in the history of anatomy, neurology, and psychiatry, and was a founding member of the Royal Society. The parish church of Saint Lawrence's contains two war memorials commemorating the twenty-three men of North Hinksey and Botley who died in the two world wars. John Ruskin and the diggers The critic John Ruskin was fond of riding out from Oxford, and his trips often took him westwards to North Hinksey, whose rustic charm he admired. (There is a plaque to this effect on one of the old thatched cottages.) He noted the poor state of the village road, and in 1874, he thought of a scheme which would give Oxford students the benefits of manual labour, and also improve conditions for the villagers. He organised a group of undergraduates to help him in the building of an improved road, bordered with banks of flowers. The episode might have vanished into historical obscurity, except that the students in his road-building gang included Oscar Wilde, Alfred Milner, Hardwicke Rawnsley, William Gershom Collingwood and Arnold Toynbee. Wilde later wrote of the episode in Art and the Handicraftsman, (published in Essays, 1879): Local topography It remains difficult to travel from North Hinksey to South Hinksey, although the Oxford Ring Road now links the two villages. The most notable path between Oxford and North Hinksey is a metalled bridleway and cycle track variously known as Willow Walk and Ruskin's Ride. This path was built in 1876–77 by Aubrey Harcourt (1852–1904), a major local landowner, but not open to the public until 1922. There is also a smaller unmade path which begins alongside the large back garden of The Fishes and crosses Hinksey Stream by a bridge at the site of the old ferry. Raleigh Park Raleigh Park, comprising woodland, grassland and unusual alkaline boggy areas, lies in North Hinksey just west of the Oxford ring road. It is managed by Oxford City Council and conservation work is done by the Friends of Raleigh Park and the Oxford Conservation Volunteers. See also Hinksey Hinksey Stream New Hinksey South Hinksey Botley, Oxfordshire References Further reading External links North Hinksey, St Lawrence's Church North Hinksey Catholic Parish Botley Cemetery (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) Areas of Oxford Villages in Oxfordshire Civil parishes in Oxfordshire