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
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
all posterity 153. There are several other roofs in this Vniversity also well worth the noting whereof some are flat or under-pitched as the roof of the great Hall at Christ Church College and the roofs of the Chappels and Halls at Magdalen College and New College others due proportion'd or over-pitched such as at Jesus Wadham Corpus Christi Exeter and Oriel Colleges which yet having nothing extraordinary either in their contrivance or workmanship I pass them by and proceed next 154. To some remarkable pieces of Painting that we have here at Oxon amongst which to omit the deformation of a Caesars head to be seen in the Schools brought into shape by a metalline Cylinder and several others of the kind at Sir Anthony Copes and that Painting it self was first brought into England by Venerable Bede of this Vniversity w Vid. Comment in Carmen phaleucium Joh. Seldeni before Hoptons Concordance of Yearâ— I take the Painting of the Theater to be well worth examination for in imitation of the Theaters of the ancient Greeks and Romans which were too large to be covered with lead or tile so this by the Painting of the flat roof within is represented open and as they stretched a cordage from Pilaster to Pilaster upon which they strained a covering of cloth to protect the people from the injuries of the weather so here is a cord-molding guilded that reaches cross and cross the house both in length and bredth which supporteth a great reddish Drapery supposed to have covered the roof but now furl'd up by the Genii round about the House toward the walls which discovereth the open Air and maketh way for the descent of the Arts and Sciences that are congregated in a circle of clouds to whose assembly Truth descends as being sollicited and implored by them all 155. For joy of this Festival some other Genii sport about the Clouds with their Festoons of Flowers and Lawrels and prepare their garlands of Lawrels and Roses viz. Honor and Pleasure for the great lovers and students of those Arts and that this assembly might be perfectly happy their great enemies and disturbers Envy Rapin and Brutality are by the Genii of their opposite Virtues viz. Prudence Fortitude and Eloquence driven from the society and thrown down head-long from the Clouds The report of the assembly of the one and the expulsion of the other being proclaimed through the open and serene Air by some other of the Genii who blowing their antick Trumpets divide themselves into the several Quarters of the World Hitherto in gross TAB XIIII ad pag. 274. To the right Worsp ll S. r FRANCJS WENACAN K. t Bar. t K. t of the SHIRE in the p.sent Parliam t This 14 Table Shewing the Timberwork of the THEATER will all due respect is humbly dedicated by R.P. L.L.D. Burghers sculp 156. More particularly the circle of Figures consists first of Theology with her Book with seven seals imploring the assistance of Truth for the unfolding of it On her left hand is the Mosaical Law vailed with the Tables of stone to which she points with her Iron rod. On her right hand is the Gospel with the Cross in one hand and a Chalice in the other In the same division over the Mosaical Law is History holding up her Pen as dedicating it to Truth and an attending Genius with several fragments of old Writing from which she collects her History into her Book On the other side near the Gospel is Divine Poesy with her Harp of Davids fashion 157. In the triangle on the right hand of the Gospel is also Logick in a posture of arguing and in another on the left hand of the Mosaical Law is Musick with her antick Lyre having a Pen in her hand and paper of musick notes on her knee with a Genius on her right hand a little within the partition of Theology playing on a flute being the emblem of the most ancient musick and on the left but within the partition for Physick Dramatick Poesy with a vizor representing Comedy a bloody dagger for Tragedy and the reed pipe for Pastoral 158. In the square on the right side of the Circle is Law with her ruling scepter accompanied with Records Patents and Evidences on the one side and on the other with Rhetorick by these is an attending Genius with the scales of Justice and a figure with a Palm branch the emblem of reward for virtuous actions and the Roman Fasces the marks of Power and Punishment Printing with a Case of Letters in one hand and a Form ready set in the other and by her several sheets hanging as a drying 159. On the left side the Circle opposite to Law is Physick holding the knotty staff of Esculapius with a serpent winding about it The Botanist imploring the assistance of Truth in the right understanding of the nature of her Plants Chymistry with a Retort in her hands and Chyrurgery preparing her self to finish the dissecting of a head which hath the brain already opened and held before her by one of the Genii 160. On the other side of the circle opposite to Theology in three squares are the Mathematical sciences depending on demonstration as the other on Faith in the first of which is Astronomy with the Celestial globe Geography with the terrestrial together with three attending Genii having Arithmetick in the square on one hand with a paper of figures Optick with the Perspective-glass Geometry with a pair of compasses in her left and a Table with Geometrical figures in it in her right hand And in the square on the other hand Architecture embracing the capitel of a column with compasses and the norma or square lying by her and a workman holding another square in one hand and a plumb-line in the other 161. In the midst of these squares and triangles as descending from above is the figure of Truth siting on a cloud in one hand holding a Palm-branch the emblem of Victory in the other the Sun whose brightness enlightens the whole circle of figures and is so bright that it seems to hide the face of her self to the spectators below 162. Over the entrance of the front of the Theater are three figures tumbling down first Envy with her snaky hairs squint eyes hags breasts pale venomous complexion strong but ugly limbs and rivel'd skin frighted from above by the sight of the shield of Pallas with the Gorgons head in it against which she opposes her snaky tresses but her fall is so precipitous that she has no command of her arms 163. Then Rapine with her fiery eyes grinning teeth sharp twangs her hands imbrewed in blood holding a bloody dagger in one hand in the other a burning Flambeau with these Instruments threatning the destruction of Learning and all its habitations but is overcome and so prevented by a Herculean Genius or Power Next that is represented brutish scoffing Ignorance endeavoring to vilifie and contemn what she understands not which is