INTRODUCTION cH 



to Dr. Mavor, and he has published many of the plants previously 

 recorded in other works. A considerable number of his own and 

 Noehden's records are without precise localities, but the properties 

 of many of the plants are given. The list occupies forty-two pages 

 of the book. The Agricultural Vieic is divided into eighteen chapters 

 with six appendices. The first chapter treats of the position, 

 divisions, climate, soil, minerals, and water of the county. Chapters 

 2 to 6 are devoted to agricultural subjects. Chapter 7 describes the 

 arable, and Chapter 8 the grass-lands and their crops. Chapter 9 

 is on gardens and orchards, Chapter 10 on the woods and plantations, 

 and Chapter 11 on 'Wastes.' Chapters 12, 13, and 14 are devoted 

 to Improvements, Live Stock, and Rural Economy. Chapter 15 is 

 on ' Political Economy as affecting Agriculture.' The appendix No. 3 

 gives an account of the peat-pits near Newbury, and No. 4 some 

 particulars of the water-meadows on the Kennet. Donaldson in 

 the Agricultural Biography calls Dr. Mavor's work 'highly creditable, 

 scientific, and practical.' The errors in the list of plants given by 

 Mavor either on his own authority or in reliance on records by 

 Mr. Bicheno or Dr. Noehden are rather numerous. Among them may 

 be mentioned Melampyrum sijlvaticum, M. arvense, M. cristatiim, Allium 

 Schoenoprasum, Carex arenaria, Brassica oleracea, Lepidium latifolium, Veronica 

 hybrida, Stellaria nemorum, Callitriche autumnalis, and Peucedanum officinale. 

 The following require confirmatory evidence : — Tillaea muscosa, Ranun- 

 culus hirsutus, Bianthus deltoides, Brosera anglica, Urtica pihdifera [_U. urens 

 is omitted], Artemisia Absinthium \_A. vulgaris omitted], Prunus Paclus 

 [P. avium is not given], Mentha piperita [M. sativa not given], Carex 

 axillaris, Salix x>entandra, Galium erectum, and some others which require 

 more critical knowledge to determine than w^as possessed by the 

 compiler. 



In the Hope Collection of prints at Oxford there is a portrait of 

 Dr. Mavor, etched by C. Turner, A.E.A., in mezzotint after a painting 

 by Saxon. He was buried in the churchyard at Woodstock, and 

 a memorial of him is placed outside of the wall of the Church with 

 the following epitaph written by his neighbour, friend, and executor, 

 the Rev. Vaughan Thomas : — 



'Sacred to the memory of the Eev«^. W"^. Mavor, LL.D., the first 

 great promoter of the catechetical method of instruction in all 

 branches of human as well as of divine knowledge, who though dead 

 yet speaketh, for the improvement of youth and infancy, in the 

 volumes which he benevolently and judiciously adapted to the 

 growing powers of the mind. He was Rector of Bladon with Wood- 

 stock and Vicar of Hurley, Berks, a magistrate of the County of 

 Oxford, and ten times Mayor of this Borough. Beloved and esteemed 

 by relations and friends, and respected by those whom, as a minister 



