The green slopes of many of the minor vales of North Oxford-shire are scored with parallel terraces or terraced banks frequently of such regularity in depth of step and slope as to present to the mind any other origin for their formation than that of the every-day work of natural forces. A student who has mastered the elements of this natural work and has gained a clue to the mode of the making of the terraces reads with some amusement the varied accounts of their human origin. The best summary of these accounts is given in Mr. G. L. Gomme's book “The Village Community.” And though these accounts refer to wider tracts of country than can be discussed here, our local antiquarians assign similar human causes, and we read of the terraced slopes as camps, entrenchments, vineyards, bear-gardens, and the like.