The origin of the name Hungerford appeared to have been lost in
obscurity. According to one gentleman, whose interesting record we
afterwards saw, it "has been an etymological puzzle to the topographer
and local antiquarian, who have left the matter in the same uncertainty
in which they found it"; but if he had accompanied us in our walk that
day across those desolate downs, and felt the pangs of hunger as we did,
mile after mile in the dark, he would have sought for no other
derivation of the name Hungerford, and could have found ample
corroboration by following us into the coffee-room of the "Bear Hotel"
that night. We were very hungry.
(_Distance walked thirty miles_.)
_Tuesday, November 7th._
The "Bear Inn" at Hungerford, standing as it did on the great coach road
from London to the West, had been associated with stirring scenes. It
was there that a gentleman who had fallen ill while travelling by the
stage-coach had died, and was buried in the churchyard at Hungerford,
with the following inscription on his gravestone:
Here are deposited the remains of William Greatrake, Esqr., native of
Ireland, who on his way from Bristol to London, died in this town in the
52nd year of his age, on the 2nd August 1781
_Stat nominis umbra_
In the year 1769, some remarkably able and vigorous political letters
signed "Junius" appeared in the London _Public Advertiser_.
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