The volunteer force of Reading numbers some 360 efficient men. It furnishes the A B C companies of the Berks Volunteers, commanded by Major Henry Lannoy Hunter, and has always figured prominently as an efficient corps. The head-quarters of the company is the Forbury, where arms have been furbished from time immemorial, and whence the name of Forbury. Dropping in at the Forbury, we find the forbisher in the act of furbishing the arms, and Colonel Sir Paul Hunter inquiring as to the security of the powder magazine. The Corn and Cattle Markets of Reading are the largest and the best attended in the county, and there is at present a scheme on foot for the erection of a new and improved Corn Market adjacent to the New Townhall. There is a sale of fat stock on each Monday in the Cattle Market in addition to the Corn and Cattle Market on the Saturday. Reading is sadly in want of a new meat and vegetable market, the present one being merely a passage leading from the Corn Market to Broad-street. The Bluecoat School educates forty boys. It was founded by Richard Oldworth, in 1658. There is a quaint school for girls, called the Green Girls' School, so named from the colour of the dresses worn by the girls. This school was established in 1779 for orphans or children of decayed tradesmen, and the aesthetic bonnets universally worn by the girls are again coming into fashion as granny bonnets for children.
Source: The Illustrated London News, July 8, 1882, p.45