OXFORDSHIRE 



591 I 



Oxfordshire. 



Map of the South Midland county of England, famous for its 

 picturesqueness and historical associations 



Iffley, and Adderbury. Herein, 

 too, are the remains of Wychwood 

 Forest. The county sends two 

 members to Parliament. Before 

 the Norman Conquest Oxfordshire 

 was part of Mercia. Later it was 

 ravaged by the Danes and was 

 made into a county. Many historic 

 events took place at Oxford, and 

 during the Civil War there was a 

 good deal of fighting in the shire. 

 Pop. (1921) 189,600. 



LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS. Among 

 the writers who were born in 

 the county may be mentioned 

 Sir Henry Maine, at Caversham 

 Grove ; George Rawlinson, at 

 Chadlington ; Maria Edgeworth, 

 at Black Bourton ; and Charles 

 Reade, at Ipsden. Of Islip, 

 Robert South (1634-1716) and 

 William Auckland, the geologist, 

 were rectors. At South Leigh, 

 John Wesley preached his first 

 sermon, 1725. 



Woodstock gives its name as title 

 to one of Sir Walter Scott's novels, 

 much of the action of which takes 

 place in the county. At Woodstock, 



too, centre the many stories of Fair 

 Rosamond, who is buried at God- 

 stow. At Henley-on-Thames, 

 William Shenstone is supposed to 

 have written his famous lines on 

 an inn. At Stanton Harcourt, 

 Alexander Pope stayed. Bablock- 

 Hythe and other places around Ox- 

 ford are associated with Matthew 

 Arnold's The Scholar Gipsy. 

 Kelmscott, on the Thames side 

 near the Gloucester border, was the 

 home of William Morris, and there 

 he is buried. 



Bibliography. History of Oxford- 

 shire, J. M. Falkner, 1899 ; Highways 

 and Byways in Oxford and the Cots- 

 wolds, H. A. Evans, 1905; Victoria 

 History of the Counties of England, 

 Oxford, 2vols.,od.W.Pape,1907: <K 

 fordshire, F.G.Brabant, 3rdod. 1919. 



Oxfordshire and Bucking- 

 hamshire Light Infantry. Regi- 

 ment of the British army. It was 

 originally the 43rd and 52nd Foot, 

 raised in 1741 and 1755 respective- 

 ly, tlic two being united as the Ox- 

 fordshire Light Infantry in 1881. 

 Tin- 43rd served under Wolfe at 



Oxford ft Buck, 

 Infantry badge 



OXFORD STREET 



the capture of Quebec in 1759 and 



Ml KM- \\V,t JlKll,-*. whilr; Utll it 



I f'.u^lit in thf Ameri- 

 .in \\'ar of In- 

 '! |n- ii 'I n ' 

 The 52ndserved 

 fur many yearn 

 in India, light- 

 inx in Mysore 

 and elsewhere, 

 I >< -fore going to 



<;r", ftftlT 

 About 1801 the 



two, together 

 with the 95th, were placed under 

 Sir .Ji.lni Moore, were called light 

 infantry, and became the famous 

 liu'lit division. Their deeds in the 

 Peninsular War are immortalised 

 in Napier's History. At Waterloo 

 the 52nd repulsed the Old Guard. 

 The ro^'i iin-.it was engaged in the 

 Kaffir War, 1851-53, and a de- 

 tachment was on the Birkenhead 

 \\licii she was wrecked in 1852. 

 It won honour during the Indian 

 Mutiny, served in New Zealand, 

 I Mi J 1*1(3, in the Tirah Valley, 1897, 

 and in the South African Wan'' 



In the Great War the regiment 

 had, in addition to its regular 

 battalions, territorial and service 

 battalions, and several allied units 

 from New Zealand and Canada. 

 The 2nd battalion was part of the 

 expeditionary force, and distin- 

 guished itself at Mons and the 

 later battles of 1914, and in the 

 fighting around Ypres in 1915. 

 The 1st battalion was in Gallipoli, 

 1915, and in Mesopotamia, 1916. 

 The territorials fought at Havrin- 

 court and Bellicourt in 1917, and 

 the service battalions were con- 

 spicuous in the third battle of 

 Ypres and the first battle of 

 ( 'a in lira i. and one battalion fought 

 in Italy. Men of the regiment 

 participated in the final British 

 victories of 1918. The regimental 

 depot is at Oxford. 



Oxford Street. London thor- 

 oughfare. It runs W. from New 

 Oxford Street, a link with Hoi- 

 born, to join the Bayswater Road 

 at the Marble Arch, W. Where it 

 crosses Regent Street is Oxford 

 Circus. New Oxford Street, 

 opened in 1847. covers the site of 

 the " rookery " of S. Giles. Oxford 

 Street, named after Edward Har- 

 ley, earl of Oxford, early in the 

 18th century, was formerly known 

 as Tyburn Road, being part of the 

 route from the Old Bailey to the 

 gibbet at Tyburn (17. r.). The 

 stivft, a great shopping centre, 

 contains the New Oxford Theatre, 

 01 uv the Oxford Music Hall. The 

 Princess's Theatre (q.v.) was at No. 

 152, on the N. side. In Oxford 

 Sir- ct. called by him a " stony - 

 '1 stepmother," De Quiiuvy 

 met the Ann of his Confessions. 



