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
find I in other Authors that it was ever after attempted One there was 't is true sent hither as a present by St. Lewis the 9th King of France to King Henry the Third Anno 1255. which says Matthew Paris * Matth. Paris in Reg. Hen. 3. in Anno Dom. 1255. was the first seen on this side the Alps and perhaps there may have been two or three brought for shew hither since but whether it be likely any of these should be buryed at Cornwell let the Reader judge 163. Beside had this thigh-bone and tooth and the several others that have been found in England such as the two teeth taken up at Edulfsness in the County of Essex in the Raign of King Richard the First that might have been cut into two hundred of an ordinary cize m Cambden in Essex and divers other bones and teeth found at Chartham near Canterbury n Chartham news set forth by Mr. Joh. Somner and Farley near Maidstone in Kent whereof I have one now by me dug up and given me by the truly Noble and Ingenious Jacob Lord Astley near seven inches round and five ounces and â…› in weight of which more when I come into Kent Had I say these bones and teeth been ever the spoils of Elephants we should certainly at some time or other have met also with those greater Tusks with which they are armed of which I have not heard there have been any yet found in England nor any thing like them 164. Add hereunto what prevails with me much that since the great conflagration of London Anno 1666. upon the pulling down of St. Mary Wool-Church and making the site of it into a Mercat-place there was found a thigh-bone supposed to be of a Woman now to be seen at the Kings-head Tavern at Greenwich in Kent much bigger and longer than ours of stone could in proportion be had it been intire We have also here at Oxford * In the Medicine School a thigh-bone that came from London three foot and two inches long which I guess may be of an agreeable proportion with ours And the same day I brought the tooth from Cornwell there were two others happily procured for me by my worthy Friend Samuel Fowler A. M. dug up in the Parish Church of Morton Valence about seven miles from Glocester in the way thence to Bristol in all points so exactly like the other from Cornwell in ridges cavities c. that had they not differ'd somwhat in colour they could scarce have any way been distinguish'd Now how Elephants should come to be buryed in Churches is a question not easily answered except we will run to so groundless a shift as to say that possibly the Elephants might be there buryed before Christianity florish'd in Britan and that these Churches were afterward casually built over them 165. If it be urged out of Ponticus Virunnius and some others that the Emperor Claudius was at Glocester and that he built that City after his own name in memory of the Marriage of his fair Daughter Gennissa with Arviragus then King of Britan o Pont. Virunnii Hist. Britan. lib. 4. where possibly he might have some of his Elephants with him which might dye and be buried thereabout It must be answered that notwithstanding the name of Claudii Castrum now Glocester seems so much to favor the story in hand that yet in all likelyhood there was never any such matter For neither Suetonius p Sueton. in vita Claudii who numbers up all the Daughters that he had and shews how given in Marriage Nor Dion q Dion Cass Rom. Hist lib. 60. who do's the same who lived in his time and had born the Office of Consul remember any such Daughter or so disposed of to Arviragus 166. Beside how was it possible that Claudius who came hither and was returned again to Rome within six months should find so much time as to come up so far in the Country as Glocester much less to celebrate such a Marriage and build that City since the same Dion expresly says that of those six months time he was here in Britan but sixteen days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are his own words r Idem loco citato and those sixteen days in all probability were spent in ordering his Army and joyning them with the Forces of Plautius that lay then at the mouth of Thames ready to receive him and in taking of Camulodonum which the same Author asserts he did that Expedition and so immediatly returned 167. But what is instar omnium in this difficult point there happily came to Oxford while I was writing of this a living Elephant to be shewn publickly at the Act An. 1676. with whose bones and teeth I compared ours and found those of the Elephant not only of a different shape but also incomparably bigger than ours though the Beast were very young and not half grown If then they are neither the bones of Horses Oxen nor Elephants as I am strongly perswaded they are not upon comparison and from their like found in Churches It remains that notwithstanding their extravagant magnitude they must have been the bones of Men or Women Nor doth any thing hinder but they may have been so provided it be clearly made out that there have been Men and Women of proportionable stature in all ages of the World down even to our own days P68 The Sons of Anak no question were very great men and Goliath for certain was nine foot nine inches high s 1 Sam. c. 17. v. 4. We read also of the Sons of the Titans and of high Giants t Judith 16. v. 7. and of Giants famous from the begining that were of great stature and expert in War u Baruch 3. v. 26. And to omit the Fables of the Giants of Mount Erice near Drepanum in Sicily 200 cubits high of Tanger in Mauritania 60 cubits w Vid. Athan. Kircheri Mundum subterr lib. 8 sect 2. cap. 4. and of the Giant found standing in a Rock cleft by an Earth-quake in the Isle of Candy 46 cubits supposed to be Orion or Otus x Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 16. and several others mentioned by Phlegon * Phlegon Trallianus de rebus mirabilibus cap. 11 12 17 18 19. Amongst the Romans Theutobochus King of the Teutones or Germans vanquish'd by Marius is reported by Florus to be insigne 〈…〉 phispectaculum so very tall that he was seen above all the Trophees y Flâ—ri Hist. Rom. lib 3 cap. 3. which were the spoils of the Enemies usually carryed aloft upon the tops of spears Naevius Pollio says Pliny z Nat Hist lib. 7. cap. 16. was so great a Giant having no account of his dimensions that it was taken for a wonderful strange thing that when a great press of people came running upon him he had like to have been killed 169. But to come closer to the business and more determinate statures
charmed by a Mercurial Genius with his Caduceus Which is the sum of what is designed by the painting of the Theater for the most part thus described by William Soper M. A. of Wadham College after of Hart Hall only with some few additions and necessary alterations 164. Beside the painting of the Theater there are other fine pieces perhaps as well worthy notice such are the Resurrections at Magdalen and All-souls Colleges both of Fullers work though the latter indeed be somwhat defaced The written Picture of his Majesty King Charles the first in St. Johns College Library taking up the whole Book of Psalms in the English tongue and the written Picture of King James and the Arms of England as now born taking up the whole Book of Psalms in the Latin in the hands of Mr. Moorhead Rector of Bucknel are pretty curiosities and much admired 165. And so is the Cat painted over one of the compartments including the Arms of the Vniversity in the South side of the gallery at the Schools for her looking directly upon all her Beholders on what side soever they place themselves which common yet surprizing effect of the Painters Art is caused says the ingenious Honoratus Faber x Honorati Fabri Tract de Homine Lib. 2. prop. 93. sub finem in all Pictures whatever of this nature by their turning the nose to one side and the eyes to the other whence it comes to pass that such Pictures seem to look to the right side because indeed the eyes are turned that way and to the left in like manner because the point of the nose is turned to the left where by the way he also notes that 't is necessary that all such pictures be drawn on flat tables so that the Beholder perceive not that the eyes of the picture are turned contrary to the nose which he must needs do if the eyes of the portraict were convex concluding that no figure can be made in Rilievo thus to look every way 166. To this place also belongs the Invention of drawing pictures by Microscopical glasses by Sir Christopher Wren y History of the Royal Society Part. 2. sub finem and the Invention of Mr. Bird Stone-Cutter or Carver of Oxford of sinking a colour a considerable depth into the body of polish'd white marble by application of it to the out-side only so that the same Figures delineated without shall be as perfectly represented within deeper or shallower according as he continues his application to the surface a longer or shorter while z Philosoph Transact Numb 7. And if we may take in Etching which is painting in Copper there is a very curious and speedy way also invented by the so often mentioned Sir Christopher Wren a Hist of the Royal Society Part. 2. sub finem And which borders still on these in the Statuaries Trade we can shew two excellent pieces of Art in the Statues of Brass of King Charles the first and his Queen Henrietta placed in the Niches over the gates of the new Quadrangle in Saint John Baptist College Oxon. 167. In some other Trades yet inferior to these there have been made also considerable Inventions and Improvements such as that of weaving silk stockings first invented by one Mr. William Lee M. A. of this Vniversity who being marryed and poor and observing how much pains his Wife took in knitting a pair of stockings put himself on thinking of a nearer way whereupon having observed the contrivance of the stitches by unravelling a stocking he designed a Loom accordingly which succeeded so well that with but small alteration it remains the same to this very day 168. And 't is confidently vouched that the Engine for cutting of handles of Knives we commonly buy cut into those various figures was first invented and practiced here in Oxford by Thomas Pierce a Cutler whose Apprentice now practices the same Art in London But not with so much accuracy as Robert Alder another Cutler of Oxford who only by observance of the others work and long study at last found it out also and hath improved it much which two last as I am informed are the only two persons that can do this in England perhaps I may say i th' World Nor can I pass by the Invention in the Coopers Trade of making barrels without hoops whereof I found a specimen in St. Ebbs Parish Oxon. though I know the Invention belongs to another place of which more when I come thither 169. For Improvements 't is certain that the Blanketing trade of Witney is advanced to that height that no place comes near it some I know attribute a great part of the excellency of these Blankets to the abstersive nitrous water of the River Windrush wherewith they are scoured as was mentioned before cap. 2 § 12. but others there are again that rather think they owe it to a peculiar way of loose spinning the people have hereabout perhaps they may both concur to it However it be 't is plain they are esteemed so far beyond all others that this place has engrossed the whole trade of the Nation for this Commodity in so much that the wool fit for their use which is chiefly fell wooll off from Sheep-skins centers here from some of the furthermost parts of the Kingdom viz. from Rumney-marsh Canterbury Colchester Norwich Exeter Leicester Northampton Coventry Huntington c. of which the Blanketers whereof there are at least threescore in this Town that amongst them have at least 150 Looms employing near 3000 poor people from children of eight years old to decrepit old age do work out above a hundred packs of wool per week 170. This Fell wool they separate into five or six sorts viz. long fell wooll head wooll bay wool ordinary middle and tail wooll Long fell wooll they send to Wells Taunton Tiverton c. for making worsted stockings of head wool and bay wool they make the blankets of 12 11 and 10 quarters broad and somtimes send it if it bear a good price to Kederminster for making their Stuffs and to Evesham Parshore c. for making yarn stockings or into Essex for making Bays whence one sort of them I suppose is called bay wool of the ordinary and middle they make blankets of 8 and 7 quarters broad and of these mixt with the courser locks of fleece wooll a sort of stuff they call Duffields which if finer than ordinary they make too of fleece wooll of which Duffields and blankets consists the chief Trade of Witney 171. These Duffields so called from a Town in Brabant where the trade of them first began whence it came to Colchester Braintry c. and so to Witney otherwise called shags and by the Merchants trucking cloth they make in pieces of about 30 yards long and one yard ¾ broad and dye them red or blue which are the colours best please the Indians of Virginia and New England with whom the Merchants truck them for Bever
Est tamen Armillae suus quandoque circulus l Tho. Bartholin Schedion de Arm. Vet. §. 4. p. 41. And that when rings are thus hung to bracelets there is always some mystery in it quod annuli Armillis fere jungantur non caret mysterio m Idem §. 4. in princip Where by Armillae he means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ornaments for the wrists and by annuli and circuli ornaments for the fingers Armillae id brachio praestant quod digitis annuli n Ibidem i. e. that bracelets have the same use on the wrist that rings have on the finger 112. Now that ours was an Armilla is plain enough for that the great Copper ring is of somwhat above three inches diameter and big enough to encompass any ordinary mans wrist the lesser iron one and green ring of glass being additional ornaments especially the latter which questionless was put on to represent an Emrauld that sort of stone as Pignorius and Bartholin both testifie being much used in bracelets o Vid. Laurentium Pignorium de Servis Et Bartholin Schedion de Armill §. 3. p. 37. which makes me think it the bracelet but of some ordinary person the Armilla it self being copper with which saith Bartholin only the vulgar adorned themselves Armillae aereae plebeae censendae sunt p Idem §. 3. de Armillarum materiâ p. 32. and the appendent glass but a counterfeit Jewel 113. For eminent places in this County during the Government of the Saxons and Danes in Britan we may reckon first Banbury then called Banesbyrig where Kenric the second West-Saxon King about the year 540 put to flight the Britans fighting for their lives estates and all they had q Camd. Britan. in Oxf. After the Conquest about the year 1125. it was strengthned with a Castle by Alexander the then great Bishop of Lincoln and since that Jan. 26. 1º Mariae made a Burg or Burrough consisting of a Bayliff 12 Aldermen and 12 Burgesses in recompence of their faithful service done to the said Queen Mary as 't is exprest in their Charter in manfully resisting John Duke of Northumberland that rebelled against her whence 't is plain this Town was ever zealous in matters of Religion of what perswasion soever they were heretofore as well as now Since again on the 8 of June Jac. 6 it was made a Major Town consisting of a Major 12 Aldermen and 6 Capital Burgesses 114. And secondly Benson alias Benesingtune * Will. Malmesburiens de gestis Reg. Ang. lib. 1. cap. 2. which Marian says Camden calls villam Regiam the Kings Town and reporteth that Ceaulin the third King of the West-Saxons about the year 572 took it from the Britans which his successors kept 200 years after till they were dispossest again by Offa the great King of the Mercians r Camdeni Britan. in Com. Oxon. And thirdly though Dorchester has its name from the British Dour which signifies water and therefore called by Leland Hydropolis and seems to have been known to the Romans by the mony found thereabout and the Latin termination Cester which says Leland the Saxons applyed to Cities as well as Fortifications ſ Lelandi Comment in Cygneam Cant. in v. Hydropolis yet it never came to its height till Birinus an 614. was seated there as Bishop of the West-Saxons by Cynigelse their King whom he had newly Baptized and Oswald King of Northumberland God-father to Cynigelse t Ven. Bedae Hist Ecclesiae Gent. Ang. lib. 3. cap. 7. 115. About this time the Town of Berencester alias Berncester in Saxon Burenceaster and Bernacester which I take to have been its primitive names seems also to have been raised and to have taken its name as some have thought from the same Bishop Birinus quasi Birini castrum But I much rather believe it so called from Bern-wood or Forrest mention'd by Bede v Chronologia Saxonica in An. 921. Florilegus and Wigorniensis w Mat. Westmon Florent Wigorn. in An. 918. upon the edge whereof it was then seated nor is now far off it after which perhaps from St. Eadburg to whom the Priory there was and Parish Church is now dedicated it changed its name to Burgcester and since that to Burcester now Bisseter 116. The Town of Burford in Saxon Beorford seems also to have been a place of good Antiquity but most remarkable for a battle fought near it about the year 750 x Rog. Hoveden Annal. Part. priori in An. citat perhaps on the place still called Battle-edge West of the Town betwixt it and Vpton between Cuthred or Cuthbert a tributary King of the West-Saxons and Ethelbald the Mercian whose insupportable exactions the former King not being able to endure he came into the Field against him met and overthrew him here about Burford winning his Banner wherein there was depicted a golden Dragon y Camd Britan in Com. Oxon. in memory of which Victory perhaps the custom yet within memory of making a Dragon yearly and carrying it up and down the Town in great jollity on Midsummer Eve to which I know not for what reason they added a Gyant might likely enough be first instituted 117. After the Conquest I find it the Town of Robert Earl of Glocester base Son to King Henry the First to whose Son William I have seen an Original Charter granted him by King Henr. 2. giving to this his Town of Bureford Gildam omnes consuetudines quas habent liberi Burgenses de Oxeneford most of which it has since lost and chiefly by the over-ruling power of Sir Lawrence Tanfield Lord chief Baron in Queen Elizabeths time Yet it still retains the face of a Corporation having a common Seal c. the very same with Henley as described in the Map if they differ not in colours which I could not learn 118. As for Wudustoke or Wudestoc Sax. ƿudestoc i. e. locus sylvestris now Woodstock it seems to have been a seat Royal ever since the days of King Aelfred it appearing by a MS. in Sir John Cotton's Library that he translated Boetius de Consolatione Philosophiae there z MS. in Biblioth Cottonianâ sub Othone A. Nay so considerable was it in the time of King Aetheldred that he called a Parliament there and Enacted Laws to be seen amongst that collection of ancient Laws set forth by Mr. Lambard a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gul. Lambard fol. 82. Whence it may almost be certainly concluded that here must have been a house of the Kings of England long before the days of King Henry the First who yet 't is like indeed was the first that inclosed the Park with a wall though not for Deer but all foreign wild Beasts such as Lyons Leopards Camels Linx's which he procured abroad of other Princes amongst which more particularly says William of Malmesbury he kept a Porcupine hispidis setis coopertam
a Royal Seat there as in all probability likewise at Heddington near Oxford for though Tradition now goes that it was but the Nursery of the Kings Children whereof there remains yet upon the place some signs of foundations in a Field near the Town called Court-close yet it is plain that King Aethelred did somtimes at least reside there himself for he concludes a Charter or some such like Instrument wherein he grants Privileges to the Monastery of St. Frideswide here in Oxon. of his own Restoration in English thus This privilege was idith at Hedinton and after in Latin Scripta fuit haec Cedula jussu praefati Regis in villa Regia quae ...... appellatur die octavarum beati Andreae Apostoli his consencientibus p ...... qui subtus notati videntur Ego Aethelredus Rex hoc privilegium c k Monasticon Anglican Vol. 1. inter adde 〈…〉 129. Beside these the Kings of England had several other seats within this County not to mention again that Woodstock was one or that old Alcester was the seat of Alectus such as Beaumont just without the suburbs of Oxford the Birth-place of the valiant King Richard the First Langley upon the edge of the Forest of Whichwood a seat as Tradition has deliver'd it down to us of the unhappy King John who perhaps during the time of his Residence here might indeed build the Castle of Bampton which also Tradition informs us was of his foundation And Ewelm built indeed by William De la Pool Duke of Suffolk who marrying Alice the daughter and heir of Thomas Chaucer had a fair Estate hereabout but after upon the attaindure of John Earl of Lincoln and Edmund his brother Grand-children to the Duke it came to the Crown in the days of King Henr. 7. and was afterward made an Honor by laying unto it the Manor of Wallengford and several others by King Hen. 8. All which houses are mark'd out in the Map by the addition of a small Imperial Crown placed somwhere near them 130. As all places that gave title to ancient Barons most of whose Families long since have been extinguish'd are mark'd with a Coronet such are 1. The Baronies by ancient Tenure which were certain Territories held of the King who still reserved the Tenure in chief to himself whereof the ancientest in this County were those of Oxford and St. Valeric the head of the latter being the Town of Hoke-Norton e Camd. Britan. in Com. Oxon. both given by the Conqueror to Robert D'Oyly who accompanied him out of Normandy f Monasticon Angl. vol. 2. p. 2. The Barony of Arsic belonging to Manasser Arsic who florish'd An. 1103. 3 Hen. 1. the head of which Barony was Coggs near Witney Summerton and Hardwick in this County being other members of it 3. The Barony of Hedindon now Heddington given the 25 of Henr. 2. to Thomas Basset in Fee-farm whose Son Gilbert the Founder of Bisseter Priory in the first year of Richard the First was one of the Barons that attended at the Coronation And these are all the Baronies of ancient Tenure that were heretofore in Oxford-shire 131. In the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the First there were several other able men summon'd as Barons to Parliament that had not such Lands of ancient Tenure as those above had which were therefore stiled Barons by Writs of Summons to Parliament The first of these in Oxford-shire was William de Huntercomb whose seat still remains by the same name in the Parish of Tuffield who was summoned to Parliament by the Kings Writ bearing date the 23 of Edw. 1. The second I find was Joh. Gray of Rotherfield whose Ancestors being of a younger House of Walter Grey Arch-Bishop of York had Rotherfield given them beside many other possessions by the said Arch-Bishop He was summoned first to Parliament the 25 of Edw. 1. 132. And so was thirdly his next Neighbor Ralph Pipard of the other Rotherfield in the same year of the same King their seats having now almost quite changed their names for those of their owners one of them seldom being called otherwise than Pipard or Pepper and the other Grays Also fourthly John Baron Lovel of Minster-Lovel whose ancestors though Barons by tenure many years before as seised of the Barony of Castle-Cary in Somerset-shire yet dis-possest of that I know not by what means received summons to Parliament whil'st seated here at Minster 25 of Edw. 1. 133. The fifth of these Barons was Hen. le Tyes who having a grant of Sherbourn here in Oxford-shire from Richard Earl of Cornwall temp Henr. 3. which Sherbourn had formerly been a part of the Barony of Robert de Druis was summoned to Parliament the 28 of Edw. 1. And so was sixthly John de la Mare of Garsington the very same year To which should be added the Barons by Letters Patents of Creation so first made about the 11 of Rich. 2. But of these whose Barony is now vacant there is only seventhly the Lord Williams solemnly created Lord Williams of Thame the first of April 1 Mariae who had also summons the same time to the Parliament then sitting but his Patent it seems was never enrolled 134. For this account of these Baronies I acknowledge my self beholding to that Learned Antiquary William Dugdale Esq Norroy King at Arms in whose elaborate Volumes of the Baronage of England the Reader may receive more satisfaction concerning them Yet beside these as the people will have it the Manor of Wilcot was the head of a Barony one of the Barons whereof as tradition tells them lies buryed under a fair Monument in North-Leigh Church But the Writings of the present Proprietor my worthy Friend Mr. Cary of Woodstock whom yet I found inclined to believe some such thing being at London whereby otherwise it possibly might have been proved and the testimony of the people being too weak an evidence to build upon I have rather chosen to forbear then add a Coronet to the place 135. Beside the Saxon and Danish Fortifications above-mentioned there are others here in Oxford-shire of a later date either quite rased or in a manner useless and some of them too known but to few wherefore I have thought fit to give this short account of them To pass by therefore the Castle of Oxford so well known to be built by Robert d'Oyly who came in with the Conqueror and the Castles of Bampton and Banbury spoken of before the first that presents it self to my consideration is the old Castle of Deddington formerly Dathington g Thomas de la Moor in Hist vitae mortis Edv. 2. in principio which I take to be ancient and the very place no question to which Aymer de Valence Earl of Pembroke brought Piers de Gaveston the great Favorite of King Edward the Second and there left him to the fury of the Earls of Lancaster Warwick and Hereford who carrying him to Warwick after some time
truly than they were before in the Julian Calendar upon whose foundations Aloysius and the rest of the sumptuous College of Mathematicians at Rome having built their Reformation it is easily deducible that whatever has been done in this matter from the time of Frier Bacon to that of Pope Gregory the Thirteenth must in great measure be ascribed to him their whole Reformation scarce differing from his 14. Only in this which is well worth the observation that whereas the Gregorian Reformers reduced the Equinoxes and Solstices to the places they supposed they held in the time of the Nicene Council Bacon seems inclinable to have brought them and that most rationally to their places in a much more eminent Epoche viz. the Winter Solstice to the tenth of the Calends of January and the Vernal Aequinox to the tenth of the Calends of April their true places at the time of Christs birth which he proves by a very cogent Argument drawn from the observations of Ptolomy who lived but 140 years after Christ in whose time the Vernal Aequinox was found to be on the eleventh of the Calends of April now allowing as before that it ascends in the Calendar a whole natural day in 130 years if in Ptolomies time it fell on the eleventh of the Calends of April it must needs at Christs birth have been at least on the tenth and so of the Solstice * In Operis Min. part 3. cap. 69. MS. in Bibliotheca Coll. Vnivers According to which computation they have now gon back in our Calendar since Christs time almost 13 days the number 130 days being so often to be found in 1676. wanting but 14. Now the Aera of Christs birth being a time of much higher value and more to be respected by Christians than the Nicene Council in what ever else they have exceeded him I am sure in this they have fallen short of his reformation 15. And so much for the invention of the Telescope and other Instruments by the assistance whereof he so nearly defined the true quantities of the Solar and Lunar years that he first gave occasion to the reformation of the Julian Calendar wherein if the Reader with me be convinced let him hither refer those inordinate Encomiums by Kepler Fabricius and Caesar la Galla heaped on Galilaeus for the one and whatever else of that nature he shall meet with given to Paulus Middleburgensis Copernicus or Aloysius for the other 16. Thus was the Christian World first informed in matters of Astronomy by Roger Bacon and with so much success here in England that in the next Century we meet with Richard Wallingford Abbot of St. Albans and Simon Bredon both Oxford men the most eminent for their time in the whole World who for their subtilty and yet clearness of demonstration we find yoaked with no less than the great Albategnius by Lewis Caerlyon also an Oxford man in his observations of the Eclypses An. Dom. 1482 c 4º MS 79. inter Codices MS. Seldeni where also he treats of the oblique ascensions of the Signs calculated to the Meridian of Oxford And quickly after we meet with William Rede after Bishop of Chichester and John Eschenden jointly to carry on this study as appears from their Treatises of the central Eclyps of the Moon and conjunction of the three superior Planets that happen'd An. 1345. and the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn An. 1365. both which were calculated by William Rede and the Prognostications added by John Eschenden d Fol. MS. 176. inter Codices Digby From which Eclyps and the first conjunction he fore-told the Epidemical Pestilence that followed in the year 1349. which beginning in Turky spread all over Syria and Greece whence it came into Italy Spain and France and at length into England To these add John Somer and William Wyrcester also most eminent Astronomers the former whereof corrected the Calendar perhaps yet more accuratly than Bacon e Quod. vid. inter Codices Digby 12º MS. 5. and the latter wrote a verification of all the fix'd stars as to their longitude and latitude for the year 1440 f MS. inter Codices Laud 12o. B. 23. with some other Astronomical matters at the instance of his Patron Sir John Falstoff 17. Great we see was the increase of this sort of Learning even in those days yet that former Ages may not carry away the whole honor let us also make an estimate of its modern advancements such as it received from Thomas Lydiat formerly Fellow of New College and Rector of Alkerton in this County who defining a yet truer period than any of the former of the Sun and Moons motion without which there could be no accurat System or Calendar of years months and days most happily first contrived the Octodesexcentenary Period ipse primus absit dicto invidia nostro seculo observavi are his own words g Lydiati Ep. Astronom de Anni Solaris mensura Which Period though till now not so certainly known by Learned Antiquity was called the great year as is manifest from Josephus his History of the Jews h Lib. 1. cap. 4. sub finem where speaking of the great advantages our Fore-fathers had in Astronomy he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that 't is probable God gave them a longer life that they might fully understand the Theorems of Astronomy which they could not well do unless they lived six hundred years for the great year says he is accomplish'd in that number of years 18. Which Lydiat found to come so near the truth that there needed but the abatement of eight in six hundred his true period consisting of 592 years and that according to Geminus of whole years whole months and whole days as a period ought to do i Periodus debet comprehendere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Geminus in libro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. of 592 intire solar years 7322 entire months whereof 218 are intercalary 216223 entire days and 30889 entire weeks defining every Lunar month to consist of 29 days 12 h 44′ 3″ 12‴ 44 ' ' ' ' 3 V 12VI. And the solar year of 365 days 5 h 47′ 50″ 16‴ 8 37 or 5 h and 59 74 or 365 days and 1 128 part of a day So that the whole period or 592 Lydiatean years do anticipate so many Julian ones by five days 19. According to this period found out in An. 1605. exceeding the Dionysian but 60 years he calculated the middle motions of the seven Planets for the nine first periods entirely and the tenth so far forth as it had gon in his time some MS. fragments of which calculations I had lately in my possession but now disposed of to the Worshipful Dr. Lanphire Principal of Hart-hall carefully to be preserved amongst the rest of his writings And in An. 1620. viz. in the last year of the first half of his tenth period he put it forth with his Menologium or reformation of
first one way and cross again at right angles cuts the turf into squares in bigness proportionable to the distance of the edged plates on the Roll requiring no farther trouble afterward then to be pared off the ground with a turfing Spade which seems to promise well for the cutting out of Trenches Drains c. But this I have not seen nor has it that I know of been yet experimented by the ingenious Inventor However I thought fit to offer it to the consideration of Improvers and the rather because it affords me a smooth transition from the consideration of the Arable to the Meddow and Pasture Lands 81. For the Meddow grounds of this County as they are numerous so they are fertile beyond all preference for they need no other compost to be laid on them than what the Floods spontaneously give them and therefore the Reader must not expect any methods or rules concerning that affair here Nor concerning the remedies of annoyances such as Sour-grass Mosses Rushes Sedges c. for I find none of our meddows much troubled with them As for their Vp-lands when they prepare them for grass they make them as rich as they can with their most suitable soils and lay them also dry to keep them from Rushes and Sedges if any thing boggy they usually trench them but that proves not sufficient for the trenches of boggy grounds will swell and fill up of themselves 82. To prevent which inconveniency I know an ingenious Husbandman that having dug his trenches about a yard deep and two foot over first laid at the bottom green Black-thorn bushes and on them a stratum of large round stones or at least such as would not lie close and over them again another stratum of Black-thorn and upon them straw to keep the dirt from falling in between and filling them up by which means he kept his trench open and procured so constant and durable a drain that the land is since sunk a foot or 18 inches and become firm enough to support carriages 83. As for the Grasses sown in this County I have little more to add concerning them but what was said before in the Chapter of Plants only that it has been found most agreeable that Sanct-foin Ray-grass c. be not sown presently after the Barly Oats or whatever other Grain it be sowed with but rather after the Corn is come pretty high so that it may shelter the seed from the heat of the Sun which as is apprehended at least is somtimes prejudicial And that in the Chiltern Country after they have eaten off their Ray-grass or Sanct-foin they find it advantagious to fold it with Sheep as other Corn-lands which I thought good to note it being as I am informed but lately practised 84. Amongst Arts that concern formation of Earths I shall not mention the making of Pots at Marsh-Balden and Nuneham-Courtney nor of Tobacco-pipes of the White-earth of Shot-over since those places are now deserted Nor indeed was there that I ever heard of any thing extraordinary performed during the working those Earths nor is there now of a very good Tobacco-pipe Clay found in the Parish of Horspath since the Printing of the third Chapter of this History Let it suffice for things of this nature that the ingenious John Dwight M. A. of Christ Church College Oxon. hath discovered the mystery of the stone or Cologne Wares such as D' Alva Bottles Jugs Noggins heretofore made only in Germany and by the Dutch brought over into England in great quantities and hath set up a manufacture of the same which by methods and contrivances of his own altogether unlike those used by the Germans in three or four years time he hath brought it to a greater perfection than it has attained where it hath been used for many Ages insomuch that the Company of Glass-sellers London who are the dealers for that commodity have contracted with the Inventor to buy only of his English manufacture and refuse the foreign 85. He hath discovered also the mystery of the Hessian wares and makes Vessels for reteining the penetrating Salts and Spirits of the Chymists more serviceable than were ever made in England or imported from Germany it self 86. And hath found out ways to make an Earth white and transparent as Porcellane and not distinguishable from it by the Eye or by Experiments that have been purposely made to try wherein they disagree To this Earth he hath added the colours that are usual in the colour'd China-ware and divers others not seen before The skill that hath been wanting to set up a manufacture of this transparent Earthen-ware in England like that of China is the glazing of the white Earth which hath much puzzel'd the Projector but now that difficulty also is in great measure overcome 87. He hath also caused to be modelled Statues or Figures of the said transparent Earth a thing not done elsewhere for China affords us only imperfect mouldings which he hath diversified with great variety of colours making them of the colours of Iron Copper Brass and party-colour'd as some Achat-stones The considerations that induced him to this attempt were the Duration of this hard burnt Earth much above brass or marble against all Air and Weather and the softness of the matter to be modelled which makes it capable of more curious work than stones that are wrought with chisels or metals that are cast In short he has so far advanced the Art Plastick that 't is dubious whether any man since Prometheus have excelled him not excepting the famous Damophilus and Gorgasus of Pliny n Nat. Hist lib. 35. cap. 12. 88. And these Arts he employs about materials of English growth and not much applyed to other uses for instance He makes the stone Bottles of a Clay in appearance like to Tobacco-pipe clay which will not make Tobacco-pipes though the Tobacco-pipe clay will make Bottles so that that which hath lain buryed and useless to the Owners may become beneficial to them by reason of this manufacture and many working hands get good livelyhoods not to speak of the very considerable sums of English Coyn annually kept at home by it 89. About Nettle-bed they make a sort of brick so very strong that whereas at most other places they are unloaded by hand I have seen these shot out of the Cart after the manner of stones to mend the High-ways and yet none of them broken but this I suppose must be rather ascribed to the nature of the Clay than to the skill of the Artificer in making or burning them and should therefore have been mention'd in the Chapter of Earths 90. At Caversham near the Right Worshipful Sir Anthony Cravens and at some other places they make a sort of brick 22 inches long and above six inches broad which some call Lath-bricks by reason they are put in the place of the Laths or Spars supported by Pillars in Oasts for drying mault which is the only use of them and