INTRODUCTION. 

 /^ — 



OXFORDSHIRE is bounded on the north-west by War- 

 wickshire, on the north-east by Northamptonsliire, on 

 the east by Bucking-hamshire, on the south-east and south by 

 Berkshire, and on the west by Berkshire, Gloucestershire, and 

 part of Worcestershire. 



In shape it is very irregular, its length being about fifty- 

 two miles, and its breadth varying from seven to twenty- 

 seven miles. It is distant from the sea at Bristol, or rather 

 Portishead, its nearest point, about thirty-five miles. 



It has an area of 483,621 acres, of which, according to 

 the Agricultural Returns for 1883, about 417,500 are under 

 cultivation, some 154,000 being permanent pasture, and the 

 remainder under corn, green crops, and rotation grasses. 



In Capper^s Topograj^hical B'lctionary (1829) the area of the 

 county is understated, and for this reason comparisons be- 

 tween the then and present condition of the county are not 

 easily made. But it is evident that while, even under the 

 new survey, giving the larger area, the amount of wood and 

 waste is stated as nearly 4000 acres less than at the earlier 

 date, a very large extent of permanent pasture has been 

 broken up within the last fifty or sixty years, the arable land 

 being estimated in Capper^s work at about 100,000 acres less, 

 and the pastm'e at nearly 80,000 more, than at the present 

 time. 



It will be seen from this that the county generally is in a 

 high state of cultivation. 



In the northern division we have a succession of small 



I valleys. The streams flowing through each are bordered with 



r meadows more or less liable to flood ; the slopes on either side 



are under pastm-e ; the fields small rather than large, divided 



