Imprimatur hic Liber cui titulus The Natural History of Oxford-shire RA BATHVRST Vice-Cancellar OXON April 13. 1676. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF OXFORD-SHIRE Being an Essay toward the Natural History OF ENGLAND By Robert Plot Doctor of Laws 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arat. in Phaenom Printed at the THEATER in OXFORD and are to be had there And in London at Mr. Moses Pits at the Angel in St. Pauls Church-yard and at Mr. S. Millers at the Star near the West-end of St. Pauls Church To the most Sacred Majesty of Charles the Second By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britan France and Ireland Defender of the FAITH c. May it please Your Majesty IT had certainly been an unpardonable presumtion for so mean a person as the Author of this Essay to have presented Your Majesty with a yet meaner discourse had not the subject of it alwaies deserved the notice and the Enquirers into it the favor of Princes Thus had Aristotle in writing his Treatise of Animals the assistance of Alexander and Pliny the Patronage of Titus Vespatian to his Natural History Beside this attemt seems more justly to belong to Your Majesty than any of their Histories to their respective Patrons it being so far from exceeding Your Majesties Dominions that it contains but an Enquiry into one of the smallest parts of them viz. Your alwaies Loial County and University of Oxford whereas their Volumes are bounded only with the Universe Yet what more particularly moved me to present it to Your Majesty is not only Your favor to Learning in general and especially to this place but much more Your Majesties exquisit insight into the matter it self insomuch that though the former might have given me some confidence of Your Majesties acceptance yet it seems more my interest to appeal to Your Judgment and humbly to implore Your Majesties decision VVhether if England and Wales were thus surveyed it would not be both for the honor and profit of the Nation VVhich design if Your Majesty think fit to disapprove it will yet be some satisfaction to the Author that he has shewed his ready though misguided zeal to serve his Country But if Your Majesty shall judge it advantageous to the Kingdom or but any way worthy Your Majesties diversion there shall none more industriously and chearfully proceed in it than Your Majesties most Loial and most obedient Subject Rob. Plot. To the Reader THough this Essay has swell'd to so much greater a Bulk than ever I expected it could possibly have done that I might well have superseded any further address than that of Dedication yet it being but necessary to acquaint the Reader with some matters that are general and will serve for all other Counties as well as this I thought good to put them down briefly as followeth And first that though I dare not pretend the Map of Oxford-shire prefixt to this Essay is so accurate as any I shall make hereafter yet I dare promise the Reader it far exceeds any we had before for beside that it contains all the Mercat Towns and many Parishes omitted by Saxton Speed c. it shews also the Villages distinguished by a different mark and character and the Houses of the Nobility and Gentry and others of any magnitude within the County and all these with their bearings to one another according to the Compass And as for the distances though I dare not promise them Mathematically exact which by reason of the risings and fallings of the ground interpositions of Woods Rivers c. I think scarce possible in many places to be given at all yet some few of them are as true as actual dimensuration and most of them as the doctrin of Triangles and the best information all compared together could direct me to put them So that provided they have not been moved in the Graving as I think they have but little I take them all seated not far from the truth As for the scale of miles there being three sorts in Oxford-shire the greater lesser and middle miles as almost every where else it is contrived according to the middle sort of them for these I conceive may be most properly called the true Oxford-shire miles which upon actual dimensuration at several places I found to contain for the most part 9 furlongs and a quarter of which about 60 answer a Degree Where by the way it s but expedient that the Reader take notice that I intend not that there are 60 of these miles in a degree according to the common account for reckoning 5280 feet or eight furlongs to a mile as is usual in England no less than 69 will correspond to a degree upon which account it is and no other that of the middle Oxford-shire miles each containing 9 furlongs and a quarter about 60 will do it According to these miles the degrees of North latitude are divided into minutes on each side the Map chiefly made off from the exact Northern latitude of Oxford collected from the many years observations of Dr. Banbridg and at last concluded to be seated in the 46 minute of the 51 degree proxime the 52 nd degree beginning at the small line passing through Mixbury Clifton north of Deddington the two Barfords South Nuneton and between Hoke Norton and the Lodge By which division 't is easie to know to a minute of a degree nay almost to a second in what latitude every Town Parish Village and Gentlemans House is seated Beside for the Houses of the Nobility and Gentry this Map is so contrived that a Foreigner as well as English-man at what distance soever may with ease find out who are the Owners of most of them so as to be able to say that this is such or such a Gentlemans House And all this done by Figures put to every such House which referring again to Figures of the same value placed in order over the Arms in the Limb of the Map shew in the bottom of each Shield the Nobleman or Gentlemans name whose house it is their respective Coats of Arms being always placed between the Figure and Name which too all but some few are cut in their metals furs or colours as born by their Owners And not only the Shields but Ordnaries Charges Differences c. where they are not too small if Argent being left white if Or filled with small points if Gules lineated perpendicularly or in pale if Azure horizontally or fess-ways if Vert obliquely or bend-ways if Sable both pale and fess-ways as may be seen in the Map which are all the colours made use of there And if ever hereafter I shall meet with any bearing Purpure Ten or Sanguine the first shall be represented with Lines in bend sinister Ten with lines salter-ways mixt of Vert and Purpure and Sanguine paly bendy mixt of Gules and Purpure According to this method not only the Arms of the University all the Colleges
find any eminently salt or sulphureous waters but there it admits the nitrous Windrush so well impregnated with that abstersive salt that no place yields Blanketing so notoriously white as is made at Witney a Mercat Town on that River and upon this account the most eminent in England for that kind of Trade though I am not ignorant that some add another cause joyntly contributing with the afore-mentioned to the excellency of these Blankets of which more at large when I come to treat of Arts. 13. Somwhat lower about Cassington it receives the Evenlode a River whose Banks especially near the Fountain heads are very well saturated with both the Minerals witness the waters that rise a little above Sir Thomas Pennyston's in the Parish of Cornwell from a sort of Earth that may well pass for a Marle and the brinish Bog near Churchill-mill which though upon the surface of the ground seems to have no communication with the adjoyning Rivulet yet being so near and the Glebe all thereabout being to be presumed of a like nature it must needs lick some of the Mineral in its passage About Kingham I was told of a sulphureous Earth and that some of the Waters there were of such an odour but whether true or no I am sure on the other side the water at a place called Bould in the Parish of Idbury it is manifestly so which being not far from the River at least not from the Stream that runs by Foscot and so into it in all likelyhood may impart to the waters hereabout no mean quantity of its more volatile parts Upon the Cherwell we have a salt Spring runs immediatly into it and perhaps the sulphureous Glebe of Deddington may somwhere reach the River The Banks of the Thame are so well sated with some kind of acid that no well-water in the whole Town of the name will either brew or lather with soap But none of these give a tincture so high that they can be perceived by the most exquisite palate but only so far forth as may conduce to a due fermentation and to keep them living And yet without doubt from hence it is that the Thames water at Sea in eight months time acquires so spirituous and active a quality that upon opening some of the Cask and holding the candle near the bung-hole its steams have taken fire like Spirit of wine and somtimes endanger'd firing the Ship i Philosoph Transact Num. 27. pag. 495. Hence 't is also that its stench is no absolute corruption and that after a third or fourth fermentation it equals the waters of the Well in the Haven of Brundusium * Plin. Nat. Hist lib. 2. cap. 103. and stinks no more and though the Mariners are somtimes forced to drink it and hold their noses yet upon that account they do not sicken whereas all other waters as far as has been hitherto observed become irrecoverable upon stinking and dangerous to drink 14. Cardan in his Comment upon Hippocrates k De Aere Aquis locis super Text. 3. takes the plenty and goodness of the Fish to be a sure indication of the wholsomness of waters And our Country-man the ingenious Dr Browne * General Description of Hungary pag. 10. speaking of the great fecundity of the River Tibiscus admits it into consideration whether its exceeding fertility may not be ascribed to the saline Tinctures it receives from the natural salt Mines it licks by the way which opinions if approved as rationally they may be shew the health of our waters and the reason of it too for though we must not compare our Isis with Tibiscus or Brodrack the one whereof is said to consist of two parts of water and one of Fish and the other so replenish'd with them that in Summer when the River is low the People say The water smells of Fish yet in the year 1674. it gave so ample testimony of its great plenty that in two days appointed for the Fishing of Mr Major and the Bayliffs of the City it afforded betwixt Swithins-Wear and Woolvercot-bridge which I guess may be about three miles distant fifteen hundred Jacks beside other Fish which great fecundity as it argues the goodness of the Element so 't is no whether to be referr'd as to its original cause but to the various Salts upon which depend the propagation of all sorts of Species's l Willis de Ferment cap. 2. and as far as concerns this part of the Animal Kingdom are plentifully to be found at the bottoms of some Rivers 15. And I said the rather at the bottoms of Rivers not only because Bodies from Salts have their solidity and weight m Willis de Ferment cap. 2. and therefore may well be presumed to reside in the lowest places but because I find it the joynt agreement of all the Water-men hereabout that I have yet talk'd with that the congelation of our Rivers is always begun at the bottom which however surprizing it may seem to the Reader is neither unintelligible nor yet ridiculous for beside matter of fact wherein they all consent viz. that they frequently meet the Ice-meers for so they call the cakes of Ice thus coming from the bottom in their very rise and somtimes in the under-side including stones and gravel brought with them ab imo it seems upon consideration also consonant to reason for that congelations come from the conflux of Salts before dispers'd at large is as plain as the vulgar experiment of freezing a pot by the fire and that induration and weight come also from thence sufficiently appears from the great quantities of them that are always found in stones bones testaceous and all other weighty bodies n Willis de Ferment cap. 12. Now whatever makes things compact and ponderous must needs be indued with the same qualities it self and therefore affect suitable places so that why standing Pools should freez at the top might possibly have proved the greater difficulty of the two had not the Learned Dr Willis already cleared the point by shewing us that all standing waters are more or less in a state of putrefaction o Willis de Ferment cap. 8. with their salts and sulphurs ready for flight and in that posture catch'd by the adventitious cold are probably so congealed at the top of the water How consonant to truth this Theory may be I leave to the Readers judgment and future experience and by the way would have him take notice that as this so my other opinions hereafter to be mentioned are not magisterially laid down so as to justle out better whenever they can be brought but fairly to have their tryal and so live or dye But as to the matter of Fact as I cannot but think it hard that so many people should agree in a falsity so methinks 't is as difficult they should mistake in their judgments since I was told by one of the soberest of that calling that he once knew a
find I in other Authors that it was ever after attempted One there was 't is true sent hither as a present by St. Lewis the 9th King of France to King Henry the Third Anno 1255. which says Matthew Paris * Matth. Paris in Reg. Hen. 3. in Anno Dom. 1255. was the first seen on this side the Alps and perhaps there may have been two or three brought for shew hither since but whether it be likely any of these should be buryed at Cornwell let the Reader judge 163. Beside had this thigh-bone and tooth and the several others that have been found in England such as the two teeth taken up at Edulfsness in the County of Essex in the Raign of King Richard the First that might have been cut into two hundred of an ordinary cize m Cambden in Essex and divers other bones and teeth found at Chartham near Canterbury n Chartham news set forth by Mr. Joh. Somner and Farley near Maidstone in Kent whereof I have one now by me dug up and given me by the truly Noble and Ingenious Jacob Lord Astley near seven inches round and five ounces and â…› in weight of which more when I come into Kent Had I say these bones and teeth been ever the spoils of Elephants we should certainly at some time or other have met also with those greater Tusks with which they are armed of which I have not heard there have been any yet found in England nor any thing like them 164. Add hereunto what prevails with me much that since the great conflagration of London Anno 1666. upon the pulling down of St. Mary Wool-Church and making the site of it into a Mercat-place there was found a thigh-bone supposed to be of a Woman now to be seen at the Kings-head Tavern at Greenwich in Kent much bigger and longer than ours of stone could in proportion be had it been intire We have also here at Oxford * In the Medicine School a thigh-bone that came from London three foot and two inches long which I guess may be of an agreeable proportion with ours And the same day I brought the tooth from Cornwell there were two others happily procured for me by my worthy Friend Samuel Fowler A. M. dug up in the Parish Church of Morton Valence about seven miles from Glocester in the way thence to Bristol in all points so exactly like the other from Cornwell in ridges cavities c. that had they not differ'd somwhat in colour they could scarce have any way been distinguish'd Now how Elephants should come to be buryed in Churches is a question not easily answered except we will run to so groundless a shift as to say that possibly the Elephants might be there buryed before Christianity florish'd in Britan and that these Churches were afterward casually built over them 165. If it be urged out of Ponticus Virunnius and some others that the Emperor Claudius was at Glocester and that he built that City after his own name in memory of the Marriage of his fair Daughter Gennissa with Arviragus then King of Britan o Pont. Virunnii Hist. Britan. lib. 4. where possibly he might have some of his Elephants with him which might dye and be buried thereabout It must be answered that notwithstanding the name of Claudii Castrum now Glocester seems so much to favor the story in hand that yet in all likelyhood there was never any such matter For neither Suetonius p Sueton. in vita Claudii who numbers up all the Daughters that he had and shews how given in Marriage Nor Dion q Dion Cass Rom. Hist lib. 60. who do's the same who lived in his time and had born the Office of Consul remember any such Daughter or so disposed of to Arviragus 166. Beside how was it possible that Claudius who came hither and was returned again to Rome within six months should find so much time as to come up so far in the Country as Glocester much less to celebrate such a Marriage and build that City since the same Dion expresly says that of those six months time he was here in Britan but sixteen days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are his own words r Idem loco citato and those sixteen days in all probability were spent in ordering his Army and joyning them with the Forces of Plautius that lay then at the mouth of Thames ready to receive him and in taking of Camulodonum which the same Author asserts he did that Expedition and so immediatly returned 167. But what is instar omnium in this difficult point there happily came to Oxford while I was writing of this a living Elephant to be shewn publickly at the Act An. 1676. with whose bones and teeth I compared ours and found those of the Elephant not only of a different shape but also incomparably bigger than ours though the Beast were very young and not half grown If then they are neither the bones of Horses Oxen nor Elephants as I am strongly perswaded they are not upon comparison and from their like found in Churches It remains that notwithstanding their extravagant magnitude they must have been the bones of Men or Women Nor doth any thing hinder but they may have been so provided it be clearly made out that there have been Men and Women of proportionable stature in all ages of the World down even to our own days P68 The Sons of Anak no question were very great men and Goliath for certain was nine foot nine inches high s 1 Sam. c. 17. v. 4. We read also of the Sons of the Titans and of high Giants t Judith 16. v. 7. and of Giants famous from the begining that were of great stature and expert in War u Baruch 3. v. 26. And to omit the Fables of the Giants of Mount Erice near Drepanum in Sicily 200 cubits high of Tanger in Mauritania 60 cubits w Vid. Athan. Kircheri Mundum subterr lib. 8 sect 2. cap. 4. and of the Giant found standing in a Rock cleft by an Earth-quake in the Isle of Candy 46 cubits supposed to be Orion or Otus x Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 7. cap. 16. and several others mentioned by Phlegon * Phlegon Trallianus de rebus mirabilibus cap. 11 12 17 18 19. Amongst the Romans Theutobochus King of the Teutones or Germans vanquish'd by Marius is reported by Florus to be insigne 〈…〉 phispectaculum so very tall that he was seen above all the Trophees y Flâ—ri Hist. Rom. lib 3 cap. 3. which were the spoils of the Enemies usually carryed aloft upon the tops of spears Naevius Pollio says Pliny z Nat Hist lib. 7. cap. 16. was so great a Giant having no account of his dimensions that it was taken for a wonderful strange thing that when a great press of people came running upon him he had like to have been killed 169. But to come closer to the business and more determinate statures
1650. this Anne Green being a Servant-maid of the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Read of Duns Tew in Oxford-shire was gotten with child by some servant or other of the family as she constantly affirmed when she had little reason to lye and through over-working her self in turning of mault fell in travel about the fourth month of her time But being but a young wench and not knowing what the matter might be repairs to the house of easment where after some straining the child scarce above a span long of what sex not to be distinguish'd fell from her unawares Now presently after there appearing signs of some such matter in the linnen where she lay and she before having confest that she had been guilty of what might occasion her being with child a search instantly was made and the Infant found on the top of the ordure 14. Whereupon within three days after her delivery she was conveyed to the Castle at Oxford where forthwith an Assise being purchased on purpose she was arraigned before Serjeant Vmpton Croke then living but at Marston who sat as Judge by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer and by him sentenced to be hanged which was accordingly executed on the fourteenth of December in the said Castle-yard where she hung about half an hour being pulled by the legs and struck on the brest as she her self desired by divers of her friends and after all had several stroaks given her on the stomach with the but-end of a Soldiers Musket Being cut down she was put into a coffin and brought away to a house to be dissected where when they opened it notwithstanding the rope still remained unlosed and straight about her neck they perceived her brest to rise whereupon one Mason a Tayler intending only an act of charity set his foot upon her brest and belly and as some say one Orum a Soldier struck her again with the but-end of his musket 15. Notwithstanding all which when the learned and ingenious Sir William Petty then Anatomy Professor of the Vniversity Dr. Willis and Dr. Clark now President of Magdalen College and Vice-Chancellor of the Vniversity came to prepare the body for dissection they perceived some small ratling in her throat hereupon desisting from their former purpose they presently used means for her recovery by opening a vein laying her in a warm bed and causing another to go into bed to her also using divers remedies respecting her senselessness Head Throat and Brest in so much that within 14 hours she began to speak and the next day talked and prayed very heartily 16. During the time of this her recovering the officers concerned in her execution would needs have had her away again to have compleated it on her but by the mediation of the worthy Doctors and some other Friends with the then Governor of the City Colonel Kelsey there was a guard set upon her to hinder all further disturbance till he had sued out her pardon from the Powers then in being thousands of people in the mean time coming to see her and magnifying the just Providence of God in thus asserting her innocency of murther 17. After some time Dr. Petty hearing she had discoursed with those about her and suspecting that the women might suggest unto her to relate somthing of strange visions and apparitions she had seen during the time she seemed to be dead which they already had begun to do telling about that she said she had been in a fine green meddow having a River running round it and that all things there glittered like silver and gold he caused all to depart the room but the Gentlemen of the Faculty who were to have been at the dissection and asked her concerning her sense and apprehensions during the time she was hanged 18. To which she answered at first somwhat impertinently talking as if she had been then to suffer And when they spake unto her concerning her miraculous deliverance she answered that she hoped God would give her patience and the like Afterward when she was better recovered she affirmed that she neither remembred how the fetters were knocked off how she went out of the Prison when she was turned off the ladder whether any Psalm was sung or not nor was she sensible of any pains that she could remember what is most observable is that she came to her self as if she had awakened out of a sleep not recovering the use of her speech by slow degrees but in a manner all together beginning to speak just where she left off on the gallows 19. Being thus at length perfectly recovered after thanks given to God and the persons instrumental in it she retired into the Country to her friends at Steeple-Barton where she was afterwards marryed and lived in good repute amongst her Neighbors having three Children afterwards and not dying as I am informed till the year 1659. Which occurrence being thought worthy of remembrance by the Author of the continuation of the History of the World by Dionysius Petavius who esteemed it no less than the finger of God pointing out the Maids innocency and by Mr. Heath who thought fit to transmit it to posterity for Gods glory and mans caution in judging and punishing It would have been a great omission in me to have passed it by untouched 20. Not long after viz. in the year 1658. Elizabeth the servant of one Mrs. Cope of Magdalen Parish Oxon was indicted at the City Sessions for killing her bastard child and putting it in the house of office of which being convicted she was condemned to dye and accordingly was hanged at green-ditch the place appointed for the execution of the City malefactors where she hung so long that one of the by-standers scrupled not to say that if she were not dead he would be hanged for her hereupon being cut down the gallows being very high she fell with such violence on the ground that it would have been enough to have been the death of many another person only to have had such a fall Being thus cut down she was put into a coffin and brought to the George Inn in Magdalen Parish aforesaid which when opened they found perfect life in her as in the former whereupon breathing a vein and putting her to bed with another young wench by her she came quickly to her self and might no question have lived also many years after but having no friends to appear for her she was barbarously dragg'd the night following by the order of one Mallory then one of the Bayliffs of the City to Glocester-green and there drawn up over one of the arms of the Trees and hang'd a second time till she was dead 21. After what concerns women solitarily consider'd who according to the courtesie of England have always the first place come we next to treat of things unusual that concern women and men joyntly together amongst which I think we may reckon many ancient Customs still retained here abolish'd and quite lost in most
truly than they were before in the Julian Calendar upon whose foundations Aloysius and the rest of the sumptuous College of Mathematicians at Rome having built their Reformation it is easily deducible that whatever has been done in this matter from the time of Frier Bacon to that of Pope Gregory the Thirteenth must in great measure be ascribed to him their whole Reformation scarce differing from his 14. Only in this which is well worth the observation that whereas the Gregorian Reformers reduced the Equinoxes and Solstices to the places they supposed they held in the time of the Nicene Council Bacon seems inclinable to have brought them and that most rationally to their places in a much more eminent Epoche viz. the Winter Solstice to the tenth of the Calends of January and the Vernal Aequinox to the tenth of the Calends of April their true places at the time of Christs birth which he proves by a very cogent Argument drawn from the observations of Ptolomy who lived but 140 years after Christ in whose time the Vernal Aequinox was found to be on the eleventh of the Calends of April now allowing as before that it ascends in the Calendar a whole natural day in 130 years if in Ptolomies time it fell on the eleventh of the Calends of April it must needs at Christs birth have been at least on the tenth and so of the Solstice * In Operis Min. part 3. cap. 69. MS. in Bibliotheca Coll. Vnivers According to which computation they have now gon back in our Calendar since Christs time almost 13 days the number 130 days being so often to be found in 1676. wanting but 14. Now the Aera of Christs birth being a time of much higher value and more to be respected by Christians than the Nicene Council in what ever else they have exceeded him I am sure in this they have fallen short of his reformation 15. And so much for the invention of the Telescope and other Instruments by the assistance whereof he so nearly defined the true quantities of the Solar and Lunar years that he first gave occasion to the reformation of the Julian Calendar wherein if the Reader with me be convinced let him hither refer those inordinate Encomiums by Kepler Fabricius and Caesar la Galla heaped on Galilaeus for the one and whatever else of that nature he shall meet with given to Paulus Middleburgensis Copernicus or Aloysius for the other 16. Thus was the Christian World first informed in matters of Astronomy by Roger Bacon and with so much success here in England that in the next Century we meet with Richard Wallingford Abbot of St. Albans and Simon Bredon both Oxford men the most eminent for their time in the whole World who for their subtilty and yet clearness of demonstration we find yoaked with no less than the great Albategnius by Lewis Caerlyon also an Oxford man in his observations of the Eclypses An. Dom. 1482 c 4º MS 79. inter Codices MS. Seldeni where also he treats of the oblique ascensions of the Signs calculated to the Meridian of Oxford And quickly after we meet with William Rede after Bishop of Chichester and John Eschenden jointly to carry on this study as appears from their Treatises of the central Eclyps of the Moon and conjunction of the three superior Planets that happen'd An. 1345. and the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn An. 1365. both which were calculated by William Rede and the Prognostications added by John Eschenden d Fol. MS. 176. inter Codices Digby From which Eclyps and the first conjunction he fore-told the Epidemical Pestilence that followed in the year 1349. which beginning in Turky spread all over Syria and Greece whence it came into Italy Spain and France and at length into England To these add John Somer and William Wyrcester also most eminent Astronomers the former whereof corrected the Calendar perhaps yet more accuratly than Bacon e Quod. vid. inter Codices Digby 12º MS. 5. and the latter wrote a verification of all the fix'd stars as to their longitude and latitude for the year 1440 f MS. inter Codices Laud 12o. B. 23. with some other Astronomical matters at the instance of his Patron Sir John Falstoff 17. Great we see was the increase of this sort of Learning even in those days yet that former Ages may not carry away the whole honor let us also make an estimate of its modern advancements such as it received from Thomas Lydiat formerly Fellow of New College and Rector of Alkerton in this County who defining a yet truer period than any of the former of the Sun and Moons motion without which there could be no accurat System or Calendar of years months and days most happily first contrived the Octodesexcentenary Period ipse primus absit dicto invidia nostro seculo observavi are his own words g Lydiati Ep. Astronom de Anni Solaris mensura Which Period though till now not so certainly known by Learned Antiquity was called the great year as is manifest from Josephus his History of the Jews h Lib. 1. cap. 4. sub finem where speaking of the great advantages our Fore-fathers had in Astronomy he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that 't is probable God gave them a longer life that they might fully understand the Theorems of Astronomy which they could not well do unless they lived six hundred years for the great year says he is accomplish'd in that number of years 18. Which Lydiat found to come so near the truth that there needed but the abatement of eight in six hundred his true period consisting of 592 years and that according to Geminus of whole years whole months and whole days as a period ought to do i Periodus debet comprehendere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Geminus in libro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. of 592 intire solar years 7322 entire months whereof 218 are intercalary 216223 entire days and 30889 entire weeks defining every Lunar month to consist of 29 days 12 h 44′ 3″ 12‴ 44 ' ' ' ' 3 V 12VI. And the solar year of 365 days 5 h 47′ 50″ 16‴ 8 37 or 5 h and 59 74 or 365 days and 1 128 part of a day So that the whole period or 592 Lydiatean years do anticipate so many Julian ones by five days 19. According to this period found out in An. 1605. exceeding the Dionysian but 60 years he calculated the middle motions of the seven Planets for the nine first periods entirely and the tenth so far forth as it had gon in his time some MS. fragments of which calculations I had lately in my possession but now disposed of to the Worshipful Dr. Lanphire Principal of Hart-hall carefully to be preserved amongst the rest of his writings And in An. 1620. viz. in the last year of the first half of his tenth period he put it forth with his Menologium or reformation of
first one way and cross again at right angles cuts the turf into squares in bigness proportionable to the distance of the edged plates on the Roll requiring no farther trouble afterward then to be pared off the ground with a turfing Spade which seems to promise well for the cutting out of Trenches Drains c. But this I have not seen nor has it that I know of been yet experimented by the ingenious Inventor However I thought fit to offer it to the consideration of Improvers and the rather because it affords me a smooth transition from the consideration of the Arable to the Meddow and Pasture Lands 81. For the Meddow grounds of this County as they are numerous so they are fertile beyond all preference for they need no other compost to be laid on them than what the Floods spontaneously give them and therefore the Reader must not expect any methods or rules concerning that affair here Nor concerning the remedies of annoyances such as Sour-grass Mosses Rushes Sedges c. for I find none of our meddows much troubled with them As for their Vp-lands when they prepare them for grass they make them as rich as they can with their most suitable soils and lay them also dry to keep them from Rushes and Sedges if any thing boggy they usually trench them but that proves not sufficient for the trenches of boggy grounds will swell and fill up of themselves 82. To prevent which inconveniency I know an ingenious Husbandman that having dug his trenches about a yard deep and two foot over first laid at the bottom green Black-thorn bushes and on them a stratum of large round stones or at least such as would not lie close and over them again another stratum of Black-thorn and upon them straw to keep the dirt from falling in between and filling them up by which means he kept his trench open and procured so constant and durable a drain that the land is since sunk a foot or 18 inches and become firm enough to support carriages 83. As for the Grasses sown in this County I have little more to add concerning them but what was said before in the Chapter of Plants only that it has been found most agreeable that Sanct-foin Ray-grass c. be not sown presently after the Barly Oats or whatever other Grain it be sowed with but rather after the Corn is come pretty high so that it may shelter the seed from the heat of the Sun which as is apprehended at least is somtimes prejudicial And that in the Chiltern Country after they have eaten off their Ray-grass or Sanct-foin they find it advantagious to fold it with Sheep as other Corn-lands which I thought good to note it being as I am informed but lately practised 84. Amongst Arts that concern formation of Earths I shall not mention the making of Pots at Marsh-Balden and Nuneham-Courtney nor of Tobacco-pipes of the White-earth of Shot-over since those places are now deserted Nor indeed was there that I ever heard of any thing extraordinary performed during the working those Earths nor is there now of a very good Tobacco-pipe Clay found in the Parish of Horspath since the Printing of the third Chapter of this History Let it suffice for things of this nature that the ingenious John Dwight M. A. of Christ Church College Oxon. hath discovered the mystery of the stone or Cologne Wares such as D' Alva Bottles Jugs Noggins heretofore made only in Germany and by the Dutch brought over into England in great quantities and hath set up a manufacture of the same which by methods and contrivances of his own altogether unlike those used by the Germans in three or four years time he hath brought it to a greater perfection than it has attained where it hath been used for many Ages insomuch that the Company of Glass-sellers London who are the dealers for that commodity have contracted with the Inventor to buy only of his English manufacture and refuse the foreign 85. He hath discovered also the mystery of the Hessian wares and makes Vessels for reteining the penetrating Salts and Spirits of the Chymists more serviceable than were ever made in England or imported from Germany it self 86. And hath found out ways to make an Earth white and transparent as Porcellane and not distinguishable from it by the Eye or by Experiments that have been purposely made to try wherein they disagree To this Earth he hath added the colours that are usual in the colour'd China-ware and divers others not seen before The skill that hath been wanting to set up a manufacture of this transparent Earthen-ware in England like that of China is the glazing of the white Earth which hath much puzzel'd the Projector but now that difficulty also is in great measure overcome 87. He hath also caused to be modelled Statues or Figures of the said transparent Earth a thing not done elsewhere for China affords us only imperfect mouldings which he hath diversified with great variety of colours making them of the colours of Iron Copper Brass and party-colour'd as some Achat-stones The considerations that induced him to this attempt were the Duration of this hard burnt Earth much above brass or marble against all Air and Weather and the softness of the matter to be modelled which makes it capable of more curious work than stones that are wrought with chisels or metals that are cast In short he has so far advanced the Art Plastick that 't is dubious whether any man since Prometheus have excelled him not excepting the famous Damophilus and Gorgasus of Pliny n Nat. Hist lib. 35. cap. 12. 88. And these Arts he employs about materials of English growth and not much applyed to other uses for instance He makes the stone Bottles of a Clay in appearance like to Tobacco-pipe clay which will not make Tobacco-pipes though the Tobacco-pipe clay will make Bottles so that that which hath lain buryed and useless to the Owners may become beneficial to them by reason of this manufacture and many working hands get good livelyhoods not to speak of the very considerable sums of English Coyn annually kept at home by it 89. About Nettle-bed they make a sort of brick so very strong that whereas at most other places they are unloaded by hand I have seen these shot out of the Cart after the manner of stones to mend the High-ways and yet none of them broken but this I suppose must be rather ascribed to the nature of the Clay than to the skill of the Artificer in making or burning them and should therefore have been mention'd in the Chapter of Earths 90. At Caversham near the Right Worshipful Sir Anthony Cravens and at some other places they make a sort of brick 22 inches long and above six inches broad which some call Lath-bricks by reason they are put in the place of the Laths or Spars supported by Pillars in Oasts for drying mault which is the only use of them and
in truth I think a very good one too for beside that they are no way liable to fire as the wooden Laths are they hold the heat so much better that being once heated a small matter of fire will keep them so which are valuable advantages in the Profession of Maulting 91. And which brings me to the Arts relating to Stone they have lately also about Burford made their Mault kills of stone the first of them being contrived after an accident by fire by Valentine Strong an ingenious Mason of Teynton much after the manner of those of brick which for the benefit of other Counties where they are not known I have caused to be delineated so far forth at least as may be direction enough to an ingenious Work-man in Tab. 13. Fig. 1 2. whereof the first Figure shews the front of such a Kill and the Letters a. The Kill hole b. The Pillars that support the principal Joists c. The sloping away of the inside of the Oast d. The ends of the Joists e. The spaces between the Joists for the Laths And the second Figure the square above immediatly supporting the Oast-hair and the Mault wherein the Letters f f. shew the Flame-stone g g. The Pillars on which the principal Joists lie h h. The principal Joists i i. The shorter Joists k k. The Laths between the Joists l l. The spaces between the Laths Which first Kill of Valentine Strong built after this manner in stone succeeded so well that it hath since obtained in many other places nor do I wonder at it for beside the great security from fire to which the old Kills were very subject these also dry the mault with much less fuel and in a shorter time than the old ones would do insomuch that I was told by one Mr. Trindar an ingenious Gentleman of West-well who shewed me a fine one of his own at Holwell that whereas he could formerly dry with the ordinary Kill but two Quarters in a day he can now dry six and with as little fuel Now if Mault-kills or Oasts made with ordinary stone prove so advantagious what would one of them do if the Joists and Laths at least were made of the Cornish warming-stone that will hold heat well eight or ten hours or of Spanish Ruggiola's which are broad plates like tiles cut out of a Mountain of red salt near Cardona which being well heated on both sides will keep warm 24 hours o See Mr. Willughby's Voyage through Spain p. 471. 92. To which may be added the Invention of making Glasses of stones and some other materials at Henly upon Thames lately brought into England by Seignior de Costa a Montferratees and carryed on by one Mr. Ravenscroft who has a Patent for the sole making them and lately by one Mr. Bishop The materials they used formerly were the blackest Flints calcined and a white Christalline sand adding to each pound of these as it was found by solution of their whole mixture by the ingenious Dr. Ludwell Fellow of Wadham College about two ounces of Niter Tartar and Borax 93. But the Glasses made of these being subject to that unpardonable fault called Crizelling caused by the two great quantities of the Salts in the mixture which either by the adventitious Niter of the Air from without or warm liquors put in them would be either increased or dissolved and thereby indure a Scabrities or dull roughness irrecoverably clouding the transparency of the glass they have chosen rather since to make their glasses of a great sort of white Pebbles which as I am informed they have from the River Po in Italy to which adding the aforementioned salts but abating in the proportions they now make a sort of Pebble glass which are hard durable and whiter than any from Venice and will not Crizel but endure the severest trials whatever to be known from the former by a Seal set purposely on them 94. And yet I guess that the difference in respect of Crizeling between the present Glass and the former lies not so much in the Calx the Pebbles being Pyrites none but such I presume being fit for vitrification as well as the Flints but rather wholly in the abatement of the salts for there are some of the Flint glasses strictly so called whereof I have one by me that has endured all tryals as well as these last But if it be found otherwise that white Pebbles are really fitter for their turns than black Flints I think they have little need to fetch them from Italy there being enough in England of the same kind not only to supply this but perhaps Foreign Nations Which is all concerning Arts relating to stone and glass except it be also worth notice that Venerable Bede of this Vniversity first brought Building with stone and Glass windows into England p Vid. Comment in Carmen Phaleucium Johan Seldeni before Hoptons Concordance of years 95. Whence according to my proposed method I proceed to the Arts relating to Plants amongst which the first that present themselves are those that concern the Herbaceous kind Of this sort we may reckon that ingenious Experiment made in June 1669. by my worthy Friend John Wills M. A. and Fellow of Trin. Coll. Oxon. in order to find in what measure Herbs might perspire wherein he made use of the following method He took two glass Vials with narrow necks each holding one pound 8 ounces and 2 drachms of water Avoir de pois weight into one of these glasses filled with water he put a sprig of florishing Mint which before had grown in the water weighing one ounce the other glass he also fill'd with water and exposed them both in a window to the Sun After ten days time he found in the bottle where the mint was only five ounces and four drachms of water remaining and no more so that there was one pound two ounces and six drachms spent the mint weighing scarce two drachms more than at first 96. From the other Glass where water was put of the same weight and no mint he found the Sun had exhaled near one ounce of water and therefore concluded it drew but so much out of the first glass at least not more So that allowing one ounce for what the Sun had exhaled there was in those ten days spent by the mint one pound one ounce six drachms of water and the mint being increased in weight only two drachms 't was plain the mint had purely expired in those ten days one pound one ounce and four drachms that is each day above an ounce and half which is more than the weight of the whole mint Whence he concluded that what Malpighius so wonders at in his Book De Bombyce viz. that those Animals will somtimes eat in one day more than the weight of their bodies is out-done by every sprig of mint and most other Herbs in the Field which every summers day attract more nourishment than their own weight amounts too 97.
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
he taught them that could hear him how they should live 7. To which perhaps may be added the great Council of Kyrtlington held there not long after in an 977 at which were present King Edward the Martyr and St Dunstan Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and at which died Sidemannus Bishop of Crediton This Council by Sir Henry Spelman d H. Spelman Concil Tom. 1. An. 977. p. 493. is taken to be the same mentioned by Wigorniensis held at Kyrtlinege which he guesses to be now Katlage in Cambridge-shire but I rather believe it was held here not only for the sake of the name which remains the same to this day but because of the one and only Constitution made there viz. That it should be lawful for the Country People to go in Pilgrimage to St. Mary of Abington a thing in all likelyhood not so desirable to the People of Cambridge-shire as to ours of Oxford-shire so near the place Beside the great reputation that this place was of in ancient times seems to justifie my plea it enjoying as great Privileges and perhaps being a fitter place in those days for the reception of such an Assembly then Oxford it self for I find it part of the Possessions of the Kings of England from whom it came to Henry Son of Edmund Crouchback Earl of Lancaster and Father to Henry the first Duke of Lancaster by whose Daughter and sole Heir Blanch it came to John of Gaunt Duke of Aquitane and Lancaster and was free a Thelonio passagio lastagio pacagio stallagio tallagio tollagio cariagio terragio per totum Regnum as I find it in an old Charter in the possession of the Right Worshipful Sir Tho Chamberleyne now Lord of the Town whose singular civilities in imparting this and some other matters hereafter to be mention'd I cannot but in gratitude ever acknowledge 8. From whence after so long but I hope not unpleasant digression I return to the Beautiful Oxford again a place of so sweet and wholsom an Air that though it must not be compared with that of Montpellier yet upon my own knowledge it has proved so advantagious to some that it has prefectly recovered them of deep Consumptions and particularly a worthy Friend of mine who though he came hither sufficiently spent yet without the help of any other Physick within few Months felt a sensible amendment and in fewer Years became of as sanguine a complexion as the rest of his friends that had almost despaired of him 9. Some have thought the Small Pox here more then ordinarily frequent and it must indeed be confest That we are perhaps as often though not so severely infested as some other places for generally here they are so favorable and kind that be the Nurse but tolerably good the Patient seldom miscarries But admit the Objection be truly made That it is more subject to the Small Pox than other neighboring Cities about yet if by so much the less it feel the rage of the Plague I think the edge of the charge is sufficiently rebated 'T is reported amongst the e Philosoph Transact num 49. observations of an ingenious Person that resided long in the Island Japan That though the Air be very salubrious there yet the Small Pox and Fluxes are very frequent but the Plague not so much as ever heard of which has often made me reflect on the year 1665 when the Pestilence was spread in a maner all over the Kingdom that even then though the Court both Houses of Parliament and the Term were kept at Oxford the Plague notwithstanding was not there at all 10. Others again tell us of the Black Assise held in the Castle here an 1577. when a poysonous steam broke forth of the Earth and so mortally seised the spirits of the Judges Sheriffs Justices Gentry and Juries beside great numbers of others that attended the business that they sickned upon it and almost all of them dyed but let it not be ascribed to ill fumes and exhalations ascending from the Earth and poysoning the Air for such would have equally affected the Prisoners as Judges but we find not that they dyed otherwise then by the halter which easily perswades me to be of the mind of my f Nat. Hist Cent. 10. num 914. Lord Verulam who attributes it wholly to the smell of the Goal where the Prisoners had been long close and nastily kept 11. 'T is true that Oxford was much more unhealthy heretofore then now it is by reason the City was then much less and the Scholars many more who when crowded up in so narrow a space and the then slovenly Towns-men not keeping the street clean but killing all maner of Cattle within the walls did render the place much more unhealthy Hence 't is that we find so many rescripts of our Kings prohibiting mactationem grossarum bestiarum infra muros quod vici mundentur à fimis fimariis bearing date 13 Hen. 3. 29 Edw. 1. 12 Edw. 3. 37 Hen. 6. g MSS. in Arch. Bib. Bod. fol. 90 91. and all alledging the reason quia per has mactationes c. aer ibidem inficitur because by the killing such maner of Cattle and laying the dung in the streets the Air was infected Moreover about these times the Isis and Cherwell through the carelesness of the Towns-men being filled with mud and the Common-shoars by this means stopt did cause the ascent of malignant vapors wherever there happened to be a Flood for beside its stirring the infectious mass great part of the waters could not timely pass away but stagnating in the lower Meddows could not but increase the noxious putrid steams But the former being long since remedyed by the care of the Vniversity and the latter by the piety and charge of Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester and Founder of C.C.C. Oxon. who in the year 1517. cleansed the Rivers and cut more Trenches for the waters free passage h Hist Antiq. Univers Oxon. Lib. 1. pag. 245. the Town hath ever since continued in a healthful condition though I cannot but believe but were there yet more Trenches cut in some of the Meddows the Air might be somwhat better'd still especially during the Winter season when I fear somtimes Floods stay a little too long and that not only near Oxford but in Otmoor and all along the Isis from Ensham to North-moor Shifford Chimly and Rotcot which brings me again to the general consideration of the Waters as well of the whole County as City 12. That the healthiness of Waters consists in their due impregnation with Salts and Sulphurs and their continuance so in their continual motion is indisputably evinced from the stinking evaporations of them upon any stagnation Now that the Rivers here abound with these will be altogether as manifest as that they run if we consider but the Springs they receive and Earths they wash The Isis 't is true till it comes to New-bridge receives not that I