Maidenhead

Maidenhead, a municipal borough and market-town of Berkshire, with a population (1891) of 10,607, is situate amidst beautiful scenery 13 miles E. by N. of Reading, and 26 W. of London, and on the right bank of the Thames, over which are two bridges, one of stone, built 1772 at a cost of £20,000, and the other of brick, on the Great Western Railway (described Vol. II. p. 439). With the exception of a recreation-ground of 12 acres, opened 1890, there is little of interest in the town, which in 1399 was the scene of an engagement between the rival forces of Richard II. and Henry IV., and in 1647, at the Greyhound Inn, of the interview of Charles I. with his children. On the opposite, or Bucks, side of the river is Taplow (pop. 1063), whose wooded slopes are crowned by 'Cliveden's proud alcove.' The present house dates only from 1851; two previous mansions—in the earlier of which Thomson, whilst on a visit to the father of George III., probably composed 'Rule Britannia'—having been destroyed by fire in 1795 and 1849.