Oxfordshire, an inland county of England, in shape very irregular, and with an extreme length and breadth of 48 miles by 26; is bounded on the N. by Warwickshire and Northants, E. by Bucks, S. by the river Thames, and W. by Gloucestershire. Area, 755 sq. m., or 483,621 acres. Pop. (1801) 109,620; (1881) 179,559; (1891) 185,669. Flat and bleak in the north and west, except near Edgehill (q.v.), on the Warwickshire border, and undulating in the central district, the county in the south presents a succession of richly wooded hills, alternating with picturesque dales, and terminating on the south-east border with a branch of the Chiltern Hills, which, near Nuffield, attain a height of nearly 700 feet above the sea-level. Foremost, however, among the natural beauties of Oxfordshire are the numerous rivers by which it is watered, notably the Thames, with its affluents the Windrush, Evenlode, Cherwell, and Thame. The Oxford and Birmingham Canal affords access to the midland coalfields. The soil in general is fertile, and the state of agriculture advanced, as evidenced by the fact that in 1889, exclusive of 2061 acres under cultivation as orchards and market-gardens, no less than 414,192 acres were under crops, fallow, or grass. Ironstone is extensively worked near Banbury, whilst of manufactures the most important are those of blankets at Witney, paper at Shiplake and Henley, and, to a certain extent, of gloves at Woodstock. The county contains fourteen hundreds, the municipal boroughs of Banbury, Chipping Norton, Henley-on-Thames, and Woodstock, and parts of those of the city and university of Oxford, and of Abingdon (the remainder being in Berkshire), and 292 civil parishes, all in the diocese of Oxford. Three members are returned to the House of Commons for the county, as also one for the city of Oxford and two for the university; the countycouncil numbers seventy-six members. Most of the historical events connected with the county took place at Oxford (q.v.), but apart from them may be mentioned the battles of Chalgrove (1643) and Croppedy Bridge (1644). The best known of its worthies are Edward the Confessor, Leland (the antiquary), Dr Heylin, Viscount Falkland, 'Doctor' Fell, Thomas Ellwood, Lord Chief-justice Holt,
Rev. James Granger, Warren Hastings, Lord Keeper Guilford, Sir William Beechey, Miss Edgeworth, Charles Reade, Green (the historian), Lord Penzance, Sir William Vernon Harcourt, and Lord Randolph Churchill. See works by Skelton (1823), Davenport (1869), and Meade Falkner (1899).