to Botolph Claydon, then by Hogshaw and the eastern side of Quainton Hill by Oving and Whitchurch. Here it turns in a north-easterly direction to Dunton, Stewkley Dean and Mursley. Then it again crosses the London and North-Western line about a mile east of Swanbourn station and passes between Whaddon and Bletchley to Denbighshire Hall and Simpson, where the Grand Junction Canal forms the line of demarcation, thence to Great Linford station, where it reaches the main stream of the Ouse, which is the limit of the district, to Newport Pagnell, where it receives the Ouzel stream. From Newport Pagnell the road from that place to the county boundary of Bedfordshire near Broad Green is followed; and the eastern limit of the district is the county of Bedford, the county boundary of which passes by Astwood and Olney, and then the county boundary of Northamptonshire replaces it by Salcey Forest and Hartwell. Near the latter place the river Tove, which rises from the high ground near Preston Capes, in Northamptonshire, is itself a tributary of the Ouse. From Hartwell the Tove itself becomes the county boundary and flows past Grafton Regis, Castlethorpe and Cosgrove, in its course having cut its way down to the Upper Lias Clay, and enters the Ouse which then in turn separates the two counties westwards to Thornton. Here the county boundary, which is the border of the Ouse district, is an arbitrary line which passes to the east of Leckhampstead and Lillingstone, and includes a small portion of the once extensive forest of Whittlewood or Whittlebury, where there are extensive deposits of Blue Clay drift, and traverses a secluded and well wooded part of the county by Chapel Green and Biddlesden; a small stream here forms the county boundary to a spot adjacent to Brackley, where our boundary line rejoins the starting point opposite to Evenley.
The Ouse district as comprised within the bounds just described consists of a flat or a gently undulating country, the highest point near Oving above sea level attaining only to 520 feet in altitude; the highest part of the Whittlebury neighbourhood is about 510 feet, while Whaddon Chase is about 450 feet. But by far the larger part of the district is between 200 and 300 feet, and some portion bordering the Ouse near Olney is not more than 1 70 feet above sea level. The area is almost entirely under cultivation and there are extensive tracts of pasture land, and still more monotonous agrarian fields, but there are vestiges of woodland in the north-west, although the greater part of the sylvan portions have long ago been disafforested, but we are able to read its former history by the occurrence of wood anemones and bluebells in the hedgerows. Near Westbury there is a wild bushy common where a very rare and local species of bramble (Rubus pubescens) grows, and it is especially interesting as it more closely approaches the original German type of R. pubescens than any other plant hitherto observed in Britain. Although clayey there is a plentiful growth of the woolly-headed thistle (Cnicus eriophorus). The marsh scorpion-grass (Myosotis cespitosa) and the bur-reed (Sparganium neglectum) grow in a pond in the vicinity. The umbelliferous plant Pimpinella major is plentiful in the woods and bushy hedgerows hereabouts, and in damp roadsides the grass Festuca arundinacea occurs. The hedges occasionally, as at Westbury and Lillingstone, have the barberry (Berberis vulgaris) as well as the spindle-tree (Euonymus europaeus); in a wet ditch at Westbury and also near Adstock the peppermint (Mentha piperita) occurs; the coppices often abound with the grass Calamagrostis epigeios, and sometimes, especially on stiff clay soils, have the beautiful sedge (Carex pendula) and the great horsetail (Equisetum maximum), while very locally near Lillingstone the great throat-wort (Campanula latifolia) is found. By the Black Pit Pond in Stowe Park, where the moon-wort (Botrychium Lunaria) was once found, there is a plentiful growth of the bur marigold (Bidens cernua), a very rare plant in the district in which B. tripartita is the prevailing form. At Westbury the spleenworts Asplenium Trichomanes and A. Ruta-muraria are found, but ferns are very scarce in the district; even the bracken (Pteris aquilina), is almost absent from the area. Nearer the Ouse, as at Buffer's Holt where the oolite was formerly quarried, there are some more interesting species, and the local Gentiana germanica and the thorow-wax (Bupleurum rotundifolium) have been reported. The relics of Whittlebury Forest contain the mint (Mentha longifolia) in an assuredly native situation.
At Westbury Common when the gravel drift is sufficiently porous to allow of the occurrence, the ling (Calluna Erica), a very rare plant of the district, and also the hawkweed (Hieracium umbellatum), the St. John's wort (Hypericum pulchrum), the heath stitchwort (Stellaria graminea), the heath bedstraw (Galium hercynicum) and the grasses Aira pracox, Deschampsia flexuosa and Agrostis canina are found. At Old Stratford the riverside affords the sweet flag (Acorus Calamus), the reed-mace (Typha angustifolia),the flowering rush (Butomus umbellatus),and nearer Castlethorpe the bittercress (Cardamine amara), the grass Catabrosa aquatica, the meadow rue (Thalictrum favum), and abundance of the water dropworts (ŒEnanthe fistulosa and (Œ.fluviatis, the latter of
43
