Of OXFO %T)^SHI%E. 
51 
CHAP. III. 
of the Earths, 
OXFORD^SHIRE, fays Mr. Camhden\ is z fntih 
County and plentiful^ the Plains garnijl)ed vp'ith Corn-fields 
and Meddovps^ and the Hills befet with JVoods ; floredine- 
very place not only mth Corn and Fruits^ but alfo with all kind of 
Game for hound and hawk,^ andwell watered with Rivers plentiful of 
Fijh. Which general defcription of the Soil^ though in the 
tnain it be true to this day, yet if we come to a more particular 
and clofe confideration of it, we (hall find, that though Oxford- 
Jhire almoft 'in every part, where the induftry of the Hufband- 
man hath any thing Hiewed it felf, doth produce Corn of all forts 
plentifully enough ; yet ic has much more caufe to hrag of its Med- 
dows, and abundance of Fafiures, wherein (as in Rivers) few 
Countrys may be compared, perhaps none preferred. And as 
to matter of Fruits^ 1 think I may better affert of it what Giral- 
du6 do*s of Ireland^ Fafculs tamen quam frugihu^^ gramine^ quam 
grano^ f<£Cundior Comitatu^f 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 
the fiire ; where if brought to Mercat^ it is ordinarily fold for 
about one Jbillingthe hundred^ but if remote from a great Town, 
it may be had for feven pence : And thus it is every where but in 
the Chiltern Country, which remains to this day a woody Trad, 
and is (as I have very good ground to think) fome of the weflern 
part of the great Foreji Kn&pe&erpal6, or Xnapeberlege, reaching, fays 
Leland^^ from befide PortU6 Limenus'm Kent^z 1 20 miles wefiward^ 
which happily falls out to be about this place : To which had 
Ccefar ever arrived, he had never fure left us fuch an account, as 
we find in his Commentaries concerning our Woods : Materia^ fays 
he, cujujque generh^ ut in Gallia^ pr£ter Abietem iyfagum"^^ i.e. 
" Britan.inOxfordJhirt' > Ltlandi Comment, in Cyg. Cant-rnvtrboLimem. uPeBe/k Callseo,tlli>.'^. 
fuhimtium. 
G 2 that 
