icith Special Reference to that of December 4 , 1893 . 135 
Bloxham, the sheep were said by some boys, who were occupied in 
clap-netting, to have been out at about 7.30 p.m. 
From inquiries I made immediately after the panic I had an idea 
that the flocks affected were invariably on high ground, while those 
which were in valleys (which very few are in winter, the valleys 
being chiefly grass-land) escaped. Further information which came 
to hand, however, showed that there were too many exceptions to this 
rule for any theory to be founded upon it alone. Nevertheless, it has 
been ascertained that (with one notable exception, and some others) 
sheep folded on high-lying land and hills were nearly all affected, 
while some which were in the valleys escaped. In treating of the 
cause of the panic I shall have occasion to refer to this matter 
again, but I may here mention that, while most of the sheep in my 
own parish (Bloxham) stampeded, those of Mr. J. Barrett, which 
were in a valley, did not ; nor did those on Mr. Fawdrey’s farm 
(Choicehill), in the parish of Over Norton, which were penned in a 
valley ; -while on adjacent farms (as Mr. Hayes, of Chipping Norton, 
informs me), where the sheep were folded on higher ground, they all 
broke out. 
Some other exceptions within the district are worth noticing, 
since in many cases it is impossible to give any reason why in the 
case of farms, and even of flocks on the same farm, some of the sheep 
should have stampeded and others should not. Several cases have 
already been alluded to. 
Mr. R. Angas, agent to the Duke of Marlborough on the 
Blenheim Palace estate, writes : “I can hear of no scare in this 
immediate neighbourhood.” 1 Mr. H. A. Warriner, agent to Lady 
Camperdown, writes : “ On this farm (Weston Park, Shipston-on- 
Stour) the sheep did not break out, but they did on nearly every 
other farm round here,” including Lady Camperdown’s Long Compton 
Farm, where both ewes and tegs broke out (the former were lying 
on land about 650 ft. level, the latter, perhaps, 80 or 90 ft. lower). 
At Sutton-under-Brailes (about 380 ft. only), about one and a 
half mile distant from Weston, they were out. Weston is about 
650 ft. above sea level. On Bloxham Grove Farm, near Banbury, 
Mr. W. H. Warriner tells me that their ewes, penned upon a level 
bit of high-lying land, about 390 ft. altitude, broke out (as did sheep 
on neighbouring farms), while their wether tegs, not a quarter of a 
mile away, on land sloping a little to N.E., did not stampede. Mr. 
W. H. Stilgoe, of Adderbury, who had two lots (in two fields 
separated by a hedge) on the same level, tells me that one lot broke 
and the other did not. The sheep on the large flat and very open 
field called “ Farm Field,” at Banbury, did not stampede. Mr. John 
Addy, of South Lawn, Burford, states that none of his sheep were 
out. This farm adjoins Potter’s Hill, where the stampede was very 
violent. The South Lawn sheep were at about 500 ft. level, on a 
plateau. Mr. Willocks reports that on Mr. Mace’s farm, about 
one mile due north of, and many feet higher than, Ditchley Model 
Further information brought one case at least to our notice. 
