Of OXFO%T>^SHI%E. 3*9 



erat principalis Ecclefia totiws Cleri, Ecclefia SancliJEgidii extra ean- 

 demportam *. Which two put together, perhaps may make as 

 much for the Antiquity of this place, as need be brought for it. 



31. Befide, this branch out of the way 'twixt Alcefler and 

 Walkngford pointing toward Oxford^ I muft not forget there is 

 another that feems defignedly made for a pafTage hither immedi- 

 atly from Alcefter, whereof there is a part ftill remaining about 

 Hoke? whence it panes through the fields to the purlue grounds, 

 where it cuts the Worcester road, and fo into Vrun/hil, formerly 

 a part of the Forrefi of Stovp-wood, where about fourteen years 

 fincc there were feveral Roman Vrns and Coins dug up ; beyond 

 which place I could not trace it, it being ploughed down in the 

 following grounds, which yet is the beft conjecture I can make of 

 it, unlefs we (hall rather fay it was only laid this way to avoid 

 Otmoor'in the winte r feafon, when it is ufually underwater; and 

 that it turned about again (as indeed it feems to point) and joyn- 

 ed with theforemention'd to Walleng ford and Oxford. 



32. Nor muft it be omitted, that the people hereabout call 

 that part of this way that lies through Otmoor, by the name of 

 Akeman-ftreet, fuppoflng it to have come from Wallengford, and 

 to have pafled on by Alce/ier to Banbury ; to which name of theirs, 

 and courfe of the way, Mr. Camden feems to afford his tacit con- 

 fent e : wherein I wonder they, but more that he, (hould be fo 

 much or'e-feen, fince he could not but know, that neither end of 

 fuch a way could tend toward Bathe, the old ace-mannej--ceaj-cep, or 

 Vrbs Mgrotorum hominum ; nor they, that the true Kce-mannc r - r cpaec, 

 comes near indeed to AlcesJer, but paffing through the County 

 quite another way, both the City and way leading to it, having 

 their names from the Jickperfons, or men with aches , travelling on it 

 thither, 



33. The true Akemanftreet then, or as fome call it Akehamftreet, 

 and others Akermanjireet, coming out of Buckjngbam-fiire, en- 

 ters this County at a Village called B lack- t horn ,whence itpaffes on 

 without any raifed bank, clofe by Alcejler as far as Chefierton, as 

 defcribed by the (haded or pointed lines in the Map : whence it 

 goes to Kirklington Towns end, and fo over the River Cherwell 

 near Tackley, and thence in a ftraight line to WoodttockrVark, which 

 it enters near Wooton-gate, and partes out again at Mapleton-well 



* Chromcon Hj/denfe MS. inter xnun'pw* Qxonitnf. ' Vid- Camd. Britan. in Comit. Oxon. 



near 



