Description
Oxfordshire, Oxford, or Oxon, an inland county, chiefly within the basin of the Thames. It is bounded on the NW and the N by Warwickshire, on the NE by Northamptonshire, on the E by Bucks, on the SE, the S, and the SW by Berks, on the W by Gloucestershire. Its outline is exceedingly irregular; commences, on the N, in an apex, at the Three Shire Stone; expands irregularly southward till it attains a breadth of 34 miles; contracts suddenly at the middle, and for about 8 miles in the vicinity of Oxford, to a mean breadth of 7 miles; and stretches thence south-south-eastward with a maximum breadth of about 12 miles. Its boundary, over most of the contact with Northamptonshire, is the river Cherwell—over all the long contact with Berks, is the Isis or Thames; but almost everywhere else, is artificial. Its greatest length, from NNW to SSE, is 50 miles; its greatest breadth, as already noted, is 34 miles; its circuit is about 180 miles—of which about 55 is along the Isis or Thames; and its area is 483,614 acres. The population, which has steadily increased during the 19th century, was in 1801, 111,977; in 1821, 138,224; in 1841, 163,127; in 1861, 170,944; in 1881,179,650; and in 1891, 185,669. The northern section is prevailingly flat, wants sufficient sylvan embellishment, is disfigured by stone fences, and fatigues the eye by rude monotony. The central section, excepting an elevated platform E of Oxford, is also flat, yet has a profusion of wood, a luxuriousness of hedgerows, and a wealth of general cultivation which give it a pleasing aspect. The elevated platform E of Oxford rises in the immediate vicinity of the city, stretches away between the valleys of the Cherwell and the Thames, and attains its highest elevation in Beckley Hill. The south-eastern section is crossed by the Chiltern Hills, exhibits a charming contour, with fine diversity of hill and vale, and attains its greatest altitudes on Nuffield Common and Nettlebed Hill, respectively 757 and 820 feet high. The rivers are popularly said to be threescore and ten; two trivial ones in the extreme N belong to the systems of the Ouse and the Warwickshire Avon; the chief one, more than equal to all the rest, is the Isis or Thames; and the principal of the others, all flowing to the Isis or the Thames, are the Windrush, the Evenlode, the Cherwell, and the Thame.

The northern section of the county, to the aggregate of nearly one-half of the entire area, consists of lias rocks— sand, upper lias clay, marlstone, and lower lias clay and lime; the central section, to the extent of about one-third of the entire area, consists of lower oolite rocks—cornbrash, forest marble, Bradford clay, Bath oolite, fullers' earth, and inferior oolite; the southern section, to a considerable extent, consists of middle oolite rocks—coral rag, calcareous grit, and Oxford clay; and the south-eastern section consists partly of upper oolite rocks—Portland limestone, sandstone, Kimmeridge clay—and partly of chalk rocks. Very fine marl is often found at a small depth, and has been advantageously used as a manure. Oolitic sandstone is quarried in several places, particularly near Burford, and was the building material of St Paul's Cathedral in London and of not a few other noted structures. The grey oolite limestone of Stonesfield abounds in fossils, and is so worked as to be used as a roofing-slate. The forest marble of Wychwood is occasionally worked as a coarse marble. A very fine ochre, of true yellow colour, very weighty, and said to be the best in the world, is obtained at Shotover Hill, near Oxford. The clays of the Oxford clay formation were formerly used with some success in pottery, but are now little used. A land spring is at Assendon, and chalybeate springs are at Cornbury, Ewelme, and near Goring.

The soils are very various. Mr Arthur Young, who assumed the area to be 474,836 acres, distributed it into 79,635 acres of red land, 164,023 of stonebrash, 64,778 of Chiltern chalk, and 166,400 of miscellaneous soils. The red land is in the northern section, consists principally of rich and very fertile loam, and is deep, sound, and friable. The stonebrash prevails chiefly in the central section, consists of the detritus of the subjacent rocks, including many fragments of them, and is generally a loose, dry, friable sand or loam. The Chiltern chalk lies in the south-eastern section, has a very considerable intermixture of flint, mostly brown, rough, crusty, and honeycombed, and is of various depths, and generally sound and dry. The miscellaneous soils are of all sorts, from loose sand to heavy clay, pass into one another by very irregular transitions, and range from fertile loam to either poor sand or stiff retentive clay. Georgical improvement has been extensive and various, and has converted a large aggregate of wastes into fruitful fields. Husbandry, in a general view, has made great progress, and now entitles Oxfordshire to a respectable rank among agricultural counties. The course of crops, on the lighter soils, is the four-year Norfolk rotation, usually lengthened to six years with pulse and oats, or with crops of equivalent character; and, on the heavier soils, which have been drained and lie on irretentive subsoils, it is the convertible system, or such as divides the whole arable land into moieties under artificial grass and under rotation crops, and usually consists of first turnips or other roots, next barley or oats, next three or more years of clover and grass seeds, next wheat, and finally beans. Barley usually yields about 7 qrs. per acre, and clover 1^ ton. Other crops, in peculiar situations or under peculiar circumstances, are sainfoin, lentils, rape, chicory, and rhubarb. Meadows and pastures, along the banks of the streams, are of large aggregate extent, have been pronounced the greatest glory of Oxfordshire, and are devoted chiefly to the dairy. The average weekly produce of butter, from the richer pastures, has been estimated at from 5 to 6 Ibs. per cow. The short-horned cows, the Ayrshires, the Devonshires, and the Aldemeys are used for the dairy, and so many other breeds, pure and crossed, occur either for