Of OXFORDSHIRE, jj 



lj. Now that Nature indeed proceeds in this method, lata 

 almoft perf waded by what I have found in Shotover-hill^nd elfe- 

 where near it i for within two beds next under the Ochre (nothing 

 but a white Sand interceding) there lies another of a rhuch red* 

 derhue, which firft receiving the fteams of the earth, is now in 

 the way of becoming a ruddle, and in procefs of time when it 

 grows aduft, may at laft make a change into a black, chalk; which 

 I fhould not fo eafily have been induced to believe, but that at 

 Whately Towns end, near the foot of the hill, where lately fome 

 attempts were made for Coal, they met with a vein of fuch kind 

 of chalk, which perhaps long before might have been nothing 

 but ruddle, and as long before that, a yellow Ochre, But whe- 

 ther Nature proceed thus or no ; or fuppofe thefe are not (as 

 fome have thought) the feveral gradations of the fame indivi- 

 dual* yet however, I fhall not be guilty of mif-placing, finceall 

 three belong to the Painters Trade. 



1 8. To which may be added a fort of C&ruleum, which in 

 Englijh we may render native blue, becaufe naturally produced 

 by the fteam of fome Mineral^ latent under the afore-mentioned 

 Marl 2X.Blunds -Court, amOngft which it is found in very good 

 plenty ; but yet fo thinly coating the little cavities of the earth, 

 and fome other bodies (of which hereafter) to which it fticks, 

 that no quantities can be gotten for the Painters ufe, for whom 

 it would otherwife be very fit, as upon tryal has been found by 

 the worthy M r Stonor. Kentmannui b indeed tells us of a cine- 

 reous fort of 'Earth fom where near Padua,thzt affords fuch a blue ; 

 but I guefs that ours cannot be (nor perhaps is that) the immedi* 

 ate production of the ambient Earth, but rather of fome mineral 

 Or metal below it ; of which more at large in a fitter place. 



1 9. Hither alfo may be referr'd a gritty fort of Vmbers found. 

 in all parts of the County where there are Quarries of Stone : a 

 courfer kind of them I met with near Witney, and a fomwhat finer 

 at Bladen Quarry ; thefe fomtimes are found in the feams of the 

 Rocks, and fomtimes again in the body of the Stone; and not- 

 withstanding their gritty texture , yet prove ufeful enough to 

 drejjersof Leather. But yet a much finer than either of the for. 

 mer, has been lately taken up at Waterperry, in the ground, and 

 near the Houfe of the Right Worftiipful Sir Thomas Curfon, of fo 



* Kerttman d* terris, cap- I . 



H riert 1 



