charmed by a Mercurial Genius with his Caduceus Which is the sum of what is designed by the painting of the Theater for the most part thus described by William Soper M. A. of Wadham College after of Hart Hall only with some few additions and necessary alterations 164. Beside the painting of the Theater there are other fine pieces perhaps as well worthy notice such are the Resurrections at Magdalen and all-All-souls Colleges both of Fullers work though the latter indeed be somwhat defaced The written Picture of his Majesty King Charles the first in St. Johns College Library taking up the whole Book of Psalms in the English tongue and the written Picture of King James and the Arms of England as now born taking up the whole Book of Psalms in the Latin in the hands of Mr. Moorhead Rector of Bucknel are pretty curiosities and much admired 165. And so is the Cat painted over one of the compartments including the Arms of the Vniversity in the South side of the gallery at the Schools for her looking directly upon all her Beholders on what side soever they place themselves which common yet surprizing effect of the Painters Art is caused says the ingenious Honoratus Faber x Honorati Fabri Tract de Homine Lib. 2. prop. 93. sub finem in all Pictures whatever of this nature by their turning the nose to one side and the eyes to the other whence it comes to pass that such Pictures seem to look to the right side because indeed the eyes are turned that way and to the left in like manner because the point of the nose is turned to the left where by the way he also notes that 't is necessary that all such pictures be drawn on flat tables so that the Beholder perceive not that the eyes of the picture are turned contrary to the nose which he must needs do if the eyes of the portraict were convex concluding that no figure can be made in Rilievo thus to look every way 166. To this place also belongs the Invention of drawing pictures by Microscopical glasses by Sir Christopher Wren y History of the Royal Society Part. 2. sub finem and the Invention of Mr. Bird Stone-Cutter or Carver of Oxford of sinking a colour a considerable depth into the body of polish'd white marble by application of it to the out-side only so that the same Figures delineated without shall be as perfectly represented within deeper or shallower according as he continues his application to the surface a longer or shorter while z Philosoph Transact Numb 7. And if we may take in Etching which is painting in Copper there is a very curious and speedy way also invented by the so often mentioned Sir Christopher Wren a Hist of the Royal Society Part. 2. sub finem And which borders still on these in the Statuaries Trade we can shew two excellent pieces of Art in the Statues of Brass of King Charles the first and his Queen Henrietta placed in the Niches over the gates of the new Quadrangle in Saint John Baptist College Oxon. 167. In some other Trades yet inferior to these there have been made also considerable Inventions and Improvements such as that of weaving silk stockings first invented by one Mr. William Lee M. A. of this Vniversity who being marryed and poor and observing how much pains his Wife took in knitting a pair of stockings put himself on thinking of a nearer way whereupon having observed the contrivance of the stitches by unravelling a stocking he designed a Loom accordingly which succeeded so well that with but small alteration it remains the same to this very day 168. And 't is confidently vouched that the Engine for cutting of handles of Knives we commonly buy cut into those various figures was first invented and practiced here in Oxford by Thomas Pierce a Cutler whose Apprentice now practices the same Art in London But not with so much accuracy as Robert Alder another Cutler of Oxford who only by observance of the others work and long study at last found it out also and hath improved it much which two last as I am informed are the only two persons that can do this in England perhaps I may say i th' World Nor can I pass by the Invention in the Coopers Trade of making barrels without hoops whereof I found a specimen in St. Ebbs Parish Oxon. though I know the Invention belongs to another place of which more when I come thither 169. For Improvements 't is certain that the Blanketing trade of Witney is advanced to that height that no place comes near it some I know attribute a great part of the excellency of these Blankets to the abstersive nitrous water of the River Windrush wherewith they are scoured as was mentioned before cap. 2 § 12. but others there are again that rather think they owe it to a peculiar way of loose spinning the people have hereabout perhaps they may both concur to it However it be 't is plain they are esteemed so far beyond all others that this place has engrossed the whole trade of the Nation for this Commodity in so much that the wool fit for their use which is chiefly fell wooll off from Sheep-skins centers here from some of the furthermost parts of the Kingdom viz. from Rumney-marsh Canterbury Colchester Norwich Exeter Leicester Northampton Coventry Huntington c. of which the Blanketers whereof there are at least threescore in this Town that amongst them have at least 150 Looms employing near 3000 poor people from children of eight years old to decrepit old age do work out above a hundred packs of wool per week 170. This Fell wool they separate into five or six sorts viz. long fell wooll head wooll bay wool ordinary middle and tail wooll Long fell wooll they send to Wells Taunton Tiverton c. for making worsted stockings of head wool and bay wool they make the blankets of 12 11 and 10 quarters broad and somtimes send it if it bear a good price to Kederminster for making their Stuffs and to Evesham Parshore c. for making yarn stockings or into Essex for making Bays whence one sort of them I suppose is called bay wool of the ordinary and middle they make blankets of 8 and 7 quarters broad and of these mixt with the courser locks of fleece wooll a sort of stuff they call Duffields which if finer than ordinary they make too of fleece wooll of which Duffields and blankets consists the chief Trade of Witney 171. These Duffields so called from a Town in Brabant where the trade of them first began whence it came to Colchester Braintry c. and so to Witney otherwise called shags and by the Merchants trucking cloth they make in pieces of about 30 yards long and one yard ¾ broad and dye them red or blue which are the colours best please the Indians of Virginia and New England with whom the Merchants truck them for Bever
said to promote their tryal 21. Hither also must be reduced a courser sort of Smiris dug up in the pits at Whately Towns end of a cinereous colour hard and rough and striking fire as well as a Flint The best sort of Smiris serves for several uses but ours is fit only to cut the harder sort of stones that the sand commonly used will not so well do and perhaps for some other inferior uses 22. And to these must be added the several sorts of Sands which upon violent motions all strike fire and are commonly and somtimes promiscuously used for Building Hour-glasses and cutting of Stone But some there are of a more peculiar and considerable use and such is that dug in the Parish of Kingham which after 't is washed and duly ordered so perfectly resembles Calis-sand that it serves and is sold for the very same it is not found in every place but they have signs like Miners to know where it lies viz. a sort of stuff that looks almost like rotten wood which if they meet with under the Turf they seldom fail of the Sand a little deeper which they first cleanse from rubbish and the greater stones by putting it through a course sieve then they wash it in a trough and lay it a drying which when sufficiently done they separate again by a finer sieve the courser part of it from the finer the courser serves for wheting of sithes but the finer sort for scouring pewter for which purpose it seems 't is so very excellent that the Retailers sell it for a penny a pound which amounts to above twenty shillings a bushel 23. Other sands there are also of very good use to give a consistency and body to glass the naturally whitest are at Nettlebed and Shot-over but the finest by much at Finstock and Ledwell which when washed and cleansed at least equal the former The first of these has been tryed with success at the Glass-house at Henly and any of the rest perhaps might prove as good Tarso as any they have from France or is used in Italy were they but in place where they might be tryed 24. From Sands I proceed to Lapis arenarius commonly called Free-stone and used in Building of which we have as great plenty and variety in Oxford-shire peradventure as in any other part of England The Quarry at Heddington scarce two miles from Oxford supplies us continually with a good sort of stone and fit for all uses but that of fire in which that of Teynton and Hornton excel it In the Quarry it cuts very soft and easie and is worked accordingly for all sorts of Building very porous and fit to imbibe lime and sand but hardening continually as it lies to the weather 25. Of it in general there are two sorts one that they call Free-stone and the other Rag-stone but these again are subdivided into several species according as they are cut or put to divers uses The Free-stone if cut cubically into very great blocks is then by way of eminence called nothing but Free-stone but if cut into oblong or other sorts of squares of a lesser bulk they then call it Ashler and the fragments of these of inequilateral multangular Figures Scabble-burs The two first are used in principal Buildings and the last if squared is somtimes mixed with Ashler in Range-work or by it self in that they call Planten-work in the meaner Buildings but when not squared at all is commonly thrown in amongst Rag-stone for walling for which only and making lime that second sort is good except it rises flat in the bed and then 't is worth the while to hew it for paving 26. Of the stone afore-mentioned consists the gross of our Buildings but for Columns Capitels Bases Window-lights Door-cases Cornishing Mouldings c. in the chiefest work they use Burford-stone which is whiter and harder and carries by much a finer Arris than that at Heddington but yet is not so hard as that at Teynton nor will it like that endure the fire of which they make Mault-kills and hearths for Ovens but then they take care to surbed the stone i. e. set it edg-ways contrary to the posture it had in the bed for otherwise there will be some danger of its flying 27. Beside the fire it endures the weather for of this mixed with another sort dug near Whately on the Worcester road side as it passes betwixt Holton and Sir Timothy Tyrrills are all the oldest Colleges in Oxford built as Baliol Merton Exeter Queens Canterbury now part of Ch. Ch. College Durham now Trinity College New College Lincoln All Souls Magdalen Brasen-nose and the outermost Quadrangle of St. John Bapt. Coll. yet it endures not the weather so well as Heddington by reason I suppose of a salt it has in it which the weather in time plainly dissolves as may be seen by the Pinnacles of New College Chappel made of this stone and thus melted away 28. And yet the moisture of water has no such power over it but that they make of it Troughs and Cisterns and now of late Mesh-fats for Brewing first hinted 't is true by Mr. Bayly of Ducklington but practised by one Mr. Veysey of Teynton who had the first made him by one Strong a Mason which it seems did answer expectation so well that it has since obtained in many other places Of these that generous and courteous Gentleman Sir Compton Read of Shipton under Whichwood has one that holds about sixty five bushels drawn home with no less than one and twenty horses they ordinarily mesh in it three quarters of Mault but can when at any time necessity requires mesh five at a time the dimensions of which Vessel of one single stone taken within the hollow and abating its thickness because of its vast unusual magnitude I thought fit to note and give as followeth long 2 yards ⅛ broad 1 yard ⅛ and ½ an inch deep 1 yard ½ yet much larger than this might be had from the Quarry were there use for them or could portage be contrived for as I was informed by many credible witnesses there was one single stone dug in this Quarry containing no less than three hundred tuns And another in the year 1673. measured by Mr. Veysey of an hundred and three tuns accounting sixteen foot cubic to the tun 29. Other Quarries there are also of considerable use as Bladen Little Milton Barford and Hornton whereof the last has the best Fire-stone of any in the County some of it seems to have Iron-colour'd veins that receive as I have seen a tolerable polish and is the stone I mention'd before whose chippings laid on it improve their land by reason I suppose of the salt there is in it which may also be the cause it endures fire so well 30. At Cornbury Park there was a sort of stone the Quarry whereof is now quite exhausted that never would sweat in the moistest weather of which the pavement of the Hall in
room above to view the curiosity the stones are all cuneoform and laid like that they call straight Arch-work 137. The Roof of Merton College Treasury is also an odd piece of stone-work being all made of Ashler yet slooping to an angle only more acute than usual like roofs made of Timber It has 't is true within three inequidistant arched ribs of stone that seem to support the Fabrick which is about 20 foot long but the stones not reaching from rib to rib and seeming to be laid like common pavement both within and without make many to wonder that it does not fall in but the stones being pretty thick and cut as they call it with an arching joint must necessarily lye as firm and for the very same reason as those at Queens College do and so most certainly they would were the arches quite removed There is also much such another roof over a little Oratory or Chappel in the Church of North Leigh in this County 138. As for arched roofs of stone that of the Divinity School is a fine piece of Architecture and so is that of the stately stair-case leading into Christ-Church great hall The Physick garden gate is a curious piece of rustick rock-work and the Portch at St. Maries the Vniversity Church is a well contrived thing And were it not improper amongst these to mention a structure of so inferior a quality as New College house of Easement commonly called the long-house I could not but note it as a stupendious piece of building it being so large and deep that it has never been emptyed since the foundation of the College which was above 300 years since nor is it ever like to want it 139. The Portico's on the East and West sides of the New Quadrangle at St. Johns College built by the most Reverend Father in God William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury supported with pillars of Blechington Marble are well worthy notice and so is the Cloyster at Magdalen College the Butteresses without being curiously adorned with Hieroglyphical Imagery 140. The erect Southern declining Dial over All Souls College Chappel is a neat piece of work so curiously contrived by Sir Christopher Wren that though it stand high yet by the help of two half rays and one whole one for every hour one may see to a minute what it is a clock the minutes being depicted on the sides of the rays viz. 15 on each side and divided into fives by a different character from the rest 141. The Cylindrical Dyal in Corpus Christi College Quadrangle set at right angles with the Horizon the common sections whereof with the hour circles except the Meridian circle which divides it by the axis as also the Aequinoctial are all Ellipses is a fine old piece of Gnomonicks of which no more because its Contriver Mr. Robert Heggs Fellow of the College has already written of it q Tract de Horologiis Lib 4. cap. 4. MS. in Biblioth C.C.C. And the Dials made upon a pile of Books on New College Mount with Time on the top exactly pointing out from what Quarter the wind blows upon the 32 Points of the Compass depicted on a Cylinder of stone is an ingenious contrivance 142. There are many lofty spires about the Country as well as City built all of Free-stone and of exquisite workmanship such as those of Bampton Witney Burford Bloxham Spelsbury Kidlington c. but that which excels all the rest is the spire of St. Mary's in Oxford the Vniversity Church the Battlements whereof were repaired and thus thick set with Pinnacles as it now stands by Dr. King Dean of Christ Church then Vice-Chancellor of the Vniversity afterwards Bishop of London 143. For Towers that of Merton College is a large well built thing and so is that of the Schools but more remarkable for that it is adorned on the inner side next the Quadrangle with all the orders of Pillars But for a neat plain piece of work that of Magdalen College excells all I have yet seen adorned on the top with well proportion'd Pinnacles and within with a most tunable sweet ring of bells Miraris Turrim egregiam sacro Aere sonantem 144. Amongst curiosities in Timber-work we may reckon several screens in College Chappels such as that of Magdalen College that of Cedar at Lincoln College and another at Corpus Christi now erecting There is an Altar rail at All Souls College of curious workmanship and to this place belongs the Tomb of St. Frideswide still remaining at Christ Church the top whereof is wood and a fine old piece of work But not comparable to the Tomb of fair Rosamund at Godstow in the Chapter-house of the Nuns there which according to the description of Ranulph Higden seems to have been also of wood and of wonderful contrivance cista ejusdem puellae says he having spoken before of her death and Epitaph and of the Amour's between her and K. Henry the second vix bipedalis mensurae sed mirabilis architecturae ibidem cernitur c r Ranulphi Higden Polyckron Lib. 7. in Hen. 2. MS. fol. in Bib. Bod. i. e. That her chest coffin or tomb was there to be seen not above two foot long or perhaps rather square but a stupendous piece of workmanship in qua says the same Author at the same place conflictus Pugilum gestus animalium volatus avium saltus piscium absque hominis impulsu conspiciuntur i. e. where in might be seen the conflicts of champions the gestures of animals the flights of birds with fishes leaping and all done without the assistance of man 145. By what means this was effected we are not informed by the afore-cited Author but the Learned Thomas Allen M. A. of Glocester-hall thought it might be done by a sort of Looking-glass whose structure he found mentioned in an ancient MS De Arcanis Secretis with this Title Speculum in quo uno visu apparebunt multae imagines moventes se To be made thus accipe pixidem bene profundam pone in fundo ejus speculum commune sc convexum postea c. Take says the Author a deep box and place in the bottom of it a common convex glass then take 6 or 7 other convex glasses of the same bigness and scrape off the lead plumbum is the word in the concave part with a knife where by the way the Author advises that since it is very hard to get the lead clean off without breaking the glass that Quick-silver be made use of to anoint the lead to get it off 146. These glasses when made clean he orders to be put into the box so as they may stand obliquely in divers positions in this manner When the first glass is put in the bottom the second must be so put that one side of it must touch the first glass and the opposite side be distant from it an inch sic says he oblique pones in pixide In the top there must be put one