choice of their grain Against smutting they both brine and lime their Corn some making their brine of urin and salt or else sow red-straw'd wheat which is the least subject to it of any To prevent meldews some sow prety early judging Corn most subject to that annoyance when sown late or else make choice of the long bearded Cone that being the least subject of any wheat yet known to the inconveniencies of meldews and of being eaten by Birds and therefore also fittest to be sown in small Inclosures as noted before in the sixth Chapter 75. In Sowing they have their several methods viz the single Cast the double Cast and as they call it about Burford the Hackney bridle or riding Cast. The single Cast sows a Land at one bout the double Cast is twice in a place at two different bouts viz. once from furrow to ridge and afterwards from ridge to furrow The Hackney bridle is two casts on a Land at one time and but once about though I find these two latter somtimes confounded their names being interchangably applyed in different parts of the County The first way is seldom used amongst them only by the ancientest Seeds-men the second is their usual and most certain way the last though the newest fashion is but seldom used yet though some have tryed it with good success and perhaps may hereafter bring it more in practice it having more speed than the double Cast to recommend it to use They have also a way of sowing in the Chiltern Country which is called sowing Hentings which is done before the Plough the Corn being cast in a straight line just where the plough must come and is presently plougbed in By this way of sowing they think they save much seed and other charge a dexterous Boy being as capable of sowing this way out of his hat as the most judicious Seeds-man But of this way more hereafter when I come into Buckingham-shire 76. Thus having run through the Tillage Manures Quantities and choice of Seed and the several ways of sowing the Soils of this County I proceed to the Instruments used in their tillage Amongst which the Plough being the best because the most useful Engine in the World deserves the first place of which there are two sorts used in Oxford-shire the Foot and Wheel-plough whereof the first is used in deep and Clay Lands being accordingly fitted with a broad fin share and the Horses going always in a string and keeping the furrow to avoid poching the Land and the second in the lighter and stony Land the Horses either going in a string or two a breast according as thought most suitable to the tillage in hand m On light Land some count the treading of double Cattle advantagious to it This Plough when used in stony Land is armed with a round pointed share having also near the chep of the Plough a small fin to cut the roots of the grass for in this Land the broad fin jumps out of the ground The foot plough does best at the henting i.e. ending of a Land it going close up to a hedge and not being subject to over-throw whereas the wheel plough if care and discretion do not meet in the holder is apt to overthrow there the Land being ridged but goes much more lightsom and easie for the Horses than the foot plough doth which is the sum of the Conveniencies and Inconveniencies of both 77. After Ploughing and Sowing they cover their Corn with Harrows whereof some have 4 5 or 6 bulls or spars apiece each of them armed with five tines and of a square form as at most other places But at Whitfield near Sir Thomas Tippings I saw a great weighty triangular Harrow whose tines stood not in rows after the manner of others its use being in ground much subject to Quitch-grass whose roots it seems continually passing between the tines of other Harrows are not so easily dragged forth by them as this whose tines stand not in rows and is drawn with one of the Angles fore-most after the manner of a Wedge Yet I could not find it answer'd expectation so well as to obtain in other places most thinking the great square Bull harrow drawn by the second bull on the near side of the harrow to take the Grass much better than that 78. But the worst ground to harrow of all others is new broken Land the parts of its furrows being commonly so fast knit together by the roots of the grass that though great charge and trouble be afforded in the harrowing yet after all it will not so disperse the Corn but that it will come up as it fell thick and in ranks between the furrows and scarce any where else To prevent these inconveniencies the Ingenious Mr. Sacheverel late of Bolscot deceased contrived a way of howing the earth from the turf as soon as a little dryed thereby first laying his ground even and then sowing it by which means his seed not only fell and came up equally disperst in all parts alike but he found that a quantity considerably less did this way serve the turn Which Experiment he often made with good approbation the charge of howing not exceeding that of harrowing which without it must be great whereas after it one cross tine covers the Corn well enough 79. After harrowing if it hath been so dry a time that the ground has risen in clods that cannot be broken with harrows they commonly do it with a beetle or big stick But a much quicker way is that I met with about Bisseter by a weighty Roll not cut round but octangular the edges whereof meeting with the clods would break them effectually and with great expedition I was shewed also at Bolscot another uncommon Roll invented by the same Mr. Sacheverel above-mentioned cut neither smooth nor to angles but notched deep and pretty broad after the manner of a Tessella or Lattice so that the protuberant parts remained almost as big as the foot of a Horse by which being large and weighty he could so firmly press his light Land subject to Quich-grass and other weeds and so settle the roots of the Corn that it would come up even and well whereas if it had been left hollow it would certainly have been choaked and came to little He asserted that it also excelled a smooth Roll especially if the Season proved dry and windy in that when a Field is rolled smooth the wind is apt to blow the Earth from the Corn whereas by this the ground is laid so uneven and full of holes like Chequer-work that what the wind blows from the ridges still falls into the hollows between them and on the contrary gives the Corn the better root 80. I have heard of another sort of Roll of a large diameter and weighty set the whole length with edged plates of steel prominent from the body of the Roll about an inch and half thus contrived for the quicker cutting of turf which drawn
the Asteriae or star-stones only they are not separate but joined together and making as it were so many ranges in the stone which are clearly represented by Fig. 8. which shews the face of such a stone cut parallel to the descent of the stars in its body which lie within one another like so many cones 25. Of this sort in France there are some so great as Gesner m Ibid. was informed by Petrus Bellonius that they used them in building of Walls and Houses to which use 't is true we do not put ours but I suppose it is not for want of bigness but because we have much better stone for that purpose for here we have them likewise so plentifully and great that we commonly pave our Causeys with them as may be seen in the Causey without St. Clements leading from Oxford up Heddington hill 26. Having hitherto considered these stones apart and seen l De Figuris Lapidum cap. 2. how they differ from one another let us now consider them all together in that admired quality of their moving in Vinegar which in some measure is found in the Astroites but is much more signal in the Asteriae or star-stones for the Astroites must be broken in very small pieces before they will move though put in good Vinegar but the Asteria will move not only in a whole joynt but two or three of them knit together which I have often seen done by the yellow ones of Cleydon though of greater bulk than those of other places which joined with some other circumstances anon to be mention'd has given me ground to suspect if not conclude that though it may be true enough what Mr. Lister n Philosoph Transact Numb 100. has asserted as well of all fossils as the stones Astroites that as many of them as Vinegar will corrode as a Menstruum do all move in it yet none of them reach the effects it has on the Asteria to which therefore I must crave leave to allow somwhat more than either to the Astroites or any other fossils 27. For beside the progressive motion to be seen in those the Asteria has a motion of circumgyration and moves brisker and longer than any of them for though it hath been steeped in Vinegar three or four days yet upon infusion of a fresh acid it still sends forth many little bubblâ— as at first from underneath it in the instant of its motion which seems to argue that it has it not wholly from the corrosion of the Menstruum but in part at least from some other principle which I take to be a spirituous yet corporeal effluvium continually flowing from it when provoked by an acid 28. Whereof there is one which hereafter shall be publick found out indeed by chance at the House of Mr. Wildgose Physitian at Denton and an ingenious Chymist whose assistances in gratitude I must ever own where not having Vinegar so ready at hand we thought fit to make use of another suitable liquor which so effectually excited the effluviums of the stone that they ascended in a cloud to the surface of the Menstruum and there setled exactly in the form of the stone and that not only of a single joynt but a whole column of them together which perswaded me that Cardan o Subtilit Lib. 5. was not so far out of the way nor deserved so much the reproofs of Aldrovandus p Musaeum Metallic lib. 4. cap. 65. and others for asserting the motion of such stones to arise from vapors expelled from them by the power of the Vinegar Since perhaps his position though not so well made out comes nearer to truth than any his Animadverters have brought for it since 29. After the stones some way related to the Celestial Bodies I descend next to such as by the vulgar at least are thought to be sent us from the inferior Heaven to be generated in the clouds and discharged thence in the times of thunder and violent showers for which very reason and no other that we know of the ancient Naturalists coined them suitable names and called such as they were pleased to think fell in the Thunder Brontiae and those that fell in showers by the name of Ombriae Which though amongst other Authors has been the only reason why these have had place next the stellated stones yet methinks it is due to most of them by a much better pretence having somthing upon them that rather resembles a star of five points than any thing coming from the clouds or the Fish Echinus to the shell whereof deprived of its prickles Vlysses Aldrovandus q Musaeum Metallic lib. 4. cap. 1. and some others have compared them and therefore called them Echinites However I think fit rather to retain the old names though but ill applyed to the nature of the things than put my self to the trouble of inventing new ones 30. Of Brontiae therefore or Ombriae call them which you will we have several sorts in Oxford-shire which yet all agree in this that they are a sort of solid irregular Hemisphears some of them oblong and having somwhat of an oval others either more elevated or depressed on their bases All of them divided into five parts most times inequal rarely equal by five rays issuant from an umbilicus or center descending from it down the sides of the body and terminating again somwhere in the base They are never found in beds together like some other formed stones nor that I have yet heard of says the Ingenious Mr. Ray r Observations Topograph c. p. 116. in great numbers in one place but in the latter I must take leave to inform him that though I think it in the main to be true yet that at Tangley Fulbrook and all about Burford they are found in such plenty that I believe it were easie in a little time to procure a Cart-load of the first sort of them carefully exhibited in Tab. 2. Fig. 9 10. 31. Whose innermost texture though it seem to be nothing more than a course rubble-stone yet is thinly cased over with a fine laminated substance the plates lying obliquely much like Lapis Judaicus In form they are flat depressed upon the basis in colour generally yellow their rays made of a double rank of transverse lines with void spaces between the ranks visible enough on the top of the stone Fig. 9. but not so distinguishable on the bottom Fig. 10. the whole body of the stone as well as the spaces included within the rays being elsewhere filled with Annulets much more curiously wrought by Nature than by the tool of the Graver 32. The center of these rays by Pliny called Modiolus by Aristotle Vmbilicus Å¿ Lib. de Mundo ad Alexandrum is never placed on the top of the stone but always inclining to one side as that at the bottom do's to the other the Axis lying obliquely to the Horizon of the stone Which gave occasion to
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
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
sweet and healthful Air they live in Whereas the Inhabitants of fenny and boggy Countries whose spirits are clogg'd with perpetual Exhalations are generally of a more stupid and unpleasant conversation 3. That the qualities of Waters and Soyls together with the situations of places so the respective Quarters of the World make them more or less healthy according to the great b Id. ibid. Hippocrates there is no doubt But to these I must beg the favor of adding not only more swasive but more irrefragable proof I mean the great age and constant health of persons that have been lately and are now living here Richard Clifford not long since of Bolscot in this County died at 114 years of age Brian Stephens born at Cherlbury but Inhabitant of Woodstock dyed last year at 103. Where also there now lives one George Green but born at Ensham in his hundredth year at Kidlington one Mris Hill was born and lived there above an hundred years and at Oxford there is living beside several near it a Woman commonly called Mother George now in her hundredth year current The pleasant situation of which City is such and so answerable to the great Reputation it ever had in this respect that it must not by any means be past by in silence 4. Seated it is on a rising Ground in the midst of a pleasant and fruitful Valley of a large extent at the confluence and extended between the two Rivers of Isis and Cherwell with which it is encompass'd on the East West and South as also with a ridge of Hills at a miles or somwhat more distance in the form of a Bow touching more then the East and West points with the ends so that the whole lies in form of a Theater In the Area stands the City mounted on a small hill adorned with so many Towers Spires and Pinnacles and the sides of the neighboring Hills so sprinkled with Trees and Villa's that no place I have yet seen has equall'd the Prospect * Ab amoenitate situs Bellositum dictum 'T was the sweetness and commodiousness of the place that no question first invited the great and judicious King Alfred to select it for The Muses Seat and the Kings of England ever since especially when at any time forc'd from London by War Plague or other inconveniencies so frequently to remove hither not only their Royal Courts but the Houses of Parliament and Courts of Judicature Many Synods and Convocations of the Clergy have been also for the same reason held here of which as they have promiscuously happened in order of time take the following Catalogue A Catalogue of Parliaments Councils and Terms that have been held at Oxford A Parliament held at Oxford in the time of King Ethelred anno 1002. A Parliament at Oxford under King Canutus an 1018. A Parliament at Oxford under King Harold Harefoot anno 1036. A Conference at Oxford under King William Rufus an 1088. A Conference at Oxford in the time of King Stephen A Council at Oxford held against the Waldenses temp Hen. 2. an 1160. A Council at Oxford under King Hen. 2. temp Tho. Becket Archiep. Cant. an 1166. A general Council at Oxford at which King Hen. 2. made his Son John King of Ireland an 1177. A Parliament at Oxford called Parliamentum magnum temp H. 2. an 1185. A Council at Oxford temp Rich. 1. A Conference at Oxford in the time of King John A Parliament held at Oxford temp Hen. 3. an 1218. which first gave occasion to the Barons Wars A Council at Oxford under Steph. Langton Arch-Bishop of Canterbury an 1222. A Council at Oxford an 1227. A Council at Oxford under Stephen Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and his Suffragans an 1230. 14. Hen. 3. A Council at Oxford temp Hen. 3. an 1233. A Council at Oxford under Edmund Arch-Bishop of Cant. A Council held at Oxford by the Bishops temp Hen. 3. an 1241. A Term kept at Oxford 31 Hen. 3. A Council at Oxford temp Hen. 3. an 1247. A Council held by the Bishops at Oxford an 1250. A Parliament held at Oxford called Parliamentum insanum 41 Hen. 3. A Council at Oxford an 1258. A Parliament at Oxford an 1261. A Parliament at Oxford an 1264. A Council at Oxford under John Peckham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury an 1271. A Council held at Oxford under Robert Winchilsea Arch-Bishop of Canterbury an 1290. A Parliament summon'd at Oxford 4 Edw. 3. A Parliament at Oxford 19 Novemb. an 1382. A Parliament at Oxford 6 Rich. 2. A Term kept at Oxford 11 Rich. 2. A Term kept at Oxford 16 Rich. 2. A Convocation of the Clergy at Oxford by Tho. Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury an 1395. A Parliament at Oxford 1 Car. 1. 1625. A Parliament summon'd at Oxford temp Car. 1. an 1644. The Terms kept at Oxford eodem temp it being the Kings Head-Quarters in the late Civil War A Parliament at Oxford 13 Car. 2. an 1665. The Term kept at Oxford eodem temp the Plague being then at London 5. Of these there is an imperfect List in a MSS. c MSS. fol. C. p. 173. in Corpus Christi College Library Oxon. in which there are also mentioned three Synods held in St. Maries Church A Provincial Chapter of the Fryars Preachers and a Council held at Oxon. whose Votes were written by Abraham Woodhall There is also a Provincial Council at Oxford mention'd in the Catalogue set before the Decrees of Gratian. But these bearing no date and in all likelyhood the same with some of the afore-mentioned I pass on to another Parliament which though not at Oxford yet was held in this County and therefore I suppose not improper for this place However I shall rather venture the danger of impropriety and misplacing then omit the taking notice of so considerable a Meeting it being the first Parliament held in the County and doubtless in England called it was at Shifford now a small Village in the Parish of Bampton and shewing now nothing adequate to so great an Assembly 6. There is a MSS. in Sir Robert Cottons Library that gives an account of this Parliament which it saies consisted of the chief of all Orders of the Kingdom and was called at Sifford now Shifford in Oxford-shire by King Alfred where the King as Head consulted with the Clergy Nobles and others about the maners and government of the people where he delivered some grave admonitions concerning the same The words of the MSS. are these At Sifford seten Dancr manie fele Biscops et fele Boclered Erles prude et Cnihtes egloche ðer ƿas Erle Elfricof ðe lage smuth ƿise ec Alfred Englehird Engle derling on England he ƿas Cyng hem he gan leren sƿo hi heren mihten hu hi here lif leden scolden i. e. There sate at Shifford many Thanes many Bishops and many learned Men wise Earls and awful Knights there was Earl Elfrick very learned in the Law and Alfred Englands Herds-man Englands Darling he was King of England
to some all Pump waters are such but that they are mistaken my experience has taught me for I have met with some that will lather very well 34. At Henly they are troubled with many of them but not so much as they are at Thame for there they have a way to let them stand two days within which time as I was informed by my worthy Friend Mr Munday Physitian there the Vitriol or whatever other acid it be falls down to the bottom of the Vessels that hold them and then they will wash as well as one can desire But at Thame where there is never a Well in the whole Town whose water will wash or which is worse brew This Experiment for I caused it to be tryed will by no means succeed so that were they not supplyed by the adjoyning Rivulet the place must needs be in a deplorable condition The reason I suppose why the acid will not fall as it do's at Henly and some other places is because these waters beside their salt in all probability also hold a crude Sulphur whose viscous particles do so tenaciously embrace it that it will not admit of any separation which may also perhaps be a hint to the cause why their Beer will stink within fourteen days whenever they attempt to brew with this water for where a Sulphur is any thing great in quantity and its body opened and exalted by the heat in brewing and the active spirituous particles of Mault as I guess the case may have it self here the frame of that mixtion may probably be loosed wherein the spirits first taking their flight the Sulphur will next begin to evaporate whose steams being smartly aculeated by the salt that then bears the chief sway in the subject cause the stink of the Beer that is brewed with such water 35. Other waters there are that are palatably salt and sufficiently stinking without being brewed and such is that before-mentioned near Churchill-mill but I think within the bounds of the Parish of Kingham The water as it stands looks of a greenish colour as most of the palatably salt waters do and do it resort all the Pigeons in the Country which should they not do I should much wonder since besides its saltness it has such a stink that it equals the salt stone and roasted dog too so that should the Proprietor but build a Dove-house here he might honestly rob all his neighbors of their flights but that he may not put it to so invidious a use I shall divert him anon by a more profitable way 36. As to the salt that impregnates this water I do not take it to be a simple one but some Mineral concrete both of salt and sulphur for without these two be in their exaltation and become so far fluid as to endeavor a divorce from each other it could never acquire so noisom a smell Which concrete should I call a salt Marine peradventure I might not be much mistaken for if you take but a small quantity of thrice calcined Bay salt and dissolve it in a pint of Well-water upon dissolution you will have much such an odour as has been observed by a late Author in a short account of the Sulphur Well at Knarsborough x Simpsons Hydrolog Chym part 2. 37. Nor hinders it at all that the Sea is so remote since whether springs have any communication with it or no such marine salts may be had very well for if the Sea grow salt by the Earth that it licks which I take to be as certain as that 't is not so by torrefaction then if it be possible we may have such Earths as give the Sea those salino-sulphureous tinctures it 's altogether as possible we may have such waters too without any necessity of such communication 38. If it be objected That the waters of the Sea send forth no such stench as we find these do let it be considered that the flux of the one and stagnation of the other may well occasion such a difference whil'st the Sea-waters are in their motion 't is true their salts and sulphurs so involve one another that their mutual imbraces hinder all evaporations but whenever they come to stand but awhile as they do most times in the holds of Ships then their sulphurs evaporate with as great a stink as can be supposed ours have here at Land and this the Ships pump doth frequently witness to the great content of all that travel by Sea it being a sure indication of the Ships health which abundantly recompences the inconvenience of the stench 39. Such another I have heard of in the Parish of Chadlington in the grounds of one Mr Rawlison there not differing in any thing at all from the former but only it 's somwhat stronger of the marine salt this I must confess I saw not my self yet having my information from so knowing a Person and of so unquestionable fidelity as Sir Thomas Pennyston I doubt not at all the truth of the thing 48. A salt spring there is also at Clifton near Deddington within a Quoits cast of the River side but its saline particles are so subtilized in the water that they scarcely can at all be perceived by the palate and yet it lays them down plentifully enough on the stones and Earth over which it passes What sort of salt this is I care not to determine because it will be difficult not to mistake for upon evaporation of about a gallon it yielded a salt of a urinous tast which at first I must confess was so surprizing to me that I could not but think that during my absence some waggish fellow had either put a trick on me or else that I might have used some unfit vessel whereupon I caused a new earthen pot to be bought well glased and then repeated the Experiment very carefully but found in the end all had been honest about me for I had a salt again of the very same tast 41. How this should come about I cannot divine unless from the sweat of the Bodies of Animals it being much used in cuticular Diseases but this I think neither can well be because 't is a constantly running spring and would sure carry off what might be left of that nature I therefore wholly leave it to the Readers greater perspicacity and shall content my self with this satisfaction that however improbable the thing may seem that in the mean time 't is an improbable truth 42. I have often since wish'd that I had tryed this water with a solution of Alum and seen whether it would have given any thing of that milky precipitation it do's with Vrines which being then quite out of my head is left to the tryal of some ingenious person that lives thereabout though before-hand I must tell him that I believe it will not succeed because urinous substance seems not to be copious enough 43. Divers might be the uses of these waters and particularly of the two first as good
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
lapides m Libro citato Lettre 28. have the very marks characters eminencies cavities and all other parts alike with the true living Nautili and Herissons spatagi and Brissi of Imperato and Rondelet which proves says he the body changed to have been the very same thing with that which is living But I must tell him it do's it but very weakly all arguments drawn a similitudine being the most inefficacious of all others such rather illustrating than proving rather perswading than compelling an adversaries assent For how many hundred things are there in the World that have some resemblance of one another which no body will offer to think were ever the same and particularly amongst some other formed stones hereafter to be mentioned Such are the stones Otites or Auriculares several sorts of Cardites Lapides Mammillares Hysterolithos c. which though they as exactly resemble those parts of Men from whence they have their names as any Conchites or Echinites do those shell-fish yet no Man that I ever heard of so much as dreamed that these were ever the real parts of Men in process of time thus turned into stone As well might we say that our Kettering-stone in Northampton-shire here in England was once nothing else but the spawn of Lobsters than which that I know of there is nothing more like 119. But should it be granted that these stone Herissons spatagi were somtime real shell-fish as reasonably enough perhaps we may they being found at Malta as you come into the Port over-against St. Erme n Libro citato Lettre 26. yet this by no means would conclude that all others of the form must needs be so that are attended with much different and indeed in respect of having once been shells inexplicable circumstances 120. Thirdly and lastly That it seems quite contrary to the infinite prudence of Nature which is observable in all its works and productions to design every thing to a determinate end and for the attaining that end makes use of such ways as are as far as the knowledge of man has yet been able to reach altogether consonant and agreeable to mans reason and of no way or means that doth contradict or is contrary to human ratiocination Whence it has been a general observation and Maxim that Nature doth nothing in vain It seems I say contrary to that great wisdom of Nature that these pretily shaped bodies should have all those curious figures and contrivances which many of them are adorned and contrived with generated or wrought by a plastic virtue for no higher end than only to exhibit a form o Mr. Hooks Micrographia Observ 17. 121. To which I answer that Nature herein acts neither contrary to her own prudence human ratiocination or in vain it being the wisdom and goodness of the Supreme Nature by the School-men called Naturans that governs and directs the Natura naturata here below to beautifie the World with these varieties which I take to be the end of such productions as well as of most Flowers such as Tulips Anemones c. of which we know as little use as of formed stones Nay perhaps there may proportionably number for number be as many of them of Medicinal or other use such as Selenites Belemnites Conchites Lapis Judaicus c. as there are of Plants So that unless we may say also which I guess no body will that these are produced contrary to the great wisdom of Nature we must not of stones 122. And thus I have given the grounds of my present opinion which has not been taken up out of humor or contradiction with intent only to affront other worthy Authors modest conjectures but rather friendly to excite them or any others to endeavor collections of shell-fish and parts of other Animals that may answer such formed stones as are here already or may hereafter be produced Which when ever I find done and the reasons alleged solidly answered I shall be ready with acknowledgment to retract my opinion which I am not so in love with but for the sake of Truth I can chearfully cast off without the least reluctancy 123. However in the mean time since no doubt it will be expected upon so deliberate rejection of Animal molds that some further and more particular account should be given of the Plastic virtue or whatever else it is that effects these shapes I shall briefly set down also my present thoughts concerning it which yet I intend not my self much less desire the Reader to embrace any further then I shall find them agreeable to future experience 124. That Salts are the principal Ingredients of stones I think has so sufficiently been noted already that to endeavor any further evidence of the thing would be actum agere in me and loss of time to the Reader And if of stones in general much rather sure of formed ones it being the undoubted prerogative of the Saline Principle to give Bodies their figure as well as solidity and duration No other principle that we yet know of naturally shooting into figures each peculiar to their own kind but salts thus Nitre always shoots into Pyramids salt Marine into Cubes Alum into octo and Sal Armoniac into Hexaedrums and other mixt salts into as mixt figures 125. Of these spontaneous inclinations of salts each peculiar to its kind we have further evidence in the Chymical Anatomy of Animals particularly in the volatile salt of Harts-horn which in the beginning of its ascent is always seen branched in the head of the Cucurbit like the natural Horn. And we were told the last Term by our very Ingenious and Learned Sidleyan Professor * Dr. Tho. Millington Fellow of All Souls Coll. here in Oxon That the salt of Vipers ascends in like manner and shoots into shapes somwhat like those Animals placed orderly in the glass Thus in congelations which are all wrought by adventitious salts we frequently find curious ramifications as on Glass-windows in winter and the figur'd flakes of snow of which Mr. Hook p Mr. Hooks Micrograph Observ 14. Schem 8. observed above an hundred several sorts yet all of them branched as we paint stars with six principal Radii of equal length shape and make issuing from a center where they are all joined in angles of 60 degrees 126. What salt it should be that gives this figure though it be hard to determin yet certainly it must not be a much different one from that which gives form to our Astroites and Asteriae whereof though the latter have but five points and therefore making angles where they are joyned at the center of 72 degrees yet the Astroites both in mezzo Rilievo and Intagli as in Tab. 2. have many more Perhaps there may be somthing of an Antimonial salt that may determin Bodies to this starry figure as no question it do's in the Regulus and the Caput mortuum of the Cinnabar of Antimony To such a salt may also be referr'd our
the same Pliny a Idem loco citato tells of two others living in the time of Augustus nick-named Pusio and Secundilla whose bodies were preserved for a wonder in the Salustian Gardens that were ten foot high and that in his time there was one Gabbara brought out of Arabia in the days of Prince Claudius the Emperor exactly of the height of Goliath viz. nine foot nine inches high b Idem loco citato which being a cize very proportionable to our bone found at Cornwell I am rather inclined to believe that Claudius brought this Gabbara into Britan with him who possibly might dye and lay his bones here than that ever they belonged to any Elephant except we shall rather say that here also Corinaeus cosin to Brute might kill one of Gogmagog's race and that from him the place doth take his name as well as the County of Cornwall 170. Moreover that there were men heretofore of such vast statures we have the testimony of Josephus c Lib. 18. cap. 6. in his Antiquities of the Jews where he tells us of one Eleazar a Jew born sent amongst the Presents to Tiberius when Darius the Son of Artabanus King of Persia after a Peace made went as a Hostage to Rome that was full seven Cubits in height And there is a Sceleton d Kirchâ—â— Mund. subterr lib. 8. sect 2. cap. 4 now to be seen in the Town-hall at Lucern found under an old Oak in the County of Willisau near a Village called Reyden within the jurisdiction of that City that gives further confirmation it having all or most of the bones wherein a Man differs from other Animals and being above seventeen foot high 171. And if we consult the latter ages of the World we shall still find that there were always some few persons vastly exceeding the ordinary stature of Men Joh. Cassanio e Io. Cassanio Monastr de Gigantibus cap. 6. though no favorer of the stories of Giants yet tells us of one that lived about 150 years since at Burdeaux in Aquitan commonly called the Giant of Burdeaux whom Francis the first King of France passing that way beheld with admiration and gave especial command that he should be of his Guard but he being a Peasant of a narrow soul and not pleased with a Courtiers life quitted his Halbard and got away by stealth to the place whence he came Of whom the said Cassanio was assured by an Honorable Person who had seen him Archer of the Guard that he was of so great a height that a Man of an ordinary stature might go upright between his legs when he did stride And Thuanus f Jac. Aug. Thuani Hist. Tom. 3. lib. 61. treating of an Invasion made by the Tartars upon the Polanders in the Year 1575. tells us of a Tartar slain by one Jacobus Niezabilovius a Polander whose fore-head was 24 inches broad and his body of so prodigious a bulk that as he lay dead on the ground his carcass reached to the navel of a person standing by him 172. Geropius Becanus g De Gigantomachia Physitian to the Lady Mary sister to the Emperor Charles the Fifth Queen of Hungary and Regent of the Netherlands assures us That there dwelt a person within five miles of him ten foot high and that himself saw a Woman of the same height The tallest that I have yet seen in our days was also a Woman of a Dutch extraction shewn publickly here at Oxford seven foot and a half high with all her Limbs proportionable when she stretch'd forth her arm Men of ordinary stature might walk under it and her hand from the carpus or wrist where it is joined to the radius of the arm to the end of the middle finger was full ten inches long A stature 't is true much short of any of the afore-mentioned and indeed I believe it will be hard to meet with their fellows in these parts of the World where Luxury has crept in together with Civility Yet if we look abroad amongst the present barbarous Nations of both Indies where they live still according to Nature and do not debauch her with the sensual Delights of the more civilized World we shall find if the Relations either of English or Hollanders be of any credit that there are now men and women adequate to them in stature several having been seen especially about the Straights of Magellan of ten and one near the River of Plate by Tho. Turner 12 foot high 173. Whence 't is plain that whether we respect the more ancient or modern Times 't is possible enough these bones from Cornwell might be the bones of a man or woman there being no decay apparent in the constitutions of Mankind from the beginning to this day but what is adventitious and accidental saving in the longevity of the antediluvian Patriarchs 174. Beside this Gigantick thigh-bone there is another stone at the foot of Shotover-hill amongst the Orchites before-mentioned Sect. 144. that also represents one of the Artus viz. the Leg and Foot of a Man cut off above the ancle as in Tab. 8. Fig. 6. which from the toe to the heel is about a yard long and perhaps in the whole may weigh 50 or 60 pounds But I take not this for a petrification as the former but a stone formed in this shape purely by Nature which may therefore be termed Andrapodites as might all those of the kind mentioned by Wormius h Musaei Wormian cap. 1â— Intogrum pedem hominis in lapidem versum spectandum habet Musaeum Calceolarium Ioh. Bapt. Oliv◠〈◊〉 To which also may be added the Lapis acetabulum referens whereof there is plenty on the Chiltern-hills And a sort of Osteocolla found in Heddington rubble Quarries which scraped has the smell of burnt bone and may I suppose be the same mentioned by Gesner * Gesner de Fig. Lapid cap. 12. that was sent him by Peter Coldeberg Apothecary of Antwerp 175. After the Stones that relate to the parts of Animals come we lastly to those that resemble things of Art such as that in the form of a button-mold Fig. 7. whereof there were several found in the very same Quarry with the thigh-bone and tooth in the Parish of Cornwell and no doubt did belong to the owner of those bones And the other in the shape of the heel of an old shoo with the Lifts plainly to be distinguish'd as in Fig. 8. which was found somwhere near Oxford and given me by the Right Reverend and profoundly Learned Thomas Lord Bishop of Lincoln one of the first Promoters of this Design But both these I take to be but petrifications and therefore mis-placed here like the Adarce and thigh-bone 176. But I have another sort of button-stone sent me from Teynton which I take to be a meer production of Nature finely striated from the top as I have seen some hair buttons as in Fig. 9. and may therefore be called Porpites Except we
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
folio glabro flore plane albo of John Bauhin to which we find it most agreeable of any described * Hist Plant. lib. 14. cap. 1. we dare not pronounce and therefore have not ventured to give it any draught but have left it to further enquiry which that all men may readily make they may find it growing plentifully in Magdalene College water-walks in the way up Heddington-hill and in many other places near about Oxford And if judged at length to be that of John Bauhin however we find it not noted by Mr. Ray and therefore cannot be guilty of misplacing it here 42. Beside this I met with no others either dubious or omitted but several of them diseased discoloured or striped such as Periclymenum sylvestre with the more accurate Botanists rather a subfrutex than a shrub found at Shotover-hill Cornus faemina at Waterstock Rubus major vulgaris in the Lane between Finstock and Fawler and Sambucus vulgaris in the hedges at Cowley and near to Oxford all which are striped yellow but the last somwhat more remarkably than any of the former the veins only being yellow and all the parenchymous part of the leaf remaining green so that the striping represents as it were a Net-work but this also growing out after some time like the rest must be reputed of the same kind and to proceed from the same cause Which is all I have found observable under the species of shrubs except it be worthy notice that in the Chiltern part of Oxford-shire the Rubus Idaeus Framboise or Rasp-berry bush grows plentifully enough among the woods and hills and the Oxyacantha or Barberry-bush between Vpper and Nether Kiddington 43. Thus having dispatch'd both Herbs and Shrubs I come at length to the Trees whereof I have met with but one undescribed and that a narrow leaved Elm which also being smooth justly deserves the name of Vlmus folio angusto glabro wherein it differs not only from the Vlmus minor of Parkinson and Gerard but also from their Vlmus folio glabro whose Leaves they say are nothing so large as the Wych Hasel but nearest in bigness and exactly in the figure of the common Elm whereas ours are much less and of a quite different figure being narrow and having a peculiar kind of pointed ending as exactly expressed in Tab. 10. Fig. 1. Of those there are plenty in the Avenues to the House of the Honorable the Lady Cope the Relict of the most Ingenious Sir Anthony Cope of Hanwell where there is a whole Walk of them planted in order beside other that grow wild in the Coppices of the Park 44. As for Trees either not noted or any way doubted I have met with none here but of Trees remarkable for some unusual accident attending them there are several worthy notice For of Oaks though I found none so prodigious as some mention'd by the Learned and Ingenious John Evelyn Esq in his discourse of Forrest Trees h Discourse of Forrest Trees cap. 30. yet there is one between Nuneham-Courtney and Clifton that spreads from boughs end to boughs end 81 foot in circumference supposing the boughs to spread uniformly 243 shading 560 square yards of ground under which allowing three square yards for a horse or other beast and two square feet for a man 186 of the former and 2420 of the latter may be shelter'd from the injuries either of sun or rain 45. Yet there is a somwhat bigger Oak than that at Magdalen College near the Gate of the Water-walks whose boughs shoot from the boal fifteen or sixteen yards which supposing they did spread of equal length from the trunk like the rays of a circle the content of ground on which it would drop would be no less than 768 square yards whereof allowing as before three square yards of ground for a horse to stand on three yards long and one yard broad seeming a competent proportion there might 256 horses stand under that Tree or allowing as before 2 square feet for a man 3456 men 46. Yet at Ricot in the Park of the Right Honorable the Lord Norreys there is an Oak yet somwhat bigger then eiher of the former by the Author of Dodona's Grove called his Robur Britanicum which extendeth its branches from the trunk of the Tree about 18 yards so that the diameter of its circumference being 36 yards it takes within its Area 972 square yards under the umbrage of which Tree upon the afore-mentioned proportions no less than 324 horses or 4374 men may sufficiently be shelter'd 47. And these are the Trees most capacious without some others there are that have given shelter within the hollow of their trunks Mr. Evelyn tells us of one somwhere in Glocester-shire that contains within its bowels a prety wainscoted Room enlighten'd with windows and furnish'd with seats c. which I suppose may have given reception to many an honest Gentleman Now though 't is true we have none put to so Honorable a use yet the hollow Oak on Kidlington-green for the necessary and publick service it has done ought perhaps to have preference though neither so great nor gaudy it being frequently used before the death of Judge Morton before whose House it stood for the Imprisoning Vagabonds and other inferior Malefactors for the space of a night or so till they conveniently might be had to the Goal at Oxford Of whom the hollow is so large within that it would receive eight or ten commodiously enough the Tree without being 25 foot round above the spurs 48. Just such another Prison as this as we are informed by Johan Ferdinand Hertoda i Tartaro-mastigis Moraviae part 1. cap. 17. was made in Moravia in the trunk of a Willow 27 foot round in the Village of Moravan by a certain Judge of that Country The extravagant growth of which Tree he attributes to the fertility of the whole Marquisate whereas I rather think not but that the Country may be fertile enough the extreem rank growth of that and of all other Plants so exceeding the ordinary course of Nature ought rather to be imputed to some more peculiar agreeableness ot the respective soils and Plants than is ordinarily met with in any other places of the same Country where-ever it be 49. On Blechington-green near the Angel and Crown Inn there is also an Elm of so capacious a hollow trunk that it once gave reception to a poor great bellyed woman excluded all the houses in the Parish to prevent her bringing a charge on it who was brought to bed in it of a Son now a lusty young man and living as they told me at or near Harwich And yet neither this Elm nor the afore-mentioned Oak are either of them so big but that they may be match'd in many other places in so much that I should scarce have thought them worthy my notice had it not been for the strange uses they were heretofore put to 50. And thus I had immediatly passed
a growing have a plentiful issue of thin sap between the bark and the wood and that readily bleed when they are wounded or bored do most commonly if not always certainly dye whereas some of the same trees when older past growing especially if they have a more gummy juice such as Ash Elm Lime-tree c. may live and flourish many years after their disbarking by the saps ascent through the sap or air vessels of the wood 75. Moreover amongst the accidents that have happen'd to Elms I must not forget a very pleasant one that fell out at Middle-Aston where cleaving of Elm blocks at one Mr. Langston's there came out a piece so exactly representing a shoulder of Veal that it was thought worth while to preserve it from the fire by the owner of it by whom it was kindly bestowed on me as an addition to the rest of my Curiosities of Nature 76. But the most remarkable accidents that ever befel trees perhaps here or in any other County were the foundations of two eminent Religious houses both occasion'd by trees The first Oseney Abby founded in that place by Robert D'Oyly the second by reason of a certain tree that stood in the meddows where after he built the Abbey to which it seems repaired a company of Pyes as often as Editha the wife of Robert came to walk that way which in company with her maid she often used to do as Leland expresses it to solace her self g Lelandi Itinerarium Vol. 2. pag. 18 19. at whose arrival the Pyes were alwaies so clamorous that she took notice of it and consults with one Radulphus Canon of St. Frideswid's what this might signifie who cuningly advises that she must build some Church or Monastery where the tree stood which she instantly procures her Husband to do and this Radulphus her Confessor to be made the first Prior. 77. What tree this was Leland acquaints us not but that which occasioned the second Foundation in the place where it is was a triple Elm having three trunks issuing from one root Near such a Tree as this Sir Thomas White Lord Major of London as we have it by Tradition was warned in a Dream he should build a College for the education of Youth in Religion and Learning whereupon he repairs to Oxford and first met with somthing near Glocester-Hall that seem'd to answer his Dream where accordingly he erected a great deal of Building But afterward finding another Elm near St. Bernards College supprest not long before by King Hen. 8. more exactly to answer all the circumstances of his Dream he left off at Glocester-Hall and built St. John Bapt. College which with the very Tree beside it that occasion'd its Foundation flourishes to this day under the Presidence of the Reverend and Learned Dr. Levinz a cordial promoter of this Design 78. Beside the Elms at St. Johns knit together at the root there are two Beeches in the way from Oxford to Reading near a place called Cain-end more strangely joined together a great height from the ground for the bodies of these Trees come from different roots and ascend parallel to the top but are joined together a little before they come to bough by a transverse piece of timber entering at each end into the bodies of the Trees and growing jointly with them for which reason 't is commonly called the Gallow-tree though the piece that intercedes them lies somwhat obliquely How this should come to pass many have wondered but the problem I guess may be easily solved only by allowing the transverse piece of Timber to be one of the boughs of the Tree to which its lowermost end still joins which whilst young and tender might bear so hard against the body of the neighboring Tree that with the continual motion of the wind it might not only fret it self asunder but gall off the bark too of the other Tree which closing up again in calm weather at the rising of the sap might well include so near a neighbor first within its bark and after some time within the wood it self which I have observed to have been done but very lately in New College Gardens where the boughs of two different Sycomores are thus grown together only by bearing hard on one another and interchangably fretting away each others bark and then closing up again at the rising of the sap 79. There have also some accidents befallen the Ash and Willow not commonly met with the former whereof in a Close of one Mr. Coker of the Town of Bisseter grows frequently out of the boal of the other yet not as 't is usual amongst other Trees but so that the roots of the Ashes have some of them grown down through the whole length of the trunks of the Willows and at last fastening into the earth it self have so extended themselves that they have burst the Willows in sunder whose sides falling away from them and perishing by degrees what before were but the roots are now become the bodies of the Ashes themselves But this happens only to Willows that have been lopt at six or seven foot high the Willows at Enston in the walks near the Rock whereof there are several about 50 foot high being incapable I suppose of any such accident 80. Beside this unusual growth of the Ash I have met with other accidents that frequently attend it which because so much commended by Pliny h Nat. Hist. lib. 16. cap. 16. in Maple in which they are common I think ought much more to be noted in this And such are the Nodosities called Bruscum and Molluscum to be found in Ash as well as Maple which when cut shew a curled and twining grain the Bruscum thick and intricate the Molluscum being streaked in a more direct course With the Molluscum of Ash there is a whole Closet wainscoted at the much Honored Mr. Stonor's of Watlington Park the grain of the panes being curiously waved like the Gamahe's of Achats And at the Worshipful Mr. Reads of the Parish of Ipsden the Bruscum of an old Ash is so wonderfully figured that in a Dining-table made of it without the help of fansie you have exactly represented the figure of the Fish we commonly call a Jack though endeavoring to mend they have somwhat marr'd it by Art and in some other Tablets the figures of a Vnicorn and an old Man from the navel upwards but neither of these so plain as the former 81. Jacobus Gaffarellus amongst his unheard of Curiosities i Unheard of Curiosities chap. 5. tells us of a Tree found in Holland which being cut to pieces by a wond-cleaver had in one part of it the figure of a Chalice in another that of a Priests Albe in another that of a Stole and in a word there were represented very near all the ornaments belonging to a Priest which relation if true says he it must needs be confest that these figures could not be there casually or by chance and
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
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
Woodstock might happily pass these places but I guess not set here till they wholly possest themselves of this Southern part of Britan and might securely enough pass their Armies any where and therefore cannot afford them any higher antiquity than the time of Agricola the Lieutenant of Vespasian who compleated the Roman Conquests or at most of Paulinus that defeated Boadicea 57. Under the Sepulchral monuments or tumuli afore-mentioned raised by the Romans over their dead in memory of them they placed the more immediate receptacles of their ashes or at least some part of them as much as could be saved in the Vas ustrinum for they were not so curious as some have imagined to scrape together all the bones and ashes of the Corps as may be easily collected from the smalness of all Vrns but Family ones Yet over all their Vrns they raised not such a tumulus for we find them many times in level ground though containing the remains of noble Persons as may be guessed by the Lamps Lachrymatories and Vessels of Oyls or Aromatical Liquors somtimes found with them 58. Of which sort of Vessels I presume that odd fashioned glass depicted Tab. 15. Fig. 23. must needs be one found in a place called bushy Leas betwixt Brightwel and Chalgrave being part of the possessions of that right worthy Gentleman John Stone of Brightwel Esq surrounded with no less than twelve of those Vrns Tab. 15. Fig. 24. both which amongst many other signal favors were kindly bestowed on me by the same worthy person That the Earthen pot Fig. 24. is a Roman Urn I take to be so plain that it would not need proof though one of the four Regal high-ways were much farther removed than Ikenild way is which comes up almost to Ewelm not far from this place But whether this glass contained a lamp were a Lachrymatorie or a vessel containing water or some Aromatical liquor is the great question next to be determined TAB XV. ad pag. 328. To the Worsp ll The worthy and much Honored Gentlemen JOHN and CARLETON STOEVE Esqrs. This 15th Table Consisting partly of Antiquities whereof the 23d. and 24th were found in the grounds near their Seat at Brightwel in memory of their favours is gratefully dedicated by R.P.L.L.D. Burghers sculpsit 60. But that ours was such a glass including a lamp I dare not conclude more than that it is barely possible it might be so it seeming much rather likely to have been a phiala Lachrymatoria or tear-bottle wherein the surviving Friends of the deceased collected those passionate expressions of their grief and usually buryed with them as is somtimes signified in old Inscriptions by some such expression as Cum lachrymis posuere y Vid. Johan Bapt. Cassalium de Vrbe Ritibus Romanorum cap. 21. only it is of a much different figure from any of those described in Joh. Bapt. Casalius z Ibidem and Paulus Aringhus a Pauli Aringhi Roma subterranea lib. 3. cap. 22. 61. And therefore I rather believe it to have been one of those vessels containing some Aromatical liquor such as they usually interred with the Vrns of Noble Families b Sir Thomas Brown's Hydriotaphia cap. 3. and perhaps a glass of the same kind with those three found in a Roman Vrn preserved by Cardinal Farnese and mentioned by Vigeneri c Ibidem cap. 2. Except we shall rather think it the vessel for the Aqua lustralis sprinkled by the Priest on the Vrns to expiate for the smaller faults of the deceased d Joh. Bapt. Casalius de Urbe ritibus Romanorum cap. 22. which possibly they might after bury with them which waters were otherwise called arferiae aquae and by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Vid. Joh. Meursium de funere cap. 14. But I rather incline to the former of the two because there seems a kind of white substancc yet remaining between the two coats of the glass it being a vessel of a peculiar make one glass as it were including another which possibly might be the sediment of some such Aromatical liquor when dryed away 62. Also in the Parish of Wendlebury I saw a great square stone hollowed round in the middle dug up in or near the old City of Aldcester in which there was set a glass bottle fitted to it containing nothing but somwhat like ashes and cover'd over above with another broad flat stone This Vrn I saw at a house in the Town where 't is used for a Hog-trough but the glass had been broken long before nor could I get any certain description of it however I guess it some such like vessel with that described above and placed there upon the same or like accounts There have been several other Vrns also taken up at divers other places particularly in the old Mine at Blunds Court above-mention'd Chap. 6. § 63. at a place called Drunshil not far from Wood-Eaton but belonging as I was told to the Parish of Marston near the ridged way that comes from Noke and three in one Mr. Finches house at the Mercat-place in Henly and one in the high-way that leads towards the North at the Towns end not far from Ancastle which argues those places some of the first Roman habitations though no recorded garisons 63. Nor indeed is there any such to be found in this County though it cannot but be acknowledged that Oxford it self must be a noted place before the departure of the Romans at least if the Roman way thither described in the Map prove so good an argument to the Reader as my self Where by the way perhaps it may not be unworthy notice that Oxford is mention'd by the Arabian Geographer Sharif ol ' Edrîsi or Adrîsi of whose works the Geographia Nubiensis translated by Gab. Sionita and Joh. Hezronita is too short an Epitome by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ozcfort * Perhaps written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ozcfort by a transposition of the Letters which many times occurs in words of difficult sound instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oczfort withal adding that it stands on the same river with London which river he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Retandah †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Retânde seems to be a fault of the Scribe whereas the Author probably intended to have it read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tâmize or Tâmise 40 miles above it f Sharif Ol ' Edrîsi Geograph MS. Arab. penes Reverend Edw. Pocock S. T. P. Eccles Cath. Christ Oxon. Canonicum which shews that Oxford was always a Town of good repute in the remotest places as well as times 64. As for the antiquity of the Vniversity beside what was alleged § 30. of this Chapter I think it very considerable what remains upon record in Magdalen College Library in an ancient MS of Walter Burley's Fellow of Merton College Tutor to the Famous King Edw. 3. and
deservedly stiled Dr. Profundus upon the Problem Complexio rara quare sanior he has these words which should indeed have been mentioned before Chap. 2. § 3. of this Essay concerning the healthy situation of Oxford and its selection by Students for the seat of the Muses Notanda inquit sunt tria quod Civitas sana est in Borea in Oriente si plantata est aperta in Austro Occidente si montosa propter puritatem Boreae Orientis putrefactionem Austri Occidentis sicut Oxonia quae per industriam Philosophorum de Graecia fuerat ordinata g In problematibus Aristot secundum laborem Magistri Walter Burley ad ordinem Alphabeti MS. 65. in Bib. Coll. B. M. Magdal Oxon fol. 12 b. i. e. that a healthy City must be open to the North and East and mountanous to the South and West by reason of the purity of the two former quarters in respect of the latter just as Oxford is seated which was selected by the Philosophers that came from Greece 65. And that according to the rules of their great Master Hippocrates who requires no other but the very same situation for a healthy City h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippocrat Oper. sect 3. cap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But about what time it was these Philosophers arrived though I dare not be too confident yet in all probability they might be some of those Graecians brought over by Theodorus the Greek Arch-bishop of Canterbury about the year 668 i Godwinus de Praesulib Ang. in vita Theodori whom 't is like he placed here to instruct the Saxon youth for we find Venerable Bede and St. John de Beverlaco alwaies reputed of this Vniversity to have been his Scholars and so Tobias Bishop of Rochester and Albinus Abbot of St. Augustins Cant. who are said to have understood the Greek Tongue as well as their native one k Matth. Parker de Antiquitate Eccles Britan. in vita Theod. 66. Not to mention that Britan was known to the Greeks before the arrival of the Romans for otherwise Polybius could never have hoped to have described Britan or the method there used in ordering Tin as we find he designed having promised to write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l Polybii Megal Historiar lib. 3. p. 209 Edit Is Casaub An. 1619. Which Book though lost yet Strabo * Strabon Geograph lib. 2. pag. 104. Edit Casaub Paris An. 1620. bears us witness that therein he refuted the Errors of Dicaearchus Pythias and Eratosthenes concerning the magnitude of Britan who were also Greek Authors that it seems had written somthing concerning this Island and much ancienter than himself Nor to note secondly that the French Druids who had their Learning out of Britan in things of common concern used the Greek Character m Jul. Caesaris Comment de bello Gallic lib. 6. which how they should come by without the learning of the Greeks which possibly might be brought over by some of their Philosophers who accompanyed the Merchants trading for Tin and seated themselves here let the Reader judge 67. But for the Bishoprick of Oxon it is but of late erection taken out of that of Lincoln by King Hen. 8. and of no longer standing than his days notwithstanding what we meet with in the Decretals of Pope Gregory where we find two Rescripts of Pope Alexander the Third about the year 1158. directed to the Bishop of Oxon. and others n Decret de filiis Presbyteror ordin non c. Proposuit de officio potest just deleg c. Causam it being but a mistake though to be found in all the Copies I could meet with of Oxoniensi for Exoniensi as plainly appears in the fourth Book of the same Decretals o Decret qui filii sint legitimi c. Causam compared with the places afore-cited 68. Yet the ancientest Town of the whole County I take to be Henley so called from the Brittish Hen which signifies old and Lley a place and perhaps might be the head Town of the people called Ancalites that revolted to Caesar p Julii Caesaris Commentar de bello Gallico lib. 5. it was also called Hanleganz and Hanneburg as appears by an Inspeximus of Q. Elizabeth granted this Corporation And there is a place near it still called Ancastle west of the Town where the Wind-mill now stands which is but the Norman name importing the same with the Saxon Hanneburg If it be objected that Aldbury near Ricot in this County according to vulgar tradition is the mother of Henly and consequentially older it may be answer'd that its probable indeed that Christian Henley may be younger than Aldbury in respect of a Church first built there but upon no other account 69. And the Town of Watlington seems of no small antiquity provided its age do but answer its Etymologie for by its name it seems also to have been an old British City which according to Strabo were nothing else but groves fenced about with trees cut down and laid cross one another within which they built them sheds both for themselves and Cattle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q Strabonis Geographiae lib. 4. are his very words which manner of fence the Saxons after called patelas Crates hurdles or wattles within which mound building them tents or coverings by the Saxons also called patel r Gul. Somneri Dictionarium Saxonico-Lat-Angl in verbis from one of these or both I guess this Town took its name 70. As also the Praetorian or Consular way called Watlingstreet and Wattle-bank here in Oxfordshire these in all probability being made the same way that Hadrian is said to have made boundadaries where Rivers were wanting between barbarous people Stipitibus magnis in modum muralis sepis funditus jactis atque connexis ſ Aelius Spartianus in Hadriano i. e. with great stakes set fast in the ground and knit together 't is like with smaller wood woven between which if happily made use of in these ways to keep up the earth at first might well invite the Saxons to name them Wattleing-street Wattle-bank c. 71. Just upon the meeting of Akemanstreet way and the Port way from Wallengford there are also some foot-steps of that decayed ancient station by Camden called Alchester still remaining which he guesses so called as one would say an old Town t Camd. Britan. in Oxon. But I have met with some notes in a MS. now by me that says it was the Seat of Alectus the Emperor who having trecherously slain his Friend and Master the Emperor Carausius basely usurped Britan for himself calling this his new Seat after his own name Alecti Castrum since Alchester or Aldcester but it seems by the story that it florish'd not long for Constantius Chlorus being sent against him by the Emperors Dioclesian and Maximian and by the benefit of a mist landing privatly somwhere on the South shoar near
mention'd by Wormius r Ibidem whereas ours is circular and shews no signs of such gates 88. Which perhaps might occasion the Learned Dr. Charleton to judg it rather a Trophie or Triumphal pile set up as a Monument of some great Victorie s Doctor Charleton's Stone Heng restored to the Danes pag. 46. to whom though I cannot but somwhat incline yet am verily perswaded that at the same time it might serve also for the Election and Inauguration of a King and much rather than the great and famous monument of Stone-Heng on Salesbury Plain the very disparities betwixt it and those in Denmark brought by himself t Idem pag. 54. being not to be found here 89. For beside that it is placed as all such Courts of the Danes were 1. Upon a rising ground for the advantage of prospect that the common people assembled to confirm the suffrages or votes of the Electors by their universal applause and congratulatory acclamations might see and witness the solemn manner of Election 2. Made of huge stones of no regular Figure And thirdly Having no Epigraph or Inscription cut or trenched in the stones as carrying a sufficient evidence of its designment and use in the figure of its platform It is but a single Cirque of stones without Epistyles or Architraves few of them very high on which the Electors might easily get up to give their suffrages as was usually done in the Northern Nations whereas Stone-Heng is made up of three circles at least some say four and the stones of each circle joyned with Architraves whereof there is no example to be found in those Countrys 90. Now that the Northern Nations usually erected such Cirques of rude stones for the election of their Kings is fully testified by Olaus Wormius Reperiuntur inquit in his oris loca quaedam in quibus Reges olim solenni creabantur pompâ quae cincta adhuc grandibus saxis ut plurimum duodecim conspiciuntur in medio grandiore quodam prominente cui omnium suffragiis Electum Regem imponebant magnoque applausu excipiebant Hic Comitia celebrabant de Regni negotiis consultabant Regem vero designaturi Electores Saxis insistebant forum cingentibus decreti firmitudinem pronunciantes u Ol. Wormii Monument Danic lib. 1. cap. 12. i. e. as Englished by Dr. Charleton w Stone-Heng restored to the Danes pag. 48. 91. In this County are beheld certain Courts of Parliament in which Kings heretofore were solemnly elected which are surrounded with great stones for the most part twelve in number and one other stone exceeding the rest in eminency set in the middle upon which as upon a Regal Throne they seated the new elected King by the general suffrage of the Assembly and inaugurated him with great applause and loud acclamations Here they held their great Councils and consulted about affairs of the Kingdom But when they met together to nominate their Kings the Electors stood upright on the stones environing the Court and giving their voices thereby confirmed their choice 92. The very same practice of the Northern Nations with the Ceremonies of it are also briefly set down by Saxo Grammaticus Lecturi Regem veteres affixis humo Saxis insistere suffragiaque promere consueverunt subjectorum lapidum firmitate facti constantiam ominaturi x Saxon. Grammatici Hist Danorum lib. 1. sub initium i. e. that the Ancients being about to choose their King used to stand upon stones fixed in the ground and thence give their votes by the firmness of the stones on which they stood tacitly declaring the firmness of their Act. Which manner of election is also proved of them by Crantzius Meursius and Bernhardus Malincort de Archicancellariis y De quibus vide Olaum Wormium Mon. Dan. lib. 1. cap. 12. 93. Which places of election it seems were held so sacred as further testified by Wormius z Ibidem sub finem and out of him by Dr. Charleton a Stone-Heng restored to the Danes p. 48. that in times of peace the Candidate King was obliged de Jure there to receive his Inauguration the place and ceremonies being accounted essential parts of his right to Soveraignty and the votes of his Electors much more valid and authentick for being pronounced in the usual Forum 94. But if it happened the King fell in a Foreign expedition by the hand of the enemy the Army presently got together a parcel of great stones and set them in such a round as well somtimes perhaps for the interment of the corps of the deceased King as election of his successor And this 't is like they did 1. Because they esteemed an election in such a Forum a good addition of Title And second with all expedition because by the delay of such election too long irreparable damages many times accrewed to the Republick thereupon b Ol. Wormii Mon. Dan. lib. 1. cap. 12. sub finem which practice of the Danes they both confirm by the authorities of Stephanus Stephanius in his Commentaries on the first Book of Saxo Grammaticus's History of Denmark and Svaningius a grave and faithful Writer of that Nation though what they cite of the latter if that be all he says scarce proves quite so much 95. Beside the erection of Stones in Foreign Nations upon the loss of one King and election of another what if I should add that it s also very likely that the same might be done at the Investiture of a Conqueror into a new acquired Principality Thus why might not Rollo either being compelled as a younger brother to leave Denmark or Norway as was appointed by the Law of the former Kingdom and to seek him a new seat c Tho Walsingham's Ypodigma Neustriae in principio or forced from the latter for Piracy by King Harold Harfager as in the Chronicle of Norway d Vid. Chronicon Norwegicum I say why might not Rollo after good success against those he invaded as Walsingham says expresly he was e Tho Walsingham's Ypodigma Neustriae in princip though in another place be elected King by his followers and be inaugurated here as well as there within such a circle of stones which bearing his name to this very day and he being acknowledged both by Bromton f Joh. Bromton Abbat Jornal in An. 875. and Florilegus g Matth. Westmon in An. 897. to have beaten the Saxons and to have tarryed in this Nation a whole Winter it is highly probable he might be 96. For if we enquire into the origin of the name of this Cirque of stones we shall find that Reich or Riic signifies a Kingdom and somtimes a King as Eyn reich fraw the Queen or Kings woman h Vid. Petri Dasypodii Dictionar Lat. German in verb. Regno Whence 't is plain that these stones seem still to be called the stones of King Rollo or perhaps rather of Rollo's Kingdom for it was