SP~LSBUBY, OXFORDSHIRE. [KELLY'S T.ASTON is a hamlet to Spelsbury, half a mile north­ Letters through Enstone arrive at 6.30 a.m. The nearest east. Here is a very ancient stone wayside cross and a money order & telegraph office is at Oharlbury fountain erected to the memory of Henrietta, Viscoun­ :;ess Dillon, who died at Paris, r8th March, r862, by Viscount Dillon's School (mixed), Spels.bury, founded by her family; and immediately adjacent, standing by the the late Charles Henry, 14th Viscount Dillon, who roadside, is a monolith, believed to IJ:Je ·that from which died 18th N{)vember, r865, and now supported by <the hamlet derives its name, " Taston" being unquc:;;­ the present viscount. The school will hold 120 chil­ tionably a corruption of "Thor's stan," or " the stone dren; average attendance, 55; :Miss Isabel Baylis, of Thor the car-borne god of thunder," and one of the mi'stress chief of the Saxon: deities. The parish is contributory to Enstone school board with Sexton, Edward Calcott. two members SPELSBURY. Butcher William, farmer Willocks George, farm bailiff to Vis~ Martin Joseph, miller (water & steam) count Dillon Dillon Hon. Mrs. Constantin~ Nield Alfred, farmer, Dean house Wilcox Rev. Arthur Marwood ~'LA. Sturdy John (Mrs.), farmer FULWELL. Vicarage Thornton George Alfred, shopkeeper l\Iace John Minchin, farmer :Bolton Edward, farmer & beer retailer Butcher William, shopkeeper, Post ofl TASTON. Holyfield Charles, miller (water) DITCHLEY. Fowler Henry, farmer Lay Charles, Chequer's inn Dillon Viscount D.L., M.A. Ditchley Harris Robert, farmer Lodge John, farmer house ; & 3 Swan walk, Chelsea SW Howe Herbert, nurseryman & Army & Navy club SW, London Howse John, shoe maker DEA~. Barrett Thomas, farmer lvings Amos, wheelwright Prestidge Jarnes Gardner Thomas Macgregor, farmer Penson Frederick, farmer STADHAMPTON is a parish and village, on the kennels of the South Oxfordshire Fox Hounds are located road from Thame to Wallingford, bounded on the west here, 1Villiam .Ashhurst esq. J.P. master. Oxford. by the River Thame, 6 miles east from Culham station Thame and Wallingford are convenient places for hunt­ <Jn the. Reading and Oxford section of the Great Western ing visitors. The principal landowners are 'fhomas :railway, 8 south-east from Oxford, and 9 south-west Franklin e'sq. who is lord of the manor, and Oriel Col­ from Thame, in the Southern division of the county, lege, Oxford. The soil is gravelly; subsoil, gravel. hundred! <Jf Dorchester, petty sessional division of Bul- The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and beans. The lingdon, union and county court district of Abingdon, area is 620 acres; rateable value, £r,272; the popula­ rural deanery of Cuddesdon, archdeaconry and diocese tion in r8gr was 276. of Oxford. The church of St. John the Baptist is a Parish Clerk, John Ayres. !!mall building of stone, with a north aisle of Perpendi- Post, M. 0. & T. 0., S. B., Express Delivery & .Annuity cular date, the rest of the building being of a more or & Insurance office. Joh'n Lowe, sub-postmaster. Let- less modern character: it consists of chancel, nave, ters arrive from Wallingford at 8 a.m. ; dispatched at aisles, south porch and a westnn tower surmounted 5-So p.m.; sundays, arrive at 8 a.m. ; dispatched at hy four pinnacles and containing 4 bells, 2 of which ro.2o a.m were re-cast. and' the other 2 re-hung in 1884: arcades .A School Board of 5 members was formed 21 Dec. r876. of three arches divide the nave a'nd aisles: the font is for the united district of Ascot, Chiselhampton & Stad- plain and round: there are brasses to John Wylmot the hampton; Bromley Challenor, Abingdon, clerk to the younger, 15o8, and Alys, his wife; and to Dorothy board; J. Ellis, attendance officer, Abingdon Clarke, r645 : the church was thoroughly restored and Board School, for Stadhampton & Chiselhampton, es- reseated in r875, at a cost of about £r,3oo, and affords tablished in r878, for 68 children, with an endowment I68 sittings. ri'he register dates from the year 1557, of £rg yearly; average attendance, 6o; Frank ~Iillard, and includes entries for the parish of Chiselhampton. master The living is a vicarage consolidated with that of Chisel- The endowment called the Peers Charity was left by a !hampton, joint gross yearly valne £r6o, including four member of that family for the support of the Parochial Oxford Canal shares, bequeathed to the conwlidated school, but is now applied under the direction of the living by the late Charles Peers D.C.L., with residence, Charity Commissioners for rewards for deserving in the gift of the Rev. William H. Peers M.A. vicar of children Harrow Weald, Middlesex, and held since r88r by the Garrier.----George :Moody, to 'Blue Boar,' Abingdon, Rev. George Barrow Pennell :M . .A. of Trinity C-ollege, mon.; to tTharoe, tues. ; to Oxford, wed. & sat. & Dublin. There is a Particular Baptist chapel here. The Wallingford, fri. PRIVATE RESIDENTS. COMMERCIAL. Lowe John, draper & grocer,Post office Franklin Thomas, 'l'he :Ma.nor Ash John, shoe maker Osborn Ann (.Mis·s), shopkeeper Jones Francis William. 'I'he Laurels Ash .Manuel, butcher Phillips George, blacli:smith Pennell Rev. George Barrow M. A.. Ayers J oseph, baker South Oxfordshire Fox Hounds, Ken­ Vicarage Bobart Richmond, miller (water) nels (Chas. Sheppard, huntsman) Shrubb Miss Hickman Philip, beer retailer Turrill Henry (exors. of), butchers & Turrill Mr& Hicks Harry Hrbt. frmr. Doylies frm farmers Wells James, Mount Pleasant Lowe Henry J. farmer, Cold Harbour ·wheeler Richard, Crown P.H STANDLAKE is a large village and' straggling parish rich in oak -carving: the church was completely restored <Jn the river Windrush, which falls into the Isis about I~ during the period r88r-g:, at a cost of £6,ooo, and miles south of ·the village, and forms its southern boun­ affords 250 sittings. The registers, which were well dary, dividing this county from Berkshire, about 3~ kept all through the Commonwealth, date from the year south from South Leigh station, and 4~ south-east from 1560. The living is a rectory, average tithe rent-charge, Witney station, 'both on the Oxford and Fairford branch £300; 'net income, £240, with residence, in the gift of <Jf t'he Great Western railway, and 10 miles west from the. President and fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford, Oxford, in the Mid division of the county, hundred of and held since 1876 by the Rev. Lewis Stacey Tuckweli Hampton, petty sessional division of Bampton East, union :M:.A. late chaplain and precentor of that college. Here and county court district of Witney, rural deanery of are Baptist and Primitive Method-ist chapels. The chari­ Witney, archdeaconry and diocese of .Oxford. The church ties for distribution in bread and money amount to £86 of St. Giles is an ancient cruciform building of .stone, in yearly. Remains of a Briti.sh settlement were discovered · mixed styles, consisting of chancel, transepts, clerestoried here about 1837, a model of which is preserved in th~ nave, aisles, s-outh porch and a small octagonal western Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, but no traces of these re­ tower of Early Decorated character, with pierced tre­ mains are now vis~ble. Ookethorpe Park, the seat of foiled parapet and an octagonal spire containing 6 bells: Clement Adelbert ·Oottrell Dormer esq. J.P. is partly in the chancel is Early English, and the -chancel arch, which this parish, the grounds being for the most part in rests O'n corbels, is Transition Norman: the aisles are Hardwick, Ducklington, which see. Gaunt House, in divided from the nave by arcades of four Early English this parish, 'near the road to N orthmoor., is an ancient arches on either side, supported by round pillars on the and handsome moated mansion, which, during the Civil south and octagonal <Jn the north side : the clerestory is war, was garrisoned for the King, but surrendered in lighted by eight Perpendicular windows: outside, in the 1645 to one of Fairfax's generals: it is now the pro­ south wall of the chancel, is a small sepulchral recess ol perty of Christ Church, Oxford, and is occupied by ,John 'Early English work : in the church are various mural William Giles esq. The President a'nd scholars of !Mag­ • mdnuroents to the Strickland and Western families, and dalen College, Oxford, wh() are the lords of the manor, to former re-ctors, and a handsome carved oak screen and John Perry esq. are the principal landowners. The has been presented, and the interior is otherwise very soil is stone brash ; subsoil, gravel. The chief crops .