At the distance of about half a mile from Headington is a stone quarry, of considerable extent and utility. The stone here dug is chiefly of the two sorts termed free-stone and rag-stone. It is very porous, and "cuts soft and easy," in the quarry, but hardens when exposed to the weather. The vein is from twelve to fourteen feet deep, but is not worked to the bottom, as it there becomes too soft and sandy for use. Of this stone the more substantial parts of many structures in Oxford are composed; but it is too coarse and porous for the ornamental divisions; and it varies much in quality, the soft and the hard lying indiscriminately mixed in the quarry. It will not bear the fire, but is well adapted to all other circumstances of exposure, and has been used in the building of many elegant bridges.

As the quarry is worked on the gentle ascent of a hill, the super-stratum, which is of a stiff clay, increases as the laborers proceed, and is now not less than twenty-five feet in depth. Imbedded in this clay are often found pieces of wood and shells, The wood is generally oak; and the largest fragment discovered within remembrance was not more than three feet long. The shells are of various kinds, and are found at all depths, both singly and in clusters. It does not appear that the larger and more weighty of the shells, or disjointed pieces of wood, are by any means uniformly found in the lowest places.

MARSTON, a small village near Headington, was long the resi dence of a branch of the Croke family, who took an active part on the side of the Parliament in the civil war. Of this family was the careless and eccentric Charles Croke, who, indifferent to all parties, passed the prime of life in wandering about the world, with little fortune, and with no pursuit. He published an account of these rambles, under the name of Rodolphus, in a book intituled, "Youth's Inconstancy," printed in 1667. The ancient manor-house in which his father resided still remains, and is now partly used as a granary. The church is a pleasing Gothis building, constructed at different periods, but with a commendable uniformity of style. Near the porch are the mutilated

frag

fragments of a cross; and, on the exterior of the yard, at the point where the several approaches to the church unite, are the more perfect remains of a second cross, with three ranges of kneeling, places.

The neighbouring village of ELDSFIELD gave a surname to a wealthy family, one of whom, Gilbert de Eldsfield, attained much celebrity in the reign of Edward I. From the Eldsfields the manor went, by marriage, to the family of Hore, long seated in Cambridgeshire; and, in the time of Henry VII, by the failure of male issue, it came to the Pudseys.

The grass-grown street of this village evinces its thinness of population, and absence from the haunts of traffic, though so near the city of Oxford. Over the porch of the humble church is a cross, which the spectator would suppose, from its construction, to be of great antiquity. But the fact is otherwise. About half a century back a resident clergyman indulged in the fancy of building a large stable, in imitation of a Norman religious structure. This stable, with its appendant cross, at the death of the ingenious founder, became the property of a second resident clergyman; and he, thinking the cross too delicate for the stable, and too valuable an ornament to be entirely laid aside, translated it from the rude chamber of quadrupeds to the place it now occupies.

At WOOD EATON, the pleasant residence of John Weyland, Esq. formerly resided Sir Richard Taverner, who obtained a licence, under favour of the Protector Somerset, to preach, though a layman. In our notice of the chief events connected with the eity of Oxford, we have given a specimen of those oratorical ta lents which assisted in wafting the seeds of anarchy throughout the kingdom, while they laboured to disturb the simplicity of established religious opinions. This deluded person died at WoodEaton, in 1575, at the age of seventy, and left behind him many writings; but, both himself and his works would have been long since forgotten, if his mental distemper had been exhibited in modes less flagrantly absurd.

In the year 1676 there were found at Wood-Eaton, on removing some old foundations, two British coins, which were presented to Dr. Plot, and are thus described by him :-" The first, no doubt, is a coin of Cunobeline, it shewing a horse and his inscription on one side, and an ear of corn and CAMU on the reverse; intimating the place of its coinage to be Camulodunum, the royal seat and city of Cunobeline. This coin varies from that of the same king described by Camden, with a similar reverse, in that the final letter O of the inscription is not placed in a line with the preceding letters, under the horse's feet, but just before his breast; the horse having also a spica, or ear of corn, or some such like thing, placed over the back. The second has nothing on it but somewhat like a chalice, and a crooked lineation, under which there is also a forked kind of figure, and a small crescent." Some Roman urus have likewise been discovered in this neighbourhood.

FOREST-HILL. The village so called is situated on an eminence about three miles east of Oxford, and is rendered interesting by its connexion with the great Milton. It was here that he spent the happiest hours of life, those of early affection; and from this village he married his first wife. Sir William Jones, in a letter addressed to Lady Spencer, in the year 1769, gives a florid description of the feelings with which he contemplated this spot, so hallowed in the esteem of the true lovers of poetry. He points out the place from which, in his opinion, Milton gathered the finest images of his L'Allegro, and proposes, with honorable enthusiasm, to select a party of friends, if he should residé at Oxford for a sufficient time during the summer months, and to hire and repair the venerable mansion in which the poet lived, for the celebration of a festival in his honour."

But the warmth of Sir William's feelings caused him to disregard the dull accompaniment of facts. Milton is known to have modelled his poem on that by Burton; and he wrote it when young, probably when his father lived at Horton, in Buckinghamshire. It must likewise be observed, that the poet did not

reside

reside at Forest-hill. At the time he addressed his future wife, he received pupils in Aldersgate-street, and he returned to London immediately after his marriage.

The lady he married was Mary, daughter of Richard Powell, Some parts of the house in which Mr. Powell lived are still remaining; and they, assuredly, cannot be viewed without great interest, though the marriage is well known to have produced, in its early stages, so little felicity, that the lady returned to her father, a few weeks after her nuptials, and refused to attend to the summons of her husband. The scenery, from many elevated points in the neighbourhood, is extremely fine, and may be easily supposed to have lent imagery to some of the sublime descriptions of nature contained in Milton's latter productions.

Many cottages in this interesting little village are adorned with vines and honey-suckles, as if for the purpose of adding to the poetical influence of the scene. The church stands near the summit of the hill, and is rendered picturesque by the yew-trees in the yard, and the ivy which overhangs the walls. The stone font is protected by a handsome wooden cover: on it are inscribed the names of several young men, who effected the purchase with the money collected at a Whitsun-ale, in 1710. register of the parish begins 1625.

The

At a short distance from the church is Shotover-house, a spacious modern mansion, built of stone, and surrounded by woodland, the property and residence of George Schutz, Esq. In this neighbourhood, so frequently trodden by the greatest of English epic poets, resided for some time Mickle, the translator of the Lusiad.

The village of WHEATLEY, distant from Oxford five miles, on the high road to London through Beaconsfield, is completely imbedded among a group of hills, and assumes, from that circumstance, an aspect of serenity and comfort; but gathers, from its situation, more inconveniences than would be derived from an exposure to the roughest winds of the north. Its avenues are damp

and

and cheerless, even in summer, and seem to act as drains to the surrounding country.

Near Wheatley is Holton-Park, the seat of Edmund Biscoe, Esq. The old mansion of this domain was encompassed by a moat. The present respectable stone edifice occupies a different site, and is deeply secluded and embowered on one side, while the other commands an extensive prospect over a fine alternation of hill and valley. It is to be regretted that the stone of which this house is composed, (taken from a quarry in Shotover parish) already crumbles, and wears the appearance of antiquity, though the building has been completed within the last three years.

Two miles on the north-east of Wheatley is WATER-PERRY, the residence of Heury Curzon, Esq. a large and respectable mansion, but seated among the flattest meads that border on the river Thame. The family of Curzon has been long resident in Oxford, shire, and took an active part on the side of Charles in the civil war. Many of its members are buried in Water-Perry church, and are commemorated by brasses, and by paints in the windows. In the church is likewise an ancient stone, said to have been brought from Osney Abbey. The inscription is gone, but the verge is circumscribed with death's heads and crossed bones, al, ternately. Inarched in a wall of the aisle lies a knight templar, on whose shield appears a bendlet, between six fleurs de lys. The register of the parish begins 1539.

CUDDESDEN PALACE, the episcopal residence of the bishops of Oxford, is a commodious rather than a splendid mansion, about seven miles south by east of Oxford, near the course of the river Thame. After Gloucester Hall, the first residence appropriated to the bishops, was resumed by the crown, the prelate was destitute of a palace, until Dr. Bancroft, at the instigation of Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, constructed an episcopal seat. To this building the king contributed a large quantity of timber from the forest of Shotover; and the palace, with a chapel in it, was finished in 1635.

When