Page 253 - Reading Mercury

residents, the members of the corporation, and other inhabitants of the town. Among
those present we observed the High Sheriff of the county (Sir C. S. P. Hunter, Bart.),
Sir E. Conroy, Bart., Sir E. Hulse, Bart., the Rev. Sir J. W. Hayes, Bart., Archdeacon
Randall, The Rev. T. Morres (Corporation Chaplain), Captain L. Gower, R. Gibson,
Esq., T.C. Garth, Esq., J. Walter, Esq., M.P. Charlton Esq., G. Barker, Esq., R.
Palmer, Esq., E. Kinnersley, Esq., Major Court, W. C. King, Esq., J. Simonds, Esq.,
(Sindlesham), the Rev. A. A. Cameron, R. Garrard, Esq., Colonel Fraser, Rev. H.
Roberts, Rev. E. W Benson, Rev. E. Parker (Waltham St. Lawrence) &c., &c.
The proceedings were opened by the reading of an appropriate prayer, by the Rev.
T. Morres, invoking the Divine blessing on the building, on the magistracy who
would have to dispense justice within its walls, and that it might be made a means for
the moral and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants, while for all the greater gift
of the knowledge of Christ was implored.

Speeches
The High Steward Richard Cornwallis Neville, 4th Lord Braybrooke then rose and
said, “Ladies and gentlemen: it gives me very great pleasure to be able attend myself
personally to discharge one of the duties of my hereditary office as High Steward of
this ancient municipal corporation. I congratulate you on the day being finer than I
could have hoped for at first, for it threatened on every side to have been a pouring
wet day. I feel very much flattered by the welcome reception of so many ladies
coming out to shed good omen on the opening of this hall. There are so many faces
whom I ought to know from the associations of my earliest youth, when passed at
Billingbear, in the days of my respected grandfather, that I feel quite at a loss to be
able to put proper names to everybody’s faces. But I recollect a great many of them,
and I feel very highly honoured by their presence here—gentlemen as well as ladies
(applause).
The office I hold is, as you are aware, an hereditary one, and it has been so since the
days of King James the First. I have inherited it from many of my ancestors, who
dwelt in this part of the country; and whatever unwillingness or modesty I may have
in comparing myself with any of the good qualities of my ancestors, yet there is one
quality in which I will I will not admit my inferiority, and that is in memory, which is
equally hereditary with property and this office.
My memory carries me back to many days of my earliest youth, in which I
remember many events which took place in my grandfather’s time. Mr. Roberts was
telling me the other day that he could recollect when in my grandfather’s time, as long
ago as 1798, there was a review on the terrace at Billingbear in the presence of
George III., of some militia regiment. I cannot go back quite so far, but I remember
that at the end of October 1824, I was on the terrace, and saw a review there of quite a
different kind, although the troops were there, and in red coats. It was in the days of
that respected baronet, Sir John Cope, then the gallant master of the hunt—
(applause)—when I saw seven foxes paraded from the Warren copse to the other
copse in my grandfather’s presence (loud laughter).
If I were to mention all that I could recollect of the days of my earliest youth I
should detain you a very long time, but I must now come to the point, which is to say
that today this hall is opened (applause). It is a very great improvement on the ancient
hall, for however picturesque the former Town Hall may have been this one is, I
suppose, well adapted for the purpose, and comprises many different departments
within its walls. I think it cannot fail to be opened under favourable auspices, with
such a goodly company present, with the bright sun shining upon the scene; and

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