Of OXFO%V^HI%E. 51 



CHAP. III. 

 Of the Earths. 



OXFORV-SHIRE, fays Mr. Cambden , is a ftrtik 

 County and plentiful, the Plains garmjbed with Corn-fields 

 and Meddows, and the Hills befet with Woods ; jloredint- 

 very -place not only with Corn and Fruits, but alfo with all kind of 

 Game for hound and hawk^ and well watered with Rivers plentiful of 

 Fiji. Which general defcription of the Soil, though in the 

 main it be true to this day, yet if we come to a more particular 

 and clofe consideration of it, we (hall find, that though Oxford- 

 //Are almoft -in every part, where the induftry of the Hufband- 

 man hath any thing (hewed it felf, doth produce Corn of all forts 

 plentifully enough ; yet it has much more caufe to brag of its Med- 

 dows, and abundance of Paftures, wherein (as in Rivers) few 

 Countrys may be compared, perhaps none preferr'd. And as 

 to matter of Fruits, 1 think I may better aflert of it what Giral- 

 du* do*s of Ireland, Pafcuis tamen quam frugibut, gramine, quant 

 grano, fdecundior Comitate, than groundlefly to commend it over- 

 much. 



2. The Hills, 'tis true, before the late unhappy Wars, were 

 well enough (as he fays) befet with Woods, where now 'tis fo 

 fcarcy , that 'tis a common thing to fell it by weight, and not on- 

 ly at Oxford, but at many other places in the Northern parts of 

 thefiire ; where if brought to Mercat, it is ordinarily fold for 

 about one/hilling the hundred, but if remote from a great Town, 

 it may be had for fevenpence : And thus it is every where butin 

 the Chiltern Country, which remains to this day a woody Trafr, 

 and is (as I have very good ground to think) fome of the weflern 

 part of the great Foreft ftn&pe&erpab, or Kti&pe&erlege, reaching, fays 

 Leland ? , from befide Portu* Limenus'm Kent,z 120 miles wefiward, 

 which happily falls out to be about this place : To which had 

 C*far ever arrived, he had never fure left us fuch an account, as 

 we find in his Commentaries concerning our Woods : Materia, fays 

 he, cujujque generis, ut in Gallia, prater Abietem (? fagum q , i.e. 



Britan. in Oxford/hire, t Letandi Comment, in Cyg. Cantinvtrbot,imems. ^Ve Bella Galluo,l>h<. 

 fubinttium. 



G 2 that 



