: least productive peas seem to agree with the nature of the soil, and yet they are little cultivated for they are never plentiful and generally sold at a high price. All kinds of roots and other vegetables are also grown in great abundance: potatoes here, as elsewhere, are the standard produce of the kitchen garden. Jerusalem artichokes are astonishingly productive: I have gathered nearly a peck of them from a single root.. The usual kinds of fruit grown in gardens are found in Bampton. Apples grow in all parts of the parish, and from the produce of the orchard belonging to Cote house, Mr. Richard Townsend, the enterprising tenant of that farm, has often made fifteen or twenty hogs-heads of cider in one season. Apricots, walnuts and pears grow with great luxuriance: strawberries have been said to be ill-adapted to the soil, but this is certainly an error: for there are some gardens where the finest specimens of this fruit have been gathered, and in order to secure a good crop it seems to be only necessary to well moisten the beds in which they grow. § 4. OF THE TOWN OF BAMPTON. The town itself of Bampton consists of three principal streets which meet on the market-place Here stands a large townhall, the lower part of which is surrounded by open arches and forms a small but commodious market-house. It is to be wished that this building could be more serviceable to the inhabitants in the use for which it was erected; but the neighbouring markets of Witney, Faringdon, Burford, and even Oxford at the distance of so many miles, are too attractive to the farmers, and the market of Bampton, which is held on Wednesdays, seldom presents more than a few dealers in eggs, and butter, though large numbers of pigs are sold on that day. Of the three streets which meet on the market-place, High street seems to be the principal: on reaching the extremity of the town towards the South-east, it is separated into two branches, one of which leads to Aston, Shifford, Brighthampton, &c. the other, passing over Fisher's bridge, and two miles further on, over Tadpole bridge, leads to Buckland, Stanford, and the Faringdon Road Station on the Great Western railway. From this station Bampton is about nine miles distant. Returning to the Town-Hall and taking a northerly direction, we find ourselves in Broad Street, so called from its great breadth: it is a dull street, lined on both sides with low houses, possessing little to attract the notice of the traveller. At the end of Broad Street, separating the town from the country are the grounds and large manor-house of Bampton Deanery, the property and residence of Frederick Whitaker Esquire, J. P. This estate is copy-hold, held in lease of the Dean and chapter of Exeter. To the west of Broad-Street are two or three lanes or backstreets leading to the Parish-church and burying-ground; the widest of these is generally called Church Street. The third principal thoroughfare is called Mill-Street, from the millstream over which it runs, and passing through Weald between an old house now occupied as a school, sometimes called the manor-house of Bampton, and the ruins of the old castle, now called Ham-court, divides itself, at Cow-leas corner, into two branches, one of which leads to Clanfield, and over Radcot bridge to Faringdon the other leads through the villages of Black-Boreton, Alvescott, Kencott, &c. to Lechlade and Fairford in Gloucestershire. We again return to the town, and proceed to describe the principal objects of interest which it contains. The first of these is its fine paaish-church. § 5. OF THE PARISH-CHURCH OF BAMPTON. The church of Bampton is situated on the north-western side of the town, in the centre of a large church-yard, which, from being removed out of the immediate thoroughfare, and from the number of trees with which it abounds, has a rural and interesting appearance. The church-yard is skirted on three sides by the street on the north-side of it, is the ancient gate-way leading to the Deanery, next to which is the principal of the three vicarages, destined hereafter, when the portions are separated, to become the residence of the vicar of Bampton Proper. Adjoining to the gardens of the vicarage, on the eastern side, is a respectable house of considerable antiquity, and once in the occupation of a family named Wood, who, from circumstances hereafter to be mentioned, have acquired a species of historic, or at least romantic, notoriety. The house is now the property of Thomas Denton, Esq., one of the lords of the manor of Bampton. To it succeed two rustic cottages; and a small side entrance gateway, leading through the grounds of Bampton Deanery manorhouse, completes the northern side of the square in which the parish-church is situated. On the eastern side are two houses only, namely a low cottage and a large house which was formerly one of the vicarages, but has lately been sold with the consent of the bishop to raise money for building another vicarage-house hereafter, when the livings are separated, in the parish of Aston. On the south-side of the church-yard are some ruins and the third vicarage, a roomy and comfortable residence, but with no pretensions to beauty of appearance or architectural ornament. It will hereafter be the residence of the vicar of Lew, until a more convenient situation for a new vicarage shall be obtained within the parish, of which he will have the charge. The principal approach, leading to the South-porch of the church, near Church Street, is on this side, and the point of view, to a spectator standing near the gate of the old Grammar-school, is picturesque and pleasing. The western side of the Church-yard is occupied by the Deanery-house, lawn, and paddock, which are separated by a wall from the church-yard. The church itself is a handsome cruciform building, possessing many peculiarities in its architecture and ornaments. It is composed of a nave with north and south isles, two transepts and a chancel. On the eastern side of the north transept is a small chapel, now used as an engine-house: the south transept has two chapels, one on each side of it: that on the eastern side is generally called Hoard's isle, because it was the burial-place of the Hoard family, formerly owners of Cote house. The western isle of the south transept is open to the nave of the church, and is occupied by pews. The service of the church is performed in the nave only: the transepts, from the size of the building and the clumsy galleries which surround the nave and separate it from the rest of the church, are at present of no other use than as passages or thoroughfares to the interior. Over the junction of the nave with the transepts, stands a massive tower rising about 65 feet from the ground: above which is placed a stately spire, about 150 feet high from the ground, a conspicuous object to all the surrounding country. At the base of the spire, and springing from the corners of the tower, are figures of the four evangelists, giving to the exterior of the church that peculiar appearance which belongs to many of the Oxfordshire churches. The chancel is of ample dimensions and contains on each side old oak seats, carved with foliage and figures, and moveable on hinges, like those of a cathedral |
