Farming of Oxfordshire. 
199 
the neifjhbourhood of Adderbury, Deddington, Hempton, Clifton, 
and VVroxton. Very much of tliis district is under grass. The 
pasturage is of superior quality, some strong enough for grazing 
cattle, and also kind for sheep. The blue lias forms the northern 
portion of the valleys of the Windrush, Evenlode, and Chcrwell, 
and also the base of the hills, which are capped with the inferior 
oolite. When the lias crops out, as it sometimes does at a con- 
siderable distance up the sides of the hills, it is wet from its own 
density, and also from the water of the inferior oolite which flows 
over it. The lias is a large mass of blue clay, and at 8 or 10 feet 
deep has thin bands of argillaceous limestone of the thickness of 
not more than 12 or 16 inches ; it is naturally a sour, calcareous 
clay, but, wlien drained and highly cultivated, becomes useful 
land ; and where it has been long pastured, and so supplied with 
vegetable matter, it makes very excellent meadow ground. The 
red land and its valleys of lias are computed to extend over 
80,000 acres. 
Besides the tracts of gravel before mentioned, there are large 
alluvial deposits along the principal streams which water the 
county. The valley of the Tliames, which may be said in 
Oxfordshire to extend from Lechlade to Henley, a distance of 70 
miles, is chiefly covered with the gravelly wreck of several 
formations. The meadows form quick, useful grass-land, but 
are not strong enough for grazing, though some are very fertile, 
and cut beautiful hay. The herbage is considered richer and 
better below Oxford, but this may result from the greater liability 
of the upper portion of the valley to the injurious action of floods. 
There is an interesting particular connected with this stream, 
which, though not an agricultural featui-e, may deserve mention. 
In frosts that are severe enough to affect rivers, the Thames com- 
mences freezing /roHZ the bottom. The ice rises to the surface in 
small flakes, similar to snow, and then congeals into a mass of 
ice upon the surface. The meadows of the Thame stream are 
stronger and more feeding than those along the Thames. This 
river rises in Bucks, and, flowing through the fertile vale of 
Aylesbury, produces a i-ich deposit, which at Thame, Wheatly, 
and Drayton, rests on the Kimmeridge clay. The valley of the 
Evenlode, extending from Cassington to Blenheim and Charlbury, 
is covered with erratic deposits containing pebbles of the Lickey 
quartz rock. This tract of gravel, which not only covers the 
low lands, but forms accumulations on the highest summit of 
Which wood Forest, has evidently crossed the oolitic ridge, as it 
is similar to the gravel found so plentifully in Staffordshire. In 
t!ie same way the Warwickshire gravel can be traced along the 
Cherwell from Banbury through Deddington and Kidlington to 
Oxford, where it is mixed with chalk flints and slightly rolled 
