O X F 
painted glafs is now removed,'to preferveit from the pro¬ 
bable dedruftion of fuch a deferred fituation. In the 
tower are three rooms, about thirteen feet fquare; and 
over part of the chapel is a fourth. The uppermod of 
thefe rooms was occupied as a dudy by Mr. Pope, who 
palled two fummers here for the fake of retirement. In 
one of the windows is the following infcription, written 
by him on a pane of glafs: “ In the year 1718 Alexander 
Pope finifhed here the fifth Volume of Homer.” 
The old kitchen is one of thole ancient buildings ereft- 
ed without chimneys. Dr. Plot, in his Hiltory of this 
County, gives the defcription of it: “ Among thefe emi¬ 
nent private druftures (in the county of Oxford) could I 
find nothing extraordinary in the whole; but in the parts, 
the kitchen of the right worlhipful fir Simon Harcourt, 
knight, of Stanton-Harcourt, is fo drangely unufual, 
that, by way of riddle, one may truly call it either a kitchen 
within a chimney, or a kitchen without one; for below it 
is nothing but a large fquare, and oftangular above, af- 
cending like a tower, the fires being made againll the 
walls, and the fmoke climbing up them, without any 
tunnels or dilturbance to the cooks; which being Hopped 
by a large conical roof at the top, goes out at loop-holes 
on every fide, according as the wind fits, the loop-holes 
at the fide next the wind being fliut with falling doors, 
the adverfe fide open.” 
Detached fragments of buildings and walls, and one or 
two refpeftable dwellinghoufes, formed out of the ruins, 
though poflefling little of antiquity, and nothing of in- 
terelt, with their large gardens and orchards, now cover 
the fite of this venerable manfion. The gate, or lodge, 
conlifts of a large arch with rooms over and at the fides, 
and had formerly a battlemented parapet, but is other- 
wife quite plain. In addition to Dr. P.’s defcription of 
the kitchen, we fiiould obferve that it is nearly of a fquare 
form, terminated with battlements, upon which is a low 
oftagonal ftory, fupporting a fpiral or conical roof, and 
the figure of a lion on the top holding a vane, once charged 
with the arms of the family. This part is condrufted of 
wood, every fide having open compartments and trefoil 
arches to emit fmoke from the fires within, and all being 
filled with weather-boards, which were open or clofed, ac¬ 
cording to the direction of the wind. 
The magnificentchurch, belonging to the village, (lands 
a fiiort diltance eaftward of this ruined manfion, and com¬ 
bines fome early, as well as forne very fuperbly-enriched, 
architecture of a later period* 
Slanlake is a village near Stanton-Harcourt. The 
parfon of this parifh ufed formerly, in the procefiion on 
Holy-Thurfday, to read the Gofpei at the barrel-head, in 
the Chequer-inn here, where fome fay was anciently an 
hermitage, other-s a crofs, at which a Gofpei ufed to be 
read in time of popery ; and the inn, or cellar of it, being 
built over it, they were afterwards forced to perform it as 
aforefaid. 
The remains of a Roman villa, were lately difcovered 
on the duke of Marlborough’s eftate at Stunesfield, eleven 
miles from Oxford. They werefirft pointed out in 1816, 
by the Rev. Mr. Brown, vicar of that parilh. By the af- 
fiftance of that gentleman, and of the duke of Marlbo¬ 
rough, extenfive difcoveries have been made. The build¬ 
ing enclofes about three acres of land ; the perillyle, on 
every fide of the quadrangle, is very evident, as are the 
divifions of forty-feven rooms. The pavements are tef- 
fellated, and in good condition. One of them, in a large 
room, is perfeft. The tellers: are fo exaftly laid together, 
fo beautifully varied, and the pattern fo correft and ele¬ 
gant, that the bed floor-cloth is not painted with more 
accuracy or beauty. The pattern is one which frequent¬ 
ly appears on our modern floor-cloths. The baths are 
completely excavated ; and the hypocaufts and Hues, by 
which they warmed the rooms, in the manner we have 
adopted for hot-houfes, are apparent. The larged' rooms 
fee in to be about 30 by 15,5 one is exaftly 28 by 24 ; a pro¬ 
O R D. 163 
portion, in which the length exceeds the width much lefs 
than in modern rooms. Nothing has yet been found to 
fix the precife date of the villa; the coins collected are 
thofe of Condantine the Great, who flourilhed from 306 
to 337. 
The works chiefly confulted in the compilation of this 
article are — Nichols’s Account of Queen Elizabeth’s 
Progreffes. Wilkes’s Britilh Directory, vol. iv. Wood’s 
Athen. Oxon. Gent. Mag. 1771, 1818, 1819, 1820. 
Monthly Mag. 1S10, 1814, 1815. Chalmers’s Hid. of the 
Univerfity of Oxford, 1811. Chandler’s Life of Bp. Wayn- 
flete, 1811. Britton’s Architectural Antiq. vol. iii. iv. 
Oldfield’s Reprefentative Hidory, 6 vols. 8vo. 1816. 
Brady’s Clavis Calendaria. Plot’s Oxfordlhire. Beauties 
of England, vol. xiii. 
OX'FORD, a townfliip of North America, in Worceder- 
county, Mailachufetts: eleven miles fouth of Worceder, 
and containing 1277 inhabitants.—A town taken from 
the north part of Derby in Connecticut: feventeen miles 
north-wed of Newhaven; containing 1400 inhabitants. 
—A pod-town of New York, in Chenango-county, be¬ 
tween Jericho and Norwich ; incorporated in 1793, and 
containing an incorporated academy, and 1405 inhabi¬ 
tants.—A townlhip of New Jerfey, in Suflex-county, oil 
the ead bank of Delaware-river, fifteen or twenty miles 
north-ead of Eadon, in Pennfylvania, containing, in 
1810, 2470 inhabitants.—A towndiip of Pennfylvania, in 
Philadelphia-county; containing 973 inhabitants.—A 
towndiip in Grenville-county. Upper Canada, fituated in 
the rear and to the northward of the towndiips of Ed- 
wardfburg and Auguda, and watered by the Radeau.—A 
towndiip upon the Thames, in the Weltern Didrift, Up¬ 
per Canada, fouth of Dundas-dreet, where the wedern 
end of that road meets the upper forks of the river 
Thames.—A town in New Hampfhire, Grafton-county, 
containing 988 inhabitants.—A port of entry, on the ead 
lliore of Chefapeak-bay, in Talbot-county : thirteen miles 
fouth-by-wed of Eadon, and about forty-eight fouth-ead 
of Baltimore.—A fmall pod-town of North Carolina; 
thirty-fix miles from Hillfborough, and about 416 from 
Philadelphia.—A towndiip of Ohio, in Guernfey-county, 
with 440 inhabitants ; another on the Ohio, in Tulcarawa- 
county, with 271 inhabitants. 
OX'FORD (Lower), a town of Cheder-county, Penn¬ 
fylvania; with 769 inhabitants: twenty-one miles weit- 
Jouth-wed from Philadelphia. 
OX'FORD (Upper), in the fame county; with 700 in¬ 
habitants : twenty miles fouth-wed of Philadelphia. 
OX'FORDSHIRE, one of the central counties of Eng¬ 
land, is bounded by Gloucederdiire on the wed; by Buck- 
inghamdiire on the ead; by Berkfiiire on the fouth, fouth- 
wed, and fouth-ead; by Northamptondiire on the north ; 
and by Warwickdiire on the north-wed. In figure this 
county is extremely irregular, being only feven miles in 
breadth in the centre, while its fouthern divifion is about 
twelve miles in diameter, and its northern half varies from 
little more than a mile, to thirty-eight miles in width. 
This latter portion, in proceeding northward from the 
centre, afiumes the form of a cone, which terminates at 
what is denominated the Three-Shire Stone, in a complete 
point or apex. The total area of the county is computed, 
by Mr. Davis, at 742 fquare miles, or 450,000 acres, of 
which 309,000 lie to the north, and 141,000 to the fouth- 
ead, of the city of Oxford ; but in the table of poor-rates 
drawn up under the infpeftion of the late George Rofe, 
the number of acres is edimated at 474,880. 
When the Romans obtained pofleflion of Albion, Ox- 
forddiire, with fome portion of the county of Glouceder, 
condituted the dominions of a Britifh tribe called the 
Dobuni, who feem to have been of a lefs warlike difpofi- 
tion than mod of their neighbours. Before the arrival of 
the Romans, they were held in fubjeftion by the Cat- 
tieuchlani, whofe domination was lo galling, that the 
Dobuni immediately embraced the protection of the new 
invaders* 
