Page 255 - Reading Mercury

market and three fairs in the course of the year—which at one time were great marts
for the transaction of business, but now in consequence of railway facilities they were
not so much used. For these they were indebted to Sir H. Neville, and his influence
with King James.
He found also that the corporation of Wokingham were jolly people—(laughter)—
for within the last twelve month a list of healths to be drank at the corporation dinner
had been found, written on a piece of parchment, and they were much the same as are
given at corporation dinners now, but there is one very peculiar feature in them. There
are eight toasts in succession, and the ninth and tenth, or the two bottom ones, are the
Royal Family and the Prince of Wales, and above them is put the Recorder. Now
although he has heard and read that a living dog was better than a dead lion, yet they
found here that a present “nobody and snob” was considered much better than absent
royalty (laughter). But this did not turn out exactly to be so, because it would be seen,
on reference to the list, that the royal toasts were put at a considerable distance from
the others, as a supplementary addition or addendum and the humble suggestion he
would give of the meaning was that, supposing the alderman was going to be very
liberal with his wine, then he was to take these two toasts, and put them in their proper
place, but if he was “scaly” or sparing of it, then they were to be omitted. But
assuming as he did that a great deal of strong beer was drank at corporation dinners, if
every gentlemen had ten glasses of wine in addition put under his belt, the chances are
that he would feel very comfortable (laughter). That was a specimen of the
corporation of those days. They had not degenerated since (laughter), for he was
happy to say from experience that the corporation dinners now were very good, and
the hospitality excellent (laughter and applause).
Leaving James’ reign, he would observe with reference to the old hall, that he had
been enabled to discover the date of the building within twelve years. In 1612, James
the First gave the corporation the liberty and authority to build a hall, and in 1625, the
corporation made a code of bye-laws, in which it was directed that all the corporation
meetings were to be held in the Town Hall, and that every member of the corporation
who did not attend in his black gown was to be fined 3s. 4d. for neglect. That was a
fine he thought was never levied, for he believed they all came in their gowns, and
looked very well, as he knew from experience (laughter and applause).
Later still they had a benefactor in the shape of a donor of pictures and there were
some very beautiful paintings around the hall. There was some difficulty in
ascertaining what many of them were, and greater difficulty to know by whom they
were given. He should have ascribed them to Prince George of Denmark, the husband
of Queen Anne, because he had taken the title of baron from their town; but the
greatest evidence against this supposition was, that there was no portrait in the hall of
Prince George. There were portraits of two of the Georges—George the First and
George the Second—and that would lead them to suppose that some monarch gave
the pictures, and if it were so, it would most probably be George the Second. But from
all the information he was able to obtain, he could not discover who was the actual
donor. Here, however, the pictures were in excellent condition and a great ornament
to the Town Hall (applause). He believed he had now stated the most prominent
features in the history of the town except one—viz., that they formerly had a mint or
coinage there.
In the reign of Charles the Second a great many tradesmen in town used tokens. He
had one which had been given him by Mr. Prince, grocer, of Reading, and bearing the
name of William Anderson. This he had shown to many persons in the town
acquainted with its former history, but no one knew such a person as William

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