Cl FLORA OF BERKSHIRE 



Eector, Edward Segrave, at a stipend of £27 6s. with surplice fees. 

 He wrote a poem on Blenheim, to which he added a Blenheim Guide 

 in 1787. In 1789 he received the degree of LL.D. from the University 

 of Aberdeen. In 1800 he published The Botanical Pocket-book. On July 12, 

 1810, he was licensed by the Bishop to be Headmaster of Woodstock 

 Grammar School. He had previously written 'A new description of 

 Blenheim,' the eighth edition of which appeared in Oxford in 1810, 

 and contained a list of plants found growing in the vicinity of "Wood- 

 stock ; but many of these, owing to cultivation and enclosure of the 

 common lands, are no longer to be seen. Dr. Mavor was a prolific 

 writer of educational works during the long space of fifty years. It 

 has been said of him that ' this illustrious author, who had contri- 

 buted so largely to the introduction of education among the youth of 

 Great Britain, was able on a review of his extensive labours to record 

 his satisfaction that he could contemplate what he had done without 

 a fear and without a blush ; the consciousness that he had meant 

 well, however imperfect his performance, and that he had never by 

 ji single sentiment pandered to vice or injured the cause of virtue, 

 will shed a gleam of sunshine on the closing scenes of life. How 

 far more precious than all the incense which fame can offer is such 

 a self-approving verdict as this.' 



In 1809 Dr. Mavor published his General Vieiv of the Agriculture of 

 Berkshire. In the preface, which is dated Nov. 20, 1808, the author 

 says : * It is now upwards of three years since the Report of Berkshire 

 Avas delegated to me [by the Board of Agriculture], and had not ill- 

 health clol^ded many of the intervening days, had not various avoca- 

 tions as well as the duties of an active profession occupied many 

 more, the undertaking would probably have been completed in a 

 much shorter space. This however I can aver, that though I have 

 been almost wholly engaged for the last eight months in arranging 

 and drawing up the materials previously collected, I could have spent 

 as many more on the composition before I could have pleased myself. 

 . . . For the coiinty which has been the scene of my j) resent labours 

 I had long borne a partial regard, and I have every reason to retain 

 my attachment now that I know it better.' The volume, an octavo 

 of 548 pages, is interesting to botanists, since it contains a list of the 

 plants of the county, and this list may be considered to be the basis 

 of the county flora. It is made up of abovit 560 species, of which 

 about 270 appear to be new to the county ; ten perhaps are errors, 

 and many of the records which are not absolutely new are here 

 jHiblished for the first time. Dr. Mavor explains that he ' is in- 

 debted for his list in a great measure to the botanical researches 

 of Dr. Noeheden [so spelled by Mavor throughout] of Windsor and 

 Mr. Bicheno of Newbury.' About 125 of the new records fairly belong 



