 He had preached numerous retreats, both alone and with Spencer, both in England and Ireland.On 27 August 1849, Barberi was travelling from Paddington, London to Woodchester, when at Pangbourne he suffered a heart attack.Because in London "the cholera was then prevalent", there were no hotels that would take him in, and so it was decided to bring him back at Reading (in the "Railway Tavern", later the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel, now demolished).