy tracts covered by heather or
pines, together with the river Thames and its tributaries, give us a
considerable variety of soil, of climate, and of general conditions;
and we consequently have a large variety of species both of animals
and of plants, though being an inland county, many forms which people
the coast are absent, or merely come as rare visitors. Naturally, too,
the increase of population and the advance of civilisation have caused
a great change in animal and plant life. Many species, once common,
are no longer to be found and many new species have been introduced.
Probably the most imposing of the animals which have roamed over
our district since the advent of man was the form of elephant known
as the mammoth. It possessed enormous tusks and was covered with
long coarse hair with an under pelage of short woolly hair so as to
be fitted for life in a cold climate. Its bones have been found in
several places in Berkshire, and teeth from Abingdon and Reading are
in the Reading Museum.
The rhinoceros once lived in Berkshire, for bones, probably belonging
to a woolly species, have been found in a railway cutting near
Chilton. Bones of the bear, wolf, and bison have been found in
the Drift deposits, and the wild boar was hunted in Berkshire in
historic times.
The badger is a harmless animal which lives a quiet life, spending
the daytime in a burrow, often in a fox earth, and only coming out
at night. It is in consequence much more common than is generally
supposed, and our county forms no exception.
The history of the various forms of deer in Berkshire is of
considerable interest. The red deer is a native of the county, for
its remains have been found in the marsh deposits. It lived in various
parks until the Commonwealth, when most of the deer were killed. It has
been reintroduced and is now to be seen in Windsor Park, Calcot Park,
and at Hampstead Marshall. The fallow deer lives in a more or less tame
state in several parks in the county, and it is probably an original
inhabitant of Berkshire, for it occurs as a fossil at Brentford, in
Middlesex. The roe is certainly a native, for remains have been found
in the Newbury marshes. It now lives in the woods about Virginia Water
and Sunningdale. The reindeer has been found as a fossil at Windsor.
An imperfect skull of the musk ox was found in a bed of gravel near
Maidenhead in 1855, and is now in the Natural History Museum at South
Kensington. It was the first discovery of the remains of this animal
in Britain.
As might be expected there are no very outstanding features in
Berkshire ornithology. The midland position of the county is against
any long list of foreign visitors, and there are no fens or broads
to tempt the special birds affecting such localities. The heron
is often to be seen, and there is a heronry at Virginia Water, and
others at Coley Park, Buscot, and Wytham Abbey. Woodpeckers, as might
be supposed, are more especially common in the forest districts of
eastern Berkshire. The carrion crow is a resident but is very local in
occurrence. The hooded crow is a rather uncommon winter visitor. The
peregrine falcon often visits us, but the buzzard, which used to
live and breed in the county, is now but a rare visitor. The great
bustard was a resident up to the end of the eighteenth century but
is now no longer to be counted as a British bird. The swans which we
see on the rivers and on many lakes and ponds are for the most part
private property, but there are often wild birds amongst them.
Of reptiles found in Berkshire, the slow-worm, common snake, and
lizard abound on the moorlands, and the first of these on the chalk;
the adder is not at all common.
Time was, and that not so very long ago, when the salmon might be
caught in the Thames. In the reign of Edward III (1341), a petition
was made to the King, complaining that salmon and other fish in the
Thames were taken and destroyed by engines placed to catch the fry,
which were then used for feeding pigs. The King was asked to forbid
the use of these engines between London and the sea, and also to
decree that no salmon be taken between Gravesend and Henley bridge in
winter. A book on angling published in 1815 speaking of salmon says,
"some are found in the Thames which the writer believes were justly
considered to be superior to any bred in other rivers."
In recent years an attempt has been made to reintroduce the salmon
into the Thames, and many young salmon have been turned out in the
river, but so far without any useful result.
But though the salmon has been, and again may be an inhabitant of
the Thames, the brown trout is, and always has been, the fish of
Berkshire. It attains a large size, and fish of from 8 to 12 lbs. are
frequently caught in the Thames. There is, however, a scarcity of
suitable breeding-places for trout in the river, and the stock,
during recent years, has been kept up by introducing young fish, and
not only brown trout but also Lochleven trout and rainbow trout have
been turned into the river in great numbers. Many of the tributaries
of the Thames are excellent trout streams, the Lambourn being a
particularly good one.
The pike is found in the rivers and in many a lake and pond throughout
Berkshire. Grayling occur in the Kennet and are occasionally caught
in the Thames. The gudgeon is a well-known Thames fish; and perch,
roach, dace, barbel and minnows abound. The little ruff or pope is
fairly common in the Thames, and the miller's thumb, another small
fish belonging to the cooler parts of the world, is to be seen in most
of our streams darting from place to place with great rapidity. The
rudd, which is generally distributed through the more level part of
England, is not common in Berkshire. The bream is occasionally caught
in the Thames, but it is not a native and was probably introduced
from Norfolk.
The great variety of soil found in the river valleys, on the chalk
downs, and in the forest district gives rise to much difference in
the vegetation in different parts of the county. The beds of bullrush,
the yellow and purple loosestrife, and the white and yellow water-lily
are intimately associated with the beauty of the Thames.
The ling, the bell heather, and the cross-leaved heath cover large
tracts in the eastern part of the county, and the bilberry is found
in the woods of the same district. The bramble abounds in the forest
parts, and of cultivated fruits we have large orchards of plums and
cherries in the northern part of the county. Some rare orchids are
to be found on the chalk, and in the peat districts the interesting
little sundew is quite common.
In the chalk district the holly and beech grow well, and fine oaks are
to be seen in many parts of our county. Herne's Oak, in Windsor Park,
has given rise to much discussion, but there can be little doubt that
the tree known by that name to Shakespeare was cut down in 1796. There
are some avenues of fine elms in Windsor Park--notably the Long Walk.
Of the conifers, the yew is a native of our district and grows well on
the chalk, and the so-called Scotch fir (in reality a pine), a native
of Scotland, has been introduced and forms extensive woods in the sandy
parts of the county. The cedar of Lebanon, various kinds of cypress,
the araucaria of Chile, the cryptomeria of Japan and the Wellingtonia
(Sequoia) of California have been introduced into the county. On
the opposite page is a view of an avenue of the Wellingtonia near
Wellington College.