Page 157 - Reading Mercury

Nearly 200 Poor Children attended Divine Service and publicly reiterated the
Catechism; after which they were regaled with a plentiful Dinner provided for them in
the Town Hall.
These Schools are supported by the liberal Contributions of the Inhabitants, and the
indefatigable attention of the ladies of Wokingham, has been the means (under the
blessing of God) of bringing the Institution to a perfection, beyond the most sanguine
expectations.

rd
Mon 23 June
Wednesday, a division of the Royal Horse Guards (blue) stationed at Wokingham,
celebrated the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, with a public dinner, consisting
of good old British fare. The tables were tastefully and appropriately decorated, and
the day was spent most convivially.

Mon 6th Oct
Saturday last, as Mr. Creaker’s workmen were ploughing in a field near
Wokingham, the ploughshare struck and broke an earthenware pot containing a
thousand Roman Copper Coins, mostly in a state of good preservation. The name of
the Emperor Constantine, who reigned upwards of fifteen hundred years since, is very
perfect on several.

th
Mon 13 Oct
We noticed in our last Paper, that an earthenware jar containing a quantity of
Roman Coin had been discovered in a field belonging to Mr. Creaker, near
Wokingham, and it may be gratifying to some of our readers in that neighbourhood,
who are not possessed of the antiquarian mania, to have a brief account of them,
without the inconvenience of searching among the antiquated rust with which these
reliques abound.
The greater part of them bear the head of the Emperor Constantius, and of the Usurper
Magnentius, but there are some of the Emperor Constans and a few of Decentius, who
was a brother of Magnentius and lived during his usurpation of the Imperial purple.—
In Camden’s Britannia an interesting account of these things may be found.—
Constans and Constantius were the two younger sons of Constantine the Great, on
whose death Britain devolved to his eldest son Constantine, who was slain by
Constans,--and he, rendering himself odious to the soldiery was surprised and slain by
Magnentius.—This Magnentius was the son of a Briton, born among the Laeti in
Gaul, upon the death of Constans he assumed the Imperial purple in Gaul, and drew
over Britain to his interest, and after several battles with Constantine, laid violent
hand on himself, as did his brother Decentius, when Britain submitted wholly to
Constantius, in whose person the Roman Empire which Constantine the Great had
divided among his three sons, became united in the seventeenth year of his reign, and
the 353d after the birth of our Saviour..—Most of these coins are in an excellent state
of preservation.

1818
th
Mon 17 Aug
HIGHWAY-ROBBERY
th
Wednesday the 5 inst. as Mr. Hibbert, butcher of Hurst, was returning from
Wokingham, he was stopt about eleven o’clock at night, on the road leading to the
Pheasant, by two men, disguised in great coats and crapes over their faces, who

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