Of OXF0%T)^SHI%E. ^1 
many fuhterramom Plants not noted, of which I intend a dili-^ 
gent enquiry After the Peats are taken out, they fill up the. 
ground again with the graffy earth that was firft cut up. And ac 
Covpley^ where they alfo dig them, they ufually leave the depth of 
one fpade-graft 2it the bottom, as a foundation w hereon they may 
growagain, which in the fpace of twenty or thirty years, 'tis 
obferv'd they will do in the North of England'^ . 
42. The fcarcity alfo of fircing has induced fomc People to 
burn a fort of black, fubjlance^ of a grain fomwhat like rotten 
wood half burnt, but participating alfo of a Mineral nature, and 
therefore by Authors called Metallofhytum^ or Lignum fojjde ^ * 
put into rp^/er, it will not fwim ; and into fire^ \t confumes but 
flowly, and fends forth very unpleafant fumes : it is found in a 
Quarry cdlledLangford-fits, in the Parifh of Kidlington^ not far 
from Thrup^ about eighteen foot deep under the Rock, where 
there lies a bed about four inches thick. But at Ducklington I 
met with a ranch, finer kind, and richer in hitumen ; for though 
on the out fide it looks like wood, yet broken, it Chews a fmooth 
zndihming fuperficies^ not unlike to ftone-fitch^ and put in the 
fire^ has not near fo ill a fmell. This was dug, and kindly be- 
llowed upon me by the Worfhipful William Bayly Efq; who told 
mebefide of an Aluminous earth that hefomwhere alfo found in 
his ground. As for the fubftance, Lignum foffde it is thought to 
be originally a cretaceous earthy turned to what it is by fuhterra- 
neom heats^ which probably at Kidlington may indeed be great, 
becaufe reflefted by the Quarry above it, for that it was never 
formerly wood, notwithftanding its fpecious and outward like- 
nefs, is plain, from its never being found with roots or boughs^ or 
any other figns of wood. 
43 . At Marjh Balden Heath, and Nuneham-Courtney^ they have 
a fort of earth of dudile parts, which put in the fire fcarcely 
cracks, and has been formerly ufed by Potters^ but upon what 
account 1 know not, now neglefted. There is alfo a Clay near 
Little Milton that might very well ferve for the Potters ufe. And 
at Shotover-hill there is a white clay^ the fourth fold of earth in 
the way to the Ochre^ which during the late wars, in the fiege of 
Oxford^ was wholly ufed for making Tobacco-fifes there ; and is 
r Vtd.Nich. StejtonisProdrm. * They dig prety good Peats alfo near the f^^'^^ ^^^'^'^^'"^ > 
in a boggy ground Eaft-ward of Elsfield Clmxch. « O/. tVormii, Mufaum lib- 2. cab, 6, 
I ftill 
