468 LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND: 
The term " Downs " is applied to the Oolitic uplands north' and south 
of Burford. These comprise a somewhat bleak-looking country of arable 
land, divided into large fields for the most part by stone-walls, with a few 
hedgerows and a tree or clump of trees here and there, but more wooded 
as a rule on the slopes. 
Towards Wychwood scrubby tracts of Forest land (chiefly Oak and 
Holly) occur here and there. There are many shallow pits on the area of 
Wychwood and elsewhere, opened for the construction of the stone-walls. 
On the plateau north of Stonesfield we find a mixture of arable and park 
land, with fine holly trees about Ditchley. Referring to this part of 
Oxfordshire, Mr. C. S. Bead has remarked that "the sides of the hills are 
wet from clay partings in the rocks, and when these partings of clay 
become extensive and form beds, they produce a wet, tenacious, calcareous 
Boil."* 
Much of the land becomes heavy in the tract north of Wootton ; in the 
valley of the Dome east of Wootton Down Farm, and onwards to Purga- 
tory, where the lower beds of the Great Oolite locally comprise marls with 
occasional bands of limestone. 
South-west of Banbury, near Hinton-in-the -hedges and Croughton, the 
Great Oolite forms an open country with large fields. The land is mostly 
under cultivation and is less timbered than the Marlstone. A few 
scattered quartz pebbles occur in the soil. 
In Northamptonshire, Eutlandshire and Lincolnshire, where the rocks 
are not concealed by Drift, the Great Oolite Limestone forms fertile 
tracts of clayey soil with rubbly limestone. The soil itself is usually of a 
dark colour, but as remarked by Prof. Judd, it is occasionally of the same 
red tint as the Cornbrash and Lincolnshire Limestone. These two 
formations yield soils lighter as a rule than that of the Great Oolite, 
hence in seasons of drought the heavier soil on the Great Oolite possesses 
a greater value to the farmer. 
Forest Marble. 
The boldest feature among the Jurassic rocks in Dorsetshire and 
Somersetshire is formed by the Forest Marble. We see this to the south- 
east of Button Bingham, in the wooded tracts of Birts and Abbots Hills, 
and the ridges at Hardington. The escarpment of Lillington Hill and 
Gainsborough Hill is continued in the southern part of Sherborue Park;, 
and the feature is maintained in Holt Hill 1 north of Bishops Caundle,. 
Bullstake Hill, and Bowden, Windmill and Charleton Hills, above- 
Charleton Horethorne, and Bratton Hill. Scale Hill near Bruton is a 
steep and somewhat bare grassy and scrubby scarp ; this high ground is 
wooded further north, the steep dip-slope overlooking the vale of Oxford 
Clay. Barrow Hill and Buckland Downs form marked features north of 
Mells. 
The soil is dark brown clay, and reddish-brown brashy clay ; and 
on this formation it is varied, and on the whole poor. The limestone 
generally forms a steep scarp, and being overlaid and underlaid by clay, 
the arable land is for the most part heavy along the dip-slope. These 
clay -lands are improved by lime-manure, but they are cold, wet, and 
heavy, and require deep draining. In dry weather the land is often much 
fissured. In some tracts there is much pasture and meadow-land with, 
good hedgerows, with oak and ash timber; and occasionally fine elms, 
horn-beams, &c. are to be seen, as in Orchardleigh Park, Frome. In 
some places the fields are divided by stone-fences. Corn, beans, grasses-, 
and roots are cultivated in places. 
The escarpments are frequently wooded, and here and there covered 
with patches of gorse. Where sandy beds occur we find scrubby tracts 
and an occasional rabbit-warren. In other places the ground forms 
pasture-land for sheep. 
* Journ. R. Agric. Soc., vol. xv. p. 197. 
