strictly the case. Its waters are silvery and clear, except when disturbed by floods, to which it is occasionally liable. The edible fish produced by this great river, while it remains with Oxford shire, are chiefly pike, chubbs, barbel, pearch, eels, roach, daice, and gudgeons. Salmon are sometimes found, as straggling visitors, even in the higher precincts of the river; and Dr. Plot mentions, as a curious native of the Isis, a fish locally termed the Pride; of the long, cartilaginous, smooth kind," having a mouth cut neither perpendicularly downward nor transversely, but hollowed, as it were, between two cheeks, without an under-jaw. On the top of its head it has one, and on each side seven holes, that supply the place of gills; and, under the belly, a small line reaching from the mouth to the opposite extremity. It moves by a winding impulse of its body, without the help of any other fins but the pinnula at the tail." The great quantity of the more valuable sort of fish formerly met with in this river is evident from the same writer, who tells us that, " in the year 1674, the Isis gave so ample testimony of its great plenty, that, in two days appointed for the fishing of Mr. Maior and the bailiffs of the city of Oxford, it afforded, between Swithin's wear and Woolvercotbridge, (a space of about three miles,) fifteen hundred jacks, beside other fish." It is certain that the Thames now is not nearly so prolific in any three miles of its course; and yet, perhaps, the river is not so hardly fished at present as in the seventeenth century. The deficiency may be safely ascribed to an increase in the practice of drainage, which, by disencumbering numerous rivulets of sedge, and other weeds, has deprived the pike of convenient breeding-places.

A curious particular in the natural history of the river Thames occurs in the circumstance of its always freezing first at the bottom. This habit is often found to prevail among rivers in Germany, and particularly those in the northern parts of that country; but is asserted by the writer of the article " Ice," in the Encyclopædia Britannica, never to be met with in the more temperate of the European climates. The fact is assuredly otherwise. The

Ꭰ 4

The congelation of the river Thames uniformly commences in the lowest places. The mass then formed rises (on a rude calculation) to about the middle of the water, where it presents, as in the streams of Germany, a resemblance to the partial consolidation of nuclei, or small hail. A second mass then forms at the bottom; the mass, centrally situated, rises to the surface; and the new bottom, or ground ice, takes its place, and gradually (if permitted by a continued obstruction of sun-beams) mounts to the superior fabric, with which it speedily assimilates.* Dr. Plot accounts for this circumstance by supposing that the water of the Thames is more abundantly impregnated with salt than that of other English rivers; and that, as salt naturally sinks to the bottom, and, as naturally, inclines to a principle of congelation, the formation of ice consequently takes place first at the greatest depth.

Among the subordinate rivers of Oxfordshire the "nitrous Windrush," so serviceable to the manufactory of Witney, though it flows through a narrow channel, and pervades only a limited district, is perhaps one of the most useful. Our mention of Dr. Plot has been frequent; yet it would be improper to quit the subject of natural streams in Oxfordshire without observing that he says, (Nat. His. p. 26,) "The banks of the Thame are so well sated with some kind of acid, that no well-water in the whole town of the name will either brew or lather with soap. But none of these give a tincture so high that they can be perceived by the most exquisite palate, but only so far forth as may conduce to a due fermentation, and to keep them living; and yet, without doubt, from hence it is that the Thames water, at sea, in eight months' time acquires so spiritous and active a quality, that upon opening some of the casks, and holding the candle near the bung-hole, the steams have taken fire like spirit of wine, and sometimes endangered firing the ship. Hence it is, also, that its stench

From repeated endeavours at investigation, we think it may safely be asserted, that not one of the many auxiliary streams which run into the Thaines between Letchlade and Henley possesses this curious habit.

stench is no absolute corruption, and that, after a third or fourth fermentation, it equals the waters of the well in the haven of Brundusium, and is offensive no more; and, though the mariners are sometimes forced to drink it and hold their noses, yet upon that account they do not sicken, whereas all other waters, as far as has been hitherto observed, become irrecoverable when once offensive to the smell, and dangerous to drink.”

The OXFORD CANAL enters the county at its northern extremity, between Claydon and the Three-Shire Stone. Approaching the vicinage of the river Charwell, at Cropredy, it proceeds, at a small distance from the banks of that river, to the city of Oxford, where its channel terminates, and is succeeded by the navigation of the Isis. The advantages derived from this recent cut are incalculably great, as it opens an immediate connexion between the interior of the county, and Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and the Wednesbury collieries.

After the mention of the rivers and canals, the roads deserve notice. Till within the last few years these were, in common with most provincial thoroughfares, deplorably bad. A writer of the seventeenth century describes many of the ways as mended, at that time, with a soft white stone, whose salt is so free from the bonds of sulphur, that, with the frosts and rain, it slakes like lime; and Young says, that he "remembers the roads forty years ago, when they were in a condition formidable to the bones of all who travelled on wheels. The two great turnpikes which crossed the county by Witney and Chipping-Norton, by Henley and Wycombe, were repaired, in some places, with stones as large as they could be brought from the quarry; and, when broken, left so rough as to be calculated for dislocation rather than exercise. At that period the cross roads were impassable but with real danger." The change to be now observed is of a most gratifying description: turnpike-roads, in general good, intersect the county in the direction of all its principal markets; and the majority of the parochial, or cross-ways, are much better than the great thoroughfares were a century ago,

Notwith

Notwithstanding the facilities offered by the frequency of its streams, by the broad and ready navigation of its great river, and, latterly, by the ease with which merchandize may be forwarded to a canal that joins sea to sea, the manufactures of the county are few, and not in a remarkably flourishing condition. At Witney is a manufactory for the weaving of blankets, which was formerly much noted. This trade, however, was progressively declining for many years, until the introduction of machinery took place, and enabled the proprietors, by producing the staple on reduced terms, to restore, in some measure, the flourishing tone of the business. At Woodstock the manufacture of delicate articles, composed of polished steel, is cultivated to some extent; and, in the same town, the manufacture of leather into breeches and gloves was introduced about fifty years back. This latter branch has gradually advanced in consequence, and is now productive of a considerable influx of money to the county, and affords employment to great numbers of the local population. A coarse sort of velvet is made at Bloxham and at Banbury Except these, we have nothing to notice but the article of lace which is chiefly made in the neighbourhood of Thame, though not even there on an extensive scale. The town of Henley has, for many centuries, been in the habit of supplying London with large quantities of malt.

The subjects of agriculture, of manufactures, and trade, naturally lead to a consideration of the STATE of the POOR, a topic of high importance in county examination, and one at least as interesting to the feelings as to the curiosity. If we might be allowed to judge from the answer given to the surveyor appointed by the agricultural board, when he applied to the keeper of the county gaol,* we should be led to pronounce the subordinate classes of Oxfordshire conspicuous in good morals; but every period is not

« I found that blankets and shags were made in Oxford gaol, and I enquired for annual accounts, which were distributed some years ago; but the answer was, "There are no prisoners, and therefore the accounts are dropped!"

so happy, in this respect, as that of 1807. The assize lists of Oxfordshire are, in general, too much on a parallel with those of other counties; yet it must be remarked, with pleasure, that few crimes of a character frightfully high have called for public panishment in this district for several years lately passed. The temptations to local vice are generally contained in the dissipated habits of crowded cities, and the dangerous species of semi-barbarous freedom produced by large tracts of woodland, only par tially appropriated, or vested, for the chief parts, in hands too dignified and remote for the due execution of immediate authority. An incitement of this latter description we find in the long wild ranges of Whichwood Forest. In these tracts deer (the royal beast productive of so many disputes and so much oppression in the feudal ages, and those of unlimited monarchical power which succeeded,) are extremely numerous; and game of almost every description abounds in an equal degree. The vicinity is, in consequence, fertile of a race of poor who cannot bear the thought of work while surrounded by such prolific wastes, and who, accordingly, endeavour to supply the wants of nature by poaching, by deer-stealing, and all the various pilfering arts which the vulgar qualify with a softer epithet than that of theft. The effects of an improved police are, however, gratefully evident, in the circumstance of these idle foresters seldom cominitting an act of violence beyond the pale of their woodland robberies. A fact well deserving of notice, when it is recollected that, in such a life of precarious sylvan depredation, the affluence of a day is often followed by the foodless penury of a week.

But the district of Whichwood is limited, when compared with the county at large; and with the adjacency of temptation the evil propensity ceases. In those points of moral degradation which imply a condescension to the weekly practice of begging at the parochial alms-table, the labourers of Oxfordshire unhappily share with their class-men in most other districts. If this were not a general practice in the county, we should readily attribute