142 O X F 
ufes who have done honour to mankind. The natural 
powers of his mind were ftrengthened by an excellent 
education, and by the ftudy of the moft ufeful fciences. 
No perfon was better acquainted with the art of prying 
into the recedes of the human heart. His political faga- 
city excited no lefs refpeft than admiration ; and he lived 
at a period which gave him an opportunity of difplaying, 
to its full extent, the ftrength and folidity of his judg¬ 
ment. The form of government which he drew up, at 
the command of his fovereign, and which was adopted by 
the Swedilh dates in 1634, was confidered as a raafter- 
piece of political wifdom. His eloquence was concife, 
but nervous. He polfelfed the happy talent of forefeeing 
the various refults with which any meafure might be at¬ 
tended, and of thence deducing the bed rules for direct¬ 
ing him in his public conduit. His integrity not only 
procured him friends, but enabled him to outdrip all his 
competitors, and to overawe thofe who were hodile to his 
defigns. The dorms and vexations to which he was often 
expofed, he withdood with firmnefs, prudence, and mag¬ 
nanimity. The independence of his country was the 
darling objeit of his heart; and he podefled talents fufli- 
cient to defend it againd every attack. Though he was 
clafled among thofe who at that time were called arijlo- 
crats, he was never deficient in deference, fidelity, and 
refpeft, to his fuperiors; and on that account they loved 
and edeemed him. He exerted himfelf with fo mucH zeal, 
particularly after his return from Germany, to introduce 
economy in the public expenditure, to revive commerce, 
and encourage manufadlures, that, in this refpeft, he is 
entitled to a place among the mod eminent of the Swedidi 
patriots. A lid of his works, as well as of the manu- 
fcripts which he left behind him, may be feen in Stiern- 
man’s Bibliotheca Suio-Gothica. We fhall, however, 
here remark, that the fecond part of the “ Hidoria Belli 
Sueco-Germanici,” afcribed in general to P. B. Chemni- 
tius, was compofed by Oxendierna. He compiled alfo 
the work “ De Arcanis Audriacte Dornus,” publidied by 
the fame Chemnitius, under the name of Hypolitus a La- 
pide. Gezelii Biographijka Lexicon. 
Oxenstierna had two fons, John and Eric, who were 
both men of talent, and obtained promotion. 
OX'FORD, a city of England, and capital of the county 
to which it gives name, the fee of a bidiop, and an uni- 
verfity, iituated on a gentle eminence, at the union of the 
Cherwell and the Thames, and anciently furrounded 
with walls, of which considerable remains are .yet to be 
feen. Oxford is didant from London fifty-four miles, 
twenty-three from Henley, and feven and three quarters 
from Wooddock. 
The town is fituated on abroad eminence, which rifes 
fo gradually as to be hardly perceptible, in the midd of a 
mod beautiful extent of meadows to the fouth, ead, and 
wed, and of corn-fields to the north. The vales on the 
ead are watered by the river Cherwell, and thofe on the 
wed and fouth by the main dream, and feveral branches, 
of the Ifis. Both rivers meet towards the fouth-ead. 
The landfcape is bounded on every fide, the north ex¬ 
cepted, by a range of hills covered with woods. The 
opening to the north admits a free current of frefh air, 
aild entirely removes all the inconvenience which would 
otherwife arife from the noxious vapours of a watery 
fituation. From fome of the furrounding hills, the tra¬ 
veller is furprifed with an unparalleled profpeft of mag¬ 
nificence and plenty; of numerous fpires, domes, and 
turrets, with the combined charms of verdure, water, and 
trees. The foil is a fine gravel; and, on the whole, the 
fituation is not lefs healthy than agreeable. 
That part of the town properly denominated the city, 
and originally enclofed with walls, is not more than two 
miles in circumference, and of an oblong figure. The 
fuburbs are mod confiderable on the north, ead, and wed, 
fides; containing the paridies of Holiwell, Magdalen, 
St. Clement, St. Giles, and St. Thomas; with the col¬ 
leges of Baliol, Trinity, Wadham, Worceder, St.John, 
O R D. 
and Magdalen. The walls, from that part of them which 
remains as a boundary to New College on the north and 
ead, appear to have been embattled with badions at one 
hundred and fifty feet didance from each other. The 
walls likewife, but without their battlements, ferve as a 
fence to Merton College on the fouth and ead. A few 
detached fragments of them are difcernible at other 
places. The whole town is about three miles in circum¬ 
ference. The principal dreet is the High-dreet, running 
from Magdalen-bridge to Carfax-church. Its length and 
breadth are hardly to be paralleled ; and it is remarka¬ 
bly clean and well paved. It derives its principal gran¬ 
deur from the fronts of three magnificent colleges, toge¬ 
ther with the churches of St. Mary and All Saints. This 
dreet would be lefs beautiful were it in a draight line : 
from its tendency to a curve, it affords a gradual and un¬ 
expected difplay of its parts, and luccedively furprifes us, 
at every turn, with a new' objeCt. This dreet, but under 
different names, is continued towards the cadle. The 
next confiderabie dreet, by fome called Fidi-dreet, leads 
from Carfax to a bridge*over the liis, on which formerly 
ftood a turret called Friar Bacon’s Study. It is adorned 
with the dately front of the college of Chridchurch, 
which is extended to the length of three hundred and 
eighty-two feet. In the fame dreet-is the town-hall, 
where the affifes for the county, and the town and county 
feflions, are held ; a neat and commodious edifice,- partly 
erefted at the expenfe of Thomas Rowney, efq. the late 
reprefentative, and high-deward, of the city. From Car- 
fax (where formerly dood a conduit ereCfed by Otho Ni- 
cholfon) we pafs on the north into the Corn-market; and 
from thence, by Magdalen parifli-church on the right, and 
Friar’s Entry on the left, being the paflage to the Carme¬ 
lite friary in Beaumont, into St. Giles’s j which is a dreet 
of extraordinary breadth ; and, from the trees left before 
St. John’s college, and thofe in the front of the church, 
has the appearance of an elegant village. On the ead fide 
dands St. John’s college ; and the town, as well as the 
dreet, is terminated at this end by St. Giles’s church. 
Thefe are the chief entrances. The principal bridges 
are, 1. Magdalen-bridge, over the Cherwell, being five 
hundred and twenty-fix feet in length, by which we enter 
the town from London. 2. High-bridge, or Hithe-bridge, 
in the wedern fuburbs, over the Ifis, confiding of three 
arches. 3. Folly-bridge, as it is commonly called, in the 
fouthern fuburb, on the fame river, over which is the 
Abingdon road, which leads to various parts of Berk- 
diire, See. This confids of three arches, and is, like the 
red, entirely built with done. 
The origin of this famous town has been a fubjeFt of 
anxious invedigation among the learned in different ages ; 
and much curious but fanciful fpeculation has been exhi¬ 
bited by thofe who were ambitious to bedow on it a 
claim to very remote antiquity. John Rofs, or Rous, 
whom Dugdale terms a “ famous antiquary,” even afferts, 
that a town was built here by Memphric king of the Bri¬ 
tons, upwards of a thoufand years before the Chridian 
era. This town, the fame author obferves, was fird called 
Caer-Memphric, in honour of its founder; then Belleji - 
turn, from a pretty mountain near it; afterwards, Ridu- 
hen, implying, in the Celtic language, a Ford of Oxen; 
and Caer-Vo[)'ei, from Bodo, the name of an earl who was 
contemporary with king Arthur. Such a view of the ori¬ 
gin of Oxford, however, though accredited and repeated 
by fome antiquaries of modern times, is judly confidered 
by Camden and others to be fabulous; and the faft is, 
that no-mention of Oxford occurs during the Roman era; 
for the idea of Wood and Leland, that'it was the Callevu 
of that celebrated people, and a place of fplendour and 
notoriety under their government, has been proved to be 
altogether erroneous. Indeed, no credit can be given, 
by the rational enquirer, to any ftatement refpe£ting it 
till the reign of Alfred, when it appears to have been 
famous for a monaftery dedicated to the Holy Trinity. 
This was founded in 727, and was moll probably the nu- 
1 cleus 
