sweet and healthful Air they live in Whereas the Inhabitants of fenny and boggy Countries whose spirits are clogg'd with perpetual Exhalations are generally of a more stupid and unpleasant conversation 3. That the qualities of Waters and Soyls together with the situations of places so the respective Quarters of the World make them more or less healthy according to the great b Id. ibid. Hippocrates there is no doubt But to these I must beg the favor of adding not only more swasive but more irrefragable proof I mean the great age and constant health of persons that have been lately and are now living here Richard Clifford not long since of Bolscot in this County died at 114 years of age Brian Stephens born at Cherlbury but Inhabitant of Woodstock dyed last year at 103. Where also there now lives one George Green but born at Ensham in his hundredth year at Kidlington one Mris Hill was born and lived there above an hundred years and at Oxford there is living beside several near it a Woman commonly called Mother George now in her hundredth year current The pleasant situation of which City is such and so answerable to the great Reputation it ever had in this respect that it must not by any means be past by in silence 4. Seated it is on a rising Ground in the midst of a pleasant and fruitful Valley of a large extent at the confluence and extended between the two Rivers of Isis and Cherwell with which it is encompass'd on the East West and South as also with a ridge of Hills at a miles or somwhat more distance in the form of a Bow touching more then the East and West points with the ends so that the whole lies in form of a Theater In the Area stands the City mounted on a small hill adorned with so many Towers Spires and Pinnacles and the sides of the neighboring Hills so sprinkled with Trees and Villa's that no place I have yet seen has equall'd the Prospect * Ab amoenitate situs Bellositum dictum 'T was the sweetness and commodiousness of the place that no question first invited the great and judicious King Alfred to select it for The Muses Seat and the Kings of England ever since especially when at any time forc'd from London by War Plague or other inconveniencies so frequently to remove hither not only their Royal Courts but the Houses of Parliament and Courts of Judicature Many Synods and Convocations of the Clergy have been also for the same reason held here of which as they have promiscuously happened in order of time take the following Catalogue A Catalogue of Parliaments Councils and Terms that have been held at Oxford A Parliament held at Oxford in the time of King Ethelred anno 1002. A Parliament at Oxford under King Canutus an 1018. A Parliament at Oxford under King Harold Harefoot anno 1036. A Conference at Oxford under King William Rufus an 1088. A Conference at Oxford in the time of King Stephen A Council at Oxford held against the Waldenses temp Hen. 2. an 1160. A Council at Oxford under King Hen. 2. temp Tho. Becket Archiep. Cant. an 1166. A general Council at Oxford at which King Hen. 2. made his Son John King of Ireland an 1177. A Parliament at Oxford called Parliamentum magnum temp H. 2. an 1185. A Council at Oxford temp Rich. 1. A Conference at Oxford in the time of King John A Parliament held at Oxford temp Hen. 3. an 1218. which first gave occasion to the Barons Wars A Council at Oxford under Steph. Langton Arch-Bishop of Canterbury an 1222. A Council at Oxford an 1227. A Council at Oxford under Stephen Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and his Suffragans an 1230. 14. Hen. 3. A Council at Oxford temp Hen. 3. an 1233. A Council at Oxford under Edmund Arch-Bishop of Cant. A Council held at Oxford by the Bishops temp Hen. 3. an 1241. A Term kept at Oxford 31 Hen. 3. A Council at Oxford temp Hen. 3. an 1247. A Council held by the Bishops at Oxford an 1250. A Parliament held at Oxford called Parliamentum insanum 41 Hen. 3. A Council at Oxford an 1258. A Parliament at Oxford an 1261. A Parliament at Oxford an 1264. A Council at Oxford under John Peckham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury an 1271. A Council held at Oxford under Robert Winchilsea Arch-Bishop of Canterbury an 1290. A Parliament summon'd at Oxford 4 Edw. 3. A Parliament at Oxford 19 Novemb. an 1382. A Parliament at Oxford 6 Rich. 2. A Term kept at Oxford 11 Rich. 2. A Term kept at Oxford 16 Rich. 2. A Convocation of the Clergy at Oxford by Tho. Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury an 1395. A Parliament at Oxford 1 Car. 1. 1625. A Parliament summon'd at Oxford temp Car. 1. an 1644. The Terms kept at Oxford eodem temp it being the Kings Head-Quarters in the late Civil War A Parliament at Oxford 13 Car. 2. an 1665. The Term kept at Oxford eodem temp the Plague being then at London 5. Of these there is an imperfect List in a MSS. c MSS. fol. C. p. 173. in Corpus Christi College Library Oxon. in which there are also mentioned three Synods held in St. Maries Church A Provincial Chapter of the Fryars Preachers and a Council held at Oxon. whose Votes were written by Abraham Woodhall There is also a Provincial Council at Oxford mention'd in the Catalogue set before the Decrees of Gratian. But these bearing no date and in all likelyhood the same with some of the afore-mentioned I pass on to another Parliament which though not at Oxford yet was held in this County and therefore I suppose not improper for this place However I shall rather venture the danger of impropriety and misplacing then omit the taking notice of so considerable a Meeting it being the first Parliament held in the County and doubtless in England called it was at Shifford now a small Village in the Parish of Bampton and shewing now nothing adequate to so great an Assembly 6. There is a MSS. in Sir Robert Cottons Library that gives an account of this Parliament which it saies consisted of the chief of all Orders of the Kingdom and was called at Sifford now Shifford in Oxford-shire by King Alfred where the King as Head consulted with the Clergy Nobles and others about the maners and government of the people where he delivered some grave admonitions concerning the same The words of the MSS. are these At Sifford seten Dancr manie fele Biscops et fele Boclered Erles prude et Cnihtes egloche ðer ƿas Erle Elfricof ðe lage smuth ƿise ec Alfred Englehird Engle derling on England he ƿas Cyng hem he gan leren sƿo hi heren mihten hu hi here lif leden scolden i. e. There sate at Shifford many Thanes many Bishops and many learned Men wise Earls and awful Knights there was Earl Elfrick very learned in the Law and Alfred Englands Herds-man Englands Darling he was King of England
caused him to be beheaded in a place called Blaklaw in their own presence h Ibidem 136. Secondly the Castle of Ardley the Foundations whereof are yet to be seen in a little Wood west of the Town which if any heed may be given to the tradition of the place florish'd about the time of King Stephen and so perhaps thirdly might Chipping-norton Castle free leave being given at the beginning of his Reign to all his Subjects to build them Castles to defend him and them against Maud the Empress which at last finding used somtimes against himself he caused no less than eleven hundred of these new built Castles to be rased again which no doubt is the cause we find no more of them but their bare Foundations and Trenches 137. But fourthly the Castle of Middleton now Middleton-stony was none of these for I find Richard de Camvil had Livery given him of Middleton Castle in Oxford-shire which must needs be this the tenth of King John as part of his own Inheritance by descent from his Father i See Mr. Dugdale's Baronage of England vol. 1. Bar. Camvil And fifthly as for the ruins of old Fortifications at Craumersh or Croamish Giffard near Wallengford I take them either for the foundations of that wooden Tower erected by King Stephen in the year 1139. when he besieged Maud the Empress and her Brother Robert Earl of Glocester in Wallengford Castle k Chronica Gervasii Dorobornensis Floren. Wigorn. in An. citato or else of the Castle of Craumerse or Croamish it self built by the same King Stephen at another siege of Wallengford An. 1153. which Henry Fitz-Empress endeavoring to raise and bringing King Stephen to great straits they came at last to an accord concerning the Kingdom of England l Chron. Gerv. Doroborn in An. citat 138. There are some other Antiquities of yet later date that I have met with in Oxford-shire also perhaps worthy notice such as that odd bearded Dart Tab. 16. Fig. 7. having the beards issuing from it not as usually one against another but one lower and the other higher perhaps thus contrived for its easier passage in and as great or greater difficulty to get it out of a body which were it not for the too long distance of time I should be willing to take for the Materis Mataris or Matara the British long Dart which were usually thrown by those that fought in Essedis m Jul. Caesar Comment de bello Gallico lib. 4. But the stem of it being wood and not very hard neither I cannot afford it to be above 200 years standing or thereabout Nor can I add more concerning it but that it was found somwhere about Steeple Barton and given me by the Worshipful Edward Sheldon Esq TAB XVI ad pag. 356 To the right Worsp ll Sr. THOMAS SPENCER Baron one of the Noblest Encouragers of this Essay This 16.th Table of some of the ANTJQUJTJES of OXFORDSHJRE cohere of the last was Aug out of HJS 〈◊〉 grounds in memory of his kindness is thankfully dedicated by R. P.L.L.D M Burâ—hers Sclupsit 140. As for the Stone it self it is of an odd kind of texture and colour too not unlike to sight to some sort of cheese exactly of the figure and bigness as engraven in the Table and most likely of any thing to have been one of their Togrâ's or Stamps wherein the chief persons of the Eastern Countries usually had their names cut in a larger sort of Character to put them to any Instruments at once without further trouble That they have such kind of stamps is clearly testified by Alvares Semedo in his History of China They Print says he likewise with Tables of stone but this manner of Printing serves only for Epitaphs Trees Mountains c. of which kind they have very many Prints the stones which serve for this use being also of a proper and peculiar sort p F. Alvares Semedo Hist Chin. part 1. cap. 6. sub finem as ours seems to be So that in all probability the letters on this stone contain only the name and perhaps the office or other title of some person of Quality and therefore hard to be found out and that it was brought hither by some Traveller of the Honorable Family of the Spencers and either casually lost or carelesly thrown out as a thing of no value 141. And thus with no small toil and charge yet not without the assistance of many Honorable Persons whose names in due time shall be all gratefully mention'd I have made shift to finish this specimen of Oxford-shire which I am so far from taking for a perfect History that I doubt not but time and severe observation to which I hope this Essay will both encourage and direct may produce an Appendix as large as this Book For that new matter will daily present it self to be added to some one or other of these Chapters I am so sensibly convinc'd that even since the Printing the first Chapter of this Treatise I have found here at home just such another Echo as at Mr. Pawlings at Heddington in the Portico's of the new Quadrangle at St. John Baptist's College And since my writing the second my worthy Friend Dr. Tho. Taylor has found so strong a Chalybeat Spring in Fulling-mill-ham-stream near Oseney Bridge that notwithstanding last hard Winter when the greatest Rivers were frozen this continued open and smoaking all the time tinging all the stones by reason of its not running nor mixing with other water with a deep rusty colour And thirdly since the Printing the 48 § of Chap. 8. I have seen a Lapis Ranulae taken out from under the Tongue of one Johnson a Shoo-maker by the skilful Mr. Pointer Chirurgion here in Oxford 142. Which is all I have at present to offer the Reader but that he would take notice 1. That in Chap. 2. § 69. where I mention a Well so eminent heretofore for curing distempers in the Parish of St. Crosses that it has given it the more lasting name of Holy-well that I intend not that Well of late erection though perhaps the water of that is as good and now most used but an other ancienter Holy-well behind the Church in Mr. Nevil's Court before his house And that secondly notwithstanding the authority of the Learned Dr. Hammond with whom a man need not much be ashamed to err some will have that he calls the Well of St. Edward in the Parish of St. Clements rather the Well of St. Edmund for which I find the very same authority alleged that Dr. Hammond brings q Vid. Hist Antiq. Univers Oxon. lib. 2. pag. 10. col 1. And lastly to beg of him that though in general he find me unequal to my design and many particulars of this Essay perhaps ill placed and worse expressed that yet in consideration that this is my first attempt wherein many Inconveniencies could not be fore-seen which may hereafter
quas in Canes insectantes naturaliter emittunt b Will. Malmesburiens de Henr. 1. lib. 5. i. e. cover'd over with sharp pointed Quills which they naturally shoot at the dogs that hunt them 119. Of the Town of Thame anciently Tamesforda I could find little till about the time of Edward Senior An. 921 when the Danish Army out of Huntingdon came hither and erected some kind of Fortification but at this time it seems it was so considerable that it had the reputation of a Burg for King Edward coming against it the same year his Army is said to have besieged the Burg and taken it and to have slain the Danish King Earl Toglos and Earl Mannan his son his brother and all others whatever within the Town c Chronologia Saxonica in An. 921. And again An. 1010. when the Danes over-ran most of this part of England we find this Town amongst others to have suffered much by them d Joh. Bromton Abb. Jornal in An. citat 120. Chippingnorton anciently Ceapan-nertune was also most certainly a Town of note in the Saxons days as one may gather from its name it being so called from Ceapan Emere to buy or cheapen so that it implies as much as Mercat Norton or Norton where the people usually cheapened Wares And Whitney now Witney seems to have been a Town of good repute before the Conquest it being given about the year 1040. to the Church of St. Swithins Winton with eight other Manors by Alwinus then Bishop of that See who for his over-familiarity with Emma Mother to K. Edward the Confessor was causelesly suspected of Adultery with her Of which suspition Queen Emma purging herself and him by the Fire Ordeal of walking bare-foot over nine red-hot plough-shares without hurt in thankfulness 't is said they each gave nine Manors to the Church of Winchester which are all named by Mr. Dugdale Witney being one of those given by Alwinus e Monastici Anglicani vol. 1. inter Addenda pag. 980. 121. And the neighboring Town of Bampton anciently Bemtune seems to be of much about the same antiquity yet neither can I find any higher Record of it than of Leofric Chaplain to King Edward the Confessor who An. 1046. upon the union of the Bishopricks of Criditon and Cornwal and both of them translated to Exeter whereof he was made the first Bishop quickly after gave to this his new Church his aet Bemtune f E Cod. vet MS. in Bib. Bod. fol. Med. 120. in princip to which it belongs to this very day 122. Which is all I could meet with of the Towns of Oxford-shire before the Conquest for after long search I could find nothing of Deddington till about the Reign of King Edw. 2. whereof when I come to speak of the Castle there concerning which I could have added much more and brought their History down to these times as above in Banbury only that and whatever else is worthy notice of them may be found in some other modern Histories 123. Yet before we come to the times since the Conquest let us first remember that the Town of Islip Sax. Gightslepe or Gibetslepe must needs be of good repute in those days for Camden says expresly and so do several other Authors that King Edward the Confessor was born there which they prove from his original Charter of Restoration of the Abby of Westminster wherein he gives to this his new Church the Town of Islip with the additional Clause of the place where he was born g Camd. Britan. in Com. Oxon. which though 't is true I could not find in Mr. Dugdale h Vid. Monasticon Angl. vol. 1. p. 59. yet here remaining some foot-steps of the ancient Palace and a Chappel now put to profane use called the Kings Chapel and the Town still belonging to the Church of Westminster there is no great doubt to be made of the thing tradition it self being not like to be erroneous in a matter of this nature though there were no such Charter to prove the thing alleged which yet we have reason to believe there is or was though not produced by Mr. Dugdale 124. In the Chapel above-mentioned not many years since there stood as was constantly deliver'd down to posterity the very Font wherein that Religious Prince St. Edward the Confessor received the Sacrament of Baptism which together with the Chapel in these latter days being put to some indecent at least if not profane use was carefully and plously rescued from it by some of the Right Worshipful Family of the Browns of Nether Kiddington where it now remains in the garden of that worthy Gentleman Sir Henry Brown Baronet set handsomly on a pedestal as exactly represented Tab. 16. Fig. 6. and adorned with a Poem rather pious than learned which yet I think I had put down but that it is imperfect 125. Which holy King Edward was the first to whom was granted the gift of Sanation only with the touch of his hand of the Disease called the Struma or Scrofula and in English upon this account the Kings Evil which as a mark of Gods most especial favor to this Kingdom has been transmitted with it as an hereditary gift to all his Successors Every sacred hand in all Ages ever since that has held the Scepter of this most happy and now florishing Kingdom having been signally blest by divers and undoubted Experiments of healing that Disease 126. Before they touch for this distemper they have always Prayers read sutable to the occasion both which when performed the King forthwith bestows on every Patient a piece of Angel-gold purposely coined and put upon a white ribbon to be hung about the neck which as long as worn preserves the virtue of the touch though Dr. Tooker will have it only Sanitatis symbolum inchoatae Eleemosynae sacrae monumentum i Gul. Tookeri Charisma sive donum Sanationis Reg. Ang. coelitus concessum i. e. a mark that the Cure is already begun and a lasting memorial of the Kings charity and piety to the poor patients 127. However it be that this was the custom ab initio I take to be plain from that piece of Gold of King Edward the Confessor Tab. 16. Fig. 5. found in St. Giles's field in the Suburbs of Oxon. having the initial letters of his name over the hinder part of the head and two small holes through it as if designed to be being on a ribbon for the purpose above-mention'd the holes being strengthened with Gold Wire fastened round them and to the piece it self much after the fashion of the eye of a mans doublet as exactly described in the Figure ut supra which piece was lent me by that courteous Gentleman Sir John Holeman Baronet in whose possession it now remains at his House near Northampton 128. From King Edward the Confessors being born at Islip 't is easie to collect that his Father King Aethelred must necessarily have had
Imprimatur hic Liber cui titulus The Natural History of Oxford-shire RA BATHVRST Vice-Cancellar OXON April 13. 1676. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF OXFORD-SHIRE Being an Essay toward the Natural History OF ENGLAND By Robert Plot Doctor of Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arat. in Phaenom Printed at the THEATER in OXFORD and are to be had there And in London at Mr. Moses Pits at the Angel in St. Pauls Church-yard and at Mr. S. Millers at the Star near the West-end of St. Pauls Church To the most Sacred Majesty of Charles the Second By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britan France and Ireland Defender of the FAITH c. May it please Your Majesty IT had certainly been an unpardonable presumtion for so mean a person as the Author of this Essay to have presented Your Majesty with a yet meaner discourse had not the subject of it alwaies deserved the notice and the Enquirers into it the favor of Princes Thus had Aristotle in writing his Treatise of Animals the assistance of Alexander and Pliny the Patronage of Titus Vespatian to his Natural History Beside this attemt seems more justly to belong to Your Majesty than any of their Histories to their respective Patrons it being so far from exceeding Your Majesties Dominions that it contains but an Enquiry into one of the smallest parts of them viz. Your alwaies Loial County and University of Oxford whereas their Volumes are bounded only with the Universe Yet what more particularly moved me to present it to Your Majesty is not only Your favor to Learning in general and especially to this place but much more Your Majesties exquisit insight into the matter it self insomuch that though the former might have given me some confidence of Your Majesties acceptance yet it seems more my interest to appeal to Your Judgment and humbly to implore Your Majesties decision VVhether if England and Wales were thus surveyed it would not be both for the honor and profit of the Nation VVhich design if Your Majesty think fit to disapprove it will yet be some satisfaction to the Author that he has shewed his ready though misguided zeal to serve his Country But if Your Majesty shall judge it advantageous to the Kingdom or but any way worthy Your Majesties diversion there shall none more industriously and chearfully proceed in it than Your Majesties most Loial and most obedient Subject Rob. Plot. To the Reader THough this Essay has swell'd to so much greater a Bulk than ever I expected it could possibly have done that I might well have superseded any further address than that of Dedication yet it being but necessary to acquaint the Reader with some matters that are general and will serve for all other Counties as well as this I thought good to put them down briefly as followeth And first that though I dare not pretend the Map of Oxford-shire prefixt to this Essay is so accurate as any I shall make hereafter yet I dare promise the Reader it far exceeds any we had before for beside that it contains all the Mercat Towns and many Parishes omitted by Saxton Speed c. it shews also the Villages distinguished by a different mark and character and the Houses of the Nobility and Gentry and others of any magnitude within the County and all these with their bearings to one another according to the Compass And as for the distances though I dare not promise them Mathematically exact which by reason of the risings and fallings of the ground interpositions of Woods Rivers c. I think scarce possible in many places to be given at all yet some few of them are as true as actual dimensuration and most of them as the doctrin of Triangles and the best information all compared together could direct me to put them So that provided they have not been moved in the Graving as I think they have but little I take them all seated not far from the truth As for the scale of miles there being three sorts in Oxford-shire the greater lesser and middle miles as almost every where else it is contrived according to the middle sort of them for these I conceive may be most properly called the true Oxford-shire miles which upon actual dimensuration at several places I found to contain for the most part 9 furlongs and a quarter of which about 60 answer a Degree Where by the way it s but expedient that the Reader take notice that I intend not that there are 60 of these miles in a degree according to the common account for reckoning 5280 feet or eight furlongs to a mile as is usual in England no less than 69 will correspond to a degree upon which account it is and no other that of the middle Oxford-shire miles each containing 9 furlongs and a quarter about 60 will do it According to these miles the degrees of North latitude are divided into minutes on each side the Map chiefly made off from the exact Northern latitude of Oxford collected from the many years observations of Dr. Banbridg and at last concluded to be seated in the 46 minute of the 51 degree proxime the 52 nd degree beginning at the small line passing through Mixbury Clifton north of Deddington the two Barfords South Nuneton and between Hoke Norton and the Lodge By which division 't is easie to know to a minute of a degree nay almost to a second in what latitude every Town Parish Village and Gentlemans House is seated Beside for the Houses of the Nobility and Gentry this Map is so contrived that a Foreigner as well as English-man at what distance soever may with ease find out who are the Owners of most of them so as to be able to say that this is such or such a Gentlemans House And all this done by Figures put to every such House which referring again to Figures of the same value placed in order over the Arms in the Limb of the Map shew in the bottom of each Shield the Nobleman or Gentlemans name whose house it is their respective Coats of Arms being always placed between the Figure and Name which too all but some few are cut in their metals furs or colours as born by their Owners And not only the Shields but Ordnaries Charges Differences c. where they are not too small if Argent being left white if Or filled with small points if Gules lineated perpendicularly or in pale if Azure horizontally or fess-ways if Vert obliquely or bend-ways if Sable both pale and fess-ways as may be seen in the Map which are all the colours made use of there And if ever hereafter I shall meet with any bearing Purpure Ten or Sanguine the first shall be represented with Lines in bend sinister Ten with lines salter-ways mixt of Vert and Purpure and Sanguine paly bendy mixt of Gules and Purpure According to this method not only the Arms of the University all the Colleges
and Towns incorporate in the County which I have placed in the upper margin of the Map but on the sides and bottom those of the Nobility and Gentry are industriously ranged in Alphabetical order to avoid the difficulties that might otherwise have risen about precedency which beside the use above mentioned of discovering the Owners of the Houses and that they are an ornament to the Map I hope may also have these other good effects 1. That the Gentry hereby will be somwhat influenced to keep their Seats together with their Arms least their Posterity hereafter not without reflexions see what their Ancestors have parted with And secondly Vagabonds deterr'd from making counterfeit Passes by puting false names and Seals to them both which may be discovered by such Maps as these To these add the ancient houses of Kings the principal Seats of ancient Baronies ancient Ways Fortifications and the sites of Religious houses all distinguish'd as described by their respective marks in the Table for that purpose All which put together make the sum of the Map as I intend they shall in all others hereafter so that those Memento's need no more be repeated since they are designed to be applyed to all following Maps as well as this Yet this Map though it contains near five times as much as any other of the County before partly by reason of its being the first I ever made and partly because either of the pure ignorance or absence of some and over curious pievishness that I met with amongst others is not so perfect I confess as I wish it were there being upon these accounts some few Arms omitted and others out of place at the foot of the Map and perhaps here and there a Village overlook'd wherefore I have entertained some thoughts of cutting it again and perhaps somwhat larger to be hung up in Frames without alteration of this for the Book with all the defects above-mentioned supplyed provided such Gentry as find their Arms omitted or any Villages near them containing ten houses under which number I seldom think them worth notice please to bring in their Arms in colours with the particular bearings and distances of their Houses and Villages from the most noted place near them to the Porter or one of the Keepers of the Bodleyan Library who will be ready to receive them or any other Curiosity of Art or Nature in order to the compiling an Appendix to this Work to be Printed apart Which is all concerning the Map but that the Reader also note that the Right Honorable the Earl of Berkshire Lord Lovelace c. are designedly left out in regard that though they have Estates and Seats in this County yet their chiefest and places of most common residence being elsewhere I have chosen rather to omit them here and to place them in those that seem their more desirable Counties Concerning the History it self I can advise little more but that I undertook it at first for my own pleasure the subject of it being so pleasant and of so great variety that it surprised me to think how many Learned Ages had past careful and laborious enough in compiling the Civil and Geographical Histories of England without so much as ever attemting that of Nature or Arts it seeming to be a design had the Undertaker been suitable more highly deserving of the publick too than either of the former as tending not only to the advancement of a sort of Learning so much neglected in England but of Trade also which I hope in some measure is made to appear in the following Treatise Which though sufficient to justifie my choice of this subject yet I ventured not upon it without the joint approbation of the most knowing in these matters such as the Honorable Robert Boyle Esq Dr. Willis Dr. Wallis Dr. Bathurst c. whose celebrated names serving to remove the groundless suspitions many had of the attemt I proceeded to give this Specimen of it Wherein the Reader is only desired to take notice that most of the Curiosities whether of Art Nature or Antiquities engraven in the Cuts are so certain truths that as many as were portable or could be procured are in the hands of the Author But for such things as are inseparable from their places they remain to be seen as in the History directed there being nothing here mention'd but what either the Author has seen himself or has received unquestionable testimony for it which for the most part if not alwaies the Reader will find cited In the Philosophical part I have chiefly embraced the Principles of Dr. Willis as the most universally known and received and therefore most likely in this inquisitive Age to be the truest which if I have any where mis-applied as 't is manifold odds some where or other I may yet I doubt not but the Learned and sober Reader will candidly accept of the honesty of my endeavor in excuse of my Error But as for the hot-headed half-witted Censurer who perhaps only looks on the Title of a Chapter or here and there a Paragraph that makes for his turn I must and do expect the lash of his tongue it being indeed his business to find out the lapses and decry all attemts wherein forsooth he himself has not been consulted But I would have such to know that if I meet with but proportionable encouragement from the former 't is not all they can say or do shall discourage me from my purpose for if I have erred in any thing I shall gladly receive the calm reproofs of my Friends and still go on till I do understand my business aright in the mean time contemning the verdict of the ignorant and fastidious that throw words in hast To the Right Reverend Father in God IOHN by divine permission L. d BISHOP of OXON THE MAP OF OXFORDSHIRE being his Lordship's Diocess newly delineated and after a new manner with all imaginable Reverence is humbly dedicated by R.P. L.L.D. Michael Burghers sculp THE NATURAL HISTORY OF Oxford-shire CHAP. I. Of the Heavens and Air. OXFORD being not undeservedly by Mr. Cambden stiled Our most noble Athens The Muses seat and One of Englands Pillars nay The Sun The Eye c. It would have occasion'd as strange a remark as any to be mention'd in this whole Essay had there not some eminent Celestial Observations been made in this County especially since that stupendous Mathematical Instrument now called the Telescope seems to have been known here above 300 years ago But these being chiefly matters of Art relating either to the discovery of the magnitude figure or determination of the motions of the Heavenly Bodies must be referr'd as most proper to the end of this Work it being my purpose in this History of Nature to observe the most natural method that may be 2. And therefore I shall consider first Natural Things such as either she hath retained the same from the beginning or freely produces in her ordinary course
he taught them that could hear him how they should live 7. To which perhaps may be added the great Council of Kyrtlington held there not long after in an 977 at which were present King Edward the Martyr and St Dunstan Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and at which died Sidemannus Bishop of Crediton This Council by Sir Henry Spelman d H. Spelman Concil Tom. 1. An. 977. p. 493. is taken to be the same mentioned by Wigorniensis held at Kyrtlinege which he guesses to be now Katlage in Cambridge-shire but I rather believe it was held here not only for the sake of the name which remains the same to this day but because of the one and only Constitution made there viz. That it should be lawful for the Country People to go in Pilgrimage to St. Mary of Abington a thing in all likelyhood not so desirable to the People of Cambridge-shire as to ours of Oxford-shire so near the place Beside the great reputation that this place was of in ancient times seems to justifie my plea it enjoying as great Privileges and perhaps being a fitter place in those days for the reception of such an Assembly then Oxford it self for I find it part of the Possessions of the Kings of England from whom it came to Henry Son of Edmund Crouchback Earl of Lancaster and Father to Henry the first Duke of Lancaster by whose Daughter and sole Heir Blanch it came to John of Gaunt Duke of Aquitane and Lancaster and was free a Thelonio passagio lastagio pacagio stallagio tallagio tollagio cariagio terragio per totum Regnum as I find it in an old Charter in the possession of the Right Worshipful Sir Tho Chamberleyne now Lord of the Town whose singular civilities in imparting this and some other matters hereafter to be mention'd I cannot but in gratitude ever acknowledge 8. From whence after so long but I hope not unpleasant digression I return to the Beautiful Oxford again a place of so sweet and wholsom an Air that though it must not be compared with that of Montpellier yet upon my own knowledge it has proved so advantagious to some that it has prefectly recovered them of deep Consumptions and particularly a worthy Friend of mine who though he came hither sufficiently spent yet without the help of any other Physick within few Months felt a sensible amendment and in fewer Years became of as sanguine a complexion as the rest of his friends that had almost despaired of him 9. Some have thought the Small Pox here more then ordinarily frequent and it must indeed be confest That we are perhaps as often though not so severely infested as some other places for generally here they are so favorable and kind that be the Nurse but tolerably good the Patient seldom miscarries But admit the Objection be truly made That it is more subject to the Small Pox than other neighboring Cities about yet if by so much the less it feel the rage of the Plague I think the edge of the charge is sufficiently rebated 'T is reported amongst the e Philosoph Transact num 49. observations of an ingenious Person that resided long in the Island Japan That though the Air be very salubrious there yet the Small Pox and Fluxes are very frequent but the Plague not so much as ever heard of which has often made me reflect on the year 1665 when the Pestilence was spread in a maner all over the Kingdom that even then though the Court both Houses of Parliament and the Term were kept at Oxford the Plague notwithstanding was not there at all 10. Others again tell us of the Black Assise held in the Castle here an 1577. when a poysonous steam broke forth of the Earth and so mortally seised the spirits of the Judges Sheriffs Justices Gentry and Juries beside great numbers of others that attended the business that they sickned upon it and almost all of them dyed but let it not be ascribed to ill fumes and exhalations ascending from the Earth and poysoning the Air for such would have equally affected the Prisoners as Judges but we find not that they dyed otherwise then by the halter which easily perswades me to be of the mind of my f Nat. Hist Cent. 10. num 914. Lord Verulam who attributes it wholly to the smell of the Goal where the Prisoners had been long close and nastily kept 11. 'T is true that Oxford was much more unhealthy heretofore then now it is by reason the City was then much less and the Scholars many more who when crowded up in so narrow a space and the then slovenly Towns-men not keeping the street clean but killing all maner of Cattle within the walls did render the place much more unhealthy Hence 't is that we find so many rescripts of our Kings prohibiting mactationem grossarum bestiarum infra muros quod vici mundentur à fimis fimariis bearing date 13 Hen. 3. 29 Edw. 1. 12 Edw. 3. 37 Hen. 6. g MSS. in Arch. Bib. Bod. fol. 90 91. and all alledging the reason quia per has mactationes c. aer ibidem inficitur because by the killing such maner of Cattle and laying the dung in the streets the Air was infected Moreover about these times the Isis and Cherwell through the carelesness of the Towns-men being filled with mud and the Common-shoars by this means stopt did cause the ascent of malignant vapors wherever there happened to be a Flood for beside its stirring the infectious mass great part of the waters could not timely pass away but stagnating in the lower Meddows could not but increase the noxious putrid steams But the former being long since remedyed by the care of the Vniversity and the latter by the piety and charge of Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester and Founder of C.C.C. Oxon. who in the year 1517. cleansed the Rivers and cut more Trenches for the waters free passage h Hist Antiq. Univers Oxon. Lib. 1. pag. 245. the Town hath ever since continued in a healthful condition though I cannot but believe but were there yet more Trenches cut in some of the Meddows the Air might be somwhat better'd still especially during the Winter season when I fear somtimes Floods stay a little too long and that not only near Oxford but in Otmoor and all along the Isis from Ensham to North-moor Shifford Chimly and Rotcot which brings me again to the general consideration of the Waters as well of the whole County as City 12. That the healthiness of Waters consists in their due impregnation with Salts and Sulphurs and their continuance so in their continual motion is indisputably evinced from the stinking evaporations of them upon any stagnation Now that the Rivers here abound with these will be altogether as manifest as that they run if we consider but the Springs they receive and Earths they wash The Isis 't is true till it comes to New-bridge receives not that I