come to a more particular and close consideration of it we shall find that though Oxford-shire almost in every part where the industry of the Husbandman hath any thing shewed it self doth produce Corn of all sorts plentifully enough yet it has much more cause to brag of its Meddows and abundance of Pastures wherein as in Rivers few Countrys may be compared perhaps none preferr'd And as to matter of Fruits I think I may better assert of it what Giraldus do's of Ireland Pascuis tamen quam frugibus gramine quam grano faecundior Comitatus than groundlesly to commend it overmuch 2. The Hills 't is true before the late unhappy Wars were well enough as he says beset with Woods where now 't is so scarcy that 't is a common thing to sell it by weight and not only at Oxford but at many other places in the Northern parts of the shire where if brought to Mercat it is ordinarily sold for about one shilling the hundred but if remote from a great Town it may be had for seven pence And thus it is every where but in the Chiltern Country which remains to this day a woody Tract and is as I have very good ground to think some of the western part of the great Forest Andredesƿald or Andredeslege reaching says Leland p Lelandi Comment in Cyg Cant. in verbo Limenus from beside Portus Limenus in Kent a 120 miles westward which happily falls out to be about this place To which had Caesar ever arrived he had never sure left us such an account as we find in his Commentaries concerning our Woods Materia says he cujusque generis ut in Gallia praeter Abietem fagum q De Bello Gallico lib. 5. sub initium i. e. that there was here all maner of wood as in France except the Fir and Beech of the last whereof there is such plenty in the Chiltern that they have now there-about scarce any thing else but it lies so far from Oxford and so near the River side which easily conveys it to London Mercat that 't is scarce beneficial to the rest of the County 3. As to the qualifications of the Soil in respect of Corn I find them in goodness to differ much and not only according to their several compositions being in some places black or reddish earth in others a clay or chalky ground some mixt of earth and sand clay and sand gravel and clay c. but chiefly according to the depth of the mould or uppermost coat of the earth and the nature of the ground next immediatly under it for let the uppermost mould be never so rich if it have not some depth or such a ground just underneath it as will permit all superfluous moisture to descend and admit also the hot and comfortable steams to ascend it will not be so fertile as a much leaner soil that enjoys these conditions 4. Thus have I often-times seen in this County in all appearance a very good soil and such indeed as would otherwise have been really so less fertile because of its shallowness and a cold stiff clay or close free-stone next under-neath it than a much poorer Land of some considerable depth and lying over a sand or gravel through which all superfluous moisture might descend and not stand as upon clay or stone to chill the roots and make the Corn languish 5. Where by the way let it be noted that I said a cold stiff clay or close free-stone for if there be under a shallow mould a clay that 's mixed as 't is common in the blew ones of this County either with pyrites aureus or brass lumps or the stones be of the warm calcarious kind it may nevertheless be fruitful in Corn because these I suppose do warm the ground and give so much strength that they largely recompence what was wanting in depth 6. More possibly might have been added to this general account of Earths and not a little instructive to the Farmers of the Country but I found most of them froward and to slight my Quaere's let them therefore thank themselves if I am not so obliging Beside it seems a business a little beside my design therefore in hast I proceed to a more particular Consideration of Earths as before of Waters holding some Spirit Bitumen or concrete Juice and as they are useful in Trades or are otherwise necessary convenient or ornamental 7. But herein I shall not shew my self either so angry or ignorant or so much either disrespect my subject or the civilities of the Gentry for the sake of the clowns as not in the next place to treat of such Earths whose most eminent uses relate to Husbandry since they also hold some concrete Juices whereby they become improvements of such poor barren Lands and are therefore very suitable to my present purpose 8. The best of these we call commonly Marls whereof though 't was believed there were none in Oxford-shire yet I met with no less than three several sorts and in quantities sufficient enough for use The British Marls were very famous of old whereof Pliny r Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 17. cap. 6 7. numbers several sorts and of principal note were the Leucargillae whereby he says Britan was greatly enriched And of this kind that I guess may be one lately discovered by the much Honored and my truly noble Friend Thomas Stonor Esq of Watlington-Park of which he already has had good experience of colour it is whitish a little inclining to yellow not very fat and of so easie dissolution that it may be laid on the ground at any time of the year and may be as good I suppose for pasture as arable this he found at a place near Blunds-Court but I think within the Parish of Shiplake where upon another account sinking a deep pit amongst other matters he met with this Marl. 9. Since that there has lately been another discovered by that eminent Virtuoso Sir Thomas Pennyston in his own Grounds in the Parish of Cornwell about a quarter of a mile north-west of his House of a blue colour and so abstersive that it would readily enough take spots out of cloaths and gave its owner some ground to hope that possibly it might be fit for the Fullers use but he quickly upon tryal discovered an incurable fault that the Men of that Trade will never pardon however I take it to be so rich a Marl that it may amply recompence the industry of its Master if laid on its neighboring barren Hills which I advise may be done about the beginning of Winter that the Frosts and Rain may the better separate its parts and fit it to incorporate with that hungry Soil 10. Which condition I suppose may not at all be required in the manure of a light and hollow sort of Marl lately found by the worshipful and industrious Improver George Pudsey Esq of Elsfield for in water it dissolves almost as soon as Fullers earth
part just over them will bear the very length and shape in gross of the trees whence they have been instructed to find and take up hundreds of Oaks Or by the direction of the dew in Summer it being observed in Cumberland o Britannia Baconica in Cumberland that the dew never stands on any of the ground under which such trees lie though possibly too on the other side we may have no such indications here in firm grounds they being hitherto observed only in moors and mosses 59. But as for the timber at Blunds Court as it was found so it requires a deeper research it being very unlikely they should dig so low upon the same score as at Binfield since timber might have been buryed on far easier terms as formerly in Kent Much less can it be admitted it should be swallowed by an Earth-quake or as the vulgar will needs have it thus cover'd with Earth by the violence of a Flood and particularly by that in the days of Noah For in either of those cases we should have found each tree with roots as well as branches whereas these were plainly hewen off at the Kerf as is used in felling Timber the marks of the Ax still remaining upon them 60. Beside the several other things found in company of these trees seem to give testimony of some other matters The first and chiefest whereof is that blewish kind of substance which I am strongly perswaded is Caeruleum nativum and the rather because found in an Ash-colour'd Earth The true Cyprian Caeruleum or Vltramarine as is testified by Rulandus being found in terra cinereâ and the Caeruleum Patavinum in glebis subcinereis p Mart. Ruland Lexic Alchemiae with whom agrees Kentmannus as cited above Chap. 3. § 18. And if true Caeruleum we have reason to suspect a Mine underneath for then says Aldrovandus is Caeruleum produced when some saline acid humor such as the Vitriol that dies the Trees black corrodes some metallick matter or other q Musaeum Metallicum lib. 3. cap. 8. which somtimes is Copper and somtimes Gold as Encelius witnesseth it is at Lauterberg and Goldeberg in Silesia in his Book De re Metallica r Encel. de re Metallica cap. 22. where he also further adds that Gold is smelted out of Caeruleum it self 61. Dr. Brown also tells us in the account of his Journey from Comara to the Mine-Towns in Hungary s Account of his Travels p. 93 94. that at Schemnitz where the silver Ore holds some gold and at the silver Mines in Peru there are Rocks cover'd over with a fair shining blue Rulandus t Mart Rulandi Lexicon Alchemiae also joins it with a silver Ore at Gieshubelia and so does Pliny u Nat. Hist. lib. 33. cap. 12. What then should hinder but it may be so here since I do not doubt it to be the steam of a mineral for when I was at the bottom of the pit above 50 foot deep notwithstanding the openness of the pit and coolness of the day no Sun appearing I found it so hot that the drops followed one another on my face whence I judged the Mine-chamber not to be far off 62. Which I rather guess to be of silver than of any other metal because of the Alabastrine or spar-like substance found mix'd with it which says Mr. Webster was in some places intermixt also in the best Silver-mine ever yet found in England the Ore whereof held about sixty six pounds per Tun w History of Metals cap. 13. From all which it may be concluded that 't is probable at least that here may have been formerly such a mine stopt up as I first thought by the Aboriginal Britans upon the arrival and conquests of the Romans or Saxons who not being able to recover their Country within the memory of man it might be lost like the Gold-mine of Glass-Hitten in Hungary when Bethlem Gabor over-ran that Country x Dr. Brown's Travels into Hungary or the Gold-mine of Cunobeline in Essex discover'd again temp Hen. 4. as appears by the Kings Letters of Mandamus bearing date 11 May An. 2. Rot. 34. directed to Walter Fitz-Walter concerning it y Sir John Pettus his Fodinae Regal cap. 9. 13. and since that lost again 63. Till at length they found the Vrns and then 't was plain and evident that it must have been formerly some Roman Work and probably still remains some old Roman Mine in all likelyhood stopt up when Gallio of Ravenna sent hither with a Legion the last that ever was in Britan to repel the Picts and Scots was finally recalled by Valentinian the third to assist Aetius in Gallia against the In-roads of the Francks under Clodion and to support his then tottering and quickly after ruin'd Western Empire At what time says Mr. Speed z History of Britan. lib. 6. cap. 54. but he quotes not his Author they buryed also their Treasures whereof we have found parcels in all Ages ever since 64. And this 't is likely they might do first by throwing in Trees which not lying close enough immediatly to support the Earth were after cover'd with Hasels when the Nuts were fully ripe which has occasioned their endurance to this very day on which they heaped Earth which after some time sinking below the surface of the other ground might occasion this Pond never thought to have been any other till the time above-mention'd 65. After the accidents of Oaks come we next to those of Elms whereof there stands one on Binsey-Common at the spurs next the ground at least 6 yards diameter occasion'd here as I suppose at many other places by erecting a Turf seat round the bottom of the Tree it being elsewhere but of ordinary dimensions But this is not so extravagant in the excess of the growth of its trunk near the ground but there is another more strange for a defect in that place viz. a great old Elm growing near the North-east corner of the Bowling-green in Magdalene College Grove disbarked quite round at most places two foot at some at least a yard or four foot from the ground which yet for these many years past has flourish'd as well as any Tree in the Grove 66. Now how this should come to pass all Trees being believed to receive their nourishment between the wood and bark and presently to die upon their separation many have admired but few attempted to explain being further discouraged by the absence of the pith the Tree being within as hollow as a Drum and its outmost surface where unbark'd dead and dry beside All which I think had not startled me much but that I found it in our Transactions a Philosoph Transact Numb 43. positively asserted that if any circle be drawn round any common English tree only Ash excepted as Oak Elm Poplar c. by incision to the timber how thin soever the knife be so that no part of the
or perhaps better than that at Clifton for cuticular Diseases of Men and Beasts some whereof I have known carryed out of these Inland Countrys to the Sea side whereas 't is likely they might in all the Distrempers for which we have recourse thither with much more ease have had a remedy at home 44. But far more profitable must they surely be if imployed to improve poor and barren Lands which no question might be done by casting them on it In Cheshire y Sir Hugh Plat's Jewel-house of Art and Nature cap. 104. near the Salt-pits of Nantwich 't is yearly practiced thus to brine their Fields which though never done but after the fall of great store of Rain-waters into their pits which before they can work again must be gotten out and with it some quantity of their brine too yet even with these but brackish waters do they so season their adjoyning Lands that they receive a much more profitable return then they could have done from any soil or dung 45. In Cornwall and Devonshire so considerable are their improvements by sea-sand that it is carryed to all parts as far as they have the advantage of the water and afterwards 10 or 12 miles up higher into the Country on horses backs At which I must confess I marvel not at all since we are informed by an intelligent Gentleman of those parts z Philosoph Transact Num. 113. that where-ever this sand is used the seed is much and the straw little I have seen saies he in such a Place good Barly where the ear has been equal in length with the stalk it grew on and after the Corn is off that the grass in such places turns to Clover Some of the best of this sand he saies lies under Ouse or Mud about a foot deep and who knows but there may be such a Sand under the briny Bog near Church-hill-mill or at Chadlington I am sure the salt spring at Clifton comes from a sand if so and the Farmers thereabout get such Corn and Clover-grass I hope I shall not want the thanks of the Country 46. However I do not doubt but the water will serviceable either to cast on their Land as at Nantwich or to steep their Corn in before they sow it to preserve it from all the inconveniencies formerly prevented by brining and liming it and to strengthen it in its growth 47. Sir Hugh Plat a Id. loco citato tells us of a poor Country-man who passing over an arm of the sea with his Seed-corn in a sack by mischance at his landing fell into the water and so his Corn being left there till the next Ebb became somwhat brackish yet such was the necessity of the Man that notwithstanding he was out of all hope of any good success yet not being able to buy any other he sowed the same upon his plowed grounds and in fine when the Harvest time came about he reaped a crop of goodly Wheat such as in that year not any of his Neighbors had the like 48. Now let the Owners or Farmers of these springs fit down and consider of what has been said and if they shall think fit make tryal of them wherein if they meet with success I only beg of them which I shall gladly accept as the guerdon of my labors that they would be as free of it to their poor Neighbors that have lean grounds and ill penny-worths as God has been to them by me his weak instrument in the discovery 49. Having spoke of such waters as cure faulty grounds and cuticular distempers by external application it followeth that we treat of such as are or may be taken inwardly and deserve the repute of Medicinal waters The first and perchance the best of these I found at Deddington a small Mercat Town within the Close of one Mr. Lane where not long since digging a Well and passing through a blew Clay adorned with some glittering sparks and meeting by the way with pyrites argenteus and a bed of Belemnites or as they call them Thunder-bolts He came within few yards to this water of a strong sulphureous smell the most like of any thing I can think of to the water that has been used in the scouring a foul gun in weight lighter than pure Spring-water by an â„¥ js in a quart and yet after several tryals I found it so highly impregnated with a vitrioline salt as well as sulphur that two grains of the powder of galls would turn a gallon of water into a dusky red inclining to purple nor did they only so alter the site and position of the particles as to give a different colour and consistence as it happens in waters but meanly sated but in a quarter of an hour did so condense and constipate the pores of the watery vehicle that the excluded particles of the Minerals appeared in a separate state curdled in the Vessel and of so weighty a substance that they subsided to the bottom in a dark blue colour 50. The sediment being great in quantity I tryed upon red hot Irons and some other ways to see whether the salts or sulphur either by colour scintillation or odour might not by that means betray themselves but with small success whereupon I betook me to distillation putting about a quart into a glass body to which fitting a head and clean receiver I gave an easie heat till there was distilled off about three or four ounces which when poured out I found had neither smell tast or any other properties that might distinguish it from any other spring water distilled for with galls it would make no more alteration than any other simple common water would Then ordering the fire to be slackned to see what precipitate it would let fall upon filtration of what remained in the body I procured only a pale calx of a gritty substance shewing as it dryed in the Sun many transparent particles intermix'd in tast it had a faint pleasant piercing with a gentle warmth diffused on the tongue but pouring on it Spirit of Vitriol Oyl of Tartar c. I could not perceive any manifest ebullition so as to judge whether the salt contained in this residence were either of the acid or lixiviate kind 51. Wherefore to come closer to the point and taking directions from that accurate severe and profound Philosopher the Honorable Robert Boyle Esq the glory of his Nation and pride of his Family and to whose most signal Encouragement of the Design in hand these Papers in great part owe their birth I took good Syrup of Violets impregnated with the tincture of the Flowers and drop'd some of it into a glass of this water as it came from the Well whereupon quite contrary to my expectation not only the Syrup but the whole body of the water turned not of a red but a brisk green colour the Index of a lixiviate and not that acid Vitriol which I before had concluded on from the infusion of galls
and turns milk I found at Bould in the Parish of Idbury in part of the possessions of one Mr Loggan a worthy Gentleman whose assistance in the tryal of this water and furtherance in my other business I cannot without ingratitude ever forget which differs from the former only in this that besides its tinging red with powder of Galls with spirit of Vrin it turns white which as I had observed before at Banbury that would not do whence I have ground to suspect that over and beside the ingredients of that here must in all likelyhood be somthing of Alum and in this opinion I am the more confirmed since I am informed by the Controversie between Dr Wittie and Mr Sympson that Vitriol and Alum are somtimes found together as in the Cliff near the Scarborow Spaw And that in Sweden g Philosoph Transact Num. 21. Vid. Olai Wormii Musaeum de eodem cap. 9. there is a single stone of a yellow colour intermixed with streaks of white and very weighty that affords Sulphur Vitriol Alum and Minium now that such a stone is here though I dare not assert yet questionless there may be somthing not so altogether unlike but whenever there is occasion of digging there-about again the stones and earth may deserve examination * At Snowdown-hill in Carnarvan-shire there are also such stones Dr. Merrets Pinax rerum Nat. p. 217. 59. I should next have proceeded to the waters impregnated with Vitriol only but that I am called back to Deddington again by another water of a fetid odour in stench much exceeding all before-mentioned This I met with in a small Close behind a Barn within a furlong or less of that at Mr. Lanes having the House where the Dutchy-Court is kept to the East and the Guild West and belonging to Ch. Ch. Coll. in Oxon in smell so perfectly resembling that of rotten eggs and accordingly so strongly affecting the sense that I could not so much as put it to my mouth without danger at least of straining to vomit Such a one as this is mentioned by Georgius Agricola h Lib. De Natura eorum quoe effluunt ex terra at the Castle of Steurewald in the Bishoprick of Hildesheim within a mile of Hasda where says he there is another Spring that sends forth a stink qualis est pulveris bombardae exstincti a description so agreeable also to our sulphur well at Deddington that as I could not at first but wonder that two such waters should be found at places so far asunder so strangly alike so it gave me a hint that these waters in all probability might receive their tinctures from the same Minerals and that their difference might only lye in the distances they have from the Mineral bed or more Colanders the one may pass through than the other Agricola observes that the water at Steurewald smelling like ours much like rotten eggs not only comes forth of a Marble Quarry but that the belchings of such as drink it fasting give also the odour of brayed Marble Whether ours have either such a passage or effect I must confess I cannot inform the Reader my Purse not affording me to try the one nor my Stomach the other However I could wish it had not been stop'd up as I hear it is since my being there not only for the use it might have but that Persons better qualified than I might have made the Experiments 60. Of Vitriolate and Ferrugineous springs there are also plenty in this County one at Nether-Worton and another at North-Weston * I found another since near Whites-Oak in the Parish of North-Leigh within less than a Bolts-shot of each of their Churches both of these beside their tinging with galls let fall a sediment of a rusty colour only with this difference that Nether-Worton spring is much the quicker and clearer though I doubt not the other might be very well amended were but little charge bestowed on it 61. At Shipton under Which-wood there is another of these at an Inn there whose sign is the Red-horse but so weakly impregnated with the Mineral that it scarce tinges sensibly with the powder of galls yet lays down the rusty sediment in as great quantities as any of the rest and I have met with some at other places that have plentifully enough yielded this which by no means could ever be brought to confess any thing of Vitriol which has begotten a strong suspition in me that this rusty tincture may probably be the effluvium of some other Body different from and not of the chalybeat kind for were it so I cannot imagin but the salt of Mars must needs be discovered However herein I will not be positive but propound it only as the subject of a severer research 62. And of these I was told of a very odd one in the Parish of Heddington near a place called the Wyke I think now stop'd up that in the winter time would strike with galls but not in the summer whereof may be given this very easie reason that during the time of winter the pores of the Earth being stopt and the Mineral thereby not permitted to exhale the water is then impregnated with it and gives the tincture whereas in the summer season it expires so much that the depauperated water can shew nothing of it That waters do thus alter according to the Seasons of the Year I found also to be manifest from the waters of Deddington which I found somtimes lighter and at other times heavyer than common water and to give much different sediments at divers tryals with the same materials And this I thought convenient to note not only to excite Men to more critical Observations but that the curious Explorator may not be startled in case he find them at any time not exactly to answer 63. In the Park at Cornbury not far from the Lodge in a pit newly digged there rises a spring also of a Vitriol kind colouring the mud and earth under it very black into this pit it being designed for a conservatory of Fish they put over night some of several sorts but found them next day in the morning all dead which gave me good ground to suspect having just before met with a relation of Dr. Witties i Answer to Hydrologia Chym. p. 25. That Carps put into a Copper Brewing-vessel to be preserved but for one night were all found dead in like maner in the morning that here might be somthing of that nature too and that the Vitriol wherewith this water is sated might rather be that of Venus than Mars And in these thoughts I was the more confirmed when I quickly after was informed of an odd kind of steam that rose hereabout of a suitable effect But of this no more leaving its further consideration to the Right Honorable and ingenious Proprietor of the place and my singular good Lord Henry Earl of Clarendon a most effectual encourager of this design 64. To
a Learned Society of Virtuosi that during the late Usurpation lived obscurely at Tangley and had then time to think of so mean a subject by consent to term it the Polar-stone having ingeniously found out by clapping two of them together as suppose the Fig. 9 and 10. that they made up a Globe with Meridians descending to the Horizon and the Pole elevated very nearly corresponding to the real elevation of the Pole of the place where the stones are found 33. The two next represented Fig. 11 12. like the former being flat and depressed on their bases having also some resemblance of a star of 5 points were therefore thought fit to be placed next Whereof the 11 indeed is a beautiful stone found somwhere in the Chiltern about Aston Rowant whose inner substance though of black Flint to outward view is of a cinereous colour and adorned by Nature with somwhat more than ordinary For beside the Modiolus and the issuing rays made of double ranks of points with transverse lines interceding them it is also set with other points surrounded with double Annulets on each side the stone with a single and from the terminations of the rays with double ranks The points thus surrounded are neither deeply excavated nor any thing prominent above the superficies of the stone but the rays as they are but short not extending above half way to the rim of the stone so they are deeply hollowed down within it wherein it differs 33. From that of Fig. 12. found in the Fields about Ifley whose rays like those of the Polar stones are made of double ranks of transverse lines whereof the outermost are much the longer and extended likewise to the rim of the stone its substance also like that seems to be a yellow rubble but not cased that I can perceive with any such laminated substance or adorned with Annulets yet the Vmbilicus of some of them is more beautiful than theirs it being somtimes divided and foliated like a Rose And so much for the Brontiae depressed on their bases 35. Let us now proceed to others of a more elevated kind whereof those expressed Fig. 13. found somwhere in the Chiltern by the Country people called commonly Cap-stones from their likeness to a Cap laced down the sides are of any the most uniform For the centers of these both at the top and bottom are on all hands equidistant from the rim of the stone and the rays interceding the centers being also equidistant cut it exactly into five equal parts which in none of the former nor those that are to follow either by reason of their shape or excentricity of their Modioli can possibly be found The rays of these are made of two rows of points set pretty deep in the body of the stone out of which you are to suppose according to Aldrovandus who resembles this stone to a disarmed Echinus proceeded the prickles that Animal is fenced with 36. As also that other somwhat of an oval form Tab. 2. Fig. 14. whose center corresponds with the figure of the stone and is not concluded within the rays as in the former but is extended in a ridge to the rim of it from which center there descend as it were double rays made up of two double sets of points which expanding themselves as they draw toward the rim at about mid-way are surrounded with single Annulets which each of them including two points apiece are therefore all of an oval Figure It s substance within is a black Flint though without it appear of a cinereous colour and was found in the Fields between Ewelm and Brightwell TAB II ad pag 92. To the right Worsp ll The learned and curious Artist Sr IOHN COPE Baron This second Table of formed STONES whereof the 9th 10th are found in his own grounds is humbly dedicated by R. P. L L. D. M Burghâ—â—rs delin et sculp 1. That the protuberancies of this last stone are all hollow which when broken look just like the hollow points of the former which has given me some ground to suspect that the deep points of that may have formerly been eminencies like the raised points of this and are only broken down by the injuries of time 2. That none of these Brontiae have been described before but the 12 and 13 of Tab. 2. which indeed are somwhat like the 8 and 10 of Aldrovandus t Lib. 4. cap. 1. p. 455. and 3. That though some Authors have thought them the petrified shells of the Echinus Spatagus or Brissus of Aristotle I have reason to think as shall appear in a fitter place that they will prove nothing less 38. Beside the Brontiae of the Forreign Naturalists we have others which here in England we call likewise Thunder-bolts in the form of arrows heads and thought by the vulgar to be indeed the darts of Heaven which only in conformity to my own Country though for as much reason as the foregoing Brontiae I have placed amongst the stones related to the Heavens 39. From their form by all Naturalists they are called Belemnites from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 telum which indeed there are some of them represent pretty well We have of them in Oxford-shire of divers sorts yet all of them I find agreeing in this that their texture is of small striae or threds radiating from the center or rather axis of the Stone to the outermost superficies and that burn'd or rub'd against one another or scraped with a knife they yield an odour like rasped Horn. 40. In magnitude and colour they differ much the biggest I have met with yet being that exprest in Tab. 3. Fig. 3. in length somwhat above four inches and in thickness much about an inch and ¼ This was found in the Quarries in the Parish of Heddington hollow at the top about an inch deep and filled with a kind of gravelly earth and has the rima or chink which Aldrovandus and Boetius say all of them have but I find it otherwise as shall be shewn anon Of colour it is cinereous inclining to yellow and if vehemently rubb'd is the only one amongst all that I have that like Amber takes up straws and some other light bodies 41. There are of them also of a bluish colour found at Great Rolwright in a bluish clay of about a fingers length hollow at the top and have some of them instead of one three clefts or rimae but neither so plain or long as the former they ascending from the cuspis scarce half up the stone two whereof are shewn Fig. 4. and the third hidden behind the Sculpture which may make some amends for that of Fig. 5. which is of colour cinereous and hollow at the top but has no chink at all whereof there was a bed found in digging the Sulphur Well at Mr. Lanes of Deddington as was mentioned before in the Chapter of Waters 42. To which add a fourth sort found in great plenty in the Gravel-pits
is but a thin spiry grass and will not be of any bulk the first year unless thickned by the Trefoil which failing by degrees the Ray or bennet-grass so some also call it thickens upon it and lasts for ever Of Ray-grass and Trefoil thus mix'd together one at Islip but lately had so advantagious a crop that from four Statute Acres worth not above forty shillings per annum beside the keeping six or eight cattle till holy Thursday and the feeding all the Winter following had twenty Quarters of Seed worth twenty pounds and fourteen loads of fodder enough to winter five or six cattle 34. The faenum Burgundiacum caeruleum L'Obelii or Medica legitima Clusii Dodonaei commonly called Lucern but by the Learned Dr. Morison said to be the true Sainct-foin is also sown here and found to agree well enough with a rich moist ground but better by much in a warm and dry soil This stands recommended for an excellent fodder both by Men and Beasts especially Horses which are purged and made fat with it in the Spring time in 8 or 10 days But no more of this or any other grasses they having all but Ray-grass been already described 35. But beside Grasses there have some other Plants been cultivated here of no mean use such as Cnicus sive Carthamus sativus manured bastard Saffron somtimes called Safflore for dying of scarlets and therefore by some called also the scarlet Flower whereof there was once a considerable quantity sown at North-Aston by Colonel Vernon the Seeds being planted in rows about a foot distant for the more convenient howing and keeping it clean from weeds In these rows it rises with a strong round stalk three or four foot high branching it self to the top where it bears a great open skaly head out of which it thrusts forth many gold yellow threds of a most orient and shining colour which they gather every day as fast as they ripen and dry them well which done it is fit for sale and dying of scarlet 36. And about Hampton and Clanfield they make some profit of sowing Carum sive Careum or the Carui of the shops commonly called Caruwaies which they sow in March or April as they do Parsly the first year it seems it bears no Seed but the next it seeds and shatters and so will hold six or seven years without new sowing or any other care or trouble beside keeping it from weeds the encouragement they have to sow it is the value put on it one pound of this being esteemed by the Grocers worth almost two of that which they have from London 37. And this is all I have met with concerning cultivated plants worthy taking notice of in this County but that like the wild Indigenous ones these have somtimes accidents that attend them too for such and no other were the two ears of Wheat branched from one stalk and six ears of barley from another found at Fulbrook near Burford and given me by Mr. Jourden since deceased Nor have I more to add concerning them but that I find few that I have mentioned to be noted by Mr. Ray. 38. Next Herbaceous plants I proceed to the Shrubs amongst which I met with but little extraordinary only the Haw-thorn at Bampton in the bowling-green hedge bearing white berries or haws which indeed I take to be a great curiosity for though in Flowers and Animals white be esteemed by some a penurious colour and a certain indication of a scarcity of nourishment Whence 't is says my Lord Verulam f Nat. Hist Cent. 1. Num. 93. that blue Violets and other Flowers if they be starved turn pale and white Birds and Horses by age turn white and the hoary hairs of men come by the same reason And though among Fruits the white for the most part argues but a mean concoction they being generally of a flashy over-watery tast as Pear-plums the white-harvest plum white Bulleis c g Here except the Pardegwin and white Damasin and diver sorts of pears and apples of that colour Yet in Berries the case seems to be quite different as we see in Goosberries Grapes Straw-berries Rasps whereof the white are by much the more delicate and have the better flavor which if true in the whole species of berry-bearing Plants as in probability it may we have reason to conclude that the berries of this Thorn are not accidentally white through defect or disease as in some other Plants but that they are an argument of its perfection and that the Thorn it self is of a quite different species from all known before and may justly challenge the name of Oxyacanthus baccis albis These Burries 't is true I saw not my self not being there in time of year for them but being certified of the truth of it by the common voice of the Parish and particularly by the Worshipful Tomas Hoard Esq who first told me of it and the Reverend Mr. Philips Arch-Deacon of Salop and one of the three Vicars there men of great ingenuity and undoubted veracity I had no reason to question the certainty of the thing 39. And hither I think may be referred the Glastenbury Thorn in the Park and Gardens of the Right Honorable the Lord Norreys that constantly buds and somtimes blossoms at or near Christmass Whether this be a Plant originally of Oxford-shire or brought hither from beyond Seas or a graft of the old stock of Glastonbury is not easie to determin But thus much may be said in behalf of Oxford-shire that there is one of them here so old that it is now dying and that if ever it were transplanted hither it is far beyond the memory of men 40. As far the excellent and peculiar quality that it hath some take it as a miraculous remembrance of the Birth of CHRIST first planted by Joseph of Arimathea Others only esteem it as an earlier sort of Thorn peculiar to England And others again are of opinion that it is originally a foreigner of some of the southern Countries and so hardy a Plant that it still keeps its time of blossoming which in its own Country might be about the end of December though removed hither into a much colder Climat Whether of these is most probable I shall not determin but leave every Reader best to please himself and whatever more can be said of it I shall reserve till I come into Somerset-shire where it is in greatest reputation and has been most observed 41. Whereunto perhaps may be added a kind of Rosa Canina which we have ventured to stile humilior fructu rotundiori for that it wants much of the height and strength of the common one and has round leaves and the hips compressed at the top and branches thick set with small prickles between the great ones whereas the common one has both leaves and hips long and pointed and only a larger sort of prickles set at some distance But whether this be not the rosa sylvestris
on to Elms but that I am detained by a parcel of subterraneous Oaks found some years since at the bottom of a Pond on Binfield-heath in the Parish of Shiplake very firm and sound but quite through to the heart as black as Ebony caused I suppose by a Vitriolic humor in the Earth which joining with Oak the parent of a sort of Galls might reasonably enough produce such an effect as we see they do always in the making of Ink And that I am not mistaken in this conjecture the Ditches by the Woods side between this and Caversham will bear me witness the Waters whereof where they stand under Oaks and receive their dropings and fall of their leaves being turned blacker than any Vitriolic ones I have any where seen except those of Mr. Tyrrill of Oakley in Buckingham-shire 51. And these also no question performed the same feat to some Tuns of Oak found also under a Pond belonging to the Worshipful Thomas Stonor Esq of Watlington-Park near Blunds Court in the Parish of Rotherfield Pypard which for the benefit of the soil and other conveniencies being cleansed in July Anno 1675. the Work-men sinking it a convenient depth came at last as it proved to the top Branches of an Oak relation whereof being made to the owner the worthy Mr. Stoner a person not only curious but equally generous he presently gave order for a further inquisition and accordingly employed an equal number of men to the greatness of the work who sinking a pit about twenty yards over and about fifty or sixty foot deep found many whole Oaks whereof one stood upright perpendicular to the Horizon the others lay obliquely onely one was inverted the forked end downward All of them dyed through of a black hiew like Ebony yet much of the Timber sound enough and fit for many uses several of the Trees being a foot or fourteen inches and particularly one above three foot diameter and all receiving a very good polish and therefore fitter for Joyners in-laid works than pales to set about closes to which use that was put which was found at Binfield 52. Beside the Trees all along as they dug they met with plenty of Hasel-nuts from within a yard of the surface to the bottom of the pit which Times iron teeth had not yet crack'd and that which amazed me most of all I think they lay thicker than ever they grew Some of which as well as the Oaks were at some places cover'd with a bluish substance much of the consistence of the flower of Sulphur and not much unlike to the finest blue starch which is the Caeruleum nativum before mentioned in this History Cap. 3. Sect. 18. The Oaks had none of them any roots but plainly cut off at the kerf as is used in felling Timber The shells of the Nuts very firm without but nothing remained within of the Kernel but a shew of the dry outer rind And the blue substance not found only upon the Nuts and Oaks but in any other small cavities of the Earth dispersedly here and there all over the pit 53. Moreover there was found a sort of white stone dispersed in like manner in pieces somtimes as big as ones fist in colour somwhat like to white Marble or Alabaster but of a much different texture And near the bottom of the pit a large Stags head with the Brow-antliers as sound as the Beam it self with two Roman Vrns both which were broken by the incurious Workmen 54. How the Timber should be thus dyed as black as Ebony I hope I have made no improbable conjecture nor is it liable that I know of to any exception unless to a Quaere Why the Nuts and Stags head were not dyed so too To which it may be answered That the pores of the shells being closer than the wood and neither the nuts nor the born having any thing gallish the Vitriol of the Earth could have no power on them whether it be wrought by repugnancy or combination to work that effect 55. But how the Timber should become thus buryed both at Binfield and Blunds Court and at the latter how joyned in so strange a mixture as Hasel-nuts a Stags head and Vrns and at som places only with an Alabastrine kind of substance remains yet a knot not so easily loosed However since attemts have somtimes pleased and it has always been acceptable in magnis voluisse I shall adventure to propound my present thoughts still reserving the liberty to my self as well as Reader of thinking otherwise when sufficient grounds of change shall offer themselves at any time hereafter 56. First then as for the timber dug at Binfield-heath 't is likely that might be fell'd and buryed there when Societies of men which I guess was not common till the days of King Alfred under some Mean or Lord Paramount first chose to themselves certain places of aboad and promoted Agriculture which that they might the better do they fell'd and buryed the timber which they could not well burn with the under-wood Thus as I have been informed by a very worthy Person who had it from his aged Father did our Grand-fathers serve their timber in the inland parts of Kent to make room for tillage digging a trench by each tree after it was fell'd and so tumbling it in its sale not being worth the portage even there so few years ago Much rather therefore might the first Planters of Binfield-heath throw it into Ponds or other hollow places ready at hand to make room as well for habitation as tillage in ancienter times which I guess might be done in the Reign of King Alfred 1. because he divided the Kingdom into Shires and Hundreds and 2. because Binfield gives name to the Hundred however inconsiderable it be now in this woody part of the County 57. Moreover that this Timber must be buryed by design and not casually over-thrown either by their roots being loosen'd by to much wet occasioned by the obstruction of Rivers as Camden k Camden in Lancashire apprehends those Trees were found in Chatmoss in Lancashire Nor by the over-flowing of any Rivers nor fall of any Torrent as Steno would have it l Steno in Prodrom concerning the matter of beds Nor undermined by subterraneous streams or dissolution of matter underneath them as Dr. Jackson m Philosoph Transact Num. 53. thinks it happened about 18 years since at Bilkely in Hereford-shire is plain and evident for that all the Country hereabout lies very high and is as stony a fast ground as almost any where to be found 58. It remains therefore that it must needs be designedly buried and if in any other places of the heath as well as in the pond may possibly be discover'd either by the herbage over them which will wither much sooner than any of the rest as near Yeovil in Somerset-shire where as we are informed by the Reverend and Learned Dr. Beal n Philosoph Transact Numb 18. the parched
indeed 't is very hard to think how so many things pertinent to the same office should thus meet together without some design of Nature However till I am better satisfied of the truth of the thing or convinced by the sight of some other such Curiosity I cannot afford to think ours being altogether independent more than meer accidents 82. Beside these unusual accidents of whole Trees or their Trunks there are some also that have happened to their upper branches and leaves whereof the former are somtimes fasciated and the latter striped In willows and some other of the softer woods the uppermost boughs are commonly fasciated but the best of the kind I ever yet saw was the top-branch of an Ash which I met with at Bisseter not only fasciated but most uniformly wreathed two or three times round And there is a good example of this nature in a top branch of Holly hanging up in the Gate-house of the Physick-garden whence 't is plain that this happens also to the hardest woods and in both by the ascent of too much nourishment though in branches of Trees especially such as are not only flat but helically curled I guess there concurs some blast or some such like matter that contracts the fibers and so turns them round beside the excess in the ascent of their nourishment 83. As for the striped leaves of Trees as well as those of Shrubs and herbaceous Plants I suppose they may be met with almost in every kind The greater Maple miscalled the Sycomore was found striped white not many years since in Magdalen College Grove and translated thence into the Physick-garden where it flourishes still and retains its stripings and I hear of a striped Elm somwhere in Dorset-shire Dr. Childrey k Britannia Baconica in Cornwall and out of him the ingenious Mr. Evelyn l Discourse of Forest Trees cap. 3. inform us of an Oak in Lanhadron Park in the County of Cornwall to omit the painted Oak in the Hundred of East which constantly bears leaves speckled with white And there was another of these found this instant year 1676. by my worthy Friend Dr. Thomas Tayler in a place called Frid-wood in the Parish of Borden near Sittingbourn in Kent But of these more hereafter when I come into those Counties 84. Of Vnusual trees now cultivated in Oxford-shire there are some remarkable such is the Abele-tree advantagiously propagated by Sir George Croke of Waterstock which he does by cutting stakes out of the more substantial part of the wood which put into moist ground grow more freely than willows coming in three or four years time to an incredible height And such are the Fir-tree and the lesser mountain Pine whereof there are several Nurseries planted in the Quincunx order at Cornbury in the Park of the Right Honorable the Earl of Clarendon which they propagate by slips twisted as well as by Kernels to that advantage that there is great hopes of beautiful and stately Groves of them such as I met with at the Right Worshipful Sir Peter Wentworths at Lillingston Lovel where there are three Walks of Firs most of them 20 yards high 85. Which Parish if the Reader look for in the Map of Oxfordshire he must not expect to find though it belong to the County it lying five miles within Buckingham-shire as on the other side several Parishes of Berkshire Buckingham-shire and Worcester-shire are placed within Oxford-shire How these things come to pass we have little of certainty but in all probability this Lillingston was accounted in Oxfordshire for the sake of the Lords Lovels whose Inheritance from the addition we may conclude it once was who being powerful men in these parts and not unlikely most times the Kings Lieutenants might have permission to reckon this their own Estate within their own Jurisdiction as part of Oxford-shire as I suppose all other Parishes thus placed out of the body of their Counties may also have been 86. From this necessary and therefore I hope pardonable digression I proceed to some Fruit-trees not ordinary elsewhere such as the double-bearing Pear-trees whereof I met with one in the Parish of Haseley at a place called Latchford in the Hortyard of Mr. Gooding called the Pear of Paradice whose first Crop is ripe about Midsummer and the second at Michaelmass There is also another of these but of a different kind in the Parish of Stanlake at the Chequer-Inn called the Hundred-pound Pear which Blossoms at two distinct times and bears two Crops whereof it has both sorts much like the Fig upon the Tree at a time some ripe and others green But in both these trees the Pears in the second Crops are somwhat less than of the first and grow both after a peculiar manner most of them if not all coming forth at the ends of the twigs which are all the pedicles they seem to have and therefore on the tree they do not hang downwards like those of the first Crop but point up in the air or any other way the shoots direct them 87. At Corpus Christi College they have a sort of Pear-tree that bears Fruit in hardness little inferior to the younger shoots of the very tree that bears them and therefore not undeservedly by some called the Wooden-pear though in wet years I have known them pretty soft but generally they are so sound and of so unalterable a constitution that I have now some by me that were seasonably gather'd above ten years old as hard and firm as ever they were at first only somwhat less than when first gather'd for which very reason in some parts of Worcester-shire where they have plenty of them they are called Long-lasters being not subject to rot like other Pears 88. And thus I had finish'd the Chapter of Plants but that I think fit to acquaint the Reader of a further design I have concerning them viz. Of enquiring hereafter into some other accidents of Plants of an inferior quality to any before mentioned which yet perhaps are more abstruse in their consideration than the more noted ones are And such are the blebs or blisters we find on the leaves of many Trees and Shrubs which somtimes happen to them after heat and droughts and somtimes too upon cold nipping weather but whether thus infected from the air from without or by juices within or by both and when by one or the other or both together is a Question requires a great deal of time and more sedulity than has yet been afforded to be but probably solved 89. And this I the rather design because all that I find certain concerning them yet is only that the weak and free growing sappy Trees are most subject to them and the stout Ever-greens but little if at all that the infection for the most part is under and the blister above the leaf but somtimes otherwise that the blisters somtimes have Insects in them somtimes bear fungus's on their tops l See Mr. Hooks
other Counties such as that of Running at the Quinten Quintain or Quintel so called from the Latin Quintus because says Minsheu o Minsh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in verbo it was one of the Ancient Sports used every fifth year amongst the Olympian games rather perhaps because it was the last of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the quinque certamina gymnastica used on the fifth or last day of the Olympicks How the manner of it was then I do not find but now it is thus 22. They first set a Post perpendicularly into the ground and then place a slender piece of Timber on the top of it on a spindle with a board nailed to it on one end and a bag of sand hanging at the other against this board they anciently rod with spears now as I saw it at Deddington in this County only with strong staves which violently bringing about the bag of sand if they make not good speed away it strikes them in the neck or shoulders and somtimes perhaps knocks them from their horses the great design of the sport being to try the agility both of horse and man and to break the board which whoever do's is for that time accounted Princeps Juventutis 23. For whom heretofore there was some reward always appointed Eo tempore says Matthew Paris Juvenes Londinenses statuto Pavone pro bravio ad stadium quod Quintena vulgariter dicitur vires proprias Equorum cursus sunt experti Wherein it seems the Kings servants opposing them were sorely beaten for which upon complaint the King fined the City p Matth. Paris sub initium An. 1253. edit Watsianâ p. 863. Whence one may gather that it was once a tryal of Man-hood between two parties since that a contest amongst friends who should wear the gay garland but now only in request at Marriages and set up in the way for young men to ride at as they carry home the Bride he that breaks the board being counted the best man 24. To which may be added the observation of Hoc-day Hock-day Hoke-day Hoke-tide Hoke-Monday and Hoke-Tuesday by all agreed to be a Festival celebrated in memory of the great slaughter of the Danes in the time of King Ethelred they being all slain throughout England in one day and in great part by women q Vid. Watsii Glossarium in Mat. Paris whence it came to pass that the women to this day bear the chief rule in this Feast stopping all passages with ropes and chains and laying hold on passengers and exacting some small maâ—ter of them with part whereof they make merry and part they dispose of to pious uses such as reparation of their Church c. 25. For which very reason some have thought it to be called Hoke-Tide from the German or High-Dutch Hoge zeit i. e. Tempus Convivii a time of Feasting or the Saxon Hoegen which signifies a Solemn Feast or perhaps rather from the Anglo-Saxon Heage sid i. e. a high Time or high Day Others that thought the name respected the contempt that the Danes now lay under amongst whom is Mr. Lambard thought it so called quasi Hucxsuerdaeg i. e. Dies Martis irrisorius r Perambulation of Kent in Sandwich perhaps rather from Hogian temnere And others that respected the manner of the celebration of the Feast chose rather to derive it from the German Hocken which signifies obsidere cingere incubare s Vid. Spelman Glossarium in verbo to compass about lay hold off c. as the women do on the men upon this day 26. And as about the name so about the time Authors differ much some making Hoke-day to be the Tuesday and others the Monday fourteenth night after Easter and none of them on the Danes massacre which Henry Arch-Deacon of Huntingdon t Historiarum Libro 6. sub initium expresly says was on the Feast of St. Brice i. e. the 13 of November That it was formerly observed on Tuesday not only Mr. Lambard ut supra but Matthew Paris also gives us testimony Et post Diem Martis quae vulgariter Hoke-day appellatur factum est Parliamentum Londini c u Matth. Paris in An. 1258. edit Wats p 963. And yet the same Matthew Paris in another place makes it to fall on the Quinsieme of Easter in Quindena Paschae quae vulgariter Hoke-day appellatur convenerunt Londini c w Idem in An. 1255. edit Wats p. 904. which must needs be Munday and the very same day it is observed here at Oxford in our times 27. In so much that I once thought they might anciently as well as now observe two Hock-days one for the women and another for the men but that I find the same Matthew Paris to mention the Monday before Hoke-Tuesday and not calling it a Hock-day at all viz. Anno 1252. where mentioning King Henry the thirds taking on him the Crusado he says he did it die Lunae quae ipsum diem proxime praecedit quem Hoke-day appellamus x Matth. Paris edit Wats p. 834. However it were then it is most certain that now we observe two of them here on Monday for the women which is much the more solemn and Tuesday for the men which is very inconsiderable and yet neither of these perhaps was the dies Martis ligatoria whatever Sir Henry Spelman may think y Vid. Spelman Glossarium in verbo whereon men and women use to bind one another that being now celebrated in some parts of England on Shrove Tuesday Much less the same with the Feast of St. Blase as Minsheu z Minsh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in verbo thinks when Country women went about and made good cheer and if they found any of their Neighbor-women a Spinning set their distaff on fire that Feast being celebrated on the third of February and in all probability upon some other grounds 28. Amongst things of this nature I think we may also reckon an ancient Custom of the Royalty of Ensham where it was formerly allowed to the Towns-people on Whit-monday to cut down and bring away where-ever the Church-wardens pleased to mark it out by giving the first chop as much Timber as could be drawn by mens hands into the Abbey-yard whence if they could draw it out again notwithstanding all the impediments could be given the Cart by the servants of the Abbey and since that by the family of the Lord it was then their own and went in part at least to the reparation of their Church and by this as some will have it they hold both their Lammas and Michaelmas Common But this Custom now the Timber is almost destroyed thereabout begins to be so inconvenient that if it be not seasonably laid aside it will discourage all people from planting it again even about their very houses for to what purpose should they do it when it would still be in the power of a malicious Church-warden to
ever do's as 't is manifold odds they never will in all probability it was invented here at Oxford where he made the rest of his affrightening Experiments And that out of his works Constantinus Ancklitzen of Friburg d Vid. Guid. Pancirolli rer memoraâ— recens Invent. part 2. tit 18. or Bertholdus Swartz e Vid Steph. Forcatulum I. C. de Gallorum Imperio Philosoph lib 4. sub finem and the rest of the Improvers in all likelihood might have their pretended Inventions though we allow him not quite so explicit as in the Copy of the Reverend and Learned Dr. Langbain but that as 't is conjectured by Dr. Dee f Dr. Dees Annotations in Epist ad Parisiensem he somwhat concealed his Invention in the word aliis well knowing it might be dangerously destructive to mankind 42. As for Water-works invented or improved in this County some concern profit and others only pleasure Of the first sort is an Instrument of Sir Christopher Wrens that measures the quantity of Rain that falls which as soon as 't is full empties it self so that at the years end 't is easie to compute how much has fallen on such a quantity of ground for all that time and this he contrived in order to the discovery of the Theory of Springs exhalations c. And secondly other Instruments whereby he has shewn the Geometrical Mechanie of Rowing viz. that the Oar moves upon its Thowle as a vectis on a yielding fulcrum and found out what degree of impediment the expansion of a body to be moved in a liquid medium ordinarily produces in all proportions with several other matters in order for laying down the Geometry of sailing swiming rowing and the fabrick of Ships g History of the Royal Society Part. 2. sub finem 43. Hither also belong the Locks and Turn-pikes made upon the River Isis the 21 of King James when it was made navigable from Oxford to Bercot which are absolutely necessary for that purpose on shallow rivers that have also great falls to keep up the water and give the vessels an easie descent For the first whereof provided the fall of water be not great a Lock will suffice which is made up only of bars of wood called Rimers set perpendicularly to the bottom of the passage which are more or less according to its breadth and Lock-gates put down between every two of them or boards put athwart them which will keep a head of water as well as the Turn-pike for the passage of a Barge but must be all pulled up at its arrival and the water let go till there is an abatement of the fall before the boat may pass either down or upwards which with the stream is not without violent precipitation and against it at many places not without the help of a Capstain at Land and somtimes neither of them without imminent danger 44. But where the declivity of the Channel and fall of water is so great that few barges could live in the passage of them there we have Turn-pikes whereof there are three between Oxford and Bercot one at Ifley another at Sanford and a third at Culham in the Swift-ditch which was cut at that time when the River was made navigable and are all thus contrived First there are placed a great pair of Folding doors or Flood-gates of Timber cross the river that open against the stream and shut with it not so as to come even in a straight line but in an obtuse angle the better to resist and bear the weight of the water which by how much the greater it is by so much the closer are the gates pressed in each of which Flood-gates there is a sluce to let the water through at pleasure without opening the gates themselves Within these there is a large square taken out of the river built up at each side with Free-stone big enough to receive the largest barge afloat and at the other end another pair of Flood-gates opening and shutting and having sluces like the former Which is the whole Fabrick of a Turn-pike 45. At the uppermost pair of these gates the water is stopt which raises it in the river above and gives the Vessels passage over the shallows which when come to the Turn-pikes the Sluces are first opened and the water let in to the square or inclosed space between the two pair of gates where it must necessarily rise the lower gates being shut till at length it comes to be level with the surface of the river above when this is done the upper stream then making no such pressure on the gates as before they are easily opened by two or three men and the Vessels let in one at a time which done they shut those upper gates and sluces as before Then they open the sluces of the gates at the other end of the Turn-pike and let the water by degrees out of the inclosed square till it is sunk down and the Vessel with it level with the river below and then open the gates themselves and let the Vessel out the upper gates all the while being drove too and kept so fast by the water above that little of it can follow And thus the boats go down stream 46. But when they return they are first let into the inclosed space where the water stands constantly level with that of the lower channel at the lower gates which as soon as shut again the sluces are opened at the uppermost gates and the water let in till it rises with the boat upon it to be equal with that of the river above this done the upper gates are easily opened as before there being no pressure upon them and the boat let out So that notwithstanding the Channel has much steeper descents where these Turn-pikes are set than at any of the Locks yet the boats pass at these with much more ease and safety Notwithstanding these provisions the River Thames is not made so perfectly Navigable to Oxford but that in dry times barges do somtimes lie aground three weeks or a month or more as we have had sad experience this last Summer which in great measure no doubt might be prevented were there a convenient number of Locks or Holds for water made in the River Cherwel above Oxford to let down flashes as occasion should serve and so again out of the River Kennet near Reading the Lodden c. 47. Not impertinent hereunto is a contrivance for Fish-ponds that I met with at the Right Worshipful Sir Philip Harcourt's at Stanton Harcourt where the stews not only feed one another as the Ponds of the Right Honorable the Earl of Clarendon at Cornbury Sir Timothy Tyrrils at Shot-over-Forrest and the worshipful Brome Whorwoods at Holton c. and may be sewed by letting the water of the upper Ponds out into the lower but by a side Ditch cut along by them and Sluces out of each may be any of them emptyed without letting the water into
the Grot. 21. The windows of the Banqueting-room 22. The Grove and Walks behind and on each end of the Building 53. Being now come down into the Grot by the passage 18 Tab 11. and landing at the bottom of the stairs Tab. 12. a. on a large half pace before it bb The Rock presents it self made up of large craggy stones with great cavities between them ccc c. out of which flows water perpetually night and day dashing against the Rocks below and that in great plenty in the dryest Seasons though fed only with a single spring rising in a piece of ground call'd Ramsall between Enston and Ludston The natural Rock is about 10 foot high and so many in bredth some few shelves of lead d d and the top stones only having been added easily to be distinguisht by their dryness which have advanced it in all about 14 foot high 54. In the half pace just before the Compartment e e e upon turning one of the cocks at f rises a chequer hedge of water as they call it g g g g and upon turning another the two side columns of water h h which rise not above the height of the natural rock and of a third the middle column i which ascending into the turn of the Arch and returning not again is received into hidden pipes provided for that purpose Into one whereof terminated in a very small Cistern of water behind a stone of the rock and having a mouth and Languet just above its surface the air being forced into it by the approaches of the water a noise is made near resembling the notes of a Nightingale But when that pipe is filled there is then no more singing till the water has past away by another pipe in the lower part of the rock which when almost done there is heard a noise somwhat like the sound of a drum performed by the rushing in of air into the hollow of the pipe which is large and of copper to supply the place of the water now almost gon out which don the Nightingale may be made to sing again TAB 12. ad pag. 238. To the most Illustrious Lady the Lady CHARLOTTE Countess of Lichfield Viscountess Quarrendon Baroness of Spelsbury c. This 12. Table Shewing the interior Prospect of Eâ—STON Water-works with the greatest devotion is humbly Consecrated by R.P. L L.D. Burghers sculpsit 56. To these succeed the Arts relating to Earths which either respect the Tillage or Formation of them How many sorts of Soils I met with in Oxfordshire viz. Clay Chalk and others from their different mixtures called Maum Red-land Sour-ground Stone-brass Stony Sandy and Gravelly were enumerated amongst Earths Chap. 3. It remains that we here give a particular account by what Arts they are tilled to the best advantage And first of Clay 57 Which if kind for Wheat as most of it is hath its first tillage about the beginning of May or as soon as Barly Season is over and is called the Fallow which they somtimes make by a casting tilth i. e. beginning at the out sides of the Lands and laying the Earths from the ridge at the top After this some short time before the second tilth which they call stirring which is usually performed about the latter end of June or beginning of July they give this Land its manure which if Horse-dung or Sheeps-dung or any other from the Home-stall or from the Mixen in the Field is brought and spread on the Land just before this second ploughing But if it be folded which is an excellent manure for this Land and seldom fails sending a Crop accordingly if the Land be in tillage they do it either in Winter before the fallow or in Summer after it is fallowed And these are the manures of Clay Land in the greatest part of Oxford-shire only in and near the Chiltern where beside these it is much enriched by a soft mellow Chalk that they dig from underneath it when it is stirred it lies again till the time of sowing Wheat except in a moist dripping year when runing to thistles and other weeds they somtimes give it a second stirring before the last for sowing 58. All which tillages they are very careful to give it as dry as may be ridging it up twice or thrice for every casting tilth i. e. in their stirring and for sowing beginning at the top of the Land and laying the Earth still upwards to the ridge by which means both Land and Corn lie dryer warmer and healthier and the succeeding Crop becomes more free from weeds After it is thus prepared they sow it with Wheat which is its proper grain and if it be a strong stiff Clay with that they call Cone-wheat and the next year after it being accounted advantagious in all tillage to change the grain with Beans and then ploughing in the bean-brush at All-Saints the next year with Barly and amongst the several sorts of that grain if the Land be rank with that they call sprat-Barly and then the fourth year it lies fallow when they give it Summer tilth again and sow it with Winter Corn as before But at most places where their Land is cast into three Fields it lies fallow in course every third year and is sown but two the first with Wheat if the Land be good but if mean with Miscellan and the other with Barly and Pulse promiscuously And at some places where it lies out of their hitching i. e. their Land for Pulse they sow it but every second year and there usually two Crops Wheat and the third Barly always being careful to lay it up by ridging against winter Clay Lands requiring to be kept high and to lie warm and dry still allowing for Wheat and Barly three plowings and somtimes four but for other grains seldom more than one When at any time they sow Peas on this Land the best Husbandmen will chuse the Vale-gray as most proper for it and if Vetches the Gore or Pebble-vetch But if so cold a weeping Clay that unfit for these then they improve it with Ray-grass 59. As for the Chalk-lands of the Chiltern-hills though it requires not to be laid in ridges in respect of dryness yet of warmth it doth when designed for Wheat which is but seldom they give it the same tillage with Clay only laying it in four or six furrow'd Lands and soiling it with the best mould or dung but half rotten to keep it from binding which are its most proper manures and so for common Barly and winter Vetches with which it is much more frequently sown these being found the more suitable grains But if it be of that poorest sort they call white-land nothing is so proper as ray-grass mixt with Non-such or Melilot Trefoil according as prescribed in Chap. 6. § 33. 60. If the Land be of that sort they call Maumy consisting of a mixture of White-clay and Chalk and somwhat of Sand which causes it to work so short if any
stony Land whereof there is but little can be properly so called but in the Chiltern Country they give it for Wheat Peas and Barly much the same tillage and manure they do Clay in other places adding the advantage of chalking it which they have not elsewhere for their clay grounds by which they much enrich it for some years so that it bears excellent wheat barly peas of which last those they call Hampshire-kids if the Land be new chalkt are counted most agreeable where by the way let it be noted that I said but for some years for when once the manure by chalk is worn out the Land is scarce recoverable by any other whence 't is Proverbial here as well as some other parts of England That chalkt Land makes a rich Father but a poor Son thereby intimating the ruin of the Land in the end it becoming at last only fit for Ray-grass mixt with Trefoil as above 68. Lastly their sandy and gravelly light ground has also much the same tillage for wheat and barly as clay c. only they require many times but two ploughings especially if for wheat except the fallow be run much to weeds and then indeed they somtimes afford it a stirring else none at all It s most agreeable grains are white red and mixt Lammas wheats and miscellan i. e. wheat and rye together and then after a years fallow common or rathe-ripe barly so that it generally lies still every other year it being unfit for hitching i. e. Beans and Peas though they somtimes sow it with winter Vetches and if ever with Peas the small rathe-ripes are accounted the best It s most agreeable manure is of straw from the Close or Mixen half rotten which keeps it open and suffers it not to bind too much where subject to it but if otherwise the rottenest dung is the best 69. Whereof as upon all other Lands before mention'd they lay about 12 loads upon a common Field acre i. e. about 20 upon a Statute acre but I find the business of manuring Land to have a great latitude Men doing it here many times not according to their judgment but according to the quantities they have so that where the quantities of manure are but small and the tillage is great the case is much otherwise than where both tillage and manure are in a contrary condition But however the case stand I find this a general Rule amongst them that they always soil that Land first and best which is to bear three Crops one on the tillage another of beans and peas and a third of barly on the beans or peas brush all which depend upon the single manure given it when it lay fallow for wheat though I have known this order frequently inverted by the best Husbandmen on their richest Lands sowing barly first then peas or beans and their wheat last for which they allege this very good reason That wheat following the dung Cart on their best Land is the more liable to smut 70. And so much for the ordinary Manures of this County there being two others yet behind viz. Chippings of stone and woolen rags not altogether so common which I have therefore thought fit to consider apart the first whereof I met with at Hornton near Banbury where the chippings of the stone they hew at their Quarry proves a very good manure for their Ground thereabout and is accordingly made use of by reason no doubt of a salt that stone holds which being dissolved by the weather is imbibed by the Earth as hinted before in Chap. 4. of this Essay 71. The 2d sort I first observed about Watlington and the two Britwels where they strew them on their Land with good success I have heard since of several other places where they do the same To this purpose they purchase Taylers shreds which yet retaining somwhat of the salt of the Fulling-earth with which they were drest do well enough but I judge them not so good as other old rags first worn by men and women which must needs beside be very well sated with urinous salts contracted from the sweat and continual perspiration attending their Bodies And in this Opinion I am confirmed by Sanct. Sanctorius who is positive that our insensible evacuations transcend all our sensible ones put together k S. Sanctorii Medicinae Staticae Lib. 1. sect 1. Aphorism 4. to that excess that of eight pounds weight of meat and drink be taken by a man in one day his insensible transpirations use to amount to five l Ibid Aphorism 6. Now if so our cloaths must needs be so filled with a well rectified salt left behind in the percolation of the steams of our bodies that there can be nothing more rational if well considered then that they should be a very fit manure for Land when unfit for other uses 72. As to the quantities of Corn sown on the statute Acre they differ much in proportion to the richness or meanness of the land about two bushels of wheat and vetches two bushels and ½ of barly oats and peas and a quarter of beans sufficing the poorer whereas the richer Land will take up three bushels or more of wheat or vetches three bushels and ½ or upwards of barly oats peas and somtimes six bushels of beans Yet I have known some able Husbandmen afford more Seed to their poor than rich Land giving this reason That the Seed in the rich does tillar i. e. sprout into several blades and spread on the ground whereas on the poor Land its sprouts come all single which therefore say they requires the more seed 73. In the choice of their seed they have a double respect first to the grain it self and secondly to the land it grew on As to the first they take care that it be clear of all manner of seeds that it be handsom round Corn of an equal cize which some of them call Even shooting Corn or well brested such Corn being for the most part full of kernel and the likeliest to give strong roots And in respect of the soil they constantly choose Corn that grew on land of a quite different nature from that it is to be sown on but in general they desire it from land that is well in heart and rich in its kind If they are to sow wheat upon tillage they choose wheat sown before upon bean stubs and when they sow upon peas or bean stubs wheat sown before on tillage for Clay ground they have their seed from Red-land or Chalk vice versa for the other soils that from Clay is esteemed the best though that from Red-land is little inferior for barly they count that best which comes of new broken laud and for the rest none so good as those that come from the richest soils 74. Before they sow if the place be subject to the annoyances of Smutting Meldews Birds c. they take care to prevent them either in the preparing or
and other Furs of several Beasts c. the use they have for them is to apparel themselves with them their manner being to tear them into gowns of about two yards long thrusting their arms through two holes made for that purpose and so wrapping the rest about them as we our loose Coats Our Merchants have abused them for many years with so false colours that they will not hold their gloss above a months wear but there is an ingenious person of Witney that has improved them much of late by fixing upon them a true blue dye having an eye of red whereof as soon as the Indians shall be made sensible and the disturbances now amongst them over no doubt the trade in those will be much advanced again 172. Of their best tail wooll they make the blankets of 6 quarters broad commonly called cuts which serve Sea-men for their Hammocs and of their worst they make Wednel for Collar-makers wrappers to pack their blanckets in and tilt-cloths for Barge-men They send all the sorts of Duffields and Blankets weekly in waggons up to London which return laden with fell wooll from Leaden-hall and Barnaby-street in Southwark whether 't is brought for this purpose from most places above-mention'd Oxford-shire and the adjacent Counties being not able to supply them 173. There are also in this Town a great many Fell-mongers out of whom at the neighboring Town of Bampton there arises another considerable trade the Fell-mongers sheep-skins after dressed and strained being here made into wares viz. Jackets Breeches Leather linings c. which they chiefly vent into Berk-shire VVilt-shire and Dorset-shire no Town in England having a trade like it in that sort of ware 174. Which two trades of the Towns of VVitney and Bampton are the most eminent that are too the most peculiar of this County The Maulting trade of Oxford and Henly on Thames 't is true are considerable and Burford has been famous time out of mind for the making of Saddles and so has Oxford had the reputation of the best Gloves and Knives of any place in England but these trades being not peculiar to the places where they are practised I therefore pass them by without further notice 175. But the Starch trade of Oxford though indeed it be not great yet being practiced in few places and the method known to fewer how it is made its discovery perhaps may be acceptable to some I shall not therefore stick to give a short account of it Let them know therefore that the substance we commonly call Starch notwithstanding its pure whiteness is made of the shortest and worst bran that they make in the Meal shops worse than that they sell to Carriers to feed their Horses This they steep in a water prepared for that purpose by a solution at first of Roch-Alum about a pound to a Hogshead which will last for ever after for ten or fourteen days in great tubs then 't is taken and washed through a large Osier basket over three other tubs the sower water of the second tub washing it into the first and the sower water of the third into the second and clear water from the Pump washing it into the third 176. Whereby the way it must be noted that only Pump water will serve the turn to give it this last washing and continue the waters sowerness for ever after by reason I suppose of the incisive particles of salt to be found in most Pump waters which are plain from their not taking soap that are apt to work upon and separate the finest flower yet sticking to the bran notwithstanding the mill and sieve which at last becomes starch 177. What remains in the basket at last after the three washings is thrown upon the dung-hill which as they have found of late becomes a very good manure for meddow land and should therefore have been mentioned in the 70 § of this Chapter amongst the uncommon manures And the fine flower thus washed from the bran is let stand again in its own water for about a week then being all setled at the bottom it is stirred up again and fresh Pump water added and strained from its smalle'â—â— bran through a Lawn sieve which done they permit it to settle again which it does in one day and then they draw off the water from it all to a small matter then standing two days more it at last becomes so fixt that with a burchen broom they sweep the water left at the top which is a slimy kind of matter up and down upon it to cleanse it from filth and then pouring it off they wash its surface yet cleaner by dashing upon it a bucket of fair Pump water 178. Which done they then cut it out of the tubs in great pieces with sharp trowels and box it up in troughs having holes in the bottom to drain the water from it always puting wet cloths between the wood and it for the more commodious taking it out of the troughs again to dry which they do within a day laying it first on cold bricks for about two days which suck away a great deal of moisture from it and after over a Bakers oven four or five days together which will dry it sufficiently if intended only to be ground to powder for hair as it is chiefly here but if intended to be sold as starch they then use a stove to give it the starch-grain which the oven will not do 179. From the inferior I proceed to the superior Arts and Sciences and others instrumental to them for in these too there have been many Inventions and Improvements made in this Vniversity In enumeration whereof if we begin so low as the very Elements of Speech we shall find that the Reverend and Learned Dr. Wallis Savilian Professor of Geometry here first observed and discovered the Physical or Mechanical formation of all sounds in Speech as plainly appears from his Treatise de Loquela prefix'd to his Grammar for the English Tongue first publish'd in the Year 1653. 180. In pursuance whereof he also found out a way whereby he hath taught dumb persons who were therefore dumb because deaf not only to understand what they read and by writing to express their minds but also to speak and read intelligibly according to directions for the artificial position and motion of the Organs of Speech and thereby also assisted others who have spoken very imperfectly Of which no more there being a particular account given by himself in our English Philosophical Transactions of July 18. 1670 b Philosoph Transact Numb 61. 181. I know that the Right Reverend Father in God John Wilkins late Lord Bishop of Chester hath also laid down the distinct manner of forming all sounds in Speech and shewed in Sculpture which letters are Labial Lingual Nasal c. and how the Epiglottis Larynx Aspera Arteria and Oesophagus conduce to them Since him in the Year 1669. the Reverend and Ingenious William Holder D.D. publish'd an
finem which I could not find out though I sought them diligently 3. Of British Antiquities that are certainly such I have met with none here but some pieces of their Mony whereof as much as I find not described before I have caused to be delineated Tab. 15. Fig. 19 20 21. Of which the first no doubt is a Coin of King Cunobelin a King here in Britan at the time of the birth of our Saviour CHRIST it shewing a Horse and his Inscription on one side and an Ear of Corn and CAMV on the reverse intimating the place of its coinage to be Camulodunum the Royal City and seat of Cunobelin 4. Camden 't is true has described a Coin of the same King not differing in the reverse at all from this but the Inscription of ours varies from his in that the final Letter O is not plac'd in a line with the rest of the preceding Letters under the Horses feet but just before his breast the Horse having also a spica or ear of Corn or some such like thing placed over his back Fig. 19. which is not to be found in any of his This was dug up at Wood-Eaton this present Year 1676. near the House of the Worshipful John Nourse Esq amongst old Foundations and kindly bestowed on me by the same worthy Person 5. At the same time and place the small one next engraven Fig. 20. was also dug up but whether of the same King or no does no where appear it having nothing upon it but somwhat like a Chalice and a crooked lineation under which there is also a forked kind of Figure and a small Crescent unless the affirmative may be collected from the last of these the Crescent being to be met with on Cunobelins mony as is plain from Mr. Camden and so on the mony which he thinks carries the name of the City Callena alias Gallena now Wallingford i See Camdens general History of Britan. Whereof though I can give no better account I however thought fit to give a draught of it because possibly it may meet with a Reader that can 6. But for the third that seems adorned with two faces on the obverse and an ill shapen Horse and a wheel underneath him on the reverse Fig. 21. dug up at Little Milton now in the possession of my Reverend and Learned Friend Mr. Obadiah Walker the worthy Master of Vniversity College I take notwithstanding the want of an Inscription to be a coin of Prasutagus King of the Iceni mention'd by Tacitus who out of hopes of preserving his Kingdom and House quiet after his death made the Emperor Nero and his two daughters Co-heirs of his Fortunes And that the two faces are of him and his valiant Queen Boodicia k Taciti Annalium lib. 14. cap. 31. otherwise called by the same Tacitus Boudicea l Ibidem cap. 35. and Voadica m In Libr. Tacit. de Julii Agricolae vita cap. 16. who in revenge of her own daughters ill usage by the Romans after the decease of her husband raised an Army against them utterly vanquish'd the ninth Legion sack'd Camulodunum and Verulam and slew no less then seventy thousand of them n Taciti Annalium lib. 14. cap. 33. 7. And the ground of this conjecture I take from the reverse with the Horse and wheel under him most times found on the Coins of the same Boodicia where her name is stamp'd on them as may be seen both in Mr. Camden and Mr. Speed's Histories by the horse and wheel intimating perhaps their great strength to lie in their Esseda a sort of Chariot much used by the Britans in War as is testified by Caesar o Jul Caesaris Comment de Bello Gallico lib. 4. and particularly by Tacitus of this very Boudicea viz. that she was drawn in a Chariot with her daughters placed before her p Tacit. Annal. lib. 14. c. 35. when she came to fight Suetonius then Propraetor of Britan. Or else perhaps by this time having learned of the Romans the necessity and convenience of making military ways and other passages for Carriages through the Woods and marish grounds in memory of the fact after the manner of the Romans as may be seen on the mony of Trajan Hadrian r Vid. Ducis Croyiaci Arschotani Numismata Tab. 36. Levini Hulsii Imp. Rom. Numismatum seriem in Hadriano c. they might put these horses and wheels on their Coin 8. Which is all I know remarkable in these British pieces but that they are all hollowed to a concave on one side and convex on the other a concomitant of most if not all British coin and that they are all gold or at least Electrum as most of the British mony we now find is which is a sort of metal compounded of gold and silver and this done either by nature or proportioned by the Artist That there is such a metal as natural Electrum we have not only the testimony of Pliny s Nat. Hist Lib. 33. c. 4. who says 't is found commonly in trenches and pits But of Servius t Maur. Servii Honorat Comment in Pub. Virgilii Aeneid lib. 8. ad v. 204. and St. Isidore Bishop of Sevil the latter whereof asserts that the natural Electrum is of great value Quod naturaliter invenitur in pretio habetur are his very words for that it is more pure then any other metal and that if poison be put into a vessel made of it it makes a hissing sparkling noise as Pliny also witnesses and casts it self into semicircles resembling Rain-bows as well in colours as figure v Isidori Epi. Hispalensis Originum lib. 16. cap. 23. 9. To which add the testimony of Peter Martyr a person of unquestionable credit and veracity who himself saw a great piece of pure natural Electrum so heavy that he was unable to move it one way or other much less to lift it with both hands from the ground they affirmed saies he that it weighed above 300 pounds at eight ounces to the pound and that it was found in the House of a certain Prince and left him by his Ancestors And albeit that in the days of the Inhabitants then living it was no where digged yet knew they where the Mine of it was but were very unwilling to discover the place yet at length they did it being ruinated and stopt with stones and rubbish being much easier to dig then Iron mine and might be restored again if Miners and others skilful therein were appointed to work it w Petri Martyris Anglerii de Orbe Novo Decad. r. cap. 4. 10. Some such natural Electrum seems also to be hinted in the Civil Law and to have been mixed with Silver Neratius reporting that Proculus gave sentence that it was no matter in a Legacy of Electrine vessels how much Silver or Electrum was in them but whether the Silver or Electrum exceeded which might easily be perceived by ocular inspection or if