in. THE CHERWELL. 37 



At Cropredy, a branch comes in which supplies water to the 

 summit-level of the Oxford Canal. This branch has two sources ; 

 one, near Fenny-Compton, feeds the Wormleighton reservoir ; the 

 other, farther to the north, at Prior's Marston, expands in two 

 reservoirs between Bodington and Byfield. 



The broadly-undulated region with detached summits now begins 

 to contract to a narrower valley crossing ridges of more uniform 

 elevation. At Banbury this character becomes evident ; the country 

 on both sides still yielding tributaries which flow in valleys of 

 lias, with bands of marlstone at some height above the water, and 

 cappings of the lowest portions of oolite in the flat-topped ridges 

 above. The streams which come in on the west, run in small 

 valleys, in places contracted to glens, whose origin is on the high 

 tract stretching from * Rollrich Stones' to Epwell and Edgehill. 

 One of these, much branched, passes by Wroxton Abbey ; another, 

 called Sorbrook, by Broughton Castle ; a third springs at Epwell, 

 and flows by Madmarston Camp, a remarkable pentagonal mound 

 on a detached hill ; and a fourth runs by Bloxham and Adderbury. 

 Just where the stem of these four rivulets joins the Cherwell, a 

 larger supply is brought from the west, by the river Swere, which 

 divides the two parishes of Barford St. John and Barford St. 

 Michael, and whose sources are close to Great Rollright and Hook- 

 Norton. Deddington stands on the ridge between the Swere and 

 a parallel smaller rill on the south. 



Passing now through park-like scenery by Somerton, the Aston 

 villages, Upper and Lower Heyford, and Rowsham, the Cherwell 

 winds its way to Enslow Bridge, before reaching which it leaves 

 the lias and enters the continuous range of the oolites. These strata, 

 here of much less than the ordinary thickness, occupy the stream 

 for about three miles, and then give place to the Oxford clay, in 

 which the water-channel lies till it reaches the Thames. 



The Cherwell valley exhibits all parts of the lias, except the 

 lowest parts. To see these, however, we have only to proceed a 

 few miles on the railway, in the direction of Leamington, and stop 

 at the Harbury Station. Here the lower parts of the lias, including 

 the most calcareous portion, which is near the base, are exposed 

 in a large and fine section of the Warwickshire type, resting on the 

 ' Rhsetic beds/ as these on the upper red marls which occupy the 

 country to the north-west as far as Leamington. 



