HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
IN
CAMBRIDGE AND ELY
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd
TORONTO
Ely Cathedral. Western Tower.
Highways and Byways
IN
Cambridge and Ely
BY THE
Rev. EDWARD CONYBEARE
AUTHOR OF
"HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE," "RIDES AROUND CAMBRIDGE," ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
FREDERICK L. GRIGGS
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1910
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited.
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
PREFACE
The Highways of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely are usually regarded as unattractive compared with those of England in general. Nor is this criticism wholly unfair. The county does lack the features which most make for picturesque rural scenery. There are no high hills, little even of undulation, and, what is yet more fatal, a sad sparsity of timber. The Highways, then, seem to the traveller merely stretches of ground to be got over as speedily as may be, and he rejoices that their flatness lends itself so well to this end.
It is however far otherwise with the Byways. These abound with picturesque nooks and corners. In every village charming features are to be found,—thatched and timbered cottages, hedgerow elms, bright willow-shaded watercourses, old-time village greens, and, above all, old-time village churches, often noble, and never without artistic and historical interest of high order. Few counties better repay exploration than Cambridgeshire.
And if the Highways are devoid of attraction during their course through the country districts, they make up for it by the supreme beauty and interest of their passage through the towns. Cambridge itself is, as all know, amongst the loveliest and most interesting places in existence, with its world-famed colleges and its epoch-making history. And Ely stands in the very first rank amongst the glorious cathedrals of England.
To introduce my readers, then, to the unique interest of these two places, with special regard to the points mostly passed over in guide-books, has been my chief purpose in the following pages. And to those who may think that a disproportionate amount of my space has been allotted to these, I would apologise by reminding them that the vast majority of travellers perforce confine their visits to such special centres, and have no time for exploring country lanes. But those who can make the time will find it (as this book, I hope, will show them) time well spent, and their exploration no small treat.
I need scarcely add that on such well-worn themes originality is hardly possible, and that I have made use both of my own earlier writings on the subject, and of those of others, my debt to whom I gratefully acknowledge. Most especially am I bound to do so with regard to Messrs. Atkinson and Clark, whose monumental work "Cambridge Described" is a veritable mine of information, and to Professor and Mrs. Hughes for the help which I have found in their "County Geography of Cambridgeshire."
Edward Conybeare.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER IPAGE
Cambridge Greenery. — The Backs. — The Lawns. — Logan's Views. — Old Common Fields. — Old Cambridge. — Origin of Cambridge. — The Castle. — Camboritum. — Granta-ceaster. — Danes in Cambridge. — Cambridgeshire formed. — Battle of Ringmere. — Norman Conquest. — The Jewry. — Religious Houses. — Rise of University. — Town and Gown. — Proctors. — The Colleges. — Examinations. — College Life. — Cambridge and Oxford 1
CHAPTER II
Entrance to Cambridge. — Railways. — Roman Catholic Church. — Street runlets, Hobson, Perne. — Fitzwilliam Museum. — Peterhouse, Chapel, Deer-park. — Little St. Mary's Church, Washington Arms. — Gray's window. — Pembroke College, Large and Small Colleges, "Querela Cantabrigiensis," Ridley's Farewell. — St. Botolph's Church. — The King's Ditch. — Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Guilds, St. Benet's Church, Firehooks, Corpus Library, Corpus Ghost. — St. Catherine's College. — King's Parade. — Pitt Press. — Newnham Bridge, Hermits. — The Backs River, College Bridges, Hithes 20
CHAPTER III
Queens' College, Erasmus, Cloisters, Carmelites, Chapel. — Old Mill Street. — King's College, Henry VI, King's and Eton, Henry's "Will." — King's College Chapel, Wordsworth, Milton, Windows, Rosa Solis, Screens, Stalls, Vaulting, Side-Chapels, View from Roof 47
CHAPTER IV
Spiked gates. — Old Kings. — University Library, Origin, Growth, Codex Bezæ. — Trinity Hall, Colours, Library. — Clare College, "Poison Cup," Court, Bridge, Avenue. — The Backs, Sirdar Bonfire, College Gardens. — Trinity College, Michaelhouse, King's Hall, Henry VIII, Boat-clubs, Avenue, College Livings, Bridge, Library, Byron, Nevile's Court, Cloisters, Echo, "Freshman's Pillar," Prince Edward, Royal Ball, Goodhart, Buttery, College Plate, Grace-cup, Kitchen, Hall, Combination Room, Marquis of Granby, Tutors, Old Court, Fountain, Gate Towers, Clock, Lodge, Chapel, Newton, Organ, Bentley, Windows, Macaulay 78
CHAPTER V
Whewell's Courts. — All Saints' Cross. — The Jewry. — Divinity School. — St. John's College, Trinity and John's, Lady Margaret, Fisher, Hospital of St. John, Gate Tower, First Court, Hall, Wordsworth, Compulsory Worship, Combination Room, Second Court, Library, Great Bible, Third Court, Bridge of Sighs, New Court, Roof-climbing, Blazers, Wilderness. — Caius College, Gonville, The Three Gates, Kitchen, "Blues." — Senate House, Congregations, Vice-Chancellor, Voting, Degree-giving. — University Church, Mr. Tripos, Golgotha, Sermons, Tower, Chimes, Jowett. — Market
CHAPTER VI
Round Church. — Union Society. — The "Great Bridge," Hithe. — Magdalene College, Buckingham College, Pepys, Charles Kingsley, the "College Window," Master's Garden. — Castle Hill, Camboritum, Cromwell's Rampart, Repulse of Charles I, the "Borough," View from Castle. — St. Peter's Church. — "School of Pythagoras." — Westminster College. — Ridley Hall. — Newnham College. — Selwyn College. — Convent of St. Radegund, Bishop Alcock. — Midsummer Common. — Boat Houses, Bumping Races. — Jesus College, "Chimney," Cloisters, Chapter House, Chapel, Cranmer, Coleridge 132
CHAPTER VII
Sidney College, Oliver Cromwell, Fellow Commoners. — Holy Trinity, Simeon, Henry Martyn. — Christ's College, "God's House," Lady Margaret, Flogging of Students, Bathing forbidden, Milton, Lycidas, Gardens, Paley, Darwin. — Great St. Andrew's, Bishop Perry. — Emmanuel College, Harvard, Sancroft, Chapel, Ponds. — University Museums. — Downing College, Miss Edgeworth. — Coe Fen. — First Mile Stone. — Barnwell, Priory, Abbey Church. — Lepers' Chapel, Stourbridge Fair, Vanity Fair 151
CHAPTER VIII
Roads from Cambridge. — Cambs and Isle of Ely, Girvii, East Angles, Mercians, Formation of County. — Newmarket Road. — Quy. — Fleam Dyke. — Devil's Dyke. — Icknield Way. — Iceni, Ostorius, Boadicea. — Newmarket Heath, First Racing. — Exning, Anna. — Snailwell. — Fordham. — Soham, St. Felix. — Stuntney. — Wicken. — Chippenham. — Isleham, Lectern. — Eastern Heights. — Chevely, Cambridge Corporation. — Kirtling. — Wood Ditton. — Stetchworth. — Borough Green. — Bottisham. — Swaffham Bulbeck. — The Lodes. — Swaffham Prior. — Reach, Peat, Submerged Forest. — Burwell, Church, Clunch, Brass, Castle, Geoffry de Magnaville 168
CHAPTER IX
Hills Road. — Gog Magogs. — Vandlebury. — Babraham, Peter Pence. — Old Railway. — Hildersham, Brasses, Clapper Stile. — Linton. — Horseheath. — Bartlow, St. Christopher, Battle of Assandun. — Cherry Hinton, War Ditches, Saffron. — Teversham. — Fulbourn, Brasses. — Wilbraham. — Fleam Dyke, Wild Flowers, Butterflies, Ostorius, Last Cambs Battle. — Balsham, Battle of Ringmere, Massacre, Church Brasses, Grooved Stones 201
CHAPTER X
London Road. — Trumpington, Church, Brass, Chaucer's Mill, Byron's Pool, Upper River. — Grantchester, Church. — Cam and Granta. — The Shelfords. — Sawston, Old-world Industries, Hall, Hiding-Hole, "Little John." — Whittlesford, Old Hospital. — Duxford. — Triplow Heath, Civil War. — Fowlmere, Hinxton, Sacring Bell. — Ickleton, Monolith Pillars. — Chesterford. — Icknield Way. — Saffron Walden 219
CHAPTER XI
London Road. — Hauxton Bridge, Indulgences, Church, Becket Fresco. — Burnt Mill. — Haslingfield. — White Hill, View, Clunch Pits, Chapel, Papal Bulla. — Barrington, Green, Church, Porch Seats, Chest, Fountains, Finds, Coprolite Digging, Hall. — Foxton. — Shepreth. — Meldreth, Parish Stocks. — Melbourn, Shipmoney. — Royston, Origin, Cave, Heath. — Bassingbourn, Old Accounts, Villenage. — Black Death. — Ashwell, Source of Cam, Church, Graffiti. — Akeman Street. — Barton Butts. — Comberton Maze. — Harlton Church, Old Pit. — Orwell Maypole, Church, Epitaph. — Wimpole Hall, Queen Victoria. — Arrington. — Shingay, Hospitallers, Fairy Cart. — Wendy. — Artesian Wells. — Guilden Morden, Screen, St. Edmund, Confessionals 235
CHAPTER XII
Oxford Road, Observatory, Neptune, Cambridge Discoveries. — Coton. — Madingley. — Hardwick. — Toft, St. Hubert. — Childerley, Charles I. — Knapwell. — Bourn. — Caxton. — Eltisley, St. Pandiania, Storm. — St. Neot's, Neotus and Alfred. — Paxton Hill. — Godmanchester, Port Meadow. — Huntingdon, Cromwell's Penance. — The Hemingfords. — St. Ives. — Holywell. — Overcote. — Earith, the Bedford Rivers, "Parallax" 265
CHAPTER XIII
Island of Ely. — Haddenham. — Aldreth, Conqueror's Causeway, Belsars Hill. — Wilburton. — Sutton. — Wentworth. — Via Devana. — Girton, College. — Oakington, Holdsworth. — Elsworth. — Conington, Ancient Bells. — Long Stanton, Queen Elizabeth. — Willingham, Stone Chamber. — Over, Gurgoyles. — Swavesey, Finials. — Ely Road. — Chesterton. — Fen Ditton. — Milton, Altar Rails. — Horningsea. — Bait's Bite, Start of Race. — Clayhithe. — Waterbeach. — Car Dyke. — Denny. — Stretham. — Upware. — Wicken Fen. 282
CHAPTER XIV
Ely. — Island and Isle. — St. Augustine. — St. Etheldreda, Life, Death, Burial, St. Audrey's Fair. — Danish Sack of Ely. — Alfred's College. — Abbey Restored. — Brithnoth, Song of Maldon. — Battle of Assundun. — Canute at Ely. — Edward the Confessor. — Alfred the Etheling. — Camp of Refuge, Hereward, Norman Conquest, Tabula Eliensis, Nomenclature, Norman Minster. — Bishops of Ely, Rule over Isle. — Ely Place, Ely House 303
CHAPTER XV
Bishop Northwold. — Presbytery Dedicated. — Barons at Ely. — Fall of Tower, Alan of Walsingham, Octagon. — Queen Philippa. — Lady Chapel, John of Wisbech, Bishop Goodrich. — Bishop Alcock. — Bishop West. — Styles of Architecture. — Monastic Industries. — Mediæval Account Books. — Clothing and Food of Monks. — Benedictine Rule. — Dissolution of Abbey. — Bishop Thirlby. — Bishop Wren. — Bishop Gunning. — Bishop Turner 324
CHAPTER XVI
Approach to Ely. — The Park. — Walpole Gate. — Crauden
CHAPTER XVII
Monuments. — West's Chapel. — Alcock's Chapel. — Northwold Cenotaph. — Bassevi. — Shrine of Etheldreda. — Lady Chapel. — View from Tower. — Triforium. — Exterior of Minster. — Palace, "Duties" of Goodrich. — St. Mary's. — St. Cross. — Cromwell's House. — Cromwell at Ely. — St. John's Farm. — Theological College. — Waterworks. — Basket-making 366
CHAPTER XVIII
Boundary of Fens. — Roman Works, Car Dyke, Sea Wall, Causeway. — Archipelago. — Littleport, Agrarian Riots. — Denver Sluice. — Roslyn Pit. — Fenland Abbeys, Chatteris, Ramsey, Peterborough, Thorney, Crowland 386
CHAPTER XIX
Draining of Fens — Monastic Works, Morton's Learn. — Diversion of Ouse. — Local Government, Jurats, Discontent. — Jacobean polemics. — First Drainage Company. — Rising of Fen-men. — Second Company, Huguenot Labourers. — Third Company, Earl of Bedford, Vermuyden. — Old River. — Cromwell. — Fourth Company, Prisoner Slaves, New River, Denver Sluice. — Later Developments 398
CHAPTER XX
Coveney. — Manea. — Doddington. — March, Angel Roof. — Whittlesea. — Old Course of Ouse, Well Stream. — Upwell, Outwell. — Emneth. — Elm. — The Marshland — West Walton. — Walsoken. — Walpole. — Cross Keys. — Leverington. — Tydd. — Wisbech, Church, Trade, Castle, Catholic Prisoners, Clarkson. — The Wash. — King John. 409
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- PAGE
- ELY CATHEDRAL, WESTERN TOWER Frontispiece
- MAP OF CAMBRIDGE Facing 1
- ST. BENET'S CHURCH AND CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE 1
- PETERHOUSE WALL, COE FEN 5
- THE BACKS, CLARE COLLEGE GATE 9
- ST. MICHAEL'S AND ALL ANGELS 13
- ORIEL IN LIBRARY, ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 18
- PETERHOUSE 24
- ST. MARY THE LESS, SOUTH SIDE 27
- PETERHOUSE FROM ST. MARY'S CHURCHYARD 29
- ST. BOTOLPH'S CHURCH 33
- ST. BENET'S CHURCH, INTERIOR 37
- CLARE BRIDGE 42
- ST. JOHN'S BRIDGE 45
- THE PRESIDENT'S GALLERY, QUEENS' COLLEGE 49
- ORIEL IN QUEENS' COLLEGE 51
- QUEENS' COLLEGE GATEWAY 53
- CLARE COLLEGE FROM KING'S 57
- KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL 61
- OLD GATE OF KING'S COLLEGE 81
- OLD SCHOOLS' QUADRANGLE 87
- CLARE COLLEGE FROM BRIDGE 93
- TRINITY BRIDGE 99
- THE FOUNTAIN, TRINITY COLLEGE
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
IN
CAMBRIDGE AND ELY
Cambridge
St. Benet's Church and Corpus Christi College.
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
IN
CAMBRIDGESHIRE
CHAPTER I
Cambridge Greenery.—The "Backs."—The Lawns.—Logan's Views.—Old Common Fields.—Old Cambridge.—Origin of Cambridge.—The Castle.—Camboritum.—Granta-ceaster.—Danes in Cambridge.—Cambridgeshire formed.—Battle of Ringmere.—Norman Conquest.—The Jewry.—Religious Houses.—Rise of University.—Town and Gown.—Proctors.—The Colleges.—Examinations.—College Life.—Cambridge and Oxford.
Cambridge has been described by an appreciative American novelist as "a harmony in grey and green." And indeed it is true that few towns are so shot through and through with greenery. The London Road enters the place through two miles of umbrageous leafage; wide, open spaces of grass-land—Stourbridge Common, Midsummer Common, Coldham Common, Empty Common, Donkey Common, Peter's Field, Parker's Piece, Christ's Pieces, Jesus Green, Sheep's Green, Coe Fen—penetrate from the outskirts, north, south, and east, right to the heart of the town; while the world-famous "Backs," where the road runs beneath ancestral elms, between a continuous series of bowery College gardens and precincts—Queens', King's, Clare, Trinity, St. John's—with their beckoning vistas of long avenues of lime and chestnut, ring it in to the west, and form a scene of park-like loveliness to be found nowhere else on earth. Port Meadow, at Oxford, and the Magdalen Walks, furnish the nearest comparison; but only to show how far in front Cambridge stands in greenery. Even inside the Colleges this precedence shows itself; for in Cambridge every College Court in the place, almost without exception, unlike so many of the "Quads" of Oxford, has its central grass-plot.
These lawns, it may be noted, are sacrosanct, not to be profaned by the foot of anyone but a Fellow of the College[1] itself. No outsider, from another College, however high in academic rank, may, unless accompanied by a Fellow, cross over them; still less any member of the College, old or young, who is not himself a Fellow, nor any casual visitor, even of the privileged sex. Should any such attempt be made, the College porters will politely, but quite firmly, remove the transgressor. This convention is absolutely necessary for the very existence of the greensward, which, if allowed to be traversed by all-comers, would speedily be cut up and ruined.
This greenery, however, is a comparatively recent development in the history of Cambridge, most of it dating no further back than the latter half of the seventeenth century. In the last decade of that century an artist named David Logan (or Loggan), said to have been of Danish nationality but Scotch extraction, made a series of views of the various Cambridge Colleges, elaborated with extraordinary care and fidelity. So truthful and observant was he that a mysterious bird, long a puzzle in his drawing of the great court of Trinity, has lately been discovered, by reference to the College muniments, to have been a tame eagle then kept by the Society. His views were reissued in 1905 by Mr. J. W. Clark, the greatest living authority on Cambridge antiquities, and should be consulted by all who are interested in the development of Cambridge. In these views the existing avenues in the College enclosures at the "Backs" may be observed, but all of young trees quite recently planted (as indeed we know to have been the case from the College records), while right up to these enclosures run open treeless fields, not meadows, but corn-land, where harvesters may be seen at work and sheep grazing upon the fallow land. Most of the now green Commons are in like manner shown to have been then under the plough.
The late Professor Maitland, whose recent death has been so irreparable a loss to Cambridge and to the whole historical side of English education, has shown (in his Township and Borough) how truly these views of Logan's represent the seventeenth century facts, and how, somewhat earlier, the arable fields had come even to the river bank on the west of the town; or, to use his own more accurate language, that the western fields of Cambridge extended to the river bank. Every old English town and village, it must be remembered, was in theory (and originally in practice) self-supporting, and contained within its boundary sufficient arable and pasture land to feed its own inhabitants and their cattle. These were known as the "Common Fields" of the place. They were not "Commons" in our modern sense of the word, but were divided into small holdings amongst the townsmen, each man's holding consisting of so many tiny strips, never more than an acre in extent, scattered as widely as possible to make things fair for all. They were cultivated upon the three course system; every landholder having the right to pasture a proportionate number of cattle on the fallow of the year, as well as in the Common Meadows. The Common Fields of Cambridge comprised about five square miles, with the inhabited part of the township nearly in the centre, and roughly coincided with the existing Parliamentary Borough, though somewhat more extensive.
This inhabited part, the mediæval town of Cambridge, was comprised, (at least from the tenth century to the eighteenth,) in the space bounded by the river on the west, and on the east by a ditch, known finally as the "King's Ditch," from having been widened by Henry the Third in the Barons' War. This ditch left the Cam at the "King's Mill," (the modern representative of which still stands just above Silver Street Bridge,) and proceeded along the line of Mill Lane, Pembroke Street, Tibbs Row, Hobson Street, and Park Street, to fall into the river again opposite Magdalene College. Beyond the "Great Bridge," from which the place derived its name, a small cluster of houses climbed the steep bank, on the summit of which stood the Castle. Our earliest records show this area as by no means thickly covered with houses. Not only the inhabitants, but all their cattle lived in it; so there must have been many little farmyards and gardens interspersed amongst the dwellings.
Domesday Book gives the number of these as only 400, and a couple of centuries later, in 1279, when the University was already in full existence, there were scarcely more.