The Royal County of Berkshire is not particularly beautiful,  for much of the land is flat and uninteresting.  There are,  however,  pockets of beautiful scenery along the reaches of the Thames and a few delightful villages.  The principal city,  Reading,  is rather depressing with all its heavy industry,  but nearer to London is Royal Windsor with its great castle and delightful walks and gardens,  and across the river,  Datchett with Eton College and quaint shops.  Today,  most of the cities and towns in the Country are unremarkable,  and one tends not to stop while driving along the A4 to the West Country or down the A30 to Southampton or to Salisbury.  There are though the rolling hills near the Wiltshire border.  In summer,  regular coach tours deposit sightseers armed with cameras,  transistor radios and bags of chipped potatoes to “see the sights”.  Windsor Castle is more popular than the White Horse.

For generations the maternal forbears of Ben lived in the villages about Faringdon and within view of the great animal carved in the chalk above Uffington and from which the Vale of the White Horse takes its name.  Of the many animal figures cut into the English hills this is the oldest,  and best known,  and Berkshire folk are very proud of this fact.  Three hundred and fifty-five feet long and twenty feet from head to hoof it is periodically cleared of weeds and in former times this work was done every seventh year and great festivities took place while the work was in progress – even maypole dancing and singing,  which were believed to keep evil spirits away.

Alfred’s hill,  named for the famous King Alfred,  is near the village of Longcot,  and along the ancient Ridgeway is the Smithy of Wayland the Smith,  who is mentioned in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.  The smithy is an erection of stones in a ring of beech trees and according to legend Wayland “made swords which none could resist and winged armour which carried its wearer like and eagle”.  Wayland would shoe a horse if the owner left money on the top stone,  tethered his horse,  and did not return until morning.  No doubt Ben Smith’s people would like to be able to claim descent from such a legendary person,  but alas the earliest Smith mentioned in the Longcot Parish Register is a mere John Smith,  a stranger and Gypsy,  whose sons,  John and Thomas,  were baptised in 1671 and 1688 respectively.

When Ben sailed for Australia,  his father,  William Smith,  was working as a farm labourer.  Temperance,  his mother,  was still alive and his brother John had married Mary and was the father  of two small daughters,  Elizabeth and Salome.  His other brothers,  Henry Smith Stotter,  William,  Ezra and Jasper had married and scattered.  The family was intensely religious and the children’s names were frequently selected from the Bible and from the Virtues – as was fashionable.  Ben eventually named three of his sons after his brothers – William,  Ezra and John.

The Biblical Salome (St Matthew X1V),  she who demanded of Herod that the head of John the Baptist be served to her in a charger,  is the subject of a famous and very old wall painting in the Norman Church at Kingston Lisle,  on the southern edge of the Vale of the White Horse.  There is rather a fine scene  as,  dressed in the costumes of a Norman King and Queen,  Herod and Herodias watch Salome,  daughter of Herodias,  dance and turn a somersault.  Below this painting is one of Salome without her head,  showing that her head was cut off when she fell into a frozen river.  One cannot help but feel sorry for an eight year old Salome Smith gazing up at such a dire warning.  Let us hope that she was at the very least a graceful child.

John and Mary Smith remained at Longcot and their son,  Albert,  was born in 1842.  Although a mason by trade,  John Smith became the owner of the Bricklayers’ Arms,  and it was here that his father,  William Smith,  lived after the death of his wife.  He was to live long enough to look upon some of his grandchildren and to see Ben return and to meet his daughter-in-law,  Martha.

The family and environmental backgrounds of Ben and Martha were very different.  It is indeed doubtful if Martha,  prior to her first visit to Berkshire in late 1839 and early 1840,  ever knew the peace of country living in a nineteenth century English village.