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diff --git a/38735-8.txt b/38735-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..26a7c56 --- /dev/null +++ b/38735-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17051 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely, by +Edward Conybeare + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely + +Author: Edward Conybeare + +Illustrator: Frederick L Griggs + +Release Date: February 1, 2012 [EBook #38735] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN *** + + + + +Produced by Colin Bell, Christine P. Travers and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + +[Illustration: _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 I PAGE + + 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 Hill, + Peasant Revolt, Wat Tyler, Bucer and Fagius, Bonfires, Town and + Gown 103 + + + 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 Chapel. -- + Western Tower, Galilee. -- Nave. -- Baptistery. -- Roof. -- Prior's + Door. -- Cloisters. -- Owen's Cross. -- Octagon. -- Alan's Grave. -- + Transepts. -- St. Edmund's Chapel. -- Choir Stalls. -- Presbytery. + -- Norman Piers. -- Reredos. -- Candlesticks 344 + + + 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 103 + + TRINITY COLLEGE CHAPEL AND ST. JOHN'S GATEWAY 111 + + HALL, ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 115 + + ORIEL IN SECOND COURT OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE 117 + + THE GATE OF HONOUR, CAIUS COLLEGE 123 + + PEAS HILL 130 + + THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE 135 + + ST. PETER'S CHURCH 139 + + REMAINS OF ST. RADEGUND'S PRIORY 141 + + JESUS COLLEGE GATEWAY 143 + + THE BACK COURT, JESUS COLLEGE 145 + + JESUS COLLEGE CHAPEL, EAST END 147 + + ORIEL OF HALL, JESUS COLLEGE 149 + + CHRIST'S COLLEGE CHAPEL 153 + + EMMANUEL COLLEGE 157 + + THE LEPERS' CHAPEL, BARNWELL 163 + + QUY CHURCH 170 + + FORDHAM CHURCH 177 + + FORDHAM 179 + + SOHAM 181 + + SWAFFHAM BULBECK 191 + + SWAFFHAM PRIOR 192 + + SWAFFHAM PRIOR CHURCHES 193 + + THE CASTLE MOAT, BURWELL 195 + + BURWELL CHURCH, WEST END 197 + + BURWELL CHURCH, N.E. VIEW 199 + + CHERRY HINTON CHURCH 207 + + GREAT WILBRAHAM CHURCH 211 + + GREAT WILBRAHAM 212 + + LITTLE WILBRAHAM 213 + + BALSHAM TOWER 214 + + COTTAGE AT BALSHAM 217 + + GREAT SHELFORD CHURCH 223 + + WHITTLESFORD 227 + + ST. PETER'S CHURCH, DUXFORD 229 + + HASLINGFIELD CHURCH 237 + + FARMHOUSE AT HASLINGFIELD 239 + + SOUTH PORCH, BARRINGTON CHURCH 241 + + SHEPRETH 243 + + MELBOURN 245 + + ASHWELL 249 + + ASHWELL CHURCH FROM THE N.W. 251 + + ASHWELL CHURCH 253 + + GREAT EVERSDEN 257 + + ROOD SCREEN, GUILDEN MORDEN CHURCH 261 + + COTTAGE AT STEEPLE MORDEN 263 + + COTON 269 + + COTTAGE AT TOFT 271 + + WILBURTON 284 + + THE BURYSTEAD, WILBURTON 285 + + SUTTON CHURCH 287 + + ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, LONG STANTON 291 + + OVER, SOUTH PORCH 293 + + OVER 294 + + SWAVESEY 296 + + SWAVESEY CHURCH 297 + + COTTAGE AT RAMPTON 299 + + DOVECOTE AT RAMPTON 300 + + THE QUAY, ELY 301 + + THE NORTH TRIFORIUM OF THE NAVE, ELY 305 + + WEST AISLE OF THE NORTH TRANSEPT, ELY 311 + + ELY: THE PRESBYTERY 327 + + ELY LANTERN 333 + + PRIOR CRAUDEN'S CHAPEL 347 + + SOUTH AISLE OF THE NAVE, ELY 351 + + THE TOWER FROM THE CLOISTERS 357 + + CATHEDRAL TOWERS 361 + + ST. MARY'S CHURCH 378 + + THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE WEST FEN ROAD 380 + + ST. JOHN'S FARM 383 + + WILLOW WALK 385 + + ST. WENDREDA'S CHURCH, MARCH 391 + + THE OLD FENLAND (NORTHERN DISTRICT) 404 + + THE OLD FENLAND (SOUTHERN DISTRICT) 405 + + ELM CHURCH 412 + + WALPOLE ST. PETER 414 + + LEVERINGTON 417 + + BELL TOWER, TYDD ST. GILES 419 + + WISBECH CHURCH 423 + + THE OLD COURT OF CORPUS 431 + + + + +HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS + +IN + +CAMBRIDGE AND ELY + + + + +[Illustration: _Walker & Boutall sc._ Cambridge] + +[Illustration: _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. + +[Footnote 1: The word "Fellow" signifies, in any College, one of the +strictly limited corporation to whom its whole property legally +belongs. This corporation is kept filled up by co-option; the most +distinguished of the junior students being usually chosen.] + +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. By the middle of the eighteenth +century this number had trebled. But even in 1801, as may be seen in +Lyson's plan of the town, the King's Ditch, which was then still an +open watercourse, remained substantially the boundary of inhabited +Cambridge. And the vast suburban extensions in the areas of Barnwell, +Newnham, Chesterton, and Cherry Hinton are mostly very recent indeed; +the bulk in fact belonging to the last half century. Their rise, and +the continuous intrusion of ever fresh University and College +buildings, has had the effect of once more depleting the area of +mediæval Cambridge, which to-day contains barely 800 houses. The whole +of the University buildings, whether ancient or modern, are contained +within this area, with the exception of the Colleges of Peterhouse, +Pembroke, Christ's and Jesus (which together with a few of the +Museums, stand just beyond the Ditch), and the New Court of St. John's +College, which is on the other side of the river, in the old Common +Field. The ecclesiastical and feminine foundations similarly situated, +Selwyn College, Westminster College, Ridley Hall, Newnham College, and +Girton College, are not recognised by the University as being strictly +"Colleges" at all. + +[Illustration: _Peterhouse Wall, Coe Fen._] + +Such was old Cambridge; with its eleven ancient parishes of St. Peter, +St. Giles, St. Clement, Holy Trinity, St. Michael, St. Mary (the +greater), St. Edward, St. Benet, St. Botolph, All Saints, and St. John +(which was destroyed to make room for King's College). Before the +twelfth century closed three more churches were added, those of the +Holy Sepulchre, of St. Peter (now St. Mary's the less) outside the +"Trumpington Gate," of St. Andrew (the greater) outside the Barnwell +Gate, and St. Andrew (the less) in the detached suburb which grew up +round the great "Abbey" (really an Augustinian Priory) of Barnwell. + +Old Cambridge probably owed its constitution--(quite possibly its very +existence)--to the genius with which "the Children of Alfred," Edward +the Elder and his Sister, the "Lady of the Mercians," reorganised the +Midlands after the great cataclysm of the Danish wars, which in the +previous generation had swept over the district, obliterating all +earlier landmarks and boundaries. One pirate horde, under the most +renowned of all their chieftains, Guthrum--the deadliest antagonist, +and afterwards the most faithful ally, of our great Alfred,--had for a +space settled themselves in Cambridge, and from that strategic +position overawed East Anglia on the one hand and Mercia on the +other.[2] + +[Footnote 2: The kingdom of Mercia comprised the Midlands, and was +(roughly) bounded on the north by the Humber and Mersey, on the west +by Wales, on the south by the Thames, and on the east by the Cam and +the Lea.] + +The Cambridge which they sacked was not, however, as it would seem, +the later mediæval town which we have been already considering, but a +much smaller stronghold on the western bank of the River, comprising +what is now known as "Castle End," and is still sometimes called "the +Borough" _par excellence_. At this point the Cam, one bank or other of +which is usually swampy even now, and was actually swamp in early +days, is touched by higher and firmer ground on both sides. The height +to the west is quite respectable, rising some eighty feet above the +stream. Here, therefore, and here alone, was there of old any +convenient passage-way for an army; the river elsewhere forming an +almost insuperable barrier to military operations, from the Fens +almost to its source. Such a site was sure to be amongst the earliest +occupied; and we find, accordingly, that both Romans and Anglo-Saxons +(presumably Mercians) successively held it. Most probably it was also +a British site; but the great Castle mound, which earlier antiquaries +attributed to the Britons, has been shown by Professor Hughes to be, +mainly at least, a Norman work. + +This site was the original Cambridge, and may even have been called by +that very name in its earliest form. For it is hard not to identify +the Roman settlement (which the spade shows to have existed here) with +the "Camboritum," which from the "Itinerary of Antoninus" (an official +road book, probably of the third century A.D.) must have been +somewhere in this immediate neighbourhood. And the word Camboritum is +plausibly derived from the British _Cam Rhydd_ "the ford of the Cam." +Cam (which, being interpreted, signifies crooked) may well have been +the British name for a stream with so tortuous a course. But, if so, +it was not continuously used, so far as records can tell us. + +The Roman Camboritum doubtless shared the almost universal destruction +of Roman stations which marked the English conquest of Britain; and +the site is described as still "a waste chester" two centuries later, +when the monks of Ely sought amid the ruins for a stone coffin in +which to entomb their foundress, St. Ethelreda. By this time the older +name both of the town and of the river seems to have been forgotten. +The latter was called, by the English, the Granta, and the former was +accordingly known only as Granta-ceaster--the chester, or ruined Roman +city, upon the Granta. (It should be noted that the village now called +Grantchester was, till comparatively recent days, known as Grant-set.) + +Yet another century, and we find, in the days of King Egbert, the +grandfather of Alfred and the first King acknowledged by the whole +English nation, that a bridge had been built (or rebuilt) over the old +ford; and therewith the old site of Camboritum had been reoccupied +under the new name of Granta-bridge, by which it is known throughout +mediæval history. We do not meet with "Cambridge" in literature till +the fourteenth century, nor with "Cam" till almost the date of "Camus, +reverend sire," in Milton's Lycidas. + +However this may be, it is pretty certain that the Cambridge on which +Guthrum, in the year 872, marched from Repton was the "Borough" of +Castle End. After holding, or, as one chronicler (Gaimar) would have +us believe, only besieging it, for a whole year, the Danish host +hastily made off to Wareham in Dorsetshire, to take part in that life +and death struggle in the west which began with Alfred's great naval +victory off Swanage, then drove him into hiding at Athelney, and ended +with the Peace of Wedmore. By that treaty all England north of the +Watling Street was ceded to the Danes as an under-kingdom, the +"Dane-Law"; Guthrum, now a Christian and Alfred's godson, being set on +the throne. Cambridge thus became undisputedly a Danish town. The +district around was divided "with a rope" (_i.e._ by chain measure) +amongst the invaders, and submitted as an organic whole, some half +century later, to King Edward the Elder. It was probably at this time +that the town began to extend itself into the East Anglian district to +the east of the Cam. (Throughout its whole length the river, with its +marshy banks, was the boundary between the old English kingdoms of +Mercia and East Anglia; and traces of this are to be found in the +distinctive customs of adjoining villages, on one side or the other of +the stream, even to this day.) The "Saxon," or Romanesque, tower of +St. Benet's Church, may well be of this date, erected by the English +inhabitants dispossessed of their homes in the Borough by the +conquering Danes who lorded it over them. + +After its submission to Edward the Elder, Cambridge began its career +as a County Town, giving its name, (as was the case in nearly all +these new Edwardian counties,) to the surrounding district, which thus +became known as Grantabrig-shire. The name covered only the southern +part of the present county; for the Isle of Ely was reconstituted +under the ancient jurisdiction of its great abbots and bishops. To +this day, indeed, it has its own separate County Council, and even a +separate motor-car lettering. The new political unit soon began to +display no small local patriotism; for we read that in the fatal +battle of Ringmere, fought on Ascension Day, 1010, between the fresh +Danish invaders, who were then pouring over the land, and the united +forces of East Anglia under the hero Ulfcytel, "soon fled the East +English. There stood Grantabryg-shire fast only." + +[Illustration: _The Backs, Clare College Gate._] + +The victorious Danes, naturally, proceeded to wreak special vengeance +on such obstinate foes. The county was ravaged with a ferocity even +beyond the usual Danish harryings, and Cambridge itself was sacked and +burnt. When it arose from its ashes, in the quieter days of the Danish +Canute, the first "King of England," (his native predecessors having +been Kings "of the English,") it was organised, Danish fashion, into +ten Wards, each with its own "Lawman." In the reign of Edward the +Confessor, it had, as we have seen, 400 dwelling-houses (_masurae_), +not urban cottages closely packed in rows, but mostly tenements of the +farmhouse type, each with its farmyard, the abodes of the husbandmen +who owned and tilled the Common Fields of the town. + +This number of houses shows Cambridge to have been at this time an +important place, equal in population to a whole average "Hundred," +with its ten villages; and as such we find it counted for legal +purposes under the Norman and Plantagenet dynasties. But its Common +Fields were by no means proportionately extensive,[3] so that many of +the inhabitants must already have depended upon trade for their +living. + +[Footnote 3: An ordinary "Hundred" contained an area some five miles +square, instead of the five square miles which was that of old +Cambridge.] + +If Cambridge fared ill at the hands of the Danes, it fared little +better at those of the Normans. William the Conqueror made the place +his headquarters in his operations against Hereward's "Camp of Refuge" +at Ely. This resulted in the ruin of fifty-three out of the 400 +houses, besides twenty-seven more pulled down to make room for his new +Castle, which with its outworks and huge central keep occupied the +greater part of the old Roman site to the west of the Bridge. The loss +of these eighty houses probably brought down the population to little +over 2,000 souls. Even with this reduction, however, the town might +still claim to rank in the first class of English cities at the time; +and this is shown by the growth of a Jewry within its walls, in the +area bounded by St. John's College, Trinity College, and Bridge +Street. For the Jews, (who first came into England as camp-followers +of the Norman invaders,) naturally struck for the wealthier towns in +which to form their settlement. As the place grew in importance +Religious Houses began rapidly to spring up in and around it; the +first being the great Augustinian Abbey of Barnwell, founded by Picot, +the Sheriff of Cambridge under William the Conqueror. + +The next generation saw Augustinian Canons settled in the town itself, +at the Hospital (now the College) of St. John; and Benedictine nuns at +the Priory of St. Radegund just beyond the King's Ditch, where their +conventual church is still used as the Chapel of Jesus College. A +century later, and friars of all the Orders came flocking into +Cambridge; the Grey Franciscans, the Black Dominicans, the White +Carmelites, the Austin Friars, the Friars of the Sack, the Friars of +Bethlehem. The sites occupied by the first three of these names are +to-day represented by the Colleges of Sidney, Emmanuel, and Queens'. +Friars always made for the chief centres of life, and by the +thirteenth century Cambridge had become emphatically such, by the rise +of that institution destined to give it a perennial fame, the +University. + +How this rise of the University came about is an as yet unsolved +problem in history. As in the case of Oxford, the great name of Alfred +was invoked, by unscrupulous mediæval fabricators, as concerned in its +foundation. And it is possible that there may be really traceable some +distant connection with that great saint and hero. For Alfred actually +did found amidst the ruins of Ely, after its sack by the Danes, a +small College of priests, which lived on to be the nucleus of the +restored Abbey in the days of his grandson Edgar the Peaceful. And it +is also historical fact that this restored Abbey was specially +renowned for the famous school attached to it--so famous as to count +amongst its scholars more than one future monarch. Furthermore we know +that the Ely monks taught in Cambridge also, and this may well have +been the first germ of the University. + +At any rate it is certain that, in 1209, when the schools of Oxford +were for a while closed by the Government, as the outcome of a more +than usually outrageous "rag," large numbers of the students migrated +to Cambridge; which seems to point to the place having already some +educational repute. From henceforward, at all events, it attained +European reputation in this respect, for, in 1229, we find another +batch of expelled students, this time from Paris, settling themselves +here, and yet another swarm of Oxonians twenty years later. + +The University had now become an organic body, with its Chancellor, +its masters, and its scholars or "clerks," so called because, being +not wholly illiterate, the Law considered them as potential members of +the clerical profession, and gave them special immunities accordingly. +They were not amenable to lay jurisdiction, but only to the milder +"Courts Christian," in which the death-penalty was never inflicted. It +seems not infrequently to have been deserved; for the earliest +undergraduates were, at first, an utterly lawless lot, and made +themselves most unpleasant neighbours to the "burgesses" of the Town. + +When first they made their appearance the inhabitants of Cambridge had +just bought the right to call themselves by this dignified name. This +bargain was the upshot of a Royal visit in 1207 from King John, who, +in consideration of a payment of 250 marks, (equivalent to £5,000 at +the present value of money,) granted Cambridge a Charter of +Incorporation, with the right to be governed by a Provost and bailiffs +of their own (instead of by the King's Sheriff), and to regulate their +own markets. Twenty years later, (by a further contribution to the +royal purse,) the Provost acquired the higher title of Mayor. + +But almost simultaneously, his prerogatives began to be curtailed by +the rising power of the University, to whose "Taxers" was given, in +1231, the sole right of fixing the rents which might be demanded for +lodgings from the inrushing swarm of students; while the regulation of +the market weights and measures became vested in the Proctors. The +authority of the Taxers died out when the Collegiate system became +universal, but has been revived in recent days by the "Lodging-house +Syndicate": that of the Proctors over the Market has become obsolete; +not so long, however, but that, to this day, there may be seen, in the +possession of the Senior Proctor for each year, an iron cylinder, a +yard long and an inch in diameter, which was, not so many decades ago, +the standard test for the dimensions of every roll of butter sold in +Cambridge. For butter in Cambridge was retailed by the inch; a custom +which still lingers on sporadically amongst our vendors. + +The student population speedily became far more numerous than the +townsfolk, and their accommodation must have been no small problem. At +first the need was met wholly by private enterprise: University +lodgers thronged the private houses and the annexes, or "hostels," as +they are named, run up for their sole use by speculative landlords. +These hostels gradually attained to more or less of official +recognition by the University, and paved the way for the setting up of +Colleges. + +[Illustration: _St. Michael's and All Angels._] + +The first actual College was Peterhouse, founded by Hugh de Balsham, +Bishop of Ely, in 1284, and was of the nature of an experiment, the +success of which it took a whole generation to establish. Once +proved, a host of imitators appeared; and the following generation saw +no fewer than seven similar foundations, Michaelhouse and King's Hall +(the germs of Trinity College), Clare, Pembroke, Gonville, Trinity +Hall, and Corpus Christi College. Then came a break of a century, +followed by another outburst of zeal, which in the next hundred years +produced yet another seven: King's, Queens', St. Catharine's, Jesus, +Christ's, St. John's, and Magdalene. The last four of these were +earlier religious and scholastic foundations remodelled; and a like +process during the half century succeeding the Reformation has given +us the Colleges of Trinity, Caius, Emmanuel, and Sidney. Not till the +nineteenth century was the list added to by the appearance of Downing. + +The original idea in all these foundations was to provide, not so much +for the students as for the masters who taught them. To these it was +an immense advantage to be able to dwell together in small groups and +in quiet quarters, where they could engage in research and prepare +their lectures, shut away from the turmoil of the seething crowd of +Town and Gown in the streets. And it speedily appeared that if the +seclusion of a College was helpful to the teacher it was even more +helpful to the taught. For the test applied to students by the +University before conferring upon them a Degree was by public +disputations in the schools, each candidate having to support or +oppose some literary or scientific thesis. + +The memory of these wordy "opponencies" is still preserved in the +denomination of "Wrangler" bestowed on the candidates who obtain a +First Class in the Mathematical Examination for an "Honour" Degree, +and by every examination through which such a Degree can be obtained +being called a "Tripos,"[4] from the three-legged stool which played a +notable part in those old ordeals. The test demanded steadiness of +nerve and readiness of wit, as well as mere knowledge; and, in all +these, the Scholar of a College, well catered and cared for, was far +better equipped than his lawless, and often all but foodless, +non-Collegiate competitor. + +[Footnote 4: Till the nineteenth century was well advanced the +Mathematical Tripos was the only avenue to the attainment of "Honours" +at Cambridge; so that even such a distinguished scholar as Lord +Macaulay was debarred from them by his inability to pass that +examination, and had to content himself with the lower status of an +"Ordinary" or "Poll" Degree (so called from the Greek [Greek: polloi] += many, as being the refuge of the common herd of candidates). +Triposes in many other branches of knowledge, classical, scientific, +legal, historical, and linguistic, have since been added.] + +Thus every College found itself confronted by a great demand for +admissions, which was met by the introduction of Scholars, so far as +the pecuniary resources of the Foundation would admit, and, +ultimately, by the admission of "Pensioners";--students who, without +being members of the Foundation, were willing to pay for a share in +its educational advantages. These Pensioners finally came to +outnumber, (in every College), the masters and scholars together, as +they do still. The original non-Collegiate students proportionately +dwindled in number; till the depopulation of the University during the +religious ups and downs of the Reformation era put an end to them +altogether. For three hundred years afterwards no one was admitted to +the University unless attached to one of the Colleges, till, in the +later decades of the nineteenth century, the great expansion which +marked that period called Non-Collegiate Students, on a limited and +tentative scale, once more into existence. + +Substantially, however, at the present day, the Colleges _are_ +Cambridge; and to the visitor their buildings completely out-bulk +those which belong to the University--the Senate House, the University +Church and Library, the Examination Hall, and the various Museums and +Laboratories. Each College consists of an enclosed precinct, (to which +the students are confined at night,) containing blocks of apartments, +(usually arranged in "Courts,") for Fellows, Scholars, and Pensioners, +a special "Lodge" for the Master; a Chapel; a Library; and a Hall, +with Kitchen and Buttery attached. Here the Masters sit at the "High +Table" on a dais across the upper end of the Hall, and the students at +less pretentious boards arranged longitudinally. All are bound to dine +in Hall, unless by special leave; but other meals may be in your own +rooms, of which each student has a suite of three, in which he is said +to "keep." All three are within one general outer door, or "oak," to +be opened only by a latch-key, and "sported" whenever the owner +desires his citadel to be inaccessible. Over the oak, on the outside, +is painted his name (always in white capital letters upon a black +ground), while at the foot of each staircase a similarly painted list +gives the names of all the men whose rooms are to be found upon it. +Each student's suite invariably comprises a sitting (or "keeping") +room, a bedroom, and a pantry, or "gyp-room." This last name records +the fact that till lately the functions of a housemaid were discharged +by male servants known as "gyps,"[5] who are now almost universally +superseded by female "bedmakers" appointed by the College Tutors. + +[Footnote 5: These corresponded to the still existing "Scouts" at +Oxford.] + +The Tutors are immediately responsible for the general supervision of +the students in the College: the actual teaching is done by Lecturers +in the various subjects, who have special apartments, "Lecture Rooms," +provided in every College for their purposes. Every student has to +attend a certain quota of lectures, but otherwise is very much left to +educate himself, his progress being checked by periodical College +examinations, in addition to those required by the University to be +passed before he can be admitted to a Degree. The lowest Degree is +that of B.A. (Bachelor of Arts). Three years after attaining this a +man may proceed to become M.A. (Master of Arts), when he ceases to be +"in statu pupillari," and is no longer subject to the authority of the +Proctors. + +These officers perambulate the town after dark to punish University +wrong-doers, usually by a fine of 6_s._ 8_d._, or some multiple of +that sum, the unit being a survival from mediæval numismatics, as +equivalent to half a "Mark." More serious offences are met by +"Rustication," for a Term or a year, during which the offender may not +show himself in Cambridge, and, in extreme cases, by expulsion from +the University altogether. These punishments can also be inflicted by +the authorities of each College on the students of that College. But +in this domestic forum, for smaller offences the place of fines is +taken by "gating" for a certain period, during which the nocturnal +enclosure of the culprit begins at some earlier hour than usual. + +As a regular rule the College gates are shut at ten p.m., after which +no outsider (student or visitor) may enter, and no inmate (under the +Degree of M.A.) pass out; though to students already out uncensured +admission is given until midnight. Once inside the gates the student +is under no obligation to keep to his own rooms, but has the run of +the College all night. He is bound, however, to spend his nights +within the walls, and not even for a single night may he be absent +without a duly signed _exeat_ from the College authorities giving him +leave. And, as he must be in residence when they require it of him, so +is he also forbidden to be in residence at such seasons as they bar; +during the greater part of each Vacation, for example, comprising half +the year. + +Theoretically the Three Terms into which the Academic Year is divided +consist of about ten weeks apiece; but, in practice, they have only +eight of "Full Term," during which residence is compulsory. The first +of these is the "Michaelmas," or, as it is popularly called the +"October" term, lasting from about mid-October to mid-December. After +the Christmas vacation follows the "Lent" term, from the middle of +January to the middle of March. Then comes a month of Easter vacation, +and then the "Easter" (more generally known as the "May") term; at the +end of which the close of the working year is celebrated by a series +of social festivities in connection with the College boat races, +collectively designated "the May Week," though invariably taking place +in June. Finally comes the "Long Vacation" (the last word being +omitted in popular parlance), lasting till a new year begins in +October. Many of the more studious men are, however, permitted to +reside during July and August for the purposes of private reading. A +man in residence, we may mention, is said to be "up"; thus we meet +with such phrases as "coming up," "going down," and being "sent down," +when ordered to leave Cambridge, temporarily or permanently, for +disciplinary reasons. + +All this is very unlike Continental or American University life, but +is almost the ditto of Oxford. For Cambridge is the sister-daughter of +Oxford. It was by Oxonian colonists that the University of Cambridge +was begun; the earliest Cambridge College, Peterhouse, was not only +suggested by the earliest Oxford Foundation, Merton, but borrowed its +very Statutes; and the development of the two seats of learning has +twinned itself throughout the centuries to an extent unparalleled +elsewhere in history. The result is that to-day there are no two +places in the world so alike, socially, intellectually, and even +physically, as Oxford and Cambridge. The latter has at present the +larger number of students; but each has approximately the same number +of Colleges, and of satellite Collegiate institutions, formally or +informally connected with the University (_e.g._, the Ladies' +Colleges); and in each the Academic organisation, the social code, +and the life led by both students and teachers, is almost absolutely +identical. To experts well acquainted with both places the minute +shades of difference are of extreme interest; but to the average +visitor the places are as like as twin sisters. The very names of the +Colleges are the same in no less than a third of the cases. If there +is a Trinity at Cambridge there is also a Trinity at Oxford, if there +is a Magdalen at Oxford there is a Magdalene at Cambridge; while St. +John's, Jesus, Corpus Christi, and Pembroke are all in like manner +duplicated. And, both at Oxford and Cambridge, Colleges are named from +Queens; though a subtle difference in spelling (Queen's and Queens') +records the fact that, while one Queen founded the Oxford College, two +were concerned in the Cambridge foundation. + +[Illustration: _Oriel in Library, St. John's College._] + +With regard to picturesqueness and architectural merit it is difficult +to assign the pre-eminence to either place, so far as the University +and Collegiate buildings are concerned. Of each distinctive feature, +considered separately, the choicest specimen is to be found in +Cambridge--the best College Chapel at King's; the finest College Hall +and College Courts at Trinity; the most characteristic and beautiful +Library at St. John's. But, out-taken these, Oxford can show several +examples of each feature better than the next best at Cambridge. And, +apart from the University buildings, the town of Cambridge, with its +narrow streets and mean public edifices, is hopelessly outclassed by +the beautiful city of Oxford. Invidious comparisons, however, are, in +the case of sisters, more than ordinarily odious. + + + + +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, Fire-hooks, Corpus Library, + Corpus Ghost.--=St. Catharine's College.=--King's Parade.--Pitt + Press.--Newnham Bridge, Hermits.--The Backs River, College + Bridges, Hithes. + + +Having thus given the reader a very meagre and sketchy outline of the +sort of knowledge needful for a due appreciation of Cambridge, and +leaving him to fill in such details as he pleases from the numberless +histories and guide books, large and small (and for the most part +excellent) which he will find quite readily accessible, we will now +suppose him to be entering the town. + +Should he do this from the railway station he will have to face a mile +or so of "long unlovely street" to begin with. For when railroads were +first made--(the Great Eastern line from London to Cambridge being +constructed in 1845)--they were regarded with extreme suspicion and +dislike by the authorities of both Universities. The noise of the +trains, it was declared, would be fatal to their studies; the facility +of running up to London would hopelessly demoralise their +undergraduates; bad characters from the metropolis would come down in +shoals to prey upon them. Thus both Oxford and Cambridge strenuously +opposed any near approach of this new-fangled abomination to their +hallowed precincts. Oxford actually succeeded in keeping the main line +of the Great Western as far off from it as Didcot, ten miles away, +whence it did not penetrate to the city itself till a considerably +later date, when prejudice had been overcome by the patent advantages +of the new locomotion, and a station hard by was welcomed. At Oxford, +therefore, no such distance divides the railway and the Colleges as at +Cambridge, where from the first the station stood in its present +place. This, at the date of its construction, was far beyond even the +outermost buildings of the town, with which it is connected by the old +Roman road, the main artery of Cambridge, running straight, as Roman +roads do run, for miles on either side to the "Great Bridge." To +antiquarians this road is known as the Via Devana, because its +objective is supposed to have been the old Roman city of Deva +(Chester); during its passage through Cambridge it has no fewer than +seven official designations, to the frequent discomfiture of +strangers. + +Where it conducts the visitor townwards from the railway station it +presents, as we have said, a somewhat dreary vista; dignified only by +the beautifully proportioned spire of the Roman Catholic Church, built +in 1885. The erection of this edifice was due to the generosity of a +single benefactor, Mrs. Lyne-Stephens, a French lady, who, early in +the reign of Queen Victoria, won fame and fortune as the most renowned +ballet dancer of the London stage. The Church is popularly called, in +Cambridge, a Cathedral; but this is a misnomer, for the Bishop's See +is not here but at Northampton. + +The cross-roads at which the church is placed rejoice in the inane +designation of Hyde Park Corner. The best approach to Cambridge is by +the westward road of the four, which leads into the London Road (or +Trumpington Road, as it is here called), that umbrageous avenue of +leafage spoken of in our opening sentences. Keeping along this towards +the town, we find ourselves confronted with one of the prettiest and +most uncommon amongst the minor attractions of Cambridge, the runlets +of clear water which sparkle along the side of either pavement. + +This pleasant feature is attributed to the benevolence of an ancient +Cambridge worthy, Thomas Hobson, who dwelt here from the reign of Henry +the Eighth to that of Charles the First. By trade he was a "carrier," a +profession which at that date included not merely the transport of goods +but the provision of locomotion for passengers--then almost wholly +equestrian. Thus Hobson not only himself travelled regularly to and +from London with his stage-waggon, but kept a large stable of horses, +not fewer than "forty good cattle," ready for hire--even supplying his +customers with boots and whips for their journey. But he was very +autocratic in the matter, and would never allow any steed to be chosen +except in accordance with his will. "This or none" he would say to any +hirer who dared to remonstrate. And his business was so prosperous that +he could afford to say it, and thus give rise to the still current +expression "Hobson's Choice." He rose to be Mayor of Cambridge, and his +portrait still hangs in the Guildhall. + +Finally when he died, at the age of eighty-six, in 1630, he gained the +honour of a serio-comic epitaph from Milton, then a student of +Christ's College, "on the University Carrier who sickened in the time +of his Vacancy, on being forbid to go to London by reason of the +Plague." + + "Here lieth one who did most truly prove + That he could never die while he could move; + So hung his destiny, never to rot + While he might still jog on and keep his trot. + * * * * * + Rest, that gives all men life, gave him his death, + And too much breathing put him out of breath; + Nor were it contradiction to affirm + Too long Vacation hastened on his Term. + * * * * * + But had his doings lasted as they were + He had been an immortal carrier." + +The popular tradition, (attested by an inscription on the fountain in +the Market Place,) which gives this hero the whole credit of the +street runlets, seems, however, to go too far, though they were +certainly first made during his life-time. Their source is in some +springs which issue from the chalk near Great Shelford, four miles +south-east of Cambridge, and which are called, as such sources are +commonly called hereabouts, "The Nine Wells"--nine being used as an +indefinite number. It is interesting to remember that this conception +evolved itself also amongst the ancient Greeks, who talked of the +"Nine Fountains" at Athens, and the "Nine Ways" at Amphipolis, with +exactly the same indefiniteness of numeration. The ancient outfall of +these springs seems to have been by what is now called "Vicar's +Brook," which is bridged by the London Road at the first milestone +from Cambridge. Till the eighteenth century the bridge was a ford, +known as Trumpington Ford. The earliest proposal to intercept the +stream near this spot and divert its course through the town, was due, +not to Hobson, but to another worthy (or unworthy) contemporary of +his, Dr. Andrew Perne, then Master of Peterhouse College, a divine of +such an accommodating breadth of view that he alone, amongst all the +higher authorities of the University, succeeded in retaining his post +and his emoluments throughout the horrible see-saw of the Reformation +period. + +We first hear of him in the reign of Edward the Sixth, as a Protestant +of such stalwart calibre that he destroyed as "idolatrous" almost +every single book in the University Library. Under Mary he figures as +no less ardent a Catholic, even to the degree of digging up and +publicly burning (in default of living heretics) the corpses of the +celebrated Protestant teachers Bucer and Fagius. Finally the accession +of Elizabeth convinced him once more that Protestantism was the truest +form of Christianity; and she lived long enough to keep him from again +changing his principles. This amazing versatility naturally did not +pass without comment. The wits of the University coined from his name +the Latin verb _pernare_ "to be a turn-coat," and declared that the +A.P. which showed on a new weather-cock given by him to his College +stood for A Protestant or A Papist indifferently. + +It was this man who, in 1574, started the idea of bringing the +Shelford water into Cambridge. The plan was carried out by +"Undertakers" (who hoped to make money by it), in 1610, and amongst +these Hobson would seem to have been the predominant partner. + +[Illustration: _Peterhouse._] + +Accompanied by the rippling of these runlets (which only represent a +very small amount of the water brought by "Hobson's Conduit" into +Cambridge) we shortly reach our first University edifice, the +Fitzwilliam Museum, fronted by a singularly fine façade of classical +architecture, and having in the Entrance Hall a really magnificent +staircase of coloured marbles. It should be noted that the four lions +which flank the façade are (unlike those in Trafalgar Square) all in +differing attitudes. The Museum (which is open to the public three +days in the week and to members of the University on all days) +contains a fine collection of pictures and antiques, the nucleus of +which is a bequest made in 1816 by Viscount Fitzwilliam. The Egyptian +section is specially noteworthy, and the water-colours by Turner. The +building was commenced in 1837, but was not finally completed till +1875, when the cost had run up to a hundred and fifteen thousand +pounds. + +The long-fronted Hospital on the opposite side of the road is the +modern representative of an ancient institution which gave to this +region, then quite the extremity of Cambridge, the name (as appears in +our oldest maps) of Spittal End. + +Adjoining the Museum we find ourselves arriving at our first College, +St. Peter's College, more commonly called Peterhouse, the same of +which the inevitable Dr. Perne was so long Master. (We may here note +that in Cambridge this name "Master" is the designation of the Head of +every College except King's, which has a "Provost," and Queens', with +its "President.") Peterhouse, as has been mentioned in our first +chapter, was the earliest College to be founded in Cambridge. Its +founder Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, derived his idea from Merton +College at Oxford, which had been in existence some twenty years when, +in 1281, he introduced its system into Cambridge, and even adopted its +very statutes. He first designed to incorporate his College with the +already existing quasi-monastic Brotherhood of the Hospital of St. +John (now St. John's College). The double Rule, however, bred so many +quarrels that he settled his "Scholars of Ely" on their present site; +their abode being dubbed Peterhouse from the adjoining church of St. +Peter (now St. Mary's the Less), which for three hundred and fifty +years served as the College Chapel, and is still connected by a +covered passage with the College buildings. + +The existing Chapel was built by yet another Bishop of Ely closely +connected with the College, Dr. Matthew Wren, Master here 1625-1634. +He was uncle to the great Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of St. +Paul's, and had enough architectural originality of his own to aim at +copying the beautiful tracery of the mediæval church-builders. It was +the first time that any such attempt had been made in England; and +this going behind the Reformation roused the Protestant feeling of the +time to fury. Men declared it incredible that there could be "so much +Popery in so small a chapel"; and when the Civil War gave the +Puritans their opportunity Wren paid for being so far in advance of +his age by an imprisonment of not less than eighteen years, till +released, in 1660, by the Restoration. The Chapel windows are now +filled with some fine Munich glass, the only example of this work in +Cambridge. + +Besides the Chapel, the Library here is remarkable, and the +"Combination Room" boasts itself as almost, if not quite, the finest +apartment of its kind in all Cambridge. This name, we may mention, is +given in every College to the parlour whither the M.A.'s retire, after +dining in Hall, for wine, dessert, and conversation.[6] That of +Peterhouse is a luxurious apartment, panelled with oak, and with +stained-glass windows. + +[Footnote 6: The corresponding Oxford name is "Common Room."] + +Another feature of the College is its little deer park, the only one +in Cambridge, and, with the exception of Magdalen College, Oxford, the +only one in either University. Access to this is obtained by passing +through the passage between the Hall and the Kitchen. Beyond the deer +park again an iron gate leads to the College Gardens, the only College +Gardens in Cambridge which visitors may freely enter. And they are +well worth entering. + +There is, however, no way through this College, as there is through +many, and we must leave it through the same gate as we entered by, +thus returning to the street. Over the gate we observe the coat of +arms belonging to the College, the armorial bearings of the founder +surrounded by a border of crowns. This feature will be seen in every +College, for each has its own arms, and these are invariably +emblazoned above the entrance. + +[Illustration: _St. Mary the Less, South side._] + +Architecturally attached to Peterhouse is, as has been said, the +church of St. Mary "the less," so called in contradistinction to +"Great" St. Mary's, which here, as at Oxford, is the designation of +the "University Church." This is the only really beautiful church in +Cambridge, the tracery of the windows being exquisite flowing +Decorated. All date from the fourteenth century, when the present +structure displaced the earlier church dedicated to St. Peter. One +feature of interest here is a monument put up to Richard Washington, +who was minister of this church in the beginning of the eighteenth +century. He was of the same family as the great George Washington, and +in the coat of arms here displayed we may see the origin of the +American Stars and Stripes, while the crest has become the American +eagle.[7] + +[Footnote 7: The Washington arms are, in heraldic language: Barry of +four, gules and argent. On a chief azure three mullets of the second. +Crest, a demi-eaglet sable rising from an earl's coronet.] + +To the west of the church we get a view of the back of Peterhouse in +its untouched picturesqueness, abutting on the churchyard, at the end +of which comes another Museum, that of Classical Archæology. This is +reached by a narrow lane, having the church on one side, and on the +other "Emmanuel," the leading Congregationalist place of worship in +Cambridge. As we return between these into the street we should look +up at the buildings of Peterhouse and notice, in front of the window +at the top corner of the ivy-clad wall, an erection of stout iron +bars. By these hangs a tale; for the window belongs to the rooms +traditionally occupied by the poet Gray when in residence here. It is +said that he caused these bars to be put up, from his constitutional +dread of fire, and that he kept a stout rope constantly affixed to +them as a means of escape in case of need. Awakened one night by +shouts of "Fire! Fire!" he slid down this rope in deshabille--to find +himself plunged at the bottom into a huge vat of water placed there by +his friends. So runs the tale; which adds that Gray migrated in +disgust from Peterhouse to Pembroke. That he did so migrate is quite +historical. + +To reach his new College, Gray had only to cross the street; for +almost immediately opposite to Peterhouse are seen the more widely +extended buildings of Pembroke. Not so very many years ago they were +the less widely extended of the two; for while Peterhouse has remained +comparatively stationary, Pembroke, more than any other College, has +partaken in the wonderful expansion which the last half century has +wrought in the number of University students at Cambridge. + +[Illustration: _Peterhouse, from St. Mary's Churchyard._] + +From the Restoration onwards the Colleges of Cambridge were for two +hundred years, till the middle of the nineteenth century, divisible in +numerical strength between two strongly marked classes. At the top +came the two great Societies of Trinity and St. John's; of which the +former gradually drew ahead, and came to have some four hundred +students to St. John's two hundred. The remaining fifteen Foundations +were classed together as the "Small Colleges"; the largest of them +being well under a hundred strong, and the smallest (amongst them +Pembroke) small indeed. But with the great extension of the University +curriculum, by the addition of a host of literary and scientific +subjects to the Mathematics which had previously been the sole avenue +to a Degree, there has come as marked an increase in the number of +students, and the old College classification has broken down. Trinity, +indeed, remains at the top, even more than ever, having almost doubled +its overwhelming numbers; but St. John's has been caught up and +overpassed by several of the once "small" Colleges, amongst them by +Pembroke. And yet, in the year 1858, Pembroke had only one solitary +freshman; and he migrated to Caius, in dread, as the tale then ran, of +being divided into sections by the authorities, to satisfy the demands +of the Mathematical, Classical, and Philosophical lecturers provided +by the College. + +The result is that Pembroke, even beyond most Colleges, is a medley of +architectural additions. When Gray migrated to it, and for a century +thereafter, the modest range of low white stone which still contains +the main entrance, formed the whole frontage; the College buildings +being a small quadrangle about half the size of the present First +Court. It was, in fact (except for a new Chapel, built by Wren in +1663, and still in use), no larger than it was at its first +foundation, in 1346, by Mary, widow of Amory de Valence, Earl of +Pembroke, and daughter of Guy, Count of Chatillon and St. Paul. Her +widowhood was brought about, according to tradition, by her husband +being accidentally slain, before her eyes, on their very wedding day, +at the tournament held to celebrate the nuptials. Modern criticism +disputes this tragic tale, but it was believed in Gray's day, and he +has referred, in his well-known list of the Founders of Cambridge +Colleges, to + + "sad Chatillon, on her bridal morn + Who wept her bleeding love." + +On her widowhood, however occasioned, she retired from the world, and +took the veil at Denny Abbey, between Cambridge and Ely. The College +was founded by her in her husband's memory, and has ever since +displayed her armorial bearings, the coats of Valence and St. Paul +dimidiated. + +At the time of the Civil War, the "Querela Cantabrigiensis" (a +contemporary publication, written in the Royalist interest), in +denouncing the misdeeds of the Parliamentary forces, complains +bitterly that "fourscore ragged soldiers, who had been lowzing before +Crowland nigh a fortnight, were turned loose into Pembroke Hall, being +one of the least Halls of the University, to kennel there, and charged +by their officers to shift for themselves, who, without more ado, +broke open the Fellows' and Scholars' chambers, and took their beds +from under them." + +A century before this we find Bishop Ridley, the famous Protestant +martyr, dwelling on this College (of which he had been Master) in his +touching farewell to Cambridge, composed shortly before his execution: + + "Farewell, Pembroke Hall, of late my own College, my care and my + charge ... mine own dear College! In thy orchard--(the walls, + butts,[8] and trees, if they could speak, would bear me + witness)--I learnt without book almost all Paul's Epistles; yea, + and I ween all the Canonical Epistles also, save only the + Apocalypse--of which study, although in time a great part did + depart from me, yet the sweet smell thereof I trust I shall carry + with me into Heaven; for the profit thereof I think I have felt + in all my lifetime ever after. And, I ween, of late there was + that did the like. The Lord grant that this zeal and love toward + that part of God's Word, which is a key and true commentary to + all the Holy Scripture, may ever abide in that College so long as + the world shall endure." + +[Footnote 8: This word reminds us that archery practice was, in +England, a regular feature of mediæval College life.] + +Besides Bishop Ridley, Pembroke can boast other well-known Protestant +divines of the Reformation era, Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, +Whitgift, his successor, and Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester. +The mitre and pastoral staff of the last named (both of brass, and the +former quite unwearable) are preserved amongst the College treasures. +So is also a magnificent silver-gilt cup, the gift of the Foundress, +which still goes round the High Table on special Feast Days. It bears +two inscriptions in old English characters. Round the bowl is an +exhortation to "drenk and mak gud cher" for love of St. Dennis--to +whom Marie de Valence, as a Frenchwoman, had a special devotion--while +round the stem are the words "M.V. God. help.at.ned." + +This cup is the more valuable as being almost the only piece of +mediæval plate still surviving in Cambridge. In ancient days the +College Halls and Chapels were abundantly supplied, but when the Civil +War broke out the loyal Gownsmen, with one accord, devoted all their +silver to the service of the King and sent it off to him at Oxford. +But it never got there; for Cromwell gained his first distinction by +pouncing upon the convoy "with a ragged rout of peasants," and then +compelled the surrender of what little was left in Cambridge. How this +cup escaped is not known. + +Nor is Pembroke's lay list of distinguished alumni less notable than +its clerical. Besides Gray, it has another poet of the first rank in +Edmund Spenser, and no less a statesman than the younger Pitt. Amongst +men of science it counts the late Sir George Gabriel Stokes, whose +memory is still fresh, and the all too much forgotten seventeenth +century astronomer, Dr. Long. Of the latter a striking memorial long +remained in the College--a copper globe, eighteen feet in diameter, +pierced to represent the celestial sphere, and so arranged that thirty +observers at once could find place within it and see the sequence of +the constellations as the globe revolved. Unhappily this object of +unique interest has been improved off the face of the earth, amongst +the various innovations to which Pembroke has specially lent itself. + +The original foundation of this College (which was for some time more +commonly called "Marie Valence Hall") consisted of a Master, fifteen +scholars, and four Bible clerks. It has now twelve Fellows, +thirty-three scholars, and upwards of two hundred students in +residence. + +[Illustration: _St. Botolph's Church._] + +A few yards from Pembroke stands the Parish Church of St. Botolph, +which, according to the original design of the Foundress, would have +been as closely connected with the College as is Little St. Mary's +with Peterhouse. In the first inception of the Collegiate system the +idea was that the Members of each College (which was only regarded as +a glorified dwelling house of the period, and the Society of which, +till their "Hall" was built, were, actually, to begin with, quartered +in already existing dwelling houses) should worship in the nearest +Parish Church, like other parishioners. Only by special licence from +the Pope could a private Chapel for a College, or any other mansion, +be erected. That granted by Pope Urban the Fifth (during the Papal +exile at Avignon) for the Chapel of Pembroke is still extant in the +Papal Register. It is dated July 1366, and runs as follows: + + "To the Warden and College of Scholars of Valence Marie Hall, + Cambridge: + + License, on the petition of their Foundress, Mary de Sancto + Paulo, Countess of Pembroke, to have a Chapel founded and built + by the said Countess within their walls, wherein Masses and other + Divine Offices may be celebrated by Priests of the said College; + saving the rights of the Parish Church." + +The Parochial rights here spoken of mean the exclusive right of the +Parish Priest to celebrate marriages and to receive the dues known as +"Easter Offerings "and "Surplice Fees." + +The dedication of St. Botolph's Church notifies us that we are now +entering Cambridge proper. For this Saint, who was historically an +abbot, the pioneer of the Benedictine Order in East Anglia, became +adopted by travellers as their special patron; and his churches were, +accordingly, placed for the most part at the gates of towns that his +benediction might speed the parting voyager. We thus find them at no +fewer than four of the London exits, Aldgate, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, +and Billingsgate, and in more than sixty other places, mostly in East +Anglia. That which we are now considering was associated with the +entrance to Cambridge known as "Trumpington Gate," where the mediæval +traveller from London made his way into the town by crossing the +ancient defensive work called "The King's Ditch." + +The construction of this great trench was popularly ascribed to King +Henry the Third, who, in his struggle with the Barons, desired to keep +a firm hold on the important strategic centre of Cambridge. There is +some reason, however, to suppose that he did not actually initiate the +idea of thus insulating the town by running a ditch across the bend of +the river on which it stands, but merely deepened and widened an +earlier trench, originally made, perhaps, by the Danes during their +occupation of the place, and remade by King John. However this may +be, the ditch utterly failed of its purpose. Not only was it unequal +to keeping the Barons out, but it could not even preserve the town +from being pillaged by a local marauder, Geoffry de Magnaville or +Maundeville, who made his lair in the neighbouring fens. + +The King's Ditch left the river at "the King's Mill" (now Newnham +Mill), and re-entered it opposite Magdalene College. It remained an +open watercourse (and a common sewer) till near the beginning of the +nineteenth century, when it was filled in, none too soon, for sanitary +reasons. Timber bridges spanned the stream at "Barnwell Gate," where +the "Via Devana" entered the town, as well as here at "Trumpington +Gate." These gates themselves, if they ever had any material +existence, were probably, at the most, little more than toll-bars. + +St. Botolph's Church was intended, as we have seen, to be specially +connected with Pembroke College. Between them, however, there has +always existed a block of buildings, while immediately adjoining the +church on the other side there has arisen a College of later +foundation, that of St. Mary and Corpus Christi, familiarly known as +"Corpus." Unlike the other Colleges of Cambridge, this owes its +existence not to the generosity of any private benefactor, but to that +of two mediæval Guilds, the Guild of St. Mary and the Guild of Corpus +Christi, which combined to leave future ages this splendid memorial of +their beneficence. + +These Guilds were merely two out of many such bodies in the Cambridge +of that day; for the Guild was the Benefit Society of the mediæval +period, and every respectable citizen was enrolled in one--often, +indeed, in more than one. The Guild, collectively, saw to the personal +interests of its members; aided them in distress, old age, and +sickness; contributed towards the expenses of their burial; and +finally provided Masses for their souls. This last item ultimately +proved fatal to the Guilds, which were suppressed wholesale at the +Reformation, as being thus tainted with Popish superstition, and their +property confiscated for the benefit of the Royal exchequer. + +Guilds, like our Benefit Societies, were voluntary associations, +co-opting their members, and established on various bases. Earliest to +rise, in all English boroughs, was the Merchant Guild, which regulated +the entire trade of the town; fixing at its general meetings, called +"Morning Talks," the market price of each staple commodity, and the +hours and places at which it might be bought and sold, besides +punishing rigorously (by fine or expulsion from the Guild) any unfair +dealing, such as underselling, or "regrating,"--_i.e._, making a +"corner" in any article as we should now say. Somewhat later each +craft began to have its own Guild, supplanting to a large extent the +older and more general organisation, whose executive insensibly became +merged in the Town Council. To this day, however, the building in +which that Council meets for its "Morning Talks," is called the +Guildhall in most English towns. + +Besides the trading Guilds, there arose others organised on a +definitely religious basis, the members of which were bound to special +devotion in some particular direction, from which the Guild took its +name. Amongst these were the two to whom we owe the existence of +"Corpus"--those of "Corpus Christi" and "Blessed Mary," the former +having been (in 1342) the original inceptors of the idea. The armorial +bearings of the College still testify to its double origin, being, +quarterly, three lilies, (the emblems of Our Lady,) and a pelican "in +her piety" (_i.e._, feeding her young with her own blood, as +contemporary legend imagined to be the case), as a reference to the +Holy Eucharist. + +The College, which was founded 1352, was originally intended only for +the education of a small number of priests, and consisted only of one +small court, now known as the Old Court, which happily still exists in +almost its original condition. It is a venerable and secluded spot, +with ivy-grown walls and mullioned lattices, well worth a visit. From +its north-eastern corner extends a long gallery pierced by an archway, +connecting the College with the Church of St. Benedict, or "Benet," as +it is commonly vocalised.[9] From this connection the College became +popularly known as "Benet College," just as Peterhouse was so called +from its like connection with the ancient church of "St. Peter by +Trumpington Gate." But while Peterhouse retains its old designation, +that of "Benet" has now become wholly disused, though only within the +last century. + +[Footnote 9: This is shown in our first wood-cut.] + +[Illustration: _St. Benet's Church, Interior._] + +This connecting gallery is of red brick, toned by age into delicious +mellowness, and is best seen from the back of the College, where a +quiet little lane ("Free School Lane"), one of the most charming +amongst the byways of Cambridge, gives access through the above +mentioned archway into the quiet little church yard of this quiet +little church, with its Saxon tower, the oldest monument of +ecclesiastical architecture in Cambridge, and one of the most +picturesque. The precise date of its erection, and how the church came +to exist at all, is, and will probably remain, an unsolved problem in +history. Some authorities imagine that it points to an East Anglian +settlement to the east of the Cam, distinct from the Mercian +"Grantabridge" on the western bank, where the old Roman town once +stood; others believe that it was built by the English inhabitants +expelled from that town by the Danes in the time of King Alfred. +Whatever may be the truth there is no small fascination in this +venerable relic of the old English days, with its "long and short" +stonework, the rudely-fashioned Romanesque pilasters in its windows, +and the nondescript "portal-guarding" lions of its interior archway. +The body of the church has been altered and re-altered time and again +during the ages: at the bases of the present chancel-arch those of two +earlier predecessors may be observed, and the south wall of the +chancel is honeycombed with disused openings once leading into the +Collegiate buildings of Corpus, while the existing stairway (also +disused) is seen in the eastern corner of the south aisle. The church +is thus of rare interest to the architectural student, and its history +has been exhaustively dealt with by Mr. Atkinson (_Cambridge +Illustrated_, p. 133). A glass case in the south aisle contains +various relics of antiquity belonging to it, and beside them an +ancient iron "fire-hook," used of old for tearing down blazing roofs +and buildings.[10] + +[Footnote 10: The speediest possible destruction of such buildings was +the only way of dealing with fires before effective engines came in, +which was not until the nineteenth century. Rings to facilitate the +use of fire-hooks are to be found under the eaves of many old houses +hereabout. The hooks had 30 foot handles, mounted on a pair of +wheels.] + +Out-taken the Old Court, Corpus has nothing in the way of buildings +that has either beauty or interest, the College having been +remorselessly remodelled about 1825. But the contents of its Library +surpass all else of the kind in Cambridge, containing, as it does, +what is probably the identical Gospel Book used by St. Augustine in +his conversion of the English, and what is probably the identical copy +of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written for King Alfred, if not by his +own hand. These priceless treasures once formed part of the library +of Canterbury Abbey, which was sold by Henry the Eighth, at its +suppression, as waste paper. Such relics as survived twenty years of +this profanation were rescued by Archbishop Parker (the first +Protestant Archbishop), in Elizabeth's reign, and were presented by +him to the College, of which he had been Master.[11] To guard, so far +as possible, against their again coming "to such base uses," he +accompanied his gift with the condition that if a certain number of +the MSS. were ever missing, the whole should pass to Caius College, +and thence to Trinity Hall in case of a like loss. The authorities of +these Colleges have (and exercise) the right of annual inspection: so +far quite fruitlessly, as no single MS. has disappeared during the +last three centuries. But the result has been to render this Library +harder of access to visitors than any other, and it can only be seen +by special arrangement with the Librarian, who has to be present in +person, along with some other Fellow or Scholar of the College, before +strangers can be introduced. + +[Footnote 11: Bishop Latimer, the Protestant martyr, also belonged to +Corpus.] + +Corpus has the reputation of being haunted by a ghost, the existence +of which has been taken quite seriously even within the present +century. But the tale of its origin has a most suspicious number of +variants. Some hold it to be the spirit of a poor motherless girl of +seventeen, the daughter of Dr. Spenser (Master from 1667 to 1693), who +died of fright at being discovered by her father while enjoying a +clandestine interview with her undergraduate lover. (This tragedy is +fairly historical.) Others declare that it is the lover; who was +locked, or locked himself, into a cupboard, where he died of +suffocation! Others again have a tale of a student from King's, who +(in order not to haunt his own College) came hither to kill himself! +That strange noises, not yet accounted for, are heard in some of the +rooms, is, apparently, an established fact. + +Opposite the Gate-tower of Corpus an open roadside esplanade, shaded +by lime trees, marks the still vacant space destined by St. +Catharine's College, in the seventeenth century, for a Library, to +complete its red-brick quadrangle, a design which has come to nothing. +The interior of the Court, which is not without dignity, still lies +open to view, shut in only by what was then meant to be a merely +temporary iron railing, with St. Catharine's wheel conspicuous above +the entrance. The College was founded as a kind of satellite to King's +College, by Robert Woodlark, the third Provost of that great +Foundation, in 1475. It has always remained a small and comparatively +poor Society. + +If we pass through the Court, such as it is, of St. Catharine's, +(familiarly known as "Cat's,") the western gate will bring us out into +Queens' Lane. We shall, however, do better to reach this most +fascinating of all Cambridge byways not thus but through the College +from which it derives its name, Queens'. To do this we must turn +westwards down Silver Street, a few yards south of St. Catharine's, +and just opposite St. Botolph's Church. Before taking this turn we +should give a glance northward along Trumpington Street at the +splendid mass of Collegiate and University buildings which here come +into view. High above all rises the glorious fabric of King's College +Chapel, while, beyond it, the classical façades of the Senate House +and the University Library, the fine gateway of Caius College, and the +further off tower of St. John's College, fill the eye with a +delightful sense of aesthetic culture and harmony. + +Entering Silver Street, a mean thoroughfare, all too narrow for its +volume of traffic, and demanding no small caution from all and sundry, +we have on our left a building for all the world like a College--so +frequently, indeed, mistaken for one by newcomers, as to have gained +the nickname of "the Freshman's College." In reality this is the +University Printing Press, or the Pitt Press, as it is commonly +called; the existing frontage opposite Pembroke having been erected in +1831, in memory of that statesman, who was a member of Pembroke +College.[12] All the official printing of the University is done here, +and the building also serves as the quarters of the University +Registrary, who keeps the record of Entrances, Degrees, etc. + +[Footnote 12: The University had licensed printers from the time of +Henry the Eighth, but did not set up a Press of its own till the +eighteenth century, when influenced by the great scholar and critic +Richard Bentley.] + +At the end of Silver Street, which is, happily, little over a hundred +yards in length, we reach an iron bridge over the Cam; its placid +stream "footing slow," as Milton says (in Lycidas), and only some +thirty feet in breadth. Above the bridge, however, it widens out into +a broad pool, enlivened by the rush of water from the "King's Mill," +beyond which the eye ranges over the open levels of "Sheep's Green." +Both the mill and the bridge are amongst the oldest features of +Cambridge, and the tolls payable at both were in mediæval times a +Royal monopoly. The King's agent in collecting them on this bridge +(known as "The Small Bridge" in contradistinction to the more +important structure beneath the Castle) was a hermit, for whose +accommodation a small bridge-house and chapel were built. This curious +use of hermits, as keepers of roads and bridges, was common in +Cambridgeshire before the Reformation. + +At Silver Street bridge the river enters on its course through the +enchanted ground of the "Backs," and the visitor will do well to take +water at the adjoining boat-house; for the stream here forms for half +a mile a byway lovely beyond words, not to be matched elsewhere in all +the world; flowing, as it does, between venerable piles of academic +masonry, and "trim gardens," the haunts of "retired leisure"; +umbrageous, as it is, with the shade of lime, and elm, and beech, and +chestnut, and weeping willow, and laburnum; spanned, as it is, by +bridge after bridge, each a new revelation of exquisite design. + +First we find ourselves with the old red brick fabric of Queens' +College on the one bank and the thicket of "Queens' Grove" on the +other, joined together by a wooden bridge, attributed to Sir Isaac +Newton, the Great Natural Philosopher and discoverer of the Law of +Gravity. A miracle of ingenious construction is this bridge, formed of +a series of mutually supporting beams requiring not a single bolt to +hold them together. Such at least it was till a few years ago, when +the old timbers, after two hundred years' wear, fell into decay and +had to be replaced, as nearly in facsimile as modern skill could +compass. + +A few yards further and the red brick of Queens' gives place to the +white stone of King's; the proximity reminding us that the Founders of +these two beautiful Colleges were husband and wife, "the Royal Saint," +King Henry the Sixth, and his heroic Consort, Margaret of Anjou. Poor +young things! They were but twenty-two and fifteen respectively when +they began these monuments of their liberality and devotion--upon the +very eve of that miserable conflict, the wars of "the rival Roses," +which brought about the downfall and death of both. But their work +survived them, to be completed by Royal successors; King's by Henry +the Seventh, Queens' by Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Henry's rival, +Edward the Fourth of York. + +[Illustration: _Clare Bridge._] + +King's Bridge, beneath which we now glide, is a single delicate rib of +stone, a marked contrast to the elaborate woodwork of Queens', and to +the three arches of grey stone and balustraded parapet of Clare, the +next in order. Between these the river widens, and the view opens out +on either side; a spacious meadow dotted and bounded with elms and +limes on the west, and on the east as spacious a lawn beyond which +rise the buildings of King's and of Clare College, and the west front +of that glory of Cambridge and of the world, King's College Chapel. +This reach of the river used, a few years ago, to be the scene of a +pretty annual merry-making, known as the "Boat Show," which formed +part of the attractions of the "May Week."[13] Hither the College +boats which had been contending for precedence in the May Races used +to row up in procession and draw up side by side in a mass occupying +the whole breadth of the stream. Each crew rose in turn with uplifted +oars to salute the victors who had attained (or retained) the Headship +of the River; after which the procession returned to the boat houses +two miles below. (The races were rowed two miles below again, where +the stream is wide enough for the due manipulation of an +eight-oar.)[14] + +[Footnote 13: See page 17.] + +[Footnote 14: See Chapter VI.] + +Clare Bridge passed, the College gardens of Clare and Trinity Hall +(which last must not be confounded with the larger and later +foundation of Trinity College) flank our course on either side for a +short space, till the next bridge, Garret Hostel Bridge, which +proclaims its non-Collegiate origin by being (like Newnham Bridge) a +tasteless structure of iron. It is, in fact, a public thoroughfare; +the road leading to it, Garret Hostel Lane, being the solitary +survival of the dozen or so of little streets which gave access to the +River from mediæval Cambridge, till the banks were usurped by the +Colleges. And in its name we have the last surviving reminder of those +"Hostels," or officially recognised lodging houses, which, before +Colleges came into being (and for some while after), provided +accommodation for the swarming students of the mediæval University. + +Garret Hostel itself, together with others, was swallowed up by the +gigantic College which we now reach, Trinity. Trinity Bridge, a +cycloidal curve carried on three arches, is led up to on either side +by the "long walk of limes" sung by Tennyson in "In Memoriam"; and the +splendid range of chestnuts which, as we pass beneath it, opens upon +us to the north-west, forms the boundary between the paddocks of +Trinity and St. John's. On the east rises the vast fabric of Trinity +Library built by Sir Christopher Wren, with its magnificent range of +arched windows and its warm yellow sandstone, an occasional violet +block adding to the effect, a veritable feast of quiet colour, +especially when glowing in the evening sun, and contrasting pleasingly +with the paler tint of the New Court of St. John's College, which, +with its plethora of crocketed pinnacles, here bounds our view to the +left front. To the right front rises the square tower of St. John's +Chapel, picturesquely reflected in the still waters. + +A slight bend in the stream, overhung by great elms, brings us to St. +John's Bridge, a fine three arched structure of brick and stone built +in 1696.[15] Beyond it the College buildings rise, like those of +Queens', directly from the water--to the west the white stone +abutments of the New Court, to the east the red brick walls and oriel +window of the Library, the most beautiful building of its class in +either Cambridge or Oxford. On it we can read the date 1624, and the +letters I. L. C. S. standing for _Johannes Lincolnensis Custos +Sigilli_, which commemorate the benefactor John Williams, Bishop of +Lincoln, and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, to whose generosity we owe +this gem of architecture. In his day, and for long after, St. John's +was quite the largest College in Cambridge, rivalled only, for a +moment, by Emmanuel. The present supremacy of Trinity did not begin +till late in the eighteenth century. + +[Footnote 15: Sculptures over the piers represent the bridge itself, a +very unusual feature.] + +The river is here spanned by the latest of the College bridges, a +single arch of stone high in air, carrying a pathway vaulted over with +stone and lighted on either side by grated windows, after the fashion +of the "Bridge of Sighs" at Venice. It was built about 1830 to form a +communication between the older part of the College on the eastern +side of the river and the recently erected New Court on the western, +while giving no opportunity for illicit leaving of the College. As has +been already stated, students, while bound to be inside the College +gates all night, are not bound to keep to their rooms, but may wander +about the Courts at any hour. + +[Illustration: _St. John's Bridge._] + +With St. John's the Collegiate buildings cease and are succeeded by +the last remaining "Hithes," or quays, used for commercial traffic, +which of old lined the banks for the whole length of Cambridge. We +read of Corn Hithe, Pease Hithe, Flax Hithe, Garlic Hithe and others. +For the river was to old Cambridge all and more than all that the +railways are now, the great artery of traffic, by which goods were far +more easily and cheaply conveyed than along the roads of the period, +which were always rough and often mere "Sloughs of Despond." Most +especially was this the case with fuel, so that in the seventeenth +century it was a familiar local saying that "here water kindleth +fire." These ancient hithes, like the street-ways leading to them, +have been almost all absorbed by the various College precincts. The +last, as we have said, are to be seen yet, still in use, with barges +(still laden chiefly with firewood) lying at them, below St. John's, +by the side of the "Great Bridge," that famous passage of the river to +which Cambridge owes both its name and its very existence. Opposite +the lowest of them there is one more riverside College, Magdalene, an +old monastic educational establishment turned to its present purpose +at the time of the Reformation by Lord Thomas Audley of Saffron +Walden, a courtier of King Henry the Eighth, who had obtained a grant +of it from that rapacious monarch. + +Our Cam byway here ends; for the river here passes out of the +populated area of Cambridge. It is noteworthy that this area abuts on +its banks to the same extent and no more than it did seven hundred +years ago. The King's Ditch, which then bounded it, left the stream at +the King's Mill, where our voyage started, and rejoined it just +opposite Magdalene, where that voyage closes. It is well worth while, +however, to retrace our course, for we shall find fresh loveliness in +the reverse views of the exquisite scenery through which we have +passed; and may note the many disused archways in the College walls, +which tell how, scarcely a generation ago, this unique gem of English +landscape was actually defiled by being used as a shamelessly open +sewer. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + =Queens' College=, Erasmus, Cloisters, Carmelites, Chapel.--Old + Mill Street.--=King's College=, Henry the Sixth, King's and Eton, + Henry's "Will."--King's College Chapel, Wordsworth, Milton, + Windows, Rosa Solis, Screen, Stalls, Vaulting, Side-Chapels, View + from Roof. + + +When we disembark once more at Silver Street Bridge, we find ourselves +standing beneath the sombre old red-brick walls of Queens', indented +just above us by a small projecting turret which we should not leave +without notice, for it bears the name and, by tradition, was assigned +to the use of the famous Erasmus during the months he spent in +Cambridge. This great light of the Reformation, or, more properly +speaking, of the intellectual revival which led up to it, was brought +here by the influence of the saintly chancellor, Sir Thomas More, +whose great wish was to broaden the University outlook by the +introduction of the Classical spirit. Hitherto its curriculum had been +almost exclusively confined to Aristotelian philosophy, adapted to +dogmatic Christianity by the great mediæval Schoolmen, especially St. +Thomas Aquinas. Erasmus brought in the knowledge of Greek, which he +had acquired from the learned exiles whom the capture of +Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 had driven to the west. Unhappily +he, in no small degree, depreciated this great gift, by clogging it +with his own self-opinionated pronunciation of the language, instead +of taking it as actually spoken. Strange to say, this "Erasmian" +barbarism shortly became a badge of Protestantism (though Erasmus +himself lived and died a Catholic). It was thus enforced during the +reign of Edward the Sixth, forbidden in that of Mary, and enforced +again under Elizabeth. To this day it remains with us, and cuts us off +from the living tongue of Hellas. + +To enter Queens' it is advisable to cross the iron bridge, and recross +the river by Sir Isaac Newton's wooden structure. Passing through the +low doorway into which it leads we find ourselves in the most +picturesque of all College Courts, bounded by the Hall in face of us, +and on the other three sides by a low range of ancient red-brick +cloisters. These once belonged to the Carmelite nuns, who removed to +this site when flooded out of their original quarters at Newnham. In +1538 they sold their House to the College, just in time to escape its +confiscation, at the suppression of the monasteries, by Henry the +Eighth, who, as it was, required the purchase-money to be paid over to +_him_. Having obtained the property Queens' at once built over the +northern cloisters the beautiful gallery which serves as the +drawing-room of the President's Lodge--(it has been stated that the +Head of a College is, in Cambridge, always called the "Master," except +here, where he is "President," and at King's where he is "Provost"). +The gallery, which is a wooden construction overhanging the Cloister, +is eighty feet long by twelve in width, with three large oriels +looking into the Court. Those on the other side open into the +President's garden, a charming enclosure abutting upon the river. Both +gallery and garden are, of course, strictly private. Opposite the +gallery, at the south-east corner of the cloisters, is a small Court +of Elizabethan date, known as "Pump Court," and now-a-days as "Erasmus +Court"; while from the north-east corner a tortuous little passage +brings us into a more modern Court, shaded by a fine walnut-tree +(whence its name of "Walnut Tree Court"). Here stands the New Chapel, +the best bit of modern work in all Cambridge, erected in 1895 from the +designs of Messrs. Bodley and Garner. The beautiful proportions and +effective decoration of the interior are specially noteworthy. + +[Illustration: _The President's Gallery, Queens' College._] + +On the southern side of this court a passage (between the old Chapel +and the Library) leads to the "Old Court," the original enclave of the +College. This has remained practically unaltered since the Foundation, +and is the best example remaining of the way in which a College was +designed of old, after the fashion of the large country-house, as then +built--Haddon Hall, for example, in Derbyshire. The red-brick and the +white stone dressings, have mellowed, as elsewhere in Cambridge, to a +tone of rich sombreness most restful and satisfying to the eye. The +somewhat gaudy clock and clock tower are modern, as is also the yet +gaudier sun-dial often, but erroneously, ascribed to Sir Isaac Newton. +Over the Hall is emblazoned the very elaborate shield of the College, +quartering the six bearings to which the poor little Queen Margaret +laid claim--those of Hungary, Naples, Jerusalem, Anjou, Lorraine, and +De Barre, all within a bordure "vert" added by Queen Elizabeth. Hence +it is that green is to-day the distinctive Queens' colour at boating, +cricket, etc. + +Passing out of Queens', beneath the dignified gate-tower, we find +ourselves in Queens' Lane, the quiet byway already referred to. Quiet +byway as it now is, this was once a main street of Cambridge, known as +Mill Street, forming (as it did before the great Colleges of King's, +Trinity, and St. John's were built across it) the line of interior +communication between the two bridges of the town, "the Small Bridge" +by the King's Mill and "The Great Bridge" beneath the Castle. In those +days it was a busy thoroughfare, thick set with burgher houses; now, +in such broken lengths of it as survive, the buildings are almost +wholly Collegiate. As we emerge from Queens' gate, and turn leftwards, +we have on one side the dark-red bricks of that College, on the other +the like buildings of St. Catharine's, while, at the further end of +the street in front, our view is bounded by the white stone of the new +gateway of King's. The whole effect is delightful. + +Through this gateway we now make our way into the Premier[16] College +of Cambridge, and soon find ourselves face to face with one of the +most beautiful views of the world. Before us spreads a spacious lawn, +the most extensive in existence,[17] bounded on three sides by the +white and grey walls of College buildings, while on the fourth it +merges into the wooded grass-land of the Backs; the river which +divides it from these being scarcely perceptible from this point. We +get a glimpse, however, of Clare Bridge, terminating the graceful +façade of that College, which is in our immediate front. Behind us are +the nineteenth-century additions to King's, and to our right front the +fine pile of "Gibbs' Buildings," erected, in the eighteenth century, +as a first attempt to approximate in some degree to the wishes of the +Royal Founder, and transfer his College from the cramped position it +had hitherto occupied, at the north of the Chapel, to the ampler site +on the south which he had originally destined for it, and had cleared +for his purpose by buying up and sweeping away, church and all, one of +the most thickly populated parishes in Cambridge, that of "St. John +Zachary" (_i.e._ St. John the Baptist), including a furlong's length +of Mill Street. + +[Footnote 16: This rank is one of the privileges due to the Royal +Founder. Another was the exemption of King's men from the authority of +the Proctors; another their right to a Degree without passing the +usual examinations. This was given up in the middle of last century, +and now every King's student is required by the College to take +Honours in some Tripos.] + +[Footnote 17: A current story tells how a millionaire, who boasted +that his money should make him a lawn as perfect, was discomfited by +being told that to attain such perfection "you must mow and roll it +regularly for 400 years. That is what has been done here."] + +[Illustration: _Oriel in Queens' College._] + +For the scale on which Henry VI. intended to build was something +hitherto quite unprecedented, and his plan took years to mature. The +inspiration of it was originally caught from William of Wykeham, +Bishop of Winchester, whose genius first conceived the idea of twinned +Colleges, in the provinces and at the University, from the former of +which the Scholars should pass on to complete their education at the +latter. This idea Wykeham himself first carried into effect by the +foundation of the College at Winchester and of New College at Oxford. +And, fired by his example, Henry VI., when only twenty, resolved on +doing the same thing himself with truly Royal magnificence. His +Scholars should begin their course at Eton, beneath the walls of +Windsor Castle, his birthplace and favourite residence, and should +thence pass to finish it at Cambridge, in the College which he would +there dedicate to his own Patron Saint Nicolas, on whose Feast, +December 6th (still "Founder's Day" to all Etonians and King's men), +he was born. + +This was in 1440. He at once put hand to the work, and that same year +signed the Charters for both Colleges; the Head of each being called +"Provost," in order, as he said, "to weld the two Colleges together in +a bond of everlasting brotherhood,"--a bond which actually lasted in +its entirety till 1870, and of which traces even yet remain. + +The acquisition of the sites involved complicated legal transactions +which occupied several years; but by 1444 Eton was sufficiently +advanced to receive its first Scholars, a colony brought by William of +Waynflete from Winchester; and by 1446 Henry was able to dedicate the +first stone of his Cambridge chapel. Every dimension of this glorious +edifice he himself worked out with the utmost minuteness, and set +down, as he would have it completed, in that notable record of his +purposes still preserved in the College Library, and known as his +"Will." The word had not in those days its present purely posthumous +signification, but was used of any formal disposition of a man's +estate, or any part of it, to some given purpose. + +In this document, "one of the most remarkable works in the English +language," as Mr. J. W. Clark styles it, the King describes his future +College so accurately that a complete plan and elevation of the whole +can be drawn from it. We thus learn that Gibbs' Building represents +what was meant to be the western side of an enclosed court, with a +fountain in the midst of it. The Chapel was to form the northern side +of this court; the entrance, with its turreted gate-tower, the +eastern; the Hall and Library, the western. The great lawn before us +was not to be, as now, an empty space, but was to be occupied, partly +by a small "kitchen court" containing the various offices (bake-house, +brew-house, etc.), partly by a cloistered cemetery between the Chapel +and the river, from the western side of which was to rise a pinnacled +tower, 220 feet high, the rival to that at Magdalen, Oxford, which was +already being planned by William of Waynflete. Another turreted +gate-tower, on the very bank of the river, was to give access to the +College Bridge (further north than the present one). Had this plan +been carried out in its entirety, King's would indeed have been, as +the historian Stow puts it, "such that the like colledge could scarce +have been found again in any Christian land." + +[Illustration: _Queens' College Gateway._] + +Unhappily its splendid design was brought to nought by the great +tragedy of the Wars of the Roses, which broke out almost immediately. +The singular mildness with which that conflict was waged (except on +the actual field of battle), with no wasting of lands, with no burning +of towns or villages, with no slaughter (and scarcely any plunder) of +non-combatants, permitted the work on the Chapel, which, as we have +seen, was already begun, to proceed, though slowly, and did not even +stop the conveyance of stone from the chosen quarry at Huddleston in +Yorkshire. The payment of the workmen was a harder matter, for Henry +was far from being a wealthy monarch. He and his wife between them had +less than the equivalent of £50,000 per annum, all too little for the +expenses of their position, even in days of peace. Still the pay was +found, in a certain measure, and the workmen came and went till +dispersed by the appalling tidings that their Royal Saint had been +deposed and murdered in the Tower. Then in panic horror they flung +down their tools and fled, with such haste that they did not even +complete the job on a block of stone, already half sawn through, which +lay, as Logan's print of 1680 shows it, in the south-east corner of +the present Great Court, Henry's intended quadrangle, a testimony to +their despair, for upwards of three centuries. Then, when the idea of +carrying out his intention was at last revived, this stone was +appropriately used as the first to be employed for that purpose, the +Foundation Stone of Gibbs' Building. + +The work on the Chapel thus abruptly stopped by the Founder's death +remained in abeyance for the remainder of the century. Not till 1508 +was it resumed. The shell of the building was finished 1515; the glass +and woodwork being added under Henry the Eighth. But in the end it was +completed substantially in accordance with the Founder's Will, and is +the only part of his design that has been so completed. His huge +campanile, his cloisters, his gate towers, never came into being; and +though the Great Court is now where he meant it to be, it is built in +a fashion very different from his design. + +This we see at a glance as we enter it round the southern end of +Gibbs' Building. For it is not an enclosed quadrangle, but formed of +two detached blocks to south and west, while the east side is only a +stone screen, erected in 1825, and of a sadly inferior style. But the +"goodly conduit" of the Founder's Will does rise in the midst,[18] and +the north side is actually formed, as he decreed, by his glorious +Chapel, the most magnificent in the world, which now rises before us +in all its grandeur as we behold it across the Court. + +[Footnote 18: His statue surmounts it, flanked by two figures +representing Science (gazing at the Chapel) and Religion (with her +eyes devoutly fixed upon the Hall). To leap across from the lawn to +the pedestal of this group is a feat seldom accomplished.] + +And if the outside view is impressive, that which greets us when we +enter is absolutely overpowering in its majesty. The sense of space +and repose; the up-running lines of the shafting catching the eye +whithersoever it turns, and leading it up to the myriad-celled spans +of the vault; the subdued light through the pictured windows staining +the venerable masonry; the great organ, upborne by the rich oaken +screen, dominating the whole vista, combine to form, as has been well +said, "a _Sursum Corda_ done into stone," uplifting indeed to heart +and sense alike. And when to this feast of visual harmony is added the +feast of aural harmony, when the clear and mellow voices of the Choir +blend with the majestic tones of the organ, + + "And thunder-music, rolling, shakes + The prophets blazoned on the panes," + +we can understand how the inspiration of the scene has thrilled poet +after poet, not Tennyson only, as above quoted, but Wordsworth, and +even Milton, Puritan as he was, yet more. To the former King's College +Chapel suggested one of the most exquisite of his sonnets: + + "Tax not the Royal Saint with vain expense, + With ill-matched aims the architect, who planned, + Albeit labouring for a scanty band + Of white-robed scholars only, this immense + And glorious work of fine intelligence. + 'Give all thou canst! High Heaven rejects the lore + Of nicely calculated less and more.' + So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense + These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof, + Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells, + Where light and shade repose, where Music dwells, + Lingering and wandering on as loth to die; + Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof + That they were born for immortality." + +And Milton, when he came under the spell of this most glorious +sanctuary, forwent all his conscientious objections to the Laudian +revival of ornate services, "the scrannel pipes of wretched straw," +and all the rest of his denunciations, and was, in spite of himself, +carried away into forgetfulness of all save the glory and the beauty +around him. Hear him in "Il Penseroso": + + "But let my due feet never fail + To walk the studious cloister's pale, + And love the high embowed roof, + With antique pillars massy proof, + And storied windows richly dight, + Casting a dim religious light. + There let the pealing organ blow + To the full-voiced choir below, + In Service high and Anthem clear, + As may with sweetness, through mine ear, + Dissolve me into ecstasies + And bring all Heaven before mine eyes." + +[Illustration: _Clare College from King's._] + +This passage is memorable, not only for its own intrinsic loveliness, +but because we, very probably, have in it a key to the great +historical puzzle connected with King's College Chapel. How came these +"storied windows," with their hundreds of pictured prophets, saints, +and angels, to escape the ruthless destruction which was meted out to +all such "idolatrous" representations, throughout the length and +breadth of the county, by the Parliamentary authorities at Cambridge? +William Dowsing, their authorised agent, went from church to church, +in town and village, shattering and defacing, and has left us a minute +record of his proceedings, in which he evidently took a keen personal +delight. Thus, amongst the colleges we have already noticed, he tells +us that, at Peterhouse, "we pulled down two mighty great Angells with +wings, and diverse other Angells, and the four Evangelists, and Peter +with his Keies over the Chappell Dore, and about 100 Chirubims." At +Queens' "we beat down a 110 superstitious pictures, besides +Chirubims"; and so on, with monotonous repetition, entry after entry. +The account also records the sums which each college had to pay him +for his trouble, and such a sum (of extra amount in consideration of +the magnitude of the task) was actually paid him by the Bursar of +King's. Yet here are the windows before our eyes to-day in unbroken, +unblemished dignity. + +No contemporary explanation is forthcoming, and the true facts of the +case seem to have been kept so close, and to have been known to so +few, that no tradition, even, of them was handed down to posterity. As +time went on, the wildest and most impossible theories were evolved to +account for the marvel. It was gravely said that the windows had been +taken down by the Fellows themselves in a single night, and securely +buried from the baffled spite of the Roundheads before morning, till +better times; the place of each being known to one Fellow only! That +the west window alone remained plain till the latter part of the +nineteenth century (a peculiarity really not explained by history), +was held proof positive that the Fellow in charge of that particular +burial was done to death by the Puritans without betraying his secret; +which equally defied the researches of later generations. Such +searches were actually made. A more sentimental variant of the story +made the hider a pious little chorister, shot down by Cromwell in the +chapel itself for refusing to reveal where lay his precious charge! +Through the empty casement a white dove flew in, and hovered over the +heroic innocent! It need scarcely be pointed out that to remove the +glass from a single one of these huge windows would be a work of days +for a fully equipped band of professional glaziers supplied with +scaffolding; yet these absurd tales were gravely repeated, and the +missing window was actually sought for. The truth of the matter will, +probably, now never be known. But it is certain that the windows could +not have been spared without the connivance, at least, of Oliver +Cromwell, whose influence was at that time paramount in Cambridge; and +it is a plausible conjecture that his protection of them was due to +the intercession of his friend John Milton, to whom, as we have seen, +the Chapel and its "dim religious light" meant so much. + +A full study of these wonderful windows, crowded as they are with +marvellously elaborate detail, is a work demanding hours of close +attention under the direction of a competent guide. Even for the +cursory examination which will suffice most of us the use of a +guide-book is essential; and it is fortunate that one has been brought +out (purchasable at any Cambridge book-shop for the modest sum of +sixpence) by Dr. M. R. James, the present Provost of King's, who is +the supreme European authority on ancient stained glass. + +The general scheme of decoration is the representation of the life of +Our Lady (to whom the College is dedicated), beginning in the +westernmost window of the north side, with her traditional birth, and +going on round the Chapel, till it ends, in the westernmost window of +the south side, with her Assumption and Coronation. But as the +traditions concerning her did not provide a sufficient number of +scenes for the requirements of the designer, the series is eked out, +not only by various incidents in her Son's life wherein she does not +appear (such as His Baptism, Temptation, and Passion), but by the +three windows to the western side of the great screen on the south +being filled with subjects drawn from the stories of St. Peter and St. +Paul; all being, however, within the traditional period of her +life-time. + +A first glance at the windows produces only the effect of a gorgeous +maze of colouring, through which we marvel that any clue should have +been found. Next to the general effect of the ineffably harmonious +blending of hues, the audacious vividness of the hues themselves, red +and green and blue and gold and purple, is what first impresses the +eye. Then we notice how, down the central light of each window, stand, +one above another, four great figures, human or angelic, each +displaying an inscribed scroll.[19] These figures are known as the +Messengers, and when not Angels they are Old Testament Prophets. Their +scrolls, which are in Latin, refer, sometimes by direct description, +oftener by a suggestive text, to the subjects depicted in the Lights +on either hand of them. The inscriptions, however, are of very little +practical use to the visitor. Age has rendered many of them wholly, +and more partially, illegible; while the black-letter characters of +their crowded Latin words are not easy to decipher at the best. They +are, moreover, by no means free from actual blunders, and the +connection between text and scene is sometimes far from obvious. Their +interest, in fact, is for experts; and less-gifted visitors will do +well to content themselves with the interpretation given in the +guide-book. + +[Footnote 19: These figures are somewhat larger than life-size.] + +The same advice applies to the glass in general. It is not worth while +to spend on a detailed study of the windows the time necessarily +involved. Much of the work is excellent, and almost every window has +its points of interest, but much, especially amongst the heads of the +figures, is far from pleasing. This fact is largely owing to a +considerable "restoration" undertaken in the Early Victorian era; when +the art of glass-painting was at a sadly low ebb, and when the +uncurbed restorer positively revelled in substituting for ancient +decay his spick-and-span modern conceptions. But, as has been said, +almost every window has features deserving that time should be made +for their notice, which we now proceed to point out. + +Each window contains four scenes, the upper and lower, to left and +right of the central "Messengers," being normally co-related as Type +and Antitype. This relation, however, is not universal, and does not +occur in the first window of the series (that in the north-west corner +of the Chapel), where the four scenes consecutively illustrate the +legend connected with the birth of Our Lady. The story runs that her +parents, Joachim and Anna, were childless even unto old age, and that, +in consequence, Joachim, on presenting his offering in the Temple, was +insulted by the High Priest. As he sadly sought retirement in the +country an Angel appeared to him with the message that he should +return to Jerusalem, where his wife would meet him at the Temple gate, +and a daughter would be born to them. + +The upper left-hand of the window shows the mitred High-Priest waving +away Joachim, who is sorrowfully departing. His face is beautifully +rendered. In the upper right-hand corner we see him kneeling before a +green and gold angel hovering downwards. The rural surroundings are +suggested by a pastoral composition. Note the sheep-dog and the +shepherd's bagpipes. + +[Illustration: _King's College Chapel._] + +In the lower left-hand light Joachim and Anna are meeting before the +Temple gate; and in the right-hand Anna is sitting up in a blue bed +with red curtains, watching the infant Mary being washed. Mary has +long golden curls, and her face is that of an adult; but Dr. James +considers this head a later insertion. This window is known to have +been repeatedly and promiscuously repaired (even as early as 1590), +and was in utter confusion till the latest releading (1896). The +repairs seem to have been executed with any old bits of glass the +glazier might happen to have in stock. On one fragment (now removed) +some coins of Charles the First were represented. Most of the windows +have suffered, more or less, in this way, but none (except that over +the south door) to the same extent as this first window, which though +the first in order of subject, seems not to have been the first +inserted, or at least completed; for at the top may be read the date +1527, whereas the window over the screen on the north side contains +that of 1517. + +These two dates are respectively near the inception and the completion +of the glazing, which was begun 1515, the year when Luther began the +Reformation by the publication of his famous Theses, and finished +1531, the year in which that Reformation was first inaugurated in +England by the King being declared Supreme Head of the Anglican +Church. The windows, however, must have been designed at a date +considerably earlier, for in the heraldic devices which fill the small +top lights Henry the Seventh, not Henry the Eighth, is treated +throughout as the reigning monarch; his shield being blazoned in the +central compartment, while the latter is only commemorated by the +initials H. K.,--the last standing for his ill-fated wife Katharine of +Aragon. These heraldic devices are the same in all the windows, and +show the rival roses of York and Lancaster, the Tudor Portcullis and +Hawthorn Bush, the Fleur-de-lys, and the initials H. E. (for Henry the +Seventh and his Queen, Elizabeth of York). All the glass is of English +manufacture, the work of four London firms, but it seems probable that +the artists were to some extent under both Flemish and Italian +influence. + +Passing on to the second window, we find it thus arranged: + + TYPE | TYPE + Presentation of a golden table in | The Marriage of Tobias and Sara. + the Temple at Delphi. | (_Tobit_ vii. 13.) + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + Presentation of the Virgin in the | The Marriage of Mary and Joseph. + Temple at Jerusalem. | + +The first scene here is the only instance in the Chapel of a +non-Scriptural incident being made use of as a Type. It is the +Classical legend (found in Valerius Maximus, an obscure Latin writer +used in the sixteenth century as a school book), which tells how a +question as to the ownership of a golden table found in the nets of +some Milesian fishermen was referred to the Delphic oracle of Apollo +for solution. To whom should this table of pure gold be made over? The +Oracle replied "To the Wisest." The prize was therefore given to +Thales, the wisest Milesian of the day, who modestly passed it on to +another sage, and he to yet another. Finally, after thus going the +round of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, it came into the hands of Solon +the Athenian, who declared that "the Wisest" could be no other than +Apollo himself, and accordingly presented the table to the God in the +Temple of Delphi. By a strange application, this tale was considered, +in mediæval literature, as typical of the Presentation of the Virgin +in the Temple at Jerusalem; her purity and that of the gold being, +apparently, the connecting idea. + +In the window we see the offering of the golden table; Apollo being +represented by a golden image bearing a shield emblazoned with the +Sun, and a banner. Beneath is Mary, as a young girl dressed in blue, +walking up the steps of the Temple; an incident much dwelt on in the +legend. In the upper Marriage scene note the Angel Raphael, the +comrade and guide of Tobias; and, in the lower, Joseph's rod, the sign +from which (a dove appearing upon it) marked him out, amongst all her +suitors, as Mary's destined husband. This scene suggests a +reminiscence of Raphael's well-known cartoon on the subject, which had +lately been painted. + + * * * * * + +In the third window the arrangement is: + + TYPE | TYPE + The Fall | The Burning Bush + (Eve's disobedience). | (remaining unconsumed). + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The Annunciation | The Nativity + (Mary's obedience). | (Mary remaining a Virgin). + +Note the human head and hands of the Serpent, and the brilliant +ruddiness of the apple. Also the ruby flames of the bush, and the +representation of God the Father at its summit. Moses is in the act of +putting off his shoes from his feet. In the Nativity scene the Babe +can only be discovered by following the gaze of the child Angels who +are clustering round in adoration. Contrary to the usual convention, +which shows Him sitting on His Mother's knee as if a couple of years +old, He is here represented realistically as an actual new-born baby. +Above both lower lights in this window is a renaissance arcading. + + * * * * * + +In the fourth window we have: + + TYPE | TYPE + The Circumcision of Isaac. | The visit of the Queen of Sheba + | to Solomon. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The Circumcision of Christ. | The visit of the Wise Men to + | Christ. + +The face of Abraham and that of the officiating priest below are both +good, and so is that of the Queen. The Epiphany Star is a fine object, +and the effect of its light irradiating the thatch of the manger-shed +is most powerfully rendered. + + * * * * * + +The fifth window gives us + + TYPE | TYPE + The Legal Purification of a woman. | Jacob's flight from the + | vengeance of Esau. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The Purification of Mary. | The Flight into Egypt. + +In the Purification scene the faces of Simeon, who is the main figure, +Mary, and Joseph (carrying the dove-cage), are all worth looking at. +So is Joseph in the Flight episode; which, however, is chiefly +remarkable for introducing in the back-ground a legend from a late +carol, which tells how Herod's soldiers pursued the Holy Family, and +how the pursuit was miraculously checked. The fugitives met a +husbandman, and instructed him to answer any inquiry for them by +saying, "They passed whilst I was sowing this corn"; which was +actually the case. But, lo! when the pursuers shortly came up the corn +had sprung up, and was ripe already to harvest. It takes some little +trouble to decipher this scene. The Purification is seen through an +arcade of the Temple, on the frieze of which is a group of classical +horsemen like those of the Parthenon. + + * * * * * + +The next window is that over the great organ screen dividing the +ante-chapel from the choir. It is arranged thus: + + TYPE | TYPE + The Golden Calf | The Massacre of the Seed Royal by + (the introduction of Idolatry). | Queen Athaliah. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The idols of Egypt falling before | The Massacre of the Innocents by + the Holy Child | King Herod. + (the overthrow of Idolatry). | + +The Golden Calf is set high on a magnificent ruby pillar. Before it +Moses is breaking the Tables of the Law; one fragment of which shows a +Flemish inscription. Below, an idol is falling headlong from a +precisely similar pillar. The kneeling figure in this scene is the +Governor Aphrodisius, who was converted by the miracle; as is recorded +in the apocryphal "Gospel of the Infancy." In the Massacre scene Queen +Athaliah is represented by a conventional figure of the _Virgo +Coronata_ (with her Babe in her arms). The artist evidently had this +figure in stock, and used it rather than take the trouble of producing +something less incorrect. Near her there is a minutely depicted +mediæval thatched house worthy of notice. So is the business-like +callousness in the expression on the leading soldier's countenance. +This window bears, as has been said, the date 1517, written 15017. + + * * * * * + +We are now in the choir, where our first window gives: + + TYPE | TYPE + Naaman washing in Jordan. | Esau tempted by Jacob to sell + | his birthright. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + Christ baptised in Jordan. | Christ tempted by the Devil. + +All three Temptations are given, the first being in the foreground. +The countenance of the Devil (as a respectable old man) is a +marvellous study. + + * * * * * + +The second window in the choir is: + + TYPE | TYPE + The raising of the Shunamite's son.| The Triumph of David + | (I _Sam._ xvii). + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The raising of Lazarus. | The Triumphal Entry. + +The Shunamite's house is another bit of minute detail. Note the dishes +on the shelf in front. Note also the magnificently gigantic head of +Goliath borne by David on the point of the Philistine's own huge +sword. + + * * * * * + +The third window: + + TYPE | TYPE + The Manna. | The Fall of the Angels. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The Last Supper. | The Agony in Gethsemane. + +The manna is shown as falling in the shape of Communion Breads. Below, +Christ gives the sop to the red-haired Judas, while Peter, who thus +becomes aware of the traitor's identity, clenches his fist with a +gesture of menace extraordinarily forcible. + +The connection between the right-hand subjects is not obvious. Dr. +James suggests that it refers to Christ's speaking of the casting out +of Satan as a result of His Passion (John xii. 31). The smaller scale +of this scene, and the nimbi given to Christ and the Apostles point to +its having been the work of a special artist. + + * * * * * + +The fourth choir window: + + TYPE | TYPE + Cain murders Abel. | The mocking of David by Shimei. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + Judas betrays Christ. | The mocking of Christ. + +Cain is killing Abel with a large bone. Note the ruby fires of their +respective altars in the back-ground, Abel's spiring upwards in full +flame, while Cain's is blown down to the earth. In the betrayal scene +the face of Malchus, as he lies upon the ground with his broken +lantern under him, should be observed. It is highly expressive. + + * * * * * + +The fifth window: + + TYPE | TYPE + Jeremiah in prison. | Noah mocked by Ham. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + Christ before Annas. | Christ mocked by Herod. + + * * * * * + +We have now reached the last window of the northern range, that in the +north-east corner of the Chapel. It shows us: + + TYPE | TYPE + Job scourged by Satan. | Solomon crowned by his mother. + | (_Cant._ iii. 11.) + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + Christ scourged by Pilate. | Christ crowned with thorns. + +In the scourging scene we may note the singularly unpleasing features +and expression of the Saviour's face; which Dr. James holds to be +purposely so delineated, in reference to the words of Isaiah: "He hath +no form nor comeliness, and when we see Him there is no beauty that we +should desire Him." We do not, indeed, find in the entire series of +windows one single attempt to represent Him worthily. The conventional +face, familiar throughout the ages to Christian Art, even from the +first century, and probably a real recollection of Him, is +consistently departed from (as is characteristic of the Renaissance +period), and with it has gone every divine and exalted association. +Where even the genius of Michael Angelo failed, we cannot look to find +the glassworkers of London succeeding. + + * * * * * + +The great east window has no central messengers, and thus contains six +scenes, each occupying three lights, arranged thus: + + The Nailing to the | Christ crucified | The Descent from the + Cross. | (the Piercing). | Cross. + | | + Ecce Homo! | The Sentence. | The Way of Sorrows. + +There is little to call for special notice in this window. Structural +conditions necessitate the Cross being of abnormal height. In the +background of the Way of Sorrows is a vivid ruby patch, which may be +meant for the Field of Blood. + + * * * * * + +Turning to the south-east window, we are confronted with an entirely +exceptional development. The whole of the upper half is occupied with +a single subject (the Brazen Serpent), and that in Early Victorian +glass inconceivably poor and crude. The lower half is ancient and +typical, the type and antitype being placed side by side: + + TYPE | ANTITYPE + Naomi bewailing her husband. | The Holy Women bewailing Christ. + (_Ruth_ i. 20.) | + +The history of this marked departure from the norm is that the +buildings of the Great Court were planned to abut upon the Chapel +here, so as to block the lower half of the window, for which, +accordingly, no glass was provided. That which is there now was +originally in the upper half and was moved down in 1841, the Brazen +Serpent being substituted for it. The remaining windows on this side +of the choir also underwent a sad amount of "restoration" at the same +period. + + * * * * * + +The next window (the fifteenth in the entire sequence) is of the +normal arrangement. + + TYPE | TYPE + Joseph cast into the pit. | The overthrow of Pharaoh. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + Christ laid in the Sepulchre. | The Harrying of Hell. + +The last scene is a most forcible representation of Christ's +victorious "Harrying of Hell," as conceived by mediæval imagination +and referred to by Dante in his Inferno. The Conqueror of Death has +forced His resistless way through the shattered gates of Hell, on +which He stands, treading under His feet the gigantic leaden-coloured +bulk of their demon warder. Before Him kneels Adam, at last rescued +from his age-long captivity, and other Holy Souls. In the back-ground +a blue devil gazes in dismay from the red mouth of Hell (represented +after the usual mediæval fashion, as an actual mouth, with teeth, +etc.), while another, in livid green, is dancing with demoniac rage +above, and yet another, white and gold, is scudding away in terror as +fast as his wings will carry him. + + * * * * * + +The remaining windows of the choir on this side deal with the +Resurrection. In the first of these (the third from the east) the +subjects are: + + TYPE | TYPE + Jonah escaping from the Fish. | Tobias appearing to his mother + | (who had thought him dead). + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + Christ arising from the Sepulchre. | Christ appearing to His Mother. + +The Fish is represented as a long green sea-serpent with a black, +cavernous mouth, out of which Jonah is stepping. In the background is +a ship, and, beyond, Nineveh. The Sepulchre is in the frequent +unscriptural shape of a table monument. + +In the right-hand type, Tobias has his dog with him, and also his +angel guardian Raphael. That Christ appeared to His Mother is first +found in St. Ambrose, who mentions it as undoubted. She is here shown +kneeling at a prayer-desk. + + * * * * * + +In the next window we find: + + TYPE | TYPE + Reuben finds Joseph taken away | Darius, at the Lions' den, sees + from the pit. | Daniel living. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The Marys find Jesus taken away |Mary Magdalene, at the Sepulchre, + from the Sepulchre. | sees Jesus living. + +In the last scene Christ is represented with a spade, inasmuch as Mary +Magdalene supposed Him to be the gardener. Her very pronounced +costume, with its astonishing golden ear-covers, is probably a German +fashion of the early sixteenth century. + + * * * * * + +The fifth window gives the story of Christ's appearance to the +disciples who went to Emmaus: + + TYPE | TYPE + Tobias, on his journey, is joined | Habakkuk shares his meal with + by the angel Raphael, in | Daniel at Babylon. + appearance a wayfaring man. | (_Bel and the Dragon_, v. 33.) + (_Tobit_, v. 4.) | + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The two disciples on their journey | Christ shares the meal of + are joined by Christ, in | disciples at Emmaus. + appearance a wayfaring man. | + +Observe that the bread in Our Lord's hand appears to be, not broken, +but cut clean as with a knife. There was a mediæval legend to the +effect that He showed His divine power by thus breaking it. Note, too, +Raphael's brilliant green and crimson wings, put in to denote his +angelic nature, though the story postulates their absence. + + * * * * * + +The following window (that next to the screen) deals with the story of +St. Thomas (John xx.), and has been wrongly arranged: what are now the +right-hand scenes should be the left so as to come first. It now +stands thus: + + TYPE | TYPE + The Prodigal Son returns to his | Joseph meets Jacob in Egypt. + Father. | + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + Thomas returns to belief in Jesus.| Jesus meets His Disciples at + | Supper. + +We find in the first scene here what is perhaps the most ably drawn +figure in the entire series of windows, that of the Elder Brother. +Observe the utter contempt and disgust written on his face and in his +whole attitude. He wears a pair of most aggressively red leggings. + + * * * * * + +The window over the organ loft shows us the Ascension, and the Coming +of the Holy Ghost. + + TYPE | TYPE + Elijah going up into Heaven. | Moses and the Israelites receiving + | the Law at Pentecost. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + Christ going up into Heaven. | Mary and the Disciples receiving + | the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. + +Elijah is deliberately turning round in his golden chariot of fire to +cast down his ample ruby mantle upon Elisha. Moses is taking the +Tables of the Law from the hand of God. + + * * * * * + +The subjects of the three windows between the screen and the south +door are all from the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul, and nearly all +from the Acts of the Apostles, from which also all the texts are +taken. Accordingly the place of the usual prophetic Messengers is, in +these windows, taken by figures of St. Luke (all identical), habited +in the costume worn by a Doctor of Medicine in the sixteenth century. +The series of type and antitype is dropped in these windows, and no +strict chronological order is observed in the sequence of the +subjects. Probably some have been misplaced, either originally or at +one of the various releadings to which they have necessarily been +subjected. Every century brings fresh need for this operation. + +The subjects in the first window are: + + Peter and the Apostles entering | Peter and John bound and + the Temple. | scourged. + | + Peter and John healing the lame | The Death of Ananias. + man in the Beautiful Gate. | + +The design of the last scene is directly copied from Raphael's +well-known cartoon. + + * * * * * + +The second window gives: + + The Conversion of St. Paul. | St. Paul at Damascus and his + | escape in a basket. + | + St. Paul adored at Lystra. | St. Paul stoned at Lystra. + + * * * * * + +The third window is also Pauline: + + St. Paul giving a farewell blessing |St. Paul before the Chief Captain at + before embarkation. | Jerusalem. + | + St. Paul exorcising the demoniac at |St. Paul before Caesar at Rome. + Philippi. + +The first of these scenes is interesting. The text (Acts, xvi. 2) +connects it with St. Paul's departure from Troas on his first voyage +to Europe. But the subject seems to be the touching scene at Miletus +(Acts, xx) on his final departure for Jerusalem. The ship here, whence +the boat is rowing to fetch him, should be noticed, as it is a fine +and accurate specimen of sixteenth century naval architecture. Observe +the lateen yard on the mizen mast. The man who drew that ship, unlike +most artists, knew his ropes, they are all in their right places. In +the last scene note the startled and awed expression on Nero's almost +obliterated face, also his Imperial crown. + + * * * * * + +We have now almost completed our round of the Chapel, and are again at +the south door by which we entered. Only two more windows remain, and +in these we return to the typical treatment of Our Lady's life. That +over the south door has, by accident (as it appears), been more +shattered and defaced than any other in the Chapel. It is arranged +thus: + + TYPE | TYPE + The death of Tobit. | The burial of Jacob. + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The death of Mary. | The burial of Mary. + +Mary is dying with the full rites of the Church. St. Peter sprinkles +her with holy water, while St. John places in her hand a lighted +"trindall" (three candles twisted together). The prayer book and cross +are borne by other Apostles. Her bier is covered by a white pall with +gold cross, and two severed hands may (with difficulty) be seen +clinging to it. This refers to the legend that a certain Jew who +sought to overthrow the bier was thus miraculously dismembered, and +did not recover his hands till he penitently besought her to restore +them. + + * * * * * + +Finally the south-west window completes the wondrous series: + + TYPE | TYPE + The Translation of Enoch. | Bathsheba enthroned by her son + | Solomon. + | (_I. Kings_, ii., 19.) + | + ANTITYPE | ANTITYPE + The Assumption of Mary. | Mary crowned by her Son Jesus. + + * * * * * + +The west window remained unglazed, for some unknown reason, till as +late as 1879, when there arose a benefactor, Mr. Francis Stacey, a +Fellow of the College, who has left this noble memorial of his +generosity. The glass is by Messrs. Clayton and Bell, and the subject, +as is usual in west windows, is the _Last Judgment_. The heraldic +devices in the tracery are not those found in the older windows, but +comprise (in order) the Tudor Portcullis,[20] the Plantagenet Rose, +and the shields of King's College, Eton College, Cambridge University, +King Henry VI., King Henry VII., King Henry VIII., Queen Victoria, and +Stacey. There are also the shields of the See of Lincoln, whose Bishop +is _ex officio_ Visitor of the College, impaling Wordsworth (then +Bishop), and of Okes (then Provost of the College). + +[Footnote 20: The Portcullis was adopted by Henry the Seventh as the +Tudor badge, to signify that his claim to the throne was double +(through his mother, Lady Margaret, as well as his wife), even as a +portcullis doubled the defensibility of a castle gate.] + +The glass of King's College Chapel by no means exhausts the interest +of the building. The next point to be observed is the great organ +screen, erected during the brief ascendancy of the miserable Ann +Boleyn, whose initials are carved upon it. On either side of the +door-way, within, are emblazoned the twin shields of King's and Eton; +differing only in that the former bears three red roses, the latter +three white lilies (not fleurs-de-lys) on the sable ground beneath the +chief, with its lion of England and fleur-de-lys of France on their +respective red and blue. The organ itself was not put up till 1606, +but the nondescript Renaissance dragons supporting it show that the +case must have been in hand more than half a century earlier. They +are for all the world like Raphael's wonderful creations in the +Vatican. The great trumpeting angels on the top of the organ are +eighteenth century work. Originally much smaller angels stood there, +which in the seventeenth century were replaced by pinnacles. The doors +of the screen belong to the Laudian revival, and bear the arms of +Charles the First. The west door of the Chapel is of the same period, +but the north and south doors are the original ones. + +The Choir stalls date from Henry the Eighth, but the elaborate coats +of arms carved over each were not added till 1633, and the canopies +not till 1675. The magnificent brass lectern was given by Provost +Hacombleyn, at the opening of the chapel; but the present altar is a +very modern addition, having been only put up in the twentieth +century. It stands, as directed by the Founder, no fewer than 16 feet +from the eastern wall. The wood-work of the sanctuary walls is not +even yet (1910) fully completed. It is of Renaissance character, as is +also the altar. The lighting of the Chapel, it should be said, is +still, happily, done only with candles; and, on a winter afternoon, +their twinkling points of fire, in endless range, amid the vasty +gloom, give an impression of mysterious solemnity to be obtained +nowhere else. + +Beautiful as the Chapel is, it would, had the designs of the Founder +been carried out, have been yet more beautiful. His Will expressly +deprecates that "superfluitie of too gret curious werkes of entaille +and besy moulding" which the ante-chapel now exhibits in the elaborate +series of Royal coats of arms beneath every window. They are +beautifully carved, it is true, and we may note that the attitudes of +the supporters (the Tudor dragon and greyhound) are in no two cases +identical. But the whole effect is somewhat to weary the eye. So also +do the perpetual roses and portcullises with which the walls are +bestudded. One of the former, however, deserves special notice, as in +it is framed one of the very few mediæval images of Our Lady which has +weathered the storm of the Reformation. It is to be found at the +southern corner of the west wall, and is what is known as a _Rosa +Solis_. The inner petals are sun-rays, and in the midst is the "Woman +clothed with the sun." (The White Rose of York is also sometimes +represented in the windows as a sun-rose, the sun being also a +Yorkist badge, but in this the rays are external to the flower.) + +The walls, then, would have been less ornate, and more truly beautiful +for the absence of profuse ornament, had the Founder's design been +carried out. And we can see that even the exquisite roof was meant to +be yet more lovely than as it now enraptures the eye. If we look at +one of the soaring pilasters and follow up its lines, we shall see +that each of the flutings is prolonged in a rib of the fan vaulting. +No, not quite each. There is one member which has no such +prolongation, but ends meaninglessly at the capital. And this tells us +that the pilasters were designed to carry not a fan but a _liern_ +vaulting; so called because it appears to be a mesh of intertwined ivy +(_lierre_) binding the fabric together. And beautiful as a fan roof +is, a liern roof is capable of expressing harmonies of proportion yet +more delicate and soul-satisfying. How subtle and exalted these +harmonies would have been here we shall best learn if we have the good +fortune to gain admission to the range of small side-chapels which +flank the fane on either hand, nestling between the mighty buttresses. +For in these, while the more western have the fan roof, the eastern +and earlier built show liern vaulting of the most delicious character. + +These side-chapels were intended each to have an altar, at which the +Priest to whom it was assigned should say his own Mass daily, while +all should meet later before the High Altar to assist at the +Collegiate Mass. They are now used for various subsidiary purposes +connected with the services. One contains the heating apparatus, +another the hydraulic bellows of the organ, while many are mere +lumber-rooms. These last are those abutting on the Choir, which have +no opening into the Nave, such as those adjoining the ante-chapel +possess. Through the gratings we may note some stained glass of an +entirely different character from that in the Chapel windows. It is, +in fact, of the previous (Fifteenth) Century, and thus older than the +Chapel itself. From what earlier building it has been transferred is +uncertain. Tradition, for some unknown reason, assigns it to Ramsey +Abbey; but it seems more reasonable to suppose that it came from the +old church of St. John Zachary hard by, when that was pulled down to +make room for the College, and its fragments, as excavation has shown, +utilised for levelling the site. + +In one of the southern side-chapels will be found a verger, from whom +it is well worth while to obtain access to the roof of the Chapel. +This is reached by a wide spiral stairway in the north-western turret. +Our first goal is a small door (the key of which should be specially +asked for) leading into a narrow loop-holed passage, from which we can +scramble into the space between the two roofs of the Chapel. We are +here on the top of the fan vaulting which we have so much admired from +below, and can note with what wondrous skill its huge stones are +dovetailed into one another with the round keystone boss in the centre +of each span. Above, and only just above, our heads are the mighty +beams of Spanish chestnut composing the upper roof, the long vista +being lighted by a small grated window at either end. + +Returning to the staircase it does not take many steps more to bring +us to the roof proper, with its open-work parapets and long leaden +slope. This should be climbed to get the full benefit of the view, and +those gifted with steadiness of head and sureness of foot will do well +to make their way along the ridge from end to end, for each has its +own beauties to show. To the West we see below us the great lawn, and +the court of Clare, and the river, and the delicious verdure of the +Backs, amid which rise the red walls of the Ladies' College at +Newnham, and the adjoining Anglican foundation of Selwyn; while beyond +is the open country, bounded by the low chalk upland stretching from +Madingley Hill on the North to Barrington Hill on the South. The +spire, so conspicuous on the summit of this range, is that of +Hardwicke Church. To the South we can distinguish the places already +described, (the little glass dome of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and the +graceful spire of Our Lady's Church, being conspicuous objects,) and, +beyond, the distant range of the East-Anglian Heights from the +furthest north-east to the furthest south-west, that form the +watershed of the wide valley of the Cam. To the East, the tower of the +University Church, Great St. Mary's, raises its turrets almost to the +level of our feet, and we look down on a maze of Cambridge house-roofs +bright with the variegated tiling which is their special and +beautiful characteristic. Beyond them the near promontory of the Gog +Magog Hills juts out from the East-Anglian Heights on which lies +Newmarket. To the North come College after College, Clare, Trinity +Hall, Caius, Trinity, St. John's, Magdalene; while the University +Library and the Senate House lie nearer still. Due north, across +these, and across the wide-flung plain beyond them, the plain of the +Southern Fenland, we can, if the day be clear, discern on the far +horizon the shadowy towers of Ely Cathedral, fifteen miles away as the +crow flies. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + Spiked gates.--Old King's.--=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 the Eighth, 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. + + +On leaving King's Chapel we should give a glance to the marked line of +demarcation between the whitish stone of which the lower courses are +built and that employed in the upper.[21] It is of historical interest +as showing how far the work had progressed before the long break +caused by the Founder's death. Then, passing round the West Front, and +noting the exquisitely delicate tracery of the canopies over the empty +niches on either side of the door (wherein the two saints Mary and +Nicolas to whom the building is dedicated were destined to stand) we +leave the College by the iron gate on the North. + +[Footnote 21: The former is from Huddleston in Yorkshire, the latter +from Weldon in Northamptonshire.] + +The formidable chevaux-de-frise which crown this gate are supposed at +once to figure and to emphasise the danger run by such presumptuous +students as dare to contemplate illicit exit from or entrance into the +College during prohibited hours. It has already been said that between +10 p.m. and 7 a.m. no undergraduate resident in College may leave its +precincts, and no outsider may enter, under divers pains and +penalties. Every College supplements this moral pressure by more or +less effectual and awe-inspiring physical barriers. None however are +more fearsome to see, and less effective in fact, than these. For not +only can the College be entered or left with comparative ease by way +of the Backs, but even this ghastly array of spikes is not unscalable +to those who know the trick of it. Tennyson, as will be remembered, +has referred to this exploit in his "Princess." + +Passing beneath them we find ourselves again in that same ancient +street of Cambridge, here again now a wholly Academic byway, by which +we entered King's. But though we have left the College behind us we +have not yet quite got clear of its associations. The fine modern +Gothic pile to our right embeds, as we see, an ancient gateway. For +more than three and a half centuries this was the entrance to the one +small Court which alone represented the magnificent design of Henry +the Sixth for his Royal Foundation. Not till the nineteenth century +dawned were the students moved to the other side of the Chapel. The +old precincts were then mostly destroyed, and the site made over to +the University Library; for the growth of that magnificent institution +has long taxed to the utmost all the accommodation that can be +provided for it. + +The mediæval Library of the University was a collection of +manuscripts, requiring only one small room. Of its eighteen +book-cases, eight were devoted to Theology, four to Law, and one +apiece to Classics, Mathematics, Medicine, Logic, Moral Philosophy, +and Scholasticism. This original Library was utterly swept away at the +Reformation: Dr. Perne of Peterhouse, when Vice-Chancellor in the +reign of Edward the Sixth, thus signalising his new-born zeal for +Protestantism. A few years later, however, we find him amongst the +first founders of the present Library, which now ranks third amongst +the great Libraries of England; that of the British Museum standing +first, and the Bodleian Library at Oxford second. All three are +entitled to a free copy of every book published in the kingdom; so +that their growth is now-a-days portentously rapid. One of the most +striking features in this Library is the tableful of new books, scores +in number, which is cleared every Friday. + +This rapid growth however is modern. The one ancient room sufficed +for the Library, till George the First rewarded the Whig loyalty of +the University by a gift of 30,000 volumes.[22] The expansion thus +begun has continued with accelerated speed. One by one the various +ancient "Schools" which, with the old Library room, formed a small +quadrangle, have been absorbed by its growth; until now the whole +block belongs to it, as well as the old site of King's College, the +main edifice on which, known as "Cockerell's Building," was erected +1837, where the College Hall once stood. + +[Footnote 22: This gift called forth a satirical epigram from Oxford; +where the prevalent Toryism was made the pretext for quartering a +regiment of cavalry in the city to suppress Jacobite demonstrations: + + "King George, observing with judicious eyes + The state of both his Universities, + To Oxford sent a troop of horse;--and why? + That Learned Body wanted Loyalty. + To Cambridge books he sent; as well discerning + How much that Loyal Body wanted Learning." + +A retort (in which the humour is a trifle less spontaneous) was +speedily penned by Sir William Browne, who specialised on epigrams and +left prizes for their encouragement which are still annually awarded: + + "The King to Oxford sent a troop of horse, + For Tories own no argument but Force. + With equal skill to Cambridge books he sent; + For Whigs admit no force but Argument."] + +The Library is open only to Members of the University (Masters of Arts +having the privilege of taking out not more than ten books at a time) +and such ladies as are fortunate enough to find a place on the +admission list. For this it is needful that two Masters of Arts should +certify that the lady is, to their personal knowledge, seriously +engaged in some branch of study or research. And even when admitted, +she finds herself under disabilities, being forbidden to occupy any +seat except in one room (the oriel window of which is visible from our +standpoint at the gate of King's). Ordinary visitors may only enter +under the escort of an M.A., who may take in six at a time. + +[Illustration: _Old Gate of King's College._] + +Those who have the good hap to be thus inducted, will, besides the new +books, probably be most impressed by the long range of volumes forming +the catalogue, and by the densely packed shelves of long-forgotten +fiction in the "Novel Room." But the real treasures of the Library are +to be found in Cockerell's Building. Here, in a range of cases, are to +be seen our best Manuscripts, including a Thirteenth Century life of +Edward the Confessor, the illustrations in which were found useful as +a precedent even at the coronation of his latest namesake on the +British Throne. At the extreme end, in a separate case, is the crown +of all, one of the earliest manuscripts of the Gospels, dating from +the Fifth Century. Only four others of equal authority are known, one +in the British Museum, one in the Vatican Library, one at Paris, and +one at St. Petersburg. Ours is known as "D" or "Codex Bezæ," from +being the gift of the celebrated Calvinist divine Theodore Beza, who +procured it from a soldier after the sack of its early home, the +Monastery of St. Irenaeus at Lyons, in the Sixteenth Century. It is +noteworthy for containing passages not found in any other Codex, one +of which may be read (in Greek and Latin) on the single leaf here +exposed to view. It narrates how our Lord, "seeing a certain man +working on the Sabbath, said unto him: Man, if thou art doing this +with Knowledge thou art blessed, but if without Knowledge thou art +cursed." + +Space does not permit us to enlarge further on the Library; and we +return to our station at the old gate of King's College. As we look +along the lane our view is bounded by the College whose name it now +bears, Trinity Hall. This must not be confounded with the larger and +later Foundation of Trinity College, next door to it beyond. Trinity +Hall was founded in 1350, by Bishop Bateman of Norwich, specially for +the education of Clergy. It has, however, actually, become especially +given to the study of Law, and is yet more widely known by its prowess +in aquatics. Its boat, for the last half century, has never been far +from the Headship of the River, and has oftener attained that coveted +position than any other. The colours of the College, white and black, +are thus of wide renown. They are derived from the College Shield, +which in heraldic language is sable a crescent ermines with a bordure +ermines. Visitors who approach Cambridge by the London road see this +device upon the milestones near the town, which were set up by the +College in the eighteenth century, and were the first milestones +erected in Britain since the days of the Roman occupation. + +The Library here (which is open to visitors from noon to 1 P.M. in +Full Term) is the best example left us of what libraries were of old +in Cambridge. It was built about 1560, and still retains its original +book-cases, the tops of which form desks for reading the folios in the +shelves beneath. These were in old days chained to rings sliding on a +locked bar which ran the whole length of each desk. Some of the books +are so chained still, but not in the ancient fashion; for of old books +were shelved with the backs inward, the title being written across the +closed leaves of the front. + +Otherwise the College has little to show us; and, instead of seeking +it, we shall do better if we turn westwards through the specially +beautiful iron gate which leads us into Clare College. The coat of +arms beneath which we pass as we enter has its tale to tell concerning +the foundation of the College. They are those of the noble lady who, +in 1338, thus commemorated her widowhood, an example followed, as we +have seen, in the next decade, by Marie de Valence at Pembroke. But +Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Gilbert de Clare (the "Red Earl" mentioned +in _Marmion_), had gone through no fewer than three of these +lamentable experiences. She therefore not only charged her College +Shield with the golden chevronels of Clare impaled with the golden +cross of De Burgh (her latest husband), but surrounded the whole with +a sable bordure besprinkled with golden heraldic tears, bearing +perennial witness to her repeated sorrows. Hence it comes that the +Clare "colours" are to this day black and gold. + +Few College edifices convey such a sense of unity as these of Clare. +"Their uniform and harmonious character gives them, at first sight, +the appearance of having been built from one design, and carried out +at one time."[23] As a matter of fact, however, the existing buildings +are of no fewer than five separate dates, each separated by decades, +and extending altogether over nearly a century and a half (1638-1768); +while of the original fourteenth century structure no trace whatever +is left. The eastern and northern sides of the Court are the earliest, +built between 1638 and 1643, when the work was stopped, five years +after its commencement, by the outbreak of the Civil War; while the +stones and beams made ready for its continuance were commandeered by +the Roundheads for the new works which they were then throwing up to +strengthen the defences of Cambridge Castle. Not till 1669 did the +College finances so far recover from this blow as to permit the +resumption of the building. The western side was then built, followed +by the northern (1683-93), while the Chapel was not added till 1768. +But the result of all this patchwork is an exquisite little gem of a +Court, its balustraded walls overshadowed by the towering pinnacles of +King's College, and giving, as we have said, a wonderful sense of +unity, which is partly owing to older work having been altered to +harmonise with the newer. + +[Footnote 23: Atkinson and Clark, _Cambridge Described_.] + +The College treasury contains some most interesting and beautiful +specimens of sixteenth-century plate. One tankard is known as the +"Poison Cup," because, mounted in the cover, it has a conical fragment +of crystal, such as was supposed, in the pharmacy of the day, to +change colour if poison were poured into the vessel. This cup is of +glass enclosed in exquisitely wrought filigree work. The thumb-piece +is an angel with outspread wings. Another tankard is the "Serpentine +Cup," the bowl being of that stone. This too is enclosed in most +beautiful silver-gilt work, adorned with flowers and fruit and birds +and arabesques. Yet another is the "Falcon Cup," a receptacle in the +shape of that bird, originally intended, it would seem, for holding +sweetmeats. All these were presented to the College by Dr. Butler, +Court Physician to King James the First, of whom Fuller says that "he +was better pleased with presents than money, and ever preferred +rarities before riches."[24] + +[Footnote 24: Foster and Atkinson, _Old Cambridge Plate_.] + +Passing through the court, we come to the beautiful bridge, already +familiar to us from the river. Its balustraded parapet is surmounted +by fourteen large balls of stone, thirteen of them whole, and one out +of which a cantle of nearly a quarter of its bulk has, for some +unknown reason and at some unknown date, been cut. A cheap laugh may +thus be obtained by challenging a stranger to count these balls +accurately; for the missing cantle, being turned towards the river, is +quite invisible from the bridge itself. Another feature in connection +with these balls is that one of them is visibly much newer than the +rest (which, like the bridge, date from the middle of the seventeenth +century). This is due to a not very far off feud between Clare and St. +John's, when a piratical Johnian crew came up the river after dark and +stormed the bridge. Before the enraged Clare men could open the iron +gate under the College archway and pour out to the rescue, the enemy +had begun throwing the balls into the water, where one sank so deep +into the muddy bottom that it could never be recovered. + +From the bridge we get a lovely view of the College "Backs." To the +south the single slender arch of King's Bridge flings itself over the +river in the graceful curve which is all its own; to the north we see +the iron span of Garret Hostel Bridge, hiding from us the beauties of +Trinity Bridge beyond. But, if there be no ripple upon the water, the +three graceful arches of this invisible bridge are seen reflected upon +the glassy surface with a specially charming effect. The whole view is +amongst the world's loveliest, especially in the May term, when the +Master's little garden to our right glows with bright colour, answered +across the stream by that of the Fellows; when the water is alive with +gay little craft, gigs, punts, and canoes; and when the "ambrosial +dark" of the Avenue before us beckons us on to explore the delights of +its umbrageous depths. It was planted in 1691, and is carried for 150 +yards on a wide embankment, dense with shrubs and closed with +jealously-spiked gates at either end, across what was once an island +in the river (known as Butts Close), till it debouches on to the +elm-shaded length of greensward described in our opening page, and +named, in old maps of Cambridge, "King's College Back-sides." The +whole does, in fact, belong to King's, but the many rights of way +which traverse it make it practically an open park. + +Not so long ago oaken railings (still to be seen in places) ran +between it and the road, till a visit from Lord Kitchener (then Sirdar +of Egypt, fresh from his Ethiopian victories) was made the occasion of +a gigantic bonfire in the Market Place, to feed which the whole were +torn up and carried away by gangs of enthusiastic undergraduates. A +like fate befell the wooden palings and gates of the College gardens +across the road, now replaced by iron, and altogether the damage done +ran into hundreds of pounds; while the town police and the University +proctors waited for each other to act until too late. There are three +of these College gardens on end--King's, Clare, and Trinity; and +rarely lovely they are, with their wide "smooth-shaven" lawns, broken +into glades by clumps of ornamental trees. But each can only be +entered under the ægis of a Fellow of its own respective College, and +they are so carefully planted out from the road that scarcely even a +glimpse can be gained of the delights within, "where no profaner eye +may look." + +Leaving these on our left we proceed along the northward-leading path +till we reach the fine iron gate which bears the escutcheon of +Cambridge's mightiest College, Trinity, a College more than twice as +large as any other, numbering something like 700 residents, students +and teachers together. Like London, which an Indian visitor once +described as "not a city, but a herd of cities," Trinity may be +described as a conjoined herd of colleges, for it was created by the +amalgamation of no fewer than nine earlier institutions. Two of these, +Michaelhouse[25] and King's Hall, were amongst the most noteworthy +colleges in Cambridge. The former was founded by Henry de Stanton, +Chancellor to King Edward the Second, in 1323, and was thus, next to +Peterhouse, the oldest college in Cambridge. And King's Hall was but a +few years younger, being founded by King Edward the Third in 1336. +Indeed, it may claim to be actually the elder in embryonic existence, +for Edward the Second, in 1317, was already maintaining +scholars--"children of our Chapel" as his writ calls them--in +Cambridge. And that these "children" (who were required to be at least +fourteen years of age on coming into residence) were quartered +hereabouts is evident from King's Hall having been built across the +line of an ancient street running down to the river and known as +"King's Childer Lane." The town agreed to the expropriation of this +lane in consideration of one red rose annually to be paid by the +College to the Corporation on Midsummer Day. The remaining seven +foundations incorporated in Trinity College were hostels (institutions +for lodging students, more or less organised in college fashion, but +not recognised by the University as colleges). These were St. +Catharine's Hostel, Physwick Hostel, Crutched Hostel, Gregory's +Hostel, Tyled Hostel, Oving's Inn, and St. Gerard's or "Garret" +Hostel; which last, as we have seen, is still kept in memory by the +name of the public bridge crossing the river between Trinity and +Clare. + +[Footnote 25: Michaelhouse (like Peterhouse) derived its name from the +neighbouring church which was used for worship by the Scholars till +they got a chapel of their own.] + +[Illustration: _Old Schools' Quadrangle._] + +All these, Colleges and Hostels alike, were seized upon by Henry the +Eighth, when that rapacious and unprincipled monarch desired to pose +(in 1546, a year before his death) as a Pious Founder, and go down to +posterity as a benefactor. He gained this credit cheaply; for not only +did he thus get his edifices ready made, but their endowments also; +while such additional endowments as he bestowed on his new College +were almost wholly derived from the spoil of the Abbeys suppressed by +him. Nor did he fail to take toll of each transfer of this stolen +property for the benefit of his exchequer. His professed object, +meanwhile, was "to educate Youth in piety, virtue, self-restraint, +charity towards the poor, and relief of the distressed." His alumni, +in short, were to be made as opposite to himself in character as +possible. + +From the very first, Trinity thus became almost the largest and +wealthiest College in Cambridge. For a century it disputed the +headship of the University with its neighbour, St. John's College, and +for another century and more sang second to that great rival. But in +1785 it drew ahead, and since that date has improved its lead without +a check, till now it stands not only first but without a second. So +large is it that it cannot, for very sportsmanship, row as a whole in +the bumping races, but has to be divided for that purpose into two +boat clubs, denominated respectively "First Trinity" and "Third +Trinity,"--or, in common speech, "First" and "Third" simply. The +former is the original "Trinity Boat Club" and this is still its +official name, whence it is also known as the "T.B.C." It wears the +original Trinity colours,--dark blue,[26] with the badge of a golden +lion and three crowns, the device of King Edward the Third. The latter +consists of Trinity men from the two great rowing schools, Eton and +Westminster. It is, of course, a very much smaller body than "First," +but, as its members come up ready-made oarsmen, it has been almost as +frequently Head of the River. Both boats are always in the first +flight. Once there existed a "Second Trinity" club, which has long +since ceased to maintain its existence. + +[Footnote 26: The T.B.C. boat was one of the two first boats to appear +on the river. The other was the "Lady Margaret" or St. John's boat, +whose colours were (and are) bright red. These two boats used to row +along, challenging each other, by sound of bugle, to extempore bursts +of racing. This was in the Twenties. The first regular College races +began in the year 1827; but only five Colleges rowed (Trinity, St. +John's, Caius, Jesus and Emmanuel). Not till 1859 were all +represented.] + +We enter the precincts of this great College by "that long walk of +limes," up which Tennyson passed, as he tells us in "In Memoriam," +when he re-visited Cambridge, "to view the rooms" once inhabited by +his friend and hero, Arthur Hallam.[27] This avenue was planted in +1672,[28] and leads us to the fine cycloidal[29] bridge, built at the +same period. After crossing this, we should not keep straight, which +would bring us into the "New Court" where Hallam dwelt (a poor bit of +architecture erected 1825), but rather turn to the left, by the path +that sweeps along the bank of the river, with its fine weeping +willows. Looking back, as we leave the bridge behind us, we may admire +the climbing agility which frequently enables undergraduates to +descend to the projecting piers just above the water, and find their +way back again, without a ducking. + +[Footnote 27: Hallam's rooms were on the southern side of the New +Court, in the central staircase (letter G), and were the western set +on the first floor. Tennyson himself never "kept" in College, but had +lodgings, first in Rose Crescent, and afterwards opposite the Bull +Hotel.] + +[Footnote 28: Its line was determined by the distant spire of Coton +Church which for two centuries closed the vista. (It is now hidden by +these trees.) A current witticism was that the view symbolised a +Trinity Fellowship--a long, straight-forward prospect, closed by a +village church. Till the year 1878 every Fellow had to become a Priest +of the Established Church within seven years, on pain of forfeiting +his Fellowship. After this he was a Fellow for life, unless he +married. And each Fellow in turn had a right to any College living +that fell vacant. All this is altered now. Fellows are elected +unconditionally for a limited period (which may be renewed), and +College livings are assigned to the best men to be had, whether of +Trinity or not.] + +[Footnote 29: A cycloid is the curve described by any single point on +the rim of a rolling wheel.] + +We have here in front of us the New Court of St. John's College, seen +across its lawn-tennis grounds; while to our left is the magnificent +range of horse-chestnuts along the boundary of the two Colleges. +Splendid at all times, these are seen at their very best when duly +touched by frost. To our right rises the fine mass of Trinity Library, +built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1675; whose walls of warm-coloured +stone have been already dwelt upon. The lower portion of the building +forms an open cloister, with grated windows and gates barring it from +the Backs where we stand. + +Through one of these gates our path leads us, and we find ourselves +within the College, and at the door of the Library. At certain hours, +usually between three and four in the afternoon, this is open to +visitors; at others the escort of a Member of the College is needed. +Of all the College Libraries in Cambridge this is the most interesting +in its miscellaneous contents. Mounting the wide stone stair-way, we +enter the long, wide, lofty, vaulted gallery, with a series of wooden +book-cases projecting from either wall all along its course. The +carved wreaths of flowers and leaves and fruitage which adorn these +cases deserve careful notice. They are by Grinling Gibbons, probably +the most wonderful wood carver who ever lived, and their intricacies +bear striking testimony to his almost superhuman skill. In the +recesses between the cases are to be seen sundry curios, from the +College estates and other sources, while more are to be found in the +long ranges of glass-covered tables topping the smaller book-shelves +which line either side of the central passage way. Roman and +Anglo-Saxon antiquities, and a splendid series of coins and medals, +are here exhibited. Amongst the miscellaneous curios are a model of +Cæsar's famous bridge across the Rhine and a globe of the planet Mars. + +What will, however, first catch our eye on entering, will be the +window at the southern end of the room, with its painted glass so +unlike anything to be seen elsewhere. It is, in fact, unique, having +been made in the middle of the eighteenth century by the discoverer of +this particular method of staining glass, who kept the process +secret--a secret which died with him and has never been recovered. The +window cannot be called artistically beautiful, and the subject is +weird. The University of Cambridge, represented as a lady in a +somewhat scanty robe of yellow, is presenting Sir Isaac Newton to King +George the Third (who did not come to the Throne till 1760, many years +after the great philosopher died), while the transaction is being +recorded by Francis Bacon Lord Verulam of Elizabethan fame! + +Beneath this window is Thorwaldsen's fine marble statue of Lord Byron, +one of Trinity's greatest poets. This was originally intended for +Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, but the Dean and Chapter of the +period so strongly disapproved of Byron's morality that they refused +it a place there. Apart from his poetical genius, he as little +deserved to be honoured in Trinity library; for, as an undergraduate, +he not only accomplished the apparently impossible feat of climbing by +night to the roof (which others have more than once done since)[30] +but abominably disfigured the statues upon it, in which he has had, +happily, no imitators. Other relics of him are preserved hard by, +which are supposed to bear upon the thrilling question as to how far +he had or had not a club foot.[31] + +[Footnote 30: Nocturnal exploration of the College roofs has been so +favourite an amusement amongst undergraduates that not long ago a book +was actually published entitled _The Roof-Climber's Guide to Trinity +College_. Every eminence in the College has been scaled, save only the +Great Gate Tower. The Hon. C. S. Rolls, who was afterwards the first +man to fly from England to France and back, and who fell a martyr to +his zeal for aviation, was, in his day, the most daring and systematic +of all Trinity roof-climbers.] + +[Footnote 31: Byron himself was morbidly sensitive on this point. Mr. +Clark (_Guide to Cambridge_, p. 140) tells how he abused a friend who +fell behind out of courtesy: "Ah! I see you wish to spy out my +deformity." He was in residence 1805-8.] + +For these few will care; but this end of the library contains things +which few can fail to care about. Here is the death-mask of Sir Isaac +Newton, and a reflecting telescope, on the model invented by him. Here +is Thackeray's manuscript of "Esmond," and Tennyson's manuscript of +"In Memoriam." Here is Milton's manuscript of "Lycidas," and his first +design for "Paradise Lost," all cut and scored about with alterations +and corrections, showing that he originally designed his great poem to +be a drama, the characters of which (headed by Moses) are here listed. +Here, too, is a copy of the "Solemn League and Covenant" imposed on +all men by the Puritans at the time of the Great Rebellion.[32] This +was found hidden amongst the rafters of a village church near +Cambridge. + +[Footnote 32: This instrument bound its subscribers to zealous +endeavour, far from any "detestable indifference and neutrality," for +the "extirpation of Popery, Prelacy, ... Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, +Chapters, Archdeacons, and all that Hierarchy." Every adult in the +kingdom had to sign this very thoroughgoing test, on pain of +imprisonment.] + +And here is a copy of the famous Indulgence sold by Tetzel, Luther's +denunciation of which gave the signal for the earliest outburst of +Protestantism at the Reformation. When the crabbed old printing is +deciphered it proves to be a startlingly mild document, no licence to +commit sin, as is generally supposed, but merely granting to the +purchaser the privilege of confessing, once in his life, to a priest +of his own choice instead of to the parson in whose parish he dwelt. +The priest so chosen is given authority to absolve from nearly all +sins, but not from the heinous offence of buying alum from anyone +except the Pope, in whose territory it had, at that date (1515), been +recently discovered. Alum was in those days a most valuable substance, +and had hitherto been attainable only at the Turkish town of Roc, in +Syria, whence the name of "rock alum" still surviving in use amongst +pharmacopoeists. To buy it there was not only to take money out of the +pocket of the Pope, but to put it into those of the enemies of +Christendom. Hence the heinousness of the offence. + +Trinity library forms the western side of one of the Courts of the +College, known as "Nevile's Court" (from Dr. Thomas Nevile, Master at +the close of the sixteenth century, who planned and began it in 1610), +and also as "Cloister Court," from the wide cloisters which surround +it on the north, south, and west. The eastern side is formed by the +Hall, raised four feet above the ground level, and reached by a +beautiful balustraded and terraced staircase of stone. It is the +finest college hall in either university, and was also the work of +Nevile. + +In the northern cloister which leads us to it, there are sundry points +not to be overlooked. As we look along it from the library entrance we +perceive at the far end a door with a stalwart iron knocker. Now there +is a fine echo in this cloister, and a stamp of the foot at our end +will evoke a sound from the door precisely like that of a knocker. So +great a part does illusion play in human impressions, that five people +out of six, when they hear this sound, are ready to declare that they +have seen the knocker actually move. It was by timing this echo, we +may mention, that Sir Isaac Newton first measured the velocity of +sound. The echoing properties of these cloisters are referred to by +Tennyson in the "Princess": + + "our cloisters echoed frosty feet." + +The massive block which pillars the angle of the cloister is known as +the "Freshman's Pillar"; a favourite old-time amusement of the junior +students (not yet wholly disremembered) having been to traverse the +very narrow base-top right round, without setting foot to the ground. +In old times, indeed until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, +these cloisters played a notable part in undergraduate life. Athletic +pursuits were far less general than now, and exercise was largely +pedestrian. On a wet day, accordingly, when the roads were uninviting, +the cloisters used to be crowded with a veritable swarm of trampers, +doing "quarter-deck" from end to end of the three covered sides of the +court. + +[Illustration: _Clare College from Bridge._] + +The stair-case entrances here lead to specially delightsome sets of +rooms, with oak panels and beautiful plaster ceilings. One of these +was occupied by the late Duke of Clarence, when, as "Prince Edward," +he was an undergraduate of Trinity, mingling freely with the college +life around him, and making himself generally beloved by his simple +unaffected pleasantness.[33] His royal father, when Prince of Wales, +was also an undergraduate of Trinity; but Court etiquette was stricter +in those days, and, instead of being in College, he was quartered at +Madingley Hall, four miles away. A few months after his wedding, in +June, 1864, he brought his beautiful bride to visit Cambridge and take +all hearts by storm. In their honour the whole area of Nevile's Court +was tented in and floored over and made into one vast ball-room, which +included the cloisters and the hall stairway. The former were used for +promenading, all the best settees and arm-chairs to be found in +College being commandeered to be placed in them; the Hall served for +supper; while the band was housed beneath the Library. All was +beautifully decorated and lighted (though it was before the days even +of paraffin lamps), and the whole scene was one of unforgettable +brilliance.[34] The cost was, naturally, something portentous; but +those were the times of academic prosperity, before the great +agricultural depression of the following decade brought down rents, +and with them college incomes, almost (sometimes altogether) from +pounds to shillings.[35] + +[Footnote 33: These same rooms (on the south-westernmost staircase) +were probably those occupied by Lord Byron.] + +[Footnote 34: The entrance was from the New Court, which communicates +with Nevile's Court by an arcade in the southern cloister of the +latter.] + +[Footnote 35: All the Colleges have thus suffered severely; King's +being hit hardest of all. Trinity was less seriously affected, owing +to the fact that much of its land lies in the North of England.] + +The beautiful rooms of Nevile's Court are mostly held by Fellows of +the College whose names may be known in the doorway lists by the "Mr." +prefixed to them. Over one doorway we see a small bronze bust, set up +as a memorial to Mr. Goodhart who once "kept" there and was an object +of special admiration to all who knew him. He was, in fact, a kind of +Admirable Crichton; not only a man of great intellectual power (as +Fellows of Trinity must needs be, for these fellowships are the "blue +riband" of the University), but excellent at all athletic pursuits, +and able to do successfully whatever thing he set his hand to. It is +recorded that on one occasion a bet was laid that he could not make +himself an entire suit of clothes, and wear them for a month without +their amateur origin being detected. Goodhart won the bet. + +Beautiful as Nevile's Court is, it was originally yet more beautiful, +with transomed windows, and gabled dormers instead of the present +eighteenth century parapet. These are shown in a view "after Logan," +given by Atkinson,[36] from the terrace before the Hall, by which we +leave the court, passing through a low and massive wicket gate of +black oak. This admits us into the "screens," a short and narrow +passage having the Hall on one side, and, on the other, the kitchen +and the Buttery. This last word has no connection with butter (though +butter is here issued), but is derived from _butler_, as being the +place where the ale for the hall dinners is served out. Its door, as +is universal in such places, is a "hatch," the upper and lower halves +of the door opening independently, and a broad sill on the top of the +latter forming a sort of counter across which the business of the +place is transacted. Of old the buttery served as an office, where +much of the clerical work of the College was done; but this branch of +its usefulness is now transferred to a special department. + +[Footnote 36: _Cambridge Described_, p. 444.] + +When each College brewed its own ale and baked its own bread, as was +the case till some half-century ago, the Buttery was a really +important place. Even now the daily ration of bread and butter to +which each Collegian in residence has a right, is here booked to him. +This ration is called his "Commons." If for any approved reason he +does not desire to draw it in any given week he is said to be "out of +Commons"; and if, as sometimes happens, he is deprived of the right +for misconduct, he is said to be "discommonsed" for such or such a +period. (The equivalent phrase at Oxford is "to be crossed at the +Buttery.") The Buttery officials also have charge of the adjoining +strong-room in which the magnificent store of the College plate is +secured; mighty salvers and bowls and "grace-cups,"[37] besides +dishes, and the hundreds of spoons and forks, all the gifts of +benefactor after benefactor since the College was first founded. A +visitor may sometimes be fortunate enough to get a sight of these +resplendent piles. + +[Footnote 37: A "Grace-cup" is a large silver tankard which at College +feasts is solemnly passed down the High Table, each guest in turn +standing up to drink it. Three, indeed, must always be so standing, +the drinker, the last man, and the next man; whence the cup has +sometimes three handles. At each potation the three concerned formally +bow to each other.] + +A sight of the kitchen, which adjoins the Buttery, can almost always +be had, and is worth having; though the glory of the place has largely +departed with the substitution of gas stoves for the old open ranges, +six feet high and twelve feet long, before which scores of joints and +fowls might be seen simultaneously twisting on huge spits. If less +picturesque, the cooking is now more scientific, and the kitchen is a +splendid chamber, the finest of all College kitchens, with an open +pitched roof, and an oriel window, having been traditionally the +ancient Hall of Michaelhouse. The walls are adorned with the shells of +turtles, emblazoned with the dates of the great occasions on which +they were immolated for soup. It is not only the dinners in Hall which +are here cooked. Members of the College may order dishes to be sent to +their own rooms, in reason; though any very extra expenditure in this +respect would need to be authorised by your Tutor. This extraneous +fare may constantly be seen being carried about the Courts, in large +flat blue boxes, on the heads of the kitchen servants. + +The doors of the Hall may usually be found open, or a request at the +Buttery may open them; though there is a certain amount of luck in the +matter, as the Hall is not only used for meals but for College +examinations also, which, of course, must not be disturbed by +intruders. A common lunch is served during Full Term, from 12 till 2, +at which such as list sit where they will, Dons and undergraduates, +cheek by jowl. The three daily dinners which the size of the College +makes necessary are more formal affairs, especially the latest at +7.45, which the authorities of the College attend, sitting at the two +High Tables on the dais, and faring more sumptuously than the students +in the body of the Hall. Of these only the "Senior Sophs"[38] may be +present, the "Junior Sophs" and Freshmen being relegated to the +earlier hours. The westernmost range of tables is sacred to Bachelors +of Arts and to the Scholars of the College. The rest may sit where +they please at the remaining tables, and diners may enter and leave at +their pleasure during the meal, but any course missed by lateness is +missed for good. Ordinary morning dress is worn, except on special +Feasts. Conversation may be freely indulged in, though it hardly, +nowadays, rises to the height of Tennyson's heroic phrase in "In +Memoriam," "the thunder of the Halls." The Master of the College +himself does not dine in Hall except at great Feasts, but in his own +adjacent Lodge, to the north, which communicates directly with the +Hall by a door in the panelling between, and also by a sliding panel +above, whence he (and his ladies) can, unobserved, overlook, and more +or less overhear, what passes. + +[Footnote 38: For the first year of his residence the student is +called a Freshman, in the next he is a "Junior Soph," and in the third +a "Senior Soph." The origin of the word "Soph" is doubtful. It is +presumably short for Sophist; but all Americans will recognise it as +the origin of their "Sophomore." And American University nomenclature +is largely derived from Cambridge. The word, however, has of late gone +out of general use, and practically survives scarcely anywhere but in +Trinity.] + +The high-pitched roof with its elaborate beams is copied, as are the +other features (and the dimensions) of the Hall, from the Hall of the +Middle Temple in London. Its ridge is broken in the centre by a +"Lantern," or small openwork spire of wood (the openings being now +glazed). This once served as a ventilating shaft, through which might +escape the fumes of the great brazier (a yard in depth and two yards +across) standing beneath it, and, till this generation, the only means +used to warm the Hall. Over the doors is a "Music Gallery," usually +closed in by quaintly carved shutters, whence, on Feast days, the +College Choristers still discourse melody. The armorial bearings in +the windows are those of eminent members of the College; while +pictures of its more prominent Worthies (or Unworthies) hang on the +walls. Conspicuous amongst these is Holbein's great portrait of Henry +the Eighth, who stands "straddled over the whole breadth of the way," +above the centre of the High Table, in all his underbred +self-assertion, looking indeed "all our fancy painted him." His +unhappy daughter Mary (who built the College Chapel) hangs near him, +her full dourness and wretchedness in her face. Thackeray (a +singularly powerful presentation) is also here, so is Clerk-Maxwell, +so is Bishop Lightfoot, and many another light of literature, science, +and theology; for the great size of Trinity has given it as great a +proportion in the rolls of Fame. + +On the other side of the Screens, in the "Combination Room," whither +the High Table adjourns for dessert, may be seen other famous Trinity +men, the most conspicuous being the celebrated Marquis of Granby, +standing by his war-horse, with the bare bald head which won him his +renown. He was in the act of charging the enemy[39] at the head of his +regiment when the wind of a cannon ball carried away his hat and wig; +and he did _not_ halt his soldiery that they might be picked up. This +unexampled pitch of heroism awoke the wildest enthusiasm throughout +the length and breadth of England and made "The Marquis of Granby," as +readers of Pickwick will remember, a favourite sign for inns +throughout many years. Entrance to the Combination Room is only +obtained through favour. There is little else to notice in it except +the beautiful polish of the mahogany tables. + +[Footnote 39: At the battle of Minden, 1759.] + +In the Screens are posted up the current College Notices--the hours +and subjects of the lectures, the dates and results of the College +examinations,[40] and the various tutorial admonishments of the Term. +There is usually only one Tutor in a College, but the great size of +Trinity requires the services of four; each being responsible for his +own "Side," as it is called, consisting of some 150 students, to whom +he is supposed (and the supposition is no unfounded one) to be "guide, +philosopher, and friend," keeping a wise eye to their progress, moral, +social, and intellectual. + +[Footnote 40: Besides the University Examinations needed to obtain a +Degree, every College keeps its students up to the mark by extra +examinations of its own, held usually twice a year. There are also +competitive examinations for the College Scholarships, and (at +Trinity) for the Fellowships. About seventy per cent. of Trinity +students are "Honour men"; reading, not for the ordinary (or "Poll") +Degree, but for one or other of the various Triposes. And of these +"Honour" candidates of Trinity, over thirty per cent. attain a First +Class; which is thus gained by nearly twenty-five per cent. of Trinity +students, the highest College average in the University.] + +[Illustration: _Trinity Bridge._] + +Passing through the eastern doorway of the Screens we meet what is +perhaps the most ideal academic view in the world. From our feet +descends a semicircular stairway with steps of worn stone leading down +to a vast enclosure of greensward, surrounded and traversed by broad +walks of flags and pebbles, and enclosed on all sides by venerable +Collegiate buildings with battlemented parapets. These buildings are +not very lofty; which makes the court look even larger than it is, and +gives the greater effect to the three grand gate towers, one of which +adorns each of the three sides before us. In the midst of the Court +(which is not far from square but delightfully irregular in shape) +rises the inspired gracefulness of the fountain--with its octagonal +base of broad steps (surrounded by bright flowerbeds) and its +crocketed canopy upborne upon slender pillars with beautifully +proportioned arches.[41] The whole is a veritable miracle of design, +and would hold its own with any fountain even in Italy. It is, indeed, +the work of Italian craftsmen of the best period,[42] brought over +specially by Dr. Nevile, to whose genius we owe this most splendid of +all College quadrangles, the "Old Court" (sometimes called the "Great +Court") of Trinity. + +[Footnote 41: The water is from an ancient conduit made originally to +supply the Franciscan Convent, and comes from a spring some two miles +to the west. Till recently this was the only supply for Trinity, and +(by a charitable tap outside the Great Gate) for many neighbours also. +Now it is supplemented by an artesian well behind the chapel, bored to +a depth of 120 feet into the Greensand.] + +[Footnote 42: These same craftsmen probably made the beautiful +ceilings in the Combination Room at St. John's College (which is +copied from that in one of the rooms in this Court), and in the +University Library.] + +To appreciate the greatness of this debt, we must bear in mind that, +when he became Master of the College, Nevile found the ground occupied +by heterogeneous ranges of old buildings, the remains of the +suppressed Colleges and Hostels, running chaotically in all sorts of +directions. These are shown in the earliest map of Cambridge,[43] made +in 1592, just before he began his great work of pulling down, setting +back, building and rebuilding. He thus remodelled almost the whole; +the Chapel alone (built fifty years earlier) and the great eastern +gate-tower remaining as they were before his reconstructions. In +reality this Court, far more than the Cloister Court, deserves to be +called by his name, and to remind us of his motto _Ne vile velis_ +("Nothing cheap and nasty"). + +[Footnote 43: See _Cambridge Described_, p. 443.] + +Since his day, indeed, surprisingly little alteration has been made. +Plaster has been put on (and stripped off) here and there, stonework +has been touched up, the Master's Lodge has been altered and +re-altered, but the only radical change has been in the south-west +corner beyond the Hall, which was rebuilt in 1775, with results as +artistically deplorable as may well be, especially in comparison with +the older work. Nevile had left in this corner a beautiful oriel +window, still to be seen in Logan's view of the College (1680). + +Of the three gate towers only one is of Nevile's own building, that on +the southern side of the Court, known as the Queen's Gate from the +statue of Anne of Denmark, the Queen Consort of James the First, +which stands above its inner archway. The gate of this tower is used +only on occasions. The other two both belonged to King's Hall; the +eastern being still in its original place, the northern, which +formerly aligned with it, having been moved back by Nevile to align +with the Chapel. Both set forth the glories of Edward the Third; the +former displaying over its entrance gate the armorial bearings of his +seven sons, while over the archway of the latter he stands himself, +with his three crowns (of England, France and Scotland) spitted on the +long naked sword which he holds erect in front of him, and the proud +motto "_Fama super æthera notus_" ("Known by Fame beyond the skies"). +From his like niche in the eastern tower he has been displaced by +Henry the Eighth. The statues on the inside of this tower are James +the First, with his wife and son (afterwards Charles the First). + +The northern tower is commonly known as the Clock Tower; being the +dwelling place of the famous timepiece referred to by Wordsworth in +the "Prelude" as breaking the silence of his rooms at St. John's +College, which were not many yards away: + + "Near me hung Trinity's loquacious clock, + Who never let the quarters, night or day, + Slip by him unproclaimed, and told the hours + Twice over, with a male and female voice." + +The clock actually does repeat the hour, striking it first on the +biggest of the three bells in the tower, whose note is A flat, and +then on the second, E flat, a fifth above. The quarters are notified +by two, four, six and eight strokes respectively on the first and +second bells, F and E flat, a tone apart.[44] + +[Footnote 44: Both clock and bells are due to Dr. Bentley, the famous +Master who bullied the College into so many happy and undesired +expenses during his tenure of office (1700-1742). The repeating is +solely for convenience; one often fails to note the first stroke or +two of an hour.] + +To complete the round of the Court outside the grass-plots while +midnight strikes is a favourite test of running powers amongst the +Undergraduates. It is a fairly severe one; for the distance is 383 +yards, with four sharp corners to negotiate, on somewhat pronounced +pebbling, and the time occupied by the 32 strokes (8 for the 4 +quarters and a double 12 for the hour) is only 43 seconds. An easier +performance is to make a standing jump from top to bottom of the +steps before the Hall; this is chiefly a trial of nerve. There are 8 +steps, each 6 inches high and 15 wide, so that the drop is only 4 feet +and the distance under 10; but it is a fearsome thought, looking down, +to contemplate the result should one's heel catch on a step. To jump +clear _up_ the flight is a real feat, which only two men are known to +have accomplished: even with the preliminary run which is possible +below though not above the stairway. + +On our way through the Court towards the Chapel, we have on our left +hand the Master's Lodge, the front of which is an exceptionally happy +piece of early Victorian restoration. A poor classical façade had +(under Bentley) replaced Nevile's original front. But this front was +still to be seen in Logan's print, and was thus (in 1842) +reconstructed with little alteration. The Lodge contains splendid +reception rooms, worthy of a palace. The Chapel, though by no means of +the first rank as regards artistic beauty, is well worth seeing, for +it contains what high authorities consider the very finest statue ever +made since the palmy days of Greek art, Roubillac's wonderful +presentation of Sir Isaac Newton.[45] There he stands at the west end +of the Chapel, prism in hand, the king of all scientists, gazing with +rapt eyes into Infinity, and a smile full of hope and illumination +upon his lips.[46] The story goes that the expression on these lips +did not wholly satisfy the sculptor at his first sight of his creation +on its pedestal, and that he climbed up, then and there, chisel in +hand, to give the effect he desired with a few exquisitely directed +blows. + +[Footnote 45: This was given to the College in 1755 by the then +Master, Dr. Robert Smith.] + +[Footnote 46: Wordsworth in "The Prelude" tells us how he loved + + "The antechapel, where the statue stood + Of Newton, with his prism and silent face, + The marble index of a mind for ever + Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone."] + +Other heroic figures are grouped around, Francis Bacon, (Tennyson's + + "Large-browed Verulam + The first of those that know,") + +[Illustration: _The Fountain, Trinity College._] + +Tennyson himself, Macaulay, Dr. Barrow, the Master to whom the +College owes its Library,[47] and the massive virility of his +omniscient successor, Dr. Whewell.[48] Brasses affixed to the walls +commemorate many another great inmate of the College, who, "having +served his own generation according to the will of God," is here laid +to rest: + + "Trinity's full tide of life flooding o'er him + Morning and evening as he lies dead." + +[Footnote 47: Barrow's great wish was that the University should build +a theatre (like the Sheldonian at Oxford), instead of having its +dramas performed, as they then were, in the University Church. When +the Senate boggled at the expense, he declared that Trinity should +shame them by erecting unaided a yet finer building than he proposed, +and "that very afternoon" himself staked out the foundations of the +Library. (_Clark's Guide_, p. 123.)] + +[Footnote 48: Of the astonishingly wide sweep of Whewell's knowledge +many tales are yet told. There was no subject on which he could not +talk with authority. It is related how an impertinent Fellow once +hoped to puzzle him by getting up an article on Chinese music in a +back number of the _Edinburgh Review_, and introducing the subject in +Hall. "Ah," replied Whewell, "it is a long time since I thought of +that. But you will find an article of mine about it in the +_Edinburgh_, some ten or fifteen years ago."] + +These lines were written to commemorate Dr. Thompson, the late Master +(renowned for his sarcastic humour), and refer to the fact that +undergraduates are expected to put in every week a certain number of +attendances at the morning and evening Services held daily in the +Chapel.[49] This obligation is now very leniently construed by the +Senior and Junior "Deans," under whose cognisance offences against it +come; but not so very long ago it was exceedingly strict, and the +Chapel Lists, on which the attendances were recorded, were objects of +real dread to the slothful. In 1838 the Senior Fellows (then the +Governing Body of the College),[50] decreed that every student must be +present twice on Sunday and once on every other day of the week. This +ukase brought about something like a rebellion. A secret "Society for +the Prevention of Cruelty to Undergraduates" was formed, and avenged +their wrongs by publishing every week regular lists exposing the far +from adequate attendance of the Senior Fellows themselves (Thompson +being one), to the intense annoyance of these dignitaries. Finally, +they actually had the assurance to give a prize to the Fellow who had +been most regular, Mr. Perry, who afterwards became the first Bishop +of Melbourne, and who cherished the Bible thus won to the end of his +life. The Society kept their secret for a whole Term, and, when +finally discovered, were able to escape punishment by promising that +the publication of their Lists, which made the Seniors the weekly +laughing-stock of the University, should be brought to an end. + +[Footnote 49: On Sundays and Festivals all wear surplices, and the +throng then presents a very striking appearance. It suggested +Tennyson's vision of "Six hundred maidens clad in purest white," in +"The Princess."] + +[Footnote 50: This is now the College Council, consisting of the +Master, the Tutors, and other Members elected for a certain period.] + +All these statues and memorials are in the Ante-Chapel, which is +separated from the Chapel proper, as at King's, by the screen on which +stands the great organ. This organ is the largest and best-toned in +Cambridge,[51] but it is far from being as effective as the King's +organ, to which the magnificent acoustic properties of its Chapel lend +so wondrous a power. In Trinity there is always the sensation that the +harmonies are boxed in; indeed the shape of the Chapel does very much +suggest a box. In justice, however, to its designers, it must be +remembered that the box-like effect would be very much lessened by the +east and west windows with which it was originally provided. The +latter was closed by Nevile's putting back the clock tower to abut +upon it; the former still exists, as may be seen from the outside, but +is utterly shut off from the interior by a huge and far from beautiful +baldachino erected (not at his own cost but at that of the +impoverished Fellows) by Dr. Bentley. This famous scholar was one of +the few unpleasant Masters with whom the Crown (in which is here +vested the right, usually belonging to the Fellows, of appointing the +Head of the College) ever saddled Trinity. He passed his whole time as +Head in one long unceasing quarrel with his College. To begin with, he +was unpopular as being a member of the adjoining Foundation of St. +John's, between which and Trinity there existed an age-long rivalry. +Not many years before something like open war had been levied between +the Colleges on the occasion of a Trinity merry-making, the Johnian +onlookers being attacked with burning torches and using swords in +their defence; while an attempt which they made to rush the great +gates was beaten off by showers of stones and brickbats which had +been stored to that end on the roof of the Gate Tower. + +[Footnote 51: It was made early in the eighteenth century by the +celebrated Father Smith, an organ-builder of world-wide fame.] + +St. John's was at this time the largest College, and despised Trinity; +a sentiment which Bentley, who was a born bully,[52] expressed with +the utmost frankness, publicly calling the Fellows "asses," "dogs," +"fools," "sots," and other scurrilous names, as they piteously set +forth in their complaints to their Visitor,[53] the Bishop of Ely. +Finally he was degraded by the Senate,[54] and reduced to the status +of "a bare Harry-Soph," as a contemporary diarist (quoted by Mr. +Clark)[55] puts it. But no Master, except Nevile and Barrow, has left +so enduring a mark upon the College; for the ruinous expenditure into +which he dragooned the unhappy Fellows has given the Chapel not only +the baldachino, but the stalls, the panelling, and the organ; to say +nothing of the clock, and the splendid oak staircase in the Lodge. + +[Footnote 52: By his arrogance Bentley incurred the undying hatred of +Pope, who denounces him in the "Dunciad" as boasting himself (in +addressing Dullness) + + "Thy mighty Scholiast, whose unwearied pains + Made Horace dull, and humbled Milton's strains; + Turn what they will to verse, their toil is vain; + Critics like me shall make it prose again."] + +[Footnote 53: To every College is attached some high-placed personage +as Visitor, with a vague, but by no means unreal, power of +interference when appealed to. Bentley was only saved from deposition +by the sudden death of the Visitor.] + +[Footnote 54: The Senate is the general assembly of Masters of Arts, +which is the supreme University authority.] + +[Footnote 55: _Guide to Cambridge_, p. 129. The meaning of the curious +word "Harry-Soph" is apparently equivalent to a student unequal to a +Degree. Bentley was deprived of all his Degrees.] + +The profuse gilding and painting which enriches walls and roof in the +Chapel is due to a restoration some forty years ago, when the outside +was also faced with stone, and the windows filled with stained glass, +commemorating ecclesiastical and other celebrities throughout all the +Christian centuries. The Apostles appear in the most easterly windows +on either side; whence the series progresses in chronological order +westwards. The figures are for the most part powerfully drawn, and +should be examined through an opera glass to appreciate their wealth +of detail. We can thus see that Hildebrand has driven his crosier +through the eagles of the Imperial Crown, that Dante, Matthew Paris, +and Roger Bacon, hold in their hands copies of their own greatest +works, that Giotto is studying an elevation of his Campanile; while +noted church-builders, like St. Hugh of Lincoln and William of +Wykeham, carry models of their edifices. The hapless Mary Tudor holds +one of this very Chapel, of which she was the Foundress. It is +appropriate that the beautiful silver cross over the Altar should be +Spanish work of her date, though only placed there a few years ago by +the generosity of some members of the College who met with it while +travelling in Spain. It was originally a processional cross, and has +been adapted for its new purpose with artistic skill of the first +order. + +When we leave the Chapel, and proceed towards the Great Gate, we are +treading on classic ground. For it was along this flagged path that +Macaulay, while at Trinity, used to take his daily exercise, pacing +assiduously up and down, always the while devouring some author, whose +pages he turned over with incredible rapidity, and at the same pace +whether they were filled with the weightiest thought or the lightest +fancy. Yet whether the book were profound philosophy or exquisite +poetry or the trashiest of rhyme and fiction, he was ever afterwards +able to recall its whole scheme and even to quote lengthy portions of +it verbatim. His rooms were in the staircase facing us--the set on the +ground-floor to the left of the entrance. This particular staircase +has been the home of more great men than any other in the University. +The ground-floor rooms opposite Macaulay's were those of +Thackeray,[56] and the set above Thackeray's are hallowed as the +habitation of Sir Isaac Newton: for whom the College built an +observatory on the roof of the Gate Tower, and who also had the use of +a small bit of ground which we see outside the gate, now a railed-in +lawn, but then a pretty little garden, as Logan's view shows, with +trees and flower-beds, surrounded by a high wall. + +[Footnote 56: Readers of _Esmond_ will remember that Thackeray +quarters that hero on this same staircase, "close by the gate, and +near to the famous Mr. Newton's lodgings." Thackeray was in residence +1829-31, Macaulay 1818-24, Newton 1662-1717.] + + + + +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 Hill, Peasant Revolt, Wat + Tyler, Bucer and Fagius, Bonfires, Town and Gown. + + +We are now outside the Great Gate of Trinity; but, across the street, +in front of us, rises yet another gate belonging to the College, and +leading into its two newest Courts, named from Dr. Whewell, who left +this noble memorial of his Mastership.[57] Those who list to enter +them will at once see why the first is popularly known as "the +Spittoon," and the second as "the Billiard Table"; but there is little +more to see or to say about them. + +[Footnote 57: Whewell was Master of Trinity from 1841 to 1866.] + +The slender and lofty stone cross to the north of these buildings +marks the site of the ancient church of All Saints, which was pulled +down in the middle of last century, to be rebuilt at the further +extremity of its parish, opposite the entrance to Jesus College. Its +earliest name (in the twelfth century) was "All Hallows in the Jewry"; +for Cambridge made good its claim to be amongst the larger towns of +England by having, like the most of them, its Ghetto, or quarter (more +or less sharply divided off from the rest), in which alone the Jews +might reside. They were nowhere popular residents, for they were +outside the pale of the Law (which refused to take cognisance of +aliens in race and religion) and mere "chattels" of the Crown. This +position, however ignominious, gave them special privileges as against +their neighbours. They were too useful as financial assets to allow of +their being murdered or robbed by anyone but their Royal owner +himself; and, secure in his protection, they took small pains to +conceal their contempt for their Christian neighbours, who retaliated +by as much petty persecution as they dared, and, now and then, by a +wholesale massacre. Finally matters became so strained that in the +fourteenth century, under Richard the Second, the whole race of Israel +were expelled from England, not to return till the days of Cromwell. +They had originally come to our shores in the train of the Conqueror's +army, thus conveniently enabling the Norman soldiers to turn their +English loot into hard cash. Their quarter in Cambridge was the small +triangular piece of ground between St. John's Street, Sidney Street, +and All Saints' Passage. + +North again of All Saints' Cross we see the new red-brick walls and +white stone dressings of the Divinity School, where the Professors of +that subject hold their classes and lectures. Opposite to this rise +the stately buildings of St. John's College. We may note how very near +they approach to those of Trinity. These two great Foundations, so +long holding undisputed pre-eminence in the University, are, in fact, +nearer neighbours than any other two Colleges in Cambridge--nearer, +even, than King's and Clare. The narrow lane that parts their +respective buildings belongs to St. John's, and is bounded on the +Trinity side only by a brick wall. This flimsy partition induced Dr. +Bentley, when congratulated on becoming Master of Trinity, to reply, +with characteristic infelicity, "By the help of my God, I have leapt +over a wall." An unverified tradition hence arose that he had actually +made his way into the College, on the Great Gate being shut against +his entry, by a ladder applied to the wall of the Trinity Fellows' +Bowling Green.[58] Keen as has been the age-long rivalry between +Trinity and St. John's, they have been more closely connected than +any other two Colleges; and no fewer than four times has a Johnian +become Master of Trinity. The respective Founders were also closely +connected; for St. John's was founded (earlier in her grandson's +reign) by Lady Margaret Tudor, grandmother to Henry the Eighth. + +[Footnote 58: This Bowling Green lies to the west of Trinity Chapel, +and is one of the choicest gems of Cambridge, a gracious, walled +oblong of turf, with a wooded terrace overlooking the river at its +western end, and at the east, the lately discovered fourteenth century +front of the College Bursary, once forming part of King's Hall. The +privilege of entering this Paradise can only be attained under the +escort of a Fellow.] + +This noble lady is one of the choice characters of history. Her +disposition, as depicted for us by the one who knew her best, her +Confessor, the saintly Bishop Fisher, reads almost like an embodiment +of St. Paul's encomium on Charity: "Bounteous she was, and liberal ... +of singular easiness to be spoken unto ... of marvellous gentleness +unto all folk ... unkind to no creature, nor forgetful of any kindness +or service done to her (which is no little part of very nobleness). +She was not vengeable nor cruel; but ready anon to forget and forgive +injuries done unto her, at the least desire or motion made unto her +for the same. Merciful also and piteous she was unto such as was +grieved and wrongfully troubled, and to them that were in poverty or +sickness or any other misery. To God and to the Church full obedient +and tractable, searching His honour and pleasure full busily. A +wareness of herself she had always, to eschew everything that might +dishonour any noble woman.... All England for her death have cause of +weeping."[59] + +[Footnote 59: The above quotation, as well as that which follows, is +from the sermon preached by Fisher in Westminster Abbey at her burial. +(I have modernised the spelling.)] + +[Illustration: _Trinity College Chapel and St. John's Gateway._] + +Lady Margaret was of Plantagenet stock, being great-granddaughter to +"old John of Gaunt, time honoured Lancaster," and one of the +legitimatised family of the Beauforts. Her first husband was the Welsh +Earl Edmund Tudor, the father of her only child, Henry of Richmond, +who afterwards succeeded to the throne of England as Henry the +Seventh. After his death she twice married again; but none of her +nuptials were of long continuance, and her true life was that of her +widowhood, when she became famed as the Lady Bountiful of the Kingdom: +"the mother of both the Universities; the very patroness of all the +learned men of England;[60] the loving sister of all virtuous and +devout persons; the comforter of all good Religious; the true +defendress of all good priests and clerks; the mirror and example of +honour to all noble men and women; the common mediatrice for all the +common people of this realm.... Everyone that knew her loved her, and +everything she said or did became her." Before her death she had +endowed Preacherships and Professorships of Divinity (which still +remain), both at Oxford and Cambridge, and had seen her first +Collegiate Foundation, that of Christ's College, rise into full life. +Her second and greater Foundation, St. John's College, she only lived +to plan and to endow. When she died, on the 29th of June, 1509 (in the +bright dawn of her grandson's reign and marriage--both alike destined +to end in so miserable a tragedy), the buildings were not yet +commenced. + +[Footnote 60: Amongst these we must count Erasmus; who composed the +epitaph on her tomb.] + +She left their erection, however, in the best of hands. It was to her +friend and counsellor, Bishop Fisher, who knew her so well, and +appreciated her so dearly, that she committed the carrying out of her +great design. He was markedly qualified for this purpose, not only by +his connection with herself, but by special acquaintance with the +spot. For in him we find yet another link between St. John's and +Trinity. As Master of Michaelhouse,[61] some years earlier, he had +been a close neighbour of the ancient Hospital of St. John, and had +noted how far that venerable fraternity had outlived its usefulness. +Originally a semi-monastic institution, founded in 1135, as a sort of +alms-house for necessitous old men, the lack of any sufficient +discipline had brought it to decay. The attempt made by Bishop Hugh de +Balsham, in the century after its foundation, to leaven it with the +scholars whom he afterwards transported to Peterhouse had proved a +failure, and by the sixteenth century the few Brethren left were far +from satisfactory in their ways.[62] Fisher, therefore, suggested to +Lady Margaret to turn the Hospital into a College, under the same +patronage, and after her death, set promptly to work to make the +requisite alterations in the existing buildings. + +[Footnote 61: Michaelhouse was one of the constituent Colleges of +Trinity.] + +[Footnote 62: We need not, however, take too literally the statement +in the Instrument of Suppression, that but two ill-conducted Brethren +remained. For, as Mr. Clark has shown, that Instrument was copied +verbatim from the earlier one used for the turning of St. Radegund's +Priory into Jesus College.] + +His first act was to enclose a Court, the Gate Tower of which should +worthily commemorate the Foundress. In this his success was complete. +The tower, which to this day forms the main entrance to the College, +is a delightful example of what may be done in architecture by a +skilful use of red brick. The quoining is of stone, and of stone also +are the elaborate decorations. In the centre above the first +string-course a richly-canopied niche contains the statue of St. John +the Evangelist. Below this, and immediately above the gate, is to be +seen Lady Margaret's shield, the three lions of England, quartered +with the three lilies of France, within a bordure barred azure and +argent, supported by the antelopes of the Beaufort family. On either +side of both statue and shield appear the Plantagenet rose and the +Tudor portcullis, each surmounted by an Imperial crown (just as we so +constantly find them in King's College Chapel), and all round is +sprinkled the Margaret flower, the daisy. The whole forms a beautiful +piece of composition which makes us regret that more of Fisher's work +is not left. All the First Court, indeed, is his, but it has been +altered out of all knowledge. Now its chief feature is the soaring +mid-Victorian chapel, the largest in Cambridge (except, of course, +King's), the most pleasing view of which is to be gained from the +Trinity Backs, where the tower, framed in foliage, exquisitely doubles +itself on the surface of the river. This ambitious fabric was built by +Sir Gilbert Scott in the 'sixties; and a line of cement on the lawn of +the Court alone traces for us the foundations of Fisher's original +Chapel. + +The Hall ranks in size and beauty next to that of Trinity. The most +interesting of its portraits are those of Lady Margaret, Bishop +Fisher, and the poet Wordsworth, who was a resident member of the +College from 1787 to 1791. His rooms, as he tells in "The Prelude," +were in the south-western staircase of the "First Court," just above +the kitchen: + + "The Evangelist St. John my Patron was: + Three Gothic Courts are his, and in the first + Was my abiding-place, a nook obscure. + Right underneath, the College Kitchens made + A humming sound, less tuneable than bees, + But hardly less industrious, with shrill notes + Of sharp command and scolding intermixed." + +Wordsworth was not a very contented student. He shared the anarchical +ideas then floating in the air, and soon to explode in the French +Revolution. College discipline was eminently distasteful to him, and, +above all, he detested the obligation to attend the Services in the +College Chapel (which, indeed, were, in those days, conducted in far +from ideal fashion).[63] In "The Prelude," he breaks out against them +in unmeasured terms: + + "Be Folly and False-seeming free to affect + Whatever formal gait of Discipline + Shall raise them highest in their own esteem: + Let them parade amongst the Schools at will, + But spare the House of God! Was ever known + The witless shepherd who persists to drive + A flock that thirsts not to a pool disliked? + A weight must surely hang on days begun + And ended with such mockery. Be wise, + Ye Presidents[64] and Deans, and to your bells + Give seasonable rest, for 'tis a sound + Hollow as ever vexed the tranquil air; + And your officious doings bring disgrace + On the plain steeples of our English Church, + Whose worship, 'mid remotest village trees + Suffers for this." + +[Footnote 63: There was no attempt at music, no organ even, anywhere +save at King's, Trinity, and St. John's, and these three Colleges kept +between them a choir of six "lay clerks" (elderly for the most part), +who used to hurry from service to service, as did also the single +organist employed! And this went on till 1842!] + +[Footnote 64: At St. John's, the title of President is given to the +Vice-master of the College.] + +It is interesting to note that these sentiments are echoed, a year or +two later, from Oxford, by Southey, then also in his youthful paroxysm +of Revolutionary fervour. He lets himself go in his "Ode to the Chapel +Bell": + + "O how I hate the sound! It is the knell + That still a requiem tolls to Comfort's hour; + And loth am I, at Superstition's bell, + To quit, or Morpheus', or the Muse's bower. + Better to lie and doze than gape amain, + Hearing still mumbled o'er the same eternal strain, + * * * * * + The snuffling, snaffling Fellow's nasal tone, + And Romish rites retained, though Romish faith be flown." + +[Illustration: _Hall, St. John's College._] + +The Hall of St. John's was the scene of notable Christmas feasting in +the good old days of academic prosperity. Daily, from Christmas to +Twelfth Night, boars' heads, turkeys, gargantuan pasties, and cups of +a peculiarly enticing composition, went the round of the board. After +the fatal agricultural depression of the 'seventies these hospitable +doings dwindled more and more, till now they are wholly of the past. + +From the Hall we can often obtain permission to ascend to the unique +glory of St. John's College, the Combination Room, which is +incomparably finer than any other apartment of the same kind, either +at Oxford or Cambridge. It is a spacious panelled gallery, running +east and west, nearly 100 feet in length, lighted by transomed +windows[65] along the southern side, and with a richly decorated +plaster ceiling, the work of the same Italian artists who erected the +fountain in the Great Court of Trinity, just at the time when this +room was in building. For here we have got beyond Lady Margaret's +"First" Court. The Combination Room forms the north side of the +"Second" Court, erected at the very end of the sixteenth century +(simultaneously with the Great Court of Trinity) by another noble +benefactress, Lady Mary Cavendish, Countess of Shrewsbury, whose coat +of arms (Cavendish impaled with Talbot) stands over the western gate. + +[Footnote 65: In one of these windows should be noted a portrait of +Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Charles the First, who was once +entertained in this apartment.] + +This splendid benefaction was intended to be anonymous, as was also +that which, in the "Third" Court, has given to St. John's yet another +unique beauty, its exquisite Library, which (like the Combination +Room) stands at the head, architecturally, of all College libraries, +whether at Oxford or Cambridge. The benefactor in this case was Dr. +John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln and Keeper of the Great Seal. His +initials, as has been already mentioned, may be seen upon the outside +of the western wall, beside the beautiful oriel window, overlooking +the river, with which the room terminates, and his escutcheon hangs on +the eastern wall, inside, over the door. For in his case, too, as in +that of Lady Mary Cavendish, the secret leaked out before the work was +finished, and in 1624 the letters I. L. C. S. (denoting Iohannes +Lincolnensis Custos Sigilli) disclosed to passers-by the donor's +identity. + +The original bookcases of dark oak still project from either wall. +They have mostly been heightened to make room for more books, but the +additional shelves have been added not above but at the bottom, so +that the sloping desks of the old tops still remain, though too high +to be used; but the pair nearest the door remain at their original +height. In the panelled end of each shelf may be noticed a tiny +folding door, which on being opened proves to contain the catalogue, +in crabbed early seventeenth century writing, of the books which the +shelf held when first filled. The Library, however, contains nothing +of any very special interest, its most noteworthy exhibit being an +edition de luxe of the "Great Bible" issued in 1540 by Royal authority +under the auspices of Archbishop Cranmer. This was the first English +Bible authorised to be read in churches, and a copy was ordered to be +set up in every parish church throughout the realm; the object being +that every man might have access to it, and read for his own +edification. He was not, however, allowed to take it home with him, +and it was usually chained to the reading-desk to prevent this. And, +as yet, there was no provision for any reading of Scripture in public +worship, beyond the Epistles and Gospels of the Mass, the "sense" +(_i.e._ the English) of which each parish priest had long been bound +to give his congregation every Sunday as best he might. + +[Illustration: _Oriel in Second Court of St. John's College._] + +This first Authorised Version was founded on the work of Miles +Coverdale, published five years earlier, with a specially fulsome +dedication to King Henry the Eighth, who, in consideration of his +recent breach with the Papacy,[66] is described as "our Moses ... who +hath brought us out ... from the cruel hands of our spiritual Pharao." +In this edition (of which we have here a copy printed on vellum, and +perhaps destined for the King's own hands) this idea is enlarged upon +in a highly elaborated frontispiece. Henry sits, smiling imperially, +in the middle of the page, distributing Bibles right and left to all +sorts and conditions of men--bishops, clergy, monks, nobles, commons, +artisans, husbandmen, and, notably, prisoners;--while out of every +mouth proceeds a label bearing the universal acclamation "Vivat Rex," +the English equivalent of which, "God save the King," is first found +in this Version. + +[Footnote 66: It need scarcely be pointed out that this breach was not +made from any Protestant zeal, but only to enable the King to put away +the wife he was tired of, and marry Anne Boleyn, which the Pope would +not authorise.] + +The main approach to the Library is by a fine stone staircase in the +north-western corner of the "Second Court;" but access is more +generally obtained at present by an unpretending doorway in the middle +of the northern side of the "Third Court." This door opens into the +lower storey of the Library, which contains nothing of interest except +a not very inspired statue of Wordsworth. Hence a circular iron stair +leads up to the Library proper. + +The "three Gothic courts," mentioned in Wordsworth's "Prelude" as +belonging to St. John's, sufficed the College till the reign of George +the Fourth. When it was then determined to expand, the bold departure +was taken of erecting the new buildings on the other side of the +river. Never, before or since, has any other College, either at Oxford +or Cambridge, done the like; and one could wish that the experiment +had been made at a period when architecture was at a less debased +level. It was the period which Sir Walter Scott, in the "Antiquary," +has in mind when he says "The Lord deliver me from this Gothic +generation." But, of that period, the "New Court," as it is called, is +a favourable specimen, most especially the grated[67] bridge +connecting it with the main body of the College, which has a really +graceful span. The idea of this structure was suggested by the Bridge +of Sighs at Venice, and it is commonly known by that name, which +provokes unkind comparisons. From it we get good views of the Library +oriel to the north, and, on the other side, of the older bridge +belonging to St. John's, three arches in the characteristic Johnian +style of red brick with stone dressings, built at the end of the +seventeenth century. + +[Footnote 67: The gratings are to prevent any nocturnal escape from +College. Only one man is ever known to have "squeezed himself betwixt +the bars."] + +The New Court has practically but one side, the ends being very +slightly returned, running east and west, with a quasi-cupola in the +centre, surrounded by pinnacles and surmounted by a gilded vane. It is +hard to believe, but it is quite historical, that one morning (in the +'sixties) this vane was found to be decked out in the brilliant +scarlet "blazer"[68] of the College boat club, the perpetrator (who +was never discovered) having actually scaled the roof by means of one +of the water-pipes! And it was some time before the resources of +civilisation in the hands of the College authorities availed to abate +the outrage. + +[Footnote 68: This word, now used of all flannel sporting jackets, +was, for several decades--till nearly 1880, in fact--confined to the +fiery coats of the St. John's (or, officially, "Lady Margaret") Boat +Club. When, about that date, the question of having a "universal +blazer" was debated by the undergraduates, an elderly clergyman +protested, in all shocked seriousness, against the "incendiary +tendencies" of such a notion.] + +The New Court, on its southern side, is separated by a traceried +cloister from the College Backs. On passing through the gate of this +it is well to bear to the left and walk along the bank of the river, +here overhung by magnificent elms, and affording a picturesque +prospect of the Trinity buildings on the other side. The grounds of +both Colleges to the west of the river are here divided up into a +series of lawn-tennis courts, and are parted from each other by a +broad ditch, which runs beneath the boughs of bowery horse-chestnut +trees. In spring the Trinity bank of this ditch is bright with +daffodils, the Johnian with narcissus. An iron foot-bridge, common to +both Colleges, with a gate at either end, gives access from one to the +other; but we had best continue by the path which skirts the Johnian +bank. This finally leads out of the College grounds into the Backs +proper, by a fine iron gate bearing a gilded eagle rising from a +crown, the crest borne by Lady Margaret. + +Before we reach this, we find water on either side of us; that to the +west being not from the Cam, but a small tributary brooklet which +joins the river near the Great Bridge. It is here dammed up so as to +afford space for the College swans to make merry in, and on the +further side is the Fellows' Garden, known as "the Wilderness." The +wealth of spring flowers here cultivated--snowdrops, daffodils, +crocuses, primroses, anemones, and hyacinths--is delicious in a +country like Cambridgeshire, where Nature supplies their charms with +very niggardly hand in comparison with the more favoured regions of +England. Outside the Eagle gate we are close to the entrance of the +Trinity avenue. + +Let us stand once more before the great gate of Trinity. Turning to +the south, instead of the north as before, we find ourselves in a few +score yards with the buildings of a College again to the east and west +of the street at once. This College is commonly known as Caius +(pronounced Keys), and officially as "Gonville and Caius," after the +original founder in the fourteenth century, and the benefactor who, +two hundred years later, so largely developed it as to leave his name +also attached to the site.[69] The former was a simple parish priest, +rector of Terrington, on the Norfolk seaboard of the Wash. His little +college, designated the "College of the Annunciation,"[70] and +consisting only of a Master and three Fellows, found its original +quarters hard by Pembroke, with which it was founded simultaneously in +1347. A few years later, on Gonville's death, his friend and diocesan, +Bishop Bateman of Norwich, moved it to its present site, next door to +his own new college, Trinity Hall. + +[Footnote 69: The two infant cherubs which (without any heraldic +authority) act as supporters to the College Shield over the gate of +the new buildings (those to the east of the street) are popularly +supposed to be meant for the innocent souls of the two Founders. The +shield itself (duly granted by the Heralds' College, 1575), comprises +both their Coats with a blue and silver bordure. That of Dr. Caius is +curious; two green serpents standing on their tails upon a green stone +amid flowers of amaranth. This is declared (in the grant) to signify +"Wisdom stayed upon Virtue and adorned with Immortality"--a +characteristic Elizabethan "conceit."] + +[Footnote 70: It was not till after Gonville's death that it began to +be called by his name.] + +There Gonville Hall, as it was now called, gradually developed, but +remained a very puny bantling till the reign of Queen Mary, when one +of its own scholars took upon himself the task of expanding it. His +name was really Keys, which according to the fashion of the day, was +transliterated into the Latin equivalent Caius, and he was a +celebrated doctor of medicine, President of the College of Physicians, +and himself physician to the Royal household. It was in the interests +of his favourite study that he refounded the college, which to this +day has a specially medical tinge. He was also a singularly devout +man, and the spirit in which he built is exemplified by the three +gates through which we successively pass in our progress through the +College. From Trinity-street we enter beneath a narrow, plain, +low-browed archway, known as the Gate of Humility, and inscribed +HUMILITATIS.[71] A short avenue of lime-trees (also a part of the +Founder's design) leads across the small court to a loftier, wider +portal, over which we may read the word VIRTUTIS. Through this we gain +another court, and, looking back, we discover that in using the Gate +of Virtue we have indeed used the Gate of Wisdom; for it bears the +inscription IO. CAIVS. POSVIT. SAPIENTIAE. And, finally, a small, +beautifully designed turret, rich with Renaissance figures and +pilasters, and inscribed HONORIS, covers our exit through the Gate of +Honour, to which those of Humility, Virtue, and Wisdom have +successively led us on. + +[Footnote 71: The present gateway is not, however, the original one, +but erected in mid-Victorian days at the same time as the large +pinnacled gate at the south-east corner of the College, but the humble +character of the original is fairly reproduced.] + +This Gate of Honour is really a wonderful little gem of architecture, +quite unique in its design, which is due to Dr. Caius himself, though +the work was not finished till after his death. The turret is an +oblong mass of stone-work, some twelve feet in width by six in depth, +rising to a height of about twenty feet, and topped with a singularly +graceful hexagonal cupola.[72] The view of it, more especially from +the further side of the Court, whence it groups with the Senate House +and University library just outside, and with the soaring pinnacles of +King's College Chapel beyond, is one nowhere to be surpassed. From a +picturesque point of view no one can regret the absence of the +somewhat gaudy coats of paint and gilding with which it originally was +covered; but the result of their removal has been that the stone +(which is soft, and was never intended to stand exposure to the +atmosphere) is rapidly decaying. + +[Footnote 72: Each side of the hexagon was originally a sun-dial.] + +The paved footway into which the Gate of Honour leads is known as +Senate House Passage,[73] and is still the route along which the +students of the College pass to receive in the Senate House such +honours as their University examinations may have entitled them to. It +forms the southern boundary of the College, which, alone amongst the +Colleges of Cambridge, is wholly surrounded by public ways, +Trinity-street being on the east, Trinity-lane on the north, and +Trinity Hall-lane on the west. The tasteless mass of modern red brick +(erected 1853) at the north-west angle of the block contains the hall; +with the kitchens, by an unusual arrangement, beneath. These kitchens +have an immemorial gastronomic renown in Cambridge, and are credited +with the possession of culinary secrets enabling them to surpass all +rival establishments. In some verses written about the end of the +eighteenth century (concerning a well-known young lady of Cambridge) +we find this referred to: + + "The sons of culinary Caius, + Smoaking from the eternal Treat, + Gazed on the Fair with greedy air, + As she were something good to eat: + Even the sad Kingsman lost his gloom awhile, + And forced a melancholy smile.[74] + +[Footnote 73: "Passage" is the local name applied to the many paved +footways which intersect Cambridge. They are forbidden ground to +vehicles, including bicycles, a prohibition which constantly brings +undergraduates before the Police Court.] + +[Footnote 74: At this date King's was a highly conservative College, +and its discipline strict with a strictness long discarded by the +University at large.] + +[Illustration: _The Gate of Honour, Caius College._] + +Dr. Caius himself became the first Master of his new College, a post +which he accepted with a reluctance which proved only too well +justified, for he himself was a devout and pious man of the old +school, and wholly out of sympathy with the militant Protestantism +which was then fast becoming the dominating spirit at Cambridge, as in +England generally. He has left in writing his lamentation over the sad +depletion of the University which was the first result of the +Reformation.[75] The wholesale destruction of ancient works of +art--beautifully illuminated service books, and elaborately +embroidered vestments--by which the votaries of the new religion +sought at once to express their loathing of the older faith and to +make its revival the harder, did but recall to him the like policy +pursued by the Pagan antagonists of Jehovah in the days of the +Maccabees. And he did what in him lay to stem the tide, rescuing here +a Missal and there a Chasuble from the iconoclasts, till he had +accumulated in his Lodge quite a little store of these sacred objects. +But the times were too hard for him. He was denounced as a +reactionary, a sympathiser with Popery; a riot broke out among the +College students; the Lodge was stormed; the Papistical relics thrown +out of the window and burnt in the midst of the Court;[76] whilst the +Master and Founder himself was expelled from his own College and (as +he had spent upon it all he had) ended his days in penury and exile. +He was, however, allowed a grave in the chapel, which bears the +touching inscription FUI CAIUS ("I _was_ Caius"). + +[Footnote 75: "To the Universities," Froude (our most ardent +Protestant historian) tells us, in his _History of England_, "the +Reformation brought with it desolation.... They were called Stables of +Asses--Schools of the Devil.... The Government cancelled the +exhibitions which had been granted for the support of poor Scholars. +They suppressed the Professorships and Lectureships--Degrees were held +anti-Christian. Learning was no necessary adjunct to a creed which +'lay in a nutshell.' ... College Libraries were plundered and burnt. +The Divinity Schools at Oxford were planted with cabbages, and the +laundresses dried clothes in the School of Arts." + +At Cambridge Dr. Caius gives a long list of University Hostels, +filled, within his memory, by zealous students, which, when he wrote +had become wholly deserted and taken possession of by the townsfolk.] + +[Footnote 76: The pillage was actually presided over by the +Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr. Whitgift, Master of Trinity, +whose Protestant zeal raised him later to the Archbishopric of +Canterbury.] + +The undergraduates of Caius wear a gown of a singular and not very +pleasing violet hue with velvet trimmings. The College "colours" are +light blue and black; the former, which is, as all know, the +University colour, having been granted them to use, in memory of a +famous race, in the early days of College boating, seventy years ago, +when their crew beat the University Eight. It is, of course, an +axiomatic rule of sportsmanship that no Club may assume the insignia +of another (or any colourable imitation thereof), without leave from +the previous users. The earliest "Light Blues" were the Eton Boat +Club, by whose permission the Cambridge Boat Club took the colour. The +Cricket Clubs, at both Eton and Cambridge, were then permitted to use +it, and now this permission has been extended to all engaged as +champions of the University, at athletics, football, etc. + +The Senate House, to the entrance of which the Gate of Honour has +brought us, is the nerve-centre of the University. Here are held, +usually on each Thursday during Term, the meetings ("Congregations" is +the official word) of that august body the "Senate," to whose vote all +University legislation must ultimately be submitted. This body, +however, consisting as it does of all who have attained the Degree of +Master of Arts, several thousands in number, is far too large to +initiate that legislation. This is done by a small elected General +Committee, the "Council," and by special Committees (or "Syndicates") +dealing with the various special subjects to be considered. Both +Council and Syndicates also act as executive authorities, and by them +"Graces" embodying this or that proposal are from time to time laid +before the Senate. The Grace is read aloud by one of the Proctors, in +his robes of office, standing beside the Chair, which is occupied by +the Vice-Chancellor.[77] The benches are tenanted by such members of +the Senate as care to be present.[78] There is no discussion;[79] but, +on the Grace being read, any member may utter the words "Non Placet," +whereupon the Proctor cries "Ad scrutinium," and the congregation +divides; the "Placets," (or "Ayes" as they would be called in +Parliament), moving to the right of the Chair, and the "Non-Placets" +to the left. Should this grouping not sufficiently disclose the sense +of the meeting, a poll is held; each member's vote being given +publicly by writing, on an official form, avouched by his signature. +These papers are then counted by the Proctors, and their respective +numbers read out by the Vice-Chancellor. + +[Footnote 77: This officer is the acting Head of the University, and +is appointed by the Council from amongst the Heads of the Colleges, +usually by rota, year by year. The Chancellor, whom he represents, is +always some specially distinguished notability, and is appointed for +life. He is only present on state occasions.] + +[Footnote 78: Members are often able to introduce ladies, when there +is likely to be room for them. And undergraduates may listen to +proceedings from the Galleries, where, in defiance of rule, they are +often heard as well as seen, should the business be exciting.] + +[Footnote 79: Such discussion as may seem needful has already taken +place before a Meeting of the resident Members of the Senate, who have +spent at least forty nights in Cambridge during the last Academic +year, and whose names are accordingly on the "Electoral Roll." They +are summoned, as required, by the Vice-Chancellor, to discuss the +various matters which it is proposed to embody in "Graces."] + +These numbers are usually but small; indeed most of the business is +altogether unopposed. But when some subject which excites general +interest is brought forward, "backwoods-men" flock (and are whipped) +up from all parts of England. Macaulay has given us a humorous poem on +the coach-loads of country clergy thus pitch-forked into Cambridge to +vote against the admission of Roman Catholics to the University; and +within the last few decades, similar scenes were witnessed in +connection with the question of their being allowed a recognised +Public Hostel of their own, and with those of Compulsory Greek, and of +granting Degrees to women. + +Such is the procedure at the Senate House; or, rather, such it has +hitherto been, for the whole question of University legislation is +even now in the melting-pot. The use of the building for the chief +University examinations is also dying or dead, now that a vast +"Examination Hall" has been built for that purpose. But Degrees still +continue to be conferred there; the students found worthy by the +examiners successively kneeling before the Vice-Chancellor, and being +admitted by him to their degree in the name of the Trinity. They are +presented by the "Fathers" of their respective Colleges, in a +recognised order, beginning with the Royal Foundations, King's always +coming first and Trinity second. When the Degree of Doctor ("Honoris +causa") is conferred on any distinguished visitors, the place is +thronged, and each in turn is introduced with a laudatory Latin speech +by the "Public Orator," who has to exert his ingenuity in composing +some neat and appropriate epigrammatic remark about him.[80] + +[Footnote 80: The office thus requires no mean scholarly and +oratorical powers. When Queen Elizabeth visited Cambridge, the Public +Orator had to make her a laudatory address of half an hour in +duration, without notes, "with the Queen's horse curvetting under her" +(for this was not in the Senate House--yet unbuilt--but in the open +air before King's College Chapel), and with constant mock-modest +interruptions from her Royal lips. Her only thanks were a commendation +of his excellent memory.] + +The Senate House is a stately classical building, running east and +west, erected in the early decades of the eighteenth century. Up to +that date the functions which it now discharges were served partly by +the old Schools (now the University Library), which have been already +spoken of, and which adjoin it on the west, and partly by the +University Church (called here, as at Oxford, "Great St. Mary's"), +which stands hard by to the east. The legislative meetings of the +Senate were held in the former,[81] the Degrees were conferred, and +other gatherings held, in the latter. + +[Footnote 81: One apartment was called the Regent House, as being thus +used by the Governing Body of the University.] + +This was all very well before the Reformation, whilst reverence for +consecrated places still held its own; but, after that great +convulsion, the proceedings too frequently were markedly +unecclesiastical in tone. The conferring of Degrees was originally a +solemn function beginning with High Mass, and continuing with a +serious _vivâ voce_ exercise of the candidates in the presence of the +Vice-Chancellor. But when the Reformation had made it fashionable to +show a healthy Protestant contempt for the old Catholic superstitions, +the whole ceremony was deliberately turned into a farce. The +questioning of the candidates was no longer done by grave University +officials, but by an "old" (_i.e._ a senior) Bachelor, who sat upon a +three-legged stool, and made his interrogations as profane and +scurrilous as possible. He was known, from his stool, as "Mr. Tripos," +and so essential a part of the proceedings did he become that "Tripos" +got to be (as it still is) the regular name for an "Honour" +examination at Cambridge. To judge by the few that have come down to +us, the jokes current on these occasions were poor to the last degree. +Thus, in 1657, we read that two Oxonians, got up as hobby-horses, +presented themselves, giving as their qualification that they "had +smith's work at their digits' ends," (Smith being a then current +writer of school books). They were duly admitted, on the ground that +"such _equitation_ gave them an _equitable_ claim!" And all this was +in the church; where, indeed, far less innocent performances were +constantly given, including stage-plays and recitations in which the +most solemn mysteries of the Catholic Faith were often travestied and +held up to ridicule.[82] + +[Footnote 82: As Protestantism lost its first militant fervour, these +performances more and more dropped their polemical features. But they +still remained most inappropriate for a place of worship. We have seen +how the higher minds of the University, such as Dr. Barrow, felt about +them before the seventeenth century came to an end. (See p. 104.)] + +The church which was thus so long profaned is of late Perpendicular +architecture. Huge galleries have been inserted for the accommodation +of such undergraduates as may attend; the nave being appropriated to +the Master of Arts. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries +the east end was filled with tier above tier of semicircular benches +for the seniors of the University, from whose prevailingly bald heads +this elevation became profanely known as "Golgotha." All is now +arranged in decent fashion, and since the building of the Senate House +the church has only been used for strictly ecclesiastical purposes. +Here each Sunday afternoon is preached the "University Sermon," the +preacher being some clergyman selected by the Council of the Senate. +No service is held in connection with this sermon, but the preacher, +before commencing, reads from the pulpit what is known as the "Bidding +Prayer"--a long list of subjects for intercession, comprising the +various authorities in Church and State, the Clergy, and (as the +source of their supply) the Universities and Colleges. Amongst these +"as in private duty bound" the preacher specifically names the College +to which he himself belongs, finally concluding with the Lord's +Prayer.[83] The sermon is officially attended by the Vice-Chancellor +and Proctors, who gather in the Senate House and cross the street in +procession to the West door of the church. One of the Proctors carries +the University Bible, a ponderous tome suspended by a chain; and in +front is borne the silver mace of the University, by an official +designated the "Esquire Bedell." + +[Footnote 83: On the Sunday after All Saints' Day, when the "Lady +Margaret Preacher," appointed by the Vice-Chancellor, officiates, he +begins by reading the long roll of benefactors to the University from +the earliest times; in itself a specially inspiring predication.] + +The church has witnessed various vicissitudes of doctrine. Here, +during the first outbreak of Protestantism, the Missal was solemnly +torn up and burnt amid the hooting of the crowd; and when, a century +later, the Puritans gained the ascendancy, a like fate befell the Book +of Common Prayer, Cromwell himself presiding at the ceremony. This was +on Good Friday, 1643, when the Vice-Chancellor and several other Heads +of Colleges were, for refusing to abet the proceeding, shut up in the +church "all the long cold night, without fire or candle." They were +afterwards haled to London, and, after being pelted through the City, +were subjected to a sort of Black Hole treatment, under hatches on +board a hulk in the river, with all port-holes closed, and no air +"save such as they could suck from each others' breaths," as the +"Querela Cantabrigiensis" piteously complains. + +Till lately the tower of Great St. Mary's was a historical record of +the stirring scenes amid which it arose, for it was slowly built +during the course of no fewer than 120 years, being begun in the last +decade of the fifteenth century and finished in the first of the +seventeenth. Thus the lower stages were of Perpendicular Gothic, the +higher of Renaissance style. Unhappily the Victorian restorers took it +in hand, and rebuilt the top as, in their view, it would have been +built had it been completed without this long delay, so that all +historical interest is now lost. It contains a fine peal of twelve +bells, on which sound the famous chimes composed in 1790 by Dr. +Jowett,[84] tutor of Trinity Hall, which, since their adoption in the +Westminster clock tower, have spread so widely throughout the country +and the Empire. Their cadences are: + + 1st Quarter 1236 + 2nd " 3126, 3213 + 3rd " 1326, 6213, 1236 + 4th " 3126, 3213, 1326, 6213 + +[Footnote 84: It is hard upon Dr. Jowett that his name should have +come down to posterity associated, not with this real contribution to +the gladness of the world, but with a satirical quatrain on the tiny +plot which he reclaimed from the street in the angle of Trinity Hall +adjoining Clare: + + "A little garden little Jowett made, + And fenced it with a little palisade; + And would you know the mind of little Jowett, + This little garden will a little show it."] + +The hour is struck on the tenor bell. These bells are of eighteenth +century date: two more have been added since. + +[Illustration: _Peas Hill._] + +Great St. Mary's, for all its University connection, still remains +what it was before the University came into being, a Parish Church; +its Parish consisting of the Market Place, which opens out to the east +of it, and is called locally "Market Hill." Whence this curious use of +the latter word arose is not known, but it is immemorial at Cambridge +for any expansion of a street into something wider. Besides Market +Hill, there are the smaller spaces of Peas Hill and St. Andrew's Hill. +All are utterly flat; yet, so potent is the word in the imagination of +the Cambridge townsfolk, that such expressions as "I wonder the Hill +don't fall down upon you" may be overheard in market disputes. Market +Hill is not very large for its purpose even now; but till the +nineteenth century it was much smaller, with more than one range of +houses encumbering its area. On the southern side stands the +Guildhall, a far from imposing structure, and in the centre rises the +fountain supplied by the water of Hobson's Conduit, as described in +our first chapter. The present structure was erected in 1855, the +earlier one (put up in 1614) being then removed to its present +position at the junction of Lensfield Road and Trumpington Road.[85] + +[Footnote 85: There was a fountain here, however, long before Hobson's +day--at least as early as the fourteenth century--but whence the water +came is not known. If, as seems probable, it was a natural spring, its +existence was probably the factor which originally determined the site +of the Market.] + +Like the University Church, the Market Place has witnessed many +stirring scenes. Here, in the fierce but short-lived Socialistic +outbreak which we commonly associate with the name of Wat Tyler, when +dreams were afloat of melting down all existing distinctions into one +great _Magna Societas_, which should redress all wrongs and make all +men equal in all things, a mighty bonfire was made by the insurgent +peasantry of all the books and documents which could be looted from +the University Chest in Great St. Mary's, and from the various +Colleges and Hostels then existing. The Mayor of Cambridge was +compelled to give the sanction of his presence to the deed; and +finally the ashes were scattered to the winds, with the cry: "Away +with the skill of the clerks! Away with it!" + +Two centuries later, in 1555, the Hill saw another burning, of a more +gruesome character. The Catholic reaction under Queen Mary was then in +full swing; and it was determined to visit with the extreme penalty of +the laws against heresy the corpses of two notable pioneers of the +Reformation, Dr. Bucer and Dr. Fagius. Both were amongst the band of +German Protestants who, under King Edward the Sixth, flocked over to +disseminate the new Religion in England, and both had died while +promulgating their tenets at Cambridge. They were now torn from their +graves, and chained, in their coffins, to the stake, the pyre which +incinerated them being chiefly composed of their own condemned books. + +Within the last decade two other notable conflagrations have here been +kindled. When Lord Kitchener, then Sirdar of Egypt, and fresh from his +victories over the Mahdi, visited Cambridge to receive an Honorary +Degree, his presence amongst us was greeted by the wildest orgies. A +huge bonfire was kindled on the Hill, the pile ultimately stretching +diagonally across almost the entire area, and fed with ever fresh +supplies of wood, for which the whole town was scoured. Railings were +torn up wholesale (notably, as has been said, in the Backs), shutters +were wrenched from shop windows, and even doors from houses; while +hoardings, gates, and tradesmen's barrows were seized and devoted to +the flames. Like scenes, a few years later, on a somewhat smaller +scale, celebrated the relief of Ladysmith in the Boer War. + +These riotous proceedings were the work of the wilder spirits of +University and Town alike. But in the earlier part of the Nineteenth +Century many a fierce collision between Town and Gown took place on +the Hill. The Fifth of November was the annual occasion consecrated by +custom to these conflicts. Bands of undergraduates paraded the streets +shouting "Gown! Gown!" while bands of the fiercer element amongst the +townsfolk did the like, to the cry of "Town! Town!" Fights were thus +frequent, in spite of the efforts of the authorities, both Civic and +Academic. Gownsmen took to flight at the appearance of the Proctors +and their "Bulldogs,"[86] but it was to re-form elsewhere, and few +were actually caught. The Police, when they came into existence, in +the early 'forties, were more formidable. They invariably took the +side of the Town,[87] and it was due to them that the "Fifth" became +less and less pugilistic, till it is now only a memory. Fisticuffs +were all very well, but batons made the fun not good enough. + +[Footnote 86: This is the name bestowed on the stalwart officials a +couple of whom attend each Proctor and exercise such physical coercion +of delinquents as he may bid.] + +[Footnote 87: One specially remembered conflict, when Rose Crescent +was held by the Gown against an overwhelming force, till a police +charge drove them in headlong rout to take refuge in Trinity, was made +the subject of a parody of Macaulay's Horatius, to be found in Clark's +_Guide to Cambridge_.] + + + + +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. + + +Starting once more from the Great Gate of Trinity and turning +northwards past St. John's we soon reach the "Via Devana," the old +Roman road which, as has been said, is the backbone of Cambridge, +traversing the town, under various names, from end to end. At this +point of its course it is called Bridge-street. Opposite to us, as we +enter it, rises one of the most distinctive buildings of Cambridge, +the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, popularly known as "the Round +Church." Its strange shape is an echo of the Crusading period, during +the whole of which such reproductions of the famous church of the Holy +Sepulchre at Jerusalem, the deliverance of which from the Turks was +the Crusaders' dream, were erected in various parts of England. +Earliest in date comes the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at +Northampton, built at the very beginning of the twelfth century, in +the opening fervour of the first Crusade, which has also given us the +beautiful old chapel of Ludlow Castle (now in ruins) and this church +in Cambridge. The gallant but fruitless effort of Richard Coeur de +Lion to retrieve the disastrous loss of Jerusalem is commemorated by +the Temple Church in London, completed at the very close of that +century; while the yet more fruitless endeavours of Edward the First, +a century later again, in the last expiring flash of Crusading zeal, +inspired the latest of our English Round Churches, that of Maplestead +in Essex. In all these churches the reproduction of their original is +of a very modified character. + +So it is with our Cambridge example. It consists, indeed, (or, rather +originally consisted) of a circular nave surrounded by an ambulatory, +like its Jerusalem prototype, and _may_, like it, have had a domed +roof, though this is scarcely probable. But there the likeness must +always have ended; and the structure has, in later days, been altered +and re-altered time after time. At first there was probably a small +semicircular eastern apse, which within a century gave place to an +Early English chancel. This, in turn, was superseded by the present +chancel with its aisles, built in the fifteenth century, when an +octagonal bell-tower was also erected over the nave. Finally, in 1841, +the newly-formed "Camden Society" for the restoration of ancient +churches was permitted to work its will upon this one, and proceeded +to reconstruct it in accordance with what they imagined ought to have +been the design of its first builders.[88] And this imaginary ideal, +with its pointed roof and tiny Norman windows, is all that we now see. +Nevertheless, the sight, more especially inside, is impressive in no +small degree. + +[Footnote 88: This design included the undoubted feature of a stone +altar, the setting up of which gave occasion, after much litigation, +for the promulgation of the well-known Judgment, which declares that +in the Church of England the Law permits only a movable wooden table.] + +[Illustration: _The Church of the Holy Sepulchre._] + +Behind the Round Church rise the sumptuous rooms of the "Union[89] +Society," a University club primarily instituted as an association for +the cultivation of oratory amongst undergraduates, which has now added +to its central debating hall a library, dining-room, smoking-room, and +the other adjuncts of a first-class club. Here, on each Tuesday +evening during Term, debates are held, usually on current political or +social situations, theological polemics being strictly barred. When +the Society was first instituted, in the early decades of the +nineteenth century, current politics were also prohibited (by the +University authorities), and could only be discussed under a decent +veil of reference to antiquity. But the comparative merits of the +causes championed by Cæsar and Pompey, or by the Cavaliers and +Roundheads, were so easily made to apply to the burning questions of +the day, that the prohibition speedily become obsolete. Many a +well-known Parliamentary orator has won his first fame on the benches +of the Union, Lord Macaulay being a notable example. His perfervid +outpourings here swept away all opposition, and his friend and +contemporary, Mackworth Praed, records how the issue of any debate is +irrevocably decided-- + + "When the Favourite comes, + With his trumpets and drums, + And his arms, and his metaphors, crossed." + +[Footnote 89: So called because in union with the twin Society at +Oxford; members of each having, _ipso facto_, all the privileges of +membership in the other.] + +Leaving the Round Church behind us, and proceeding westwards, we pass +the Church of St. Clement, with its inscription DEUM COLE ("Worship +God"), which has nothing to detain us, and shortly arrive at "the +Great Bridge,"[90] that famous passage of the river to which the town +owes its name and its very existence. It can never have been an +imposing structure, in spite of its high-sounding title, and is now +represented by an exceedingly commonplace iron span. But, as the only +passage of the Cam approachable by an army, in fore-drainage days, for +many a long mile, it was of old a strategic point of first-class +importance, and more than once played a notable part in English +history. Its possession by the anti-monarchical forces shattered the +last efforts both of King John and of Charles the First, and brought +about, as we shall see, the speedy ruin and death of the former. + +[Footnote 90: So called to distinguish it from the smaller town +bridges by Newnham Mill and Garret Hostel.] + +To the North of the Bridge, and on the Eastern bank of the River, is +the last of the many "Hithes" (or Quays), of which we read so much in +connection with old Cambridge, remaining in actual use for traffic. +Here we may to this day see exemplified the ancient local proverb, +"Here water kindleth fire;" for barges loaded with fire-wood and turf +from the fens still discharge their cargoes at this spot. + +The old name of the Great Bridge has, for at least a century,[91] been +commonly superseded by the appellation of "Magdalene Bridge," which +provokes singularly humiliating comparisons with the beautiful +structure bearing that name at Oxford. In both cases it is derived +from the adjoining College of St. Mary Magdalene (spelt, by a mere +freak, at Oxford without the final e). Our College, however, is of a +sadly lower grade than that at Oxford, with its ideal tower, and its +beautiful chapel, and its grey cloisters, and its green "Walks" beside +the Cherwell. Here we have but little beauty, and no very great +historical interest. The College was first founded, in the middle of +the fifteenth century, for the benefit of Benedictine students. It +belonged to the great Abbey of Crowland, in the Huntingdonshire +Fenland (though Ely, and other neighbouring Benedictine Houses, took +part in the building), and was called Buckingham College, from its +first special benefactor, Henry Stafford, the second Duke of +Buckingham. At the suppression of the Abbeys, this College, like all +other monastic property, was confiscated by King Henry the Eighth, who +granted it to his favourite, Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor. By him it +was re-founded under its present name, and the nomination of the +Master continues, even to this day, to be vested in his descendants. +The existing representative of his family is Lord Braybrooke;[92] the +name of whose seat, at Audley End, near Saffron Walden in Essex, +records the fact that the whole property of the Benedictine Abbey of +Walden was also granted to Lord Chancellor Audley. This Abbey had +shared in the building of Buckingham College. + +[Footnote 91: We find "Magdalene Bridge" in Wordsworth's "Prelude."] + +[Footnote 92: Over the entrance gateway may be seen the arms of Lord +Braybrooke's family, the Nevilles. These are also the arms of the +College.] + +The beginnings of the re-founded College were on a very small scale, +with only a single College servant (who acted as cook). Even forty +years later this number, as Dr. Caius tells us, had only increased to +three. To this day, indeed, Magdalene remains a small and select +College. It consists of a single Court, representing Buckingham +College, and the further side only of a second Court beyond. This +isolated side, an admirable arcade, built at the close of the +seventeenth century, contains the special treasure of the College, the +collection of books bequeathed to it by the famous diarist, Samuel +Pepys. This remains, as he himself arranged it, in twelve oaken +"presses" with glass doors; the books on each shelf being brought to a +common top level by appropriately graduated blocks of wood (shaped in +imitation of their backs) inserted under each. The Library is on view +on Tuesdays and Thursdays during Full Term, from 11.30 to 1 o'clock. +Over the door is the Pepys motto: _Mens cujusque is est quisque._ +("Each man's mind is his very Self.") + +Pepys had been a student here, and his portrait, by Lely, hangs in the +Hall. So does that of another distinguished Magdalene man, Charles +Kingsley, who was in residence 1839 to 1842. College tradition still +records how he used surreptitiously to climb out of the College in the +very early summer mornings, to be off on one of those piscatorial +excursions which he so dearly loved. Another well-known writer +connected with Magdalene is Mr. A. C. Benson, whose "College Window" +was in the ground floor of the Pepysian Library range, on the North +side, looking into the gardens of the Master's Lodge. In these gardens +is a high terraced walk, beneath an old wall. Both terrace and wall +are supposed to be connected with the ancient defences of Cambridge, +but this is not proven. + +[Illustration: _St. Peter's Church._] + +We have, however, now come to the region where those defences did +actually exist. For beyond this wall to the West rises the steep +slope, partly natural and partly artificial, of the "Castle Hill," +towering into the great mound on which stood the Norman Keep. This was +built by William the Conqueror; but long before his day the site, +defensible by nature, and commanding the all-important passage of the +river, had been utilised for military purposes. Here, probably, was a +British post, the _Cam-Rhydd_ or "Ford of the Cam," which became the +Roman Camboritum.[93] Here Oliver Cromwell, as commander over the +forces of the "Associated Counties,"[94] set up fortifications which +baffled the gallant effort to retrieve his fallen fortunes made by +Charles the First after the fatal battle of Naseby. Having there left +his matchless infantry, "lying with their pikes charged every way as +when they lived," the unfortunate monarch, with the remains of his +cavalry, broke through the network of the enemies' squadrons in full +pursuit "like hounds after a fresh stag," and made a dash for the +Eastern Counties, "where he had a party forming." Huntingdon he took +by surprise, and "twice affronted the lines of Cambridge." But these +were too strong to be rushed by horse-soldiers, and, as there was no +other passage over the Cam, he had to retire, finally evading his +pursuers, and making his way safely to Oxford, with all the loot +acquired in this raid, "six waggons loaded with money, two thousand +horses, and three thousand head of cattle." And the remembrance of +Anglo-Saxon lines of defence round the site is perpetuated in the name +"Borough," which still clings to it. + +[Footnote 93: In spite of the enticing similarity of sound, it is +fairly established that the word Camboritum is not the parent of the +word Cambridge. In mediæval times we only read of "Granta-bridge."] + +[Footnote 94: These were Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambs, Hunts, Beds +and Herts, which combined to raise a common force (on the +Parliamentary side).] + +Many antiquarians, indeed, hold that the Cambridge of early days +(anyhow down to the ninth century) was wholly confined to this small +area, some quarter of a mile square, and that the extension of the +town across the river was due to the expulsion of the inhabitants by +Danish and Norman intruders. Be that as it may, we are here +undoubtedly in the earliest Cambridge. The Castle has gradually passed +away, till no ruins, even, are now left. Its modern representative, +the County Court-house, where the Assizes are held, and the County +Gaol, stand at the western foot of the great mound, whereon the Norman +Keep no longer rises. From the summit is to be obtained a delightful +view of Cambridge, with the "green-muffled" ring of the Backs, and the +grey inner ring of the river-side Colleges, dominated by King's +College Chapel, girding in the western flank of the Town, and starting +almost from our feet; the long line of the East Anglian heights +bounding our southern and eastern prospect; and to the north the +"boundless plain," with the towers of Ely on the far horizon. + +Close below us, and really at our very feet, rise the two churches of +this earliest Cambridge, that of St. Giles, now merely a handsome +modern edifice of imposing size, and that of St. Peter, also modern in +its present form, but embodying some ancient features. It is the +smallest church in Cambridge, only thirty-five feet in length by +fifteen in width, being the reconstructed fragment of a larger +structure built in the twelfth century, and pulled down in the +eighteenth, when the Parish was united to that of St. Giles. It +contains a fine late Norman font, with grotesque figures at each +corner--two-tailed Mer-men, each grasping his tails in either hand. At +one time the Borough had yet a third church, "All Hallows by the +Castle" (so called to distinguish it from "All Hallows in the Jewry"), +but this has wholly disappeared, Parish and all. + +[Illustration: _Remains of St. Radegund's Priory._] + +Beyond the spire of St. Peter's, as seen from the top of Castle Hill, +may be distinguished a small mediæval building, known, for some +forgotten reason, by the high-sounding title of "the School of +Pythagoras." This lies just off the street to the eastward, at the +point where this ceases to be a street, and merges into the open road +that runs along the Backs. It is worth seeking out, for it is a +picturesque little edifice, and an interesting example of a +twelfth-century house built of stone. Wood, or, at the best, brick, +were the materials then commonly used. In spite of the name, there is +no reason to suppose that it was ever used for scholastic purposes, or +anything more than a mere private dwelling-house. But Walter de +Merton, the founder of Merton College, Oxford, actually acquired land +hereabouts, apparently with some idea of starting a sister +establishment at Cambridge. This land still belongs to Merton. + +The great red brick and white stone edifice opposite the entrance to +the School of Pythagoras is "Westminster College," wherein candidates +for the Presbyterian ministry go through their theological course, +after completing their secular studies at the University. A like +institution for Anglicans, built in like style (which, indeed, is all +but universal in modern academic work), is Ridley Hall, at the other +end of the Backs. Neither of these is recognised by the University as +anything more than a private lodging-house, nor is the similar (but +much smaller) Roman Catholic seminary of Edmundhouse, on the slope +above Westminster College. + +The same non-recognition extends to the great Ladies' College of +Newnham, which flings out its widespread "halls" over a lavish space +adjoining Ridley. The grand bronze entrance gates to these "vestal +precincts," inscribed with the name of the first Principal of the +College, Miss Anne Jemima Clough (sister to the poet Arthur Clough) +are hard by the more modest entrance to Ridley, and admit the visitor +to a scene which reminds us of those in Tennyson's "Princess." And +there are almost as many maidens here as he has assigned to his +imaginary College, for Newnham is surpassed in the number of its +students by Trinity only. Each has her own room, in which the bed +becomes by day a sofa. Each is assigned to one of the "Halls," which +in many respects are treated as separate entities, but all share the +common collegiate life. There is, however, no chapel, for Newnham is +most strictly undenominational. Students are, of course, free to +attend any place of worship they may prefer, the preference being +largely given to King's College Chapel. Hence a French traveller, who +came over to study Women's Education in England, is said to have +answered when asked on his return what religion was professed at +Newnham: "Mostly, I think, the King's religion." + +[Illustration: _Jesus College Gateway._] + +The other Ladies' College, at Girton, has got a chapel, where the +Church of England services are performed. This is the oldest of all +the ladies' colleges connected with Oxford or Cambridge, and hence +comes its position no less than two miles to the west of Castle Hill; +for when the idea was first started, the close proximity of young men +was deprecated almost in the trenchant spirit of Princess Ida. The +very first start, indeed, was made (in 1869) no less than thirty miles +away, at Hitchin, and only when this was found intolerable did the +pioneers move (in 1872) to Girton.[95] There the beautiful grounds and +splendid range of buildings give an impression of space rivalling +Newnham; but the College is not nearly so large, and is somewhat more +select. Here each student has a sitting-room as well as a bedroom, +after the fashion of the men's Colleges. + +[Footnote 95: Newnham is just younger, having been opened 1875. It +then consisted of one Hall only.] + +Immediately to the north of Newnham is Selwyn College, a +denominational institution belonging to the Church of England, +corresponding to Keble College at Oxford, and, like it, recognised by +the University, not indeed as a College, but as a "Public Hostel," +whose undergraduates are not mere "non-collegiate students." Such +"unattached" students are under a "Censor" and a special syndicate, +and have a centre in the "Fitzwilliam Hall" (close to the museum of +that name), where they have to report themselves daily. + +[Illustration: _The Back Court, Jesus College._] + +Looking eastwards from the Castle Hill, we see a wide, open green +stretching from the further bank of the river, and beyond it a low +church tower rising amid trees. This is the tower of Jesus College +Chapel, once the Priory Church of St. Radegund. This lady was a +Frankish queen of the sixth century, and a friend of the poet +Venantius, the author of the well-known hymns _Vexilla Regis_ and +_Pange Lingua_. Under her dedication a Benedictine nunnery was founded +here at the beginning of the eleventh century. It was never a large or +wealthy institution, but continued to flourish for four hundred years +and more. In 1455 its account books, still preserved among the +archives of Jesus College, show an income of £70 per annum, equivalent +in purchasing power to some £1,200 at the present value of money. +Every Benedictine nun ranked socially as a gentlewoman, so that this +income needed careful administration to make it suffice for the nine +or ten sisters in residence. The Convent, however, was at this date +quite solvent, but in less than twenty years a single incapable +Prioress had run it deep in debt. The butcher's bill alone then +amounted to £21 (equivalent to over £350), and, having no cash to pay +withal, the nuns were taking two of his daughters free amongst the +boarders whom they educated. They were also alienating their capital, +so that the income was rapidly dwindling. In 1481 it had decreased by +more than 50 per cent., and was only £30. The next Prioress was a +strong and capable ruler, imposed upon the convent by the Bishop of +the Diocese, who was its Visitor. But things had gone too far, and, in +spite of her efforts, the place dwindled away. By 1496 there were only +two nuns left, and, under Royal license, the convent was turned into +"Jesus College" by the same Visitor. His name was Alcock, so his coat +of arms bore three cocks' heads, with yet another cock for crest. This +device confronts us at every turn in our passage through the College. + +[Illustration: _Jesus College Chapel, East End._] + +To reach it from Castle Hill, the most pleasant way is by descending +the street, and turning to the left past St. Giles' Church. This road +will soon bring us to the river, at a lock, where we cross by an iron +foot-bridge. We are now on the open Green we saw from above, which is +known as "Midsummer Common," from the great fair held there at that +season. As we make our way over it, we see to our left along the river +bank the long white boathouses[96] of the various colleges; for it is +not till below this lock that the river becomes navigable for an +eight-oar, and all the University rowing is done between it and that +next below, at Baitsbite, three miles and more down the stream to the +northward. Baitsbite[97] is the starting-point of the annual college +races, held at the conclusion of the May Term.[98] As is well known, +these are decided by "bumping," the boats all starting simultaneously +one behind another, with a clear interval of two lengths between +each. Any boat making a bump takes the place of its defeated rival in +the next race, and has the privilege of rowing back to its boat-house +with its flag flying.[99] This is also done by the boat Head of the +River, which, of course, cannot bump, though it may be bumped. Should +a boat make its bump on each of the four evenings that the races last, +the crew are said to "get their oars," each man's oar becoming his +personal property and being usually hung in his rooms as a trophy, +appropriately painted with the College colours. These colours are also +worn for racing; the most easily recognised being the bright scarlet +of Lady Margaret (St. John's), the black and white of Trinity Hall, +the green of Queens', the black and yellow of Clare, and the red and +black of Jesus. The flags always bear the College arms, except that +"First Trinity" fly the three crowned lions of King Edward the Third. + +[Footnote 96: These are large wooden edifices containing sheds for the +boats below and dressing-rooms for the crews above.] + +[Footnote 97: See Chapter XIII.] + +[Footnote 98: There are also races in the Lent Term for the less +exalted boats. But only the first division in the May races has any +general interest. Each division contains sixteen boats, and the last +boat of each division is also the first of the division below, being +thus known as a "sandwich boat."] + +[Footnote 99: The races end at Chesterton, about a mile below the +boathouses.] + +Leaving the distant prospect of the boathouses behind us, we resume +our way to Jesus College, the grounds of which are separated from +Midsummer Common by a broad ditch. Skirting this, we come to "Jesus +Lane," and, turning to the right, reach the main entrance to the +College, opposite the red brick façade of "Westcott House" (like +Ridley Hall, an Anglican Clergy Training School), and the tall spire +of the new Church of All Saints.[100] Iron gates admit us into a long +passage, between red brick walls, known as "the Chimney," which +conducts us to the College gate. Jesus is a large college, with +several courts, but all that is much worth seeing is the chapel with +its cloisters, to reach which we must seek a low-browed doorway to the +east of the entrance gate. Both are relics of the nunnery. The latter, +indeed, were rebuilt in the eighteenth century; but the nineteenth has +rediscovered, in their eastern range, the beautiful Early English +entrance into the Nuns' Chapter House. At the north-east corner of the +cloisters we find the door into the chapel. + +[Footnote 100: This church, as has been already said, formerly stood +at the other end of its Parish, in the old Jewry, hard by Trinity and +St. John's.] + +This bears little resemblance to the conventional College Chapel, +being a cruciform church of the ordinary Norman shape, with a central +tower. Very little of the work, however, is Norman, for the nuns did +not get far on with their design till the twelfth century had come in +and the Early English period had commenced. A beautiful gem of this +style the chapel is, and, for once in a way, the drastic "restoration" +to which it was subjected in early Victorian days is matter of real +thankfulness.[101] The building had been sadly mauled about in the +course of ages; the high-pitched roof lowered, the eastern lancets +destroyed. All is now brought back, in excellent taste, to what it was +at first. The old chancel has become the chapel proper, the transepts +and the short nave serving as the ante-chapel. + +[Footnote 101: This restoration had the advantage of being carried out +under the auspices of a man of real architectural taste (though better +known by his geological distinction), the Rev. Osmund Fisher, then +Dean of the College. The discovery of the Chapter House entrance in +the cloisters was also due to him.] + +[Illustration: _Oriel of Hall, Jesus College._] + +In this the windows are filled with fine Morris glass, the rich hues +of which are, unfortunately, much faded from their pristine +brilliance. That at the end of the south transept, which first meets +the eye, is occupied, above, by a magnificent group of the Celestial +Hierarchy, in all its nine Orders--Angels, Archangels, Virtues, +Principalities, Dominions, Powers, Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim, with +the addition, in the tenth place, of Man, as the image of God; and, +below, by nine Saints, including St. Radegund, with the addition of +Bishop Alcock. The four other windows of the transept show the four +Evangelists, each attending a pair of Sibyls,[102] and, in the tower +lights, Gospel scenes illustrating the Incarnation, Passion, +Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ respectively. The nave windows, +on the south, have Patriarchs and Prophets, with scenes beneath from +the life or writings of each; and, on the north, emblematic figures +representing the Cardinal and Theological Virtues, each trampling +under her feet the contrary Vice. + +[Footnote 102: Some words put by Virgil into the mouth of the Sibyl +(or prophetess) of Cumae were supposed by the early Christians of Rome +(to whom the idea of Sibylline books being prophetic was familiar from +Roman History) to foretell the Incarnation. Hence she, and her sister +Sibyls of other fictions as well, came to be considered inspired, and +before long a whole literature of imaginary Sibylline predictions was +in circulation.] + +The most notable of the alumni of Jesus College was also one of the +earliest--Archbishop Cranmer. It is from his having been here that he +is so often and so ridiculously said to have been brought up in a +_Jesuit_ seminary![103] Another notability was the poet Coleridge, who +was here from 1790 to 1792. He was not an academic success, for, like +his contemporaries, Wordsworth at St. John's, and Southey at Christ +Church, he was carried away by the revolutionary spirit then rampant, +and, being more audacious than they, got into more scrapes. One of his +freaks was to trace out in gunpowder on the college lawns the words +LIBERTY AND EQUALITY, which not only produced a sensation when the +train was fired, but left the obnoxious sentiment permanently branded +on the sacred grass. Finally he ran away. But he was taken back, and +did not lose his love for his old college; for, long afterwards, we +find him writing of "the friendly Cloisters and happy Grove of quiet, +ever-honoured Jesus College, Cambridge." The Grove is the name given +to the grassy field, begirt with trees, which is bordered by the ditch +separating the College grounds from Midsummer Common. + +[Footnote 103: The Jesuits, of course, did not come into being for +years after Cranmer's academic day.] + +The western portion of that common is often called "Jesus Green." It +witnessed the execution of the only Marian martyr burnt at Cambridge. +His pile was largely formed of Protestant books of devotion, one of +which, "a Communion Book," he picked up and read diligently till the +flames overpowered him, "praising God, who had sent him this +consolation in his death." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + =Sidney Sussex 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.=--Coe Fen.--First + Mile Stone.--Barnwell, Priory, Abbey Church.--Lepers Chapel, + Stourbridge Fair, Vanity Fair. + + +Following Jesus Lane from the "Chimney" gate townwards, we once more +strike into the Via Devana, here called Sidney Street, from the +College filling the angle between the two roads. It is not a +pretentious institution, having always been amongst the smallest +colleges. But it has nurtured one man of colossal individuality, the +great Protector, Oliver Cromwell. For Sidney Sussex College (as its +full name runs, from its foundress, Lady Frances Sidney,[104] Countess +of Sussex) was instituted (in 1596) for the very purpose of fostering +such _alumni_. The earliest statutes of the College decree that its +members shall be taught, before all else, to "detest and abhor +Popery." Besides Cromwell, his right-hand man, Edward Montagu, Earl of +Manchester, who distinguished himself when in authority at Cambridge +during the Civil War by ejecting from their parishes so many recusant +High Church parsons and filling their places with Puritan divines, was +also a Sidney man. Both he and Cromwell were "Fellow Commoners," a +name given to privileged undergraduates who, on payment of extra fees, +were permitted to rank with the Fellows and to dine at the High Table. +They also wore a more ornate gown than the ordinary undergraduate. It +is only of late years that this plutocratic arrangement has been +discontinued in the University. The site of Sidney was formerly that +of the Franciscan Convent, with its splendid church, considered the +finest in Cambridge. At the dissolution of the convent the University +tried to secure this from King Henry the Eighth as the University +Church. But the King's price was too high, the negotiations fell +through, and the glorious building was remorselessly and utterly +demolished. + +[Footnote 104: Her husband had been over the Royal Excise, and the +College shield bears the familiar Broad Arrow of that department.] + +Passing by Sidney, which has nothing to detain us, we shortly note a +church on our right hand. This is Holy Trinity, the special home of +the Evangelical movement in Cambridge. In the early days of that +movement (and of the nineteenth century) the pulpit here was occupied +by its great leader, Charles Simeon, Fellow of King's College, who +through much persecution, through evil report and good report, +championed the cause till he saw it triumphant. And a series of +like-minded men has followed him.[105] The grey stone building just +beside the church is the Henry Martyn Hall, built in memory of that +great Evangelical pioneer and missionary. It is used for meetings +connected with the movement. + +[Footnote 105: The church is architecturally naught, outside; but the +tower arches, within, form the loveliest gem in Cambridge.] + +Leaving Holy Trinity to our right, a turn in the street brings us face +to face with the grey stone front of Christ's College, one of the most +ideal in Cambridge. We owe it, like St. John's, to the bounty of the +Lady Margaret Tudor, King Henry the Seventh's mother, whose beautiful +character has already been dwelt upon in our last chapter. And she +bestowed it upon us under the same inspiration as in the case of St. +John's, that of her friend and confessor, Bishop Fisher, and, in doing +so, adopted the same plan of transforming and expanding an earlier +Foundation. This was a very small "School of Grammar," which never +attained to the dignity of collegiate rank, founded in 1430 by John +Bingham, parson of St. John Zachary, just before he and his Church +were swept away to make room for King's College. It was then removed +to this site, just outside the "Barnwell Gate" of Cambridge, where it +maintained a microscopic existence for the rest of that century. + +[Illustration: _Christ's College Chapel._] + +At the beginning of the next it had the good fortune to be taken up by +Lady Margaret, who increased the number of residents maintained in it +from five to sixty, and changed the name from "God's House" to +"Christ's College." At the same time she planned out the principal +court, as it now exists. Unlike St. John's, it was at least partly +completed before her death, for the historian Fuller tells a pretty +story of how she here beheld from a window the dean administering to +one of the scholars the corporal chastisement which was at that day +the recognised means of discipline,[106] and called out to him +"_Lente! Lente!_" ("Gently! gently!") The College is appropriately +full of her memory: her portrait adorns the Hall; on the front of the +Gate Tower stands her statue, between the Plantagenet Rose and the +Tudor Portcullis, and beneath it are carved her armorial bearings, as +at St. John's, with the addition of the crest, a demi-eagle of gold +rising out of a crown.[107] On either side are the three feathers of +the Prince of Wales. These same arms, emblazoned, are over the inner +gateway that leads into the Gardens, with her own beautiful motto, +"_Souvent me souvient_" ("Oft I bethink me"). And in the Library under +a glass shade is a reproduction of the upper part of her person, with +the hands folded in prayer, from her monument in Westminster Abbey. + +[Footnote 106: The rod retained its use in this connection till the +eighteenth century. In the seventeenth, during the period of Puritan +ascendancy, it was made a University enactment that if any +undergraduate should "by day or night enter any river, ditch, lake, +pond, mere, or any other water within the County of Cambridge, whether +for the sake of swimming or of washing," he should be flogged in his +College hall. It must be remembered that students then entered at +least five years earlier than now.] + +[Footnote 107: This crest is absent from the Johnian gate-tower, but +is found above the iron gate leading into the Backs.] + +But, to the ordinary visitor, the memory of even Lady Margaret is, at +Christ's, overshadowed by the mightier memory of John Milton, who was +in residence here for seven years, from 1625 till, in 1632, he became +a Master of Arts. In residence along with him was his "Lycidas," whose +real name was Edward King. In the gardens an ancient mulberry tree, so +old that its stem has to be encased in a pyramid of turf, and its +remaining arms jealously shored up, is called by his name. The +tradition that he himself planted it is probably unfounded, but it was +actually there in his day, one of the score of these trees which, by +the desire of King James the First, were placed in the gardens. + +The gardens here are amongst the few College Gardens which at +Cambridge are open to the public. During certain hours visitors are +admitted, and no small privilege it is; for there are few lovelier +spots than this verdurous lawn, shut in on one side by the grey +"Garden Front" of the College,[108] with its balustraded cornice and +transomed windows, and everywhere else "bosomed high in tufted +trees";[109]--an ideal place for Milton's own + + "retired Leisure, + That in trim gardens takes his pleasure."[110] + +[Footnote 108: This front belongs to an isolated block known as the +"Fellows' Buildings," erected shortly after Milton's time.] + +[Footnote 109: "L'Allegro."] + +[Footnote 110: "Il Penseroso."] + +Hidden in a thicket at the north-eastern corner is a sequestered +swimming-bath, fed by a stream drawn off from Hobson's conduit. To +climb the statue beside this and dive off the head is a current feat +amongst Christ's men. Something of a feat it is; requiring +considerable sureness of foot and skill in balancing oneself. + +To reach the Gardens we must cross the first court, a singularly +pleasant example of a College Court, rendered the more picturesque +by the central grass-plot being circular instead of the usual +rectangle, and pass on through the "Screens" at its north-eastern +corner. Here we are in another Court, only in part surrounded by +buildings; the "Fellows' Buildings" being immediately in front of +us. As Christ's, unlike most Colleges, has but one entrance,[111] we +shall have to retrace our steps. In passing the Hall we should, if +possible, look in to note the portraits of the College worthies. +Amongst these are to be found not only Lady Margaret, Bishop Fisher, +and Milton, but Quarles (the author of the "Emblems"), Paley, the +Evidencer of Christianity,[112] who was a Fellow here in the +eighteenth century, and the epoch-making name of Charles Darwin, the +Apostle of Evolution. + +[Footnote 111: A small back door, however, leads from the kitchen into +"Christ's Lane" (on the south). On one famous occasion, when, at a +time of popular excitement, the students were confined to the College, +sympathisers from without burst this in (using the bar which closes +the lane to vehicles as a battering-ram) and set them free.] + +[Footnote 112: Paley's _Evidences_ is still one of the set subjects in +the "Littlego" (or "Previous Examination") which every student must +pass before being allowed to proceed further.] + +From Christ's we continue along the Via Devana, here called St. +Andrew's Street from the unlovely church of that name[113] which we +see opposite the College. Of old the name was Preachers' Street, from +the great preaching Order of the Dominican Friars, who from the +thirteenth to the sixteenth century here found their home. The site +of their House is now occupied by our next College, Emmanuel, as that +of the Franciscans was by Sidney. It is remarkable that the ground of +both the great Orders which were called into existence specially to +preach the doctrines of Catholicism should have passed into the hands +of men whose main object was to contest those doctrines. But so it +was. Emmanuel, like Sidney, was founded (1584) expressly to combat the +errors of Popery; and the Founder, Sir Thomas Mildmay, a courtier of +Queen Elizabeth, has left on record his special wish that his College +should turn out a constant supply of able Puritan divines. + +[Footnote 113: Unlovely as this church is, it is a monument of the +piety and generosity of one of the most pious and generous men +Cambridge has ever known, Dr. Perry, first Bishop of Australia, who, +while a Fellow of Trinity, devoted his private fortune to the +ecclesiastical needs of the town, and thus enabled no fewer than three +large churches to be built. Unhappily it was at a period of execrable +taste (the earliest Victorian), and the three are far from beautiful +or correct examples of ecclesiastical architecture. But when the then +newly formed Camden Society (for the revival of a purer style of +building) ventured to hint as much, a storm of Protestant indignation +arouse throughout Cambridge, and a public protest against such Romish +criticism was actually signed by every resident Fellow of Trinity!] + +His hope was realised. Emmanuel at once sprang to the front as the +great power-house of the Puritan movement in Cambridge; and so strong +was that movement that for the moment it carried the College to the +very top of the list, so that it surpassed in numbers even Trinity and +St. John's. Many of the stalwarts who belonged to the Pilgrim Fathers +of New England were here educated; notably John Harvard, whose name is +borne by the Premier University of America. So also were many of the +preachers who kindled and sustained the ardour of the Roundheads +through the stress of the Civil War. Even after the Restoration the +College retained the impress of its Founder's hope. When, in 1664, the +Duke of Monmouth visited Cambridge, a satirical guide to the +University, written in doggerel Latin verse for his benefit, sneers at +the strict moral tone of Emmanuel: "You may well perceive that they +are all Puritans here." And Archbishop Sancroft, famous as the chief +of the Seven Bishops who made so staunch a stand against the +toleration of Roman Catholics under James the Second, was an Emmanuel +man. + +[Illustration: _Emmanuel College._] + +For the first century of its existence, the students of Emmanuel +worshipped in an unconsecrated building running north and south,[114] +where they received the Sacrament "sitting on forms about the +Communion Table, and pulling the loaf one after other when the +minister hath begun. And so the cup; ... without any application of +the sacred words." But in 1679 this room was turned into the College +Library, and the present chapel built on the usual Anglican lines. + +[Footnote 114: This was on the site of the Dominican Refectory. Sir +Thomas Mildmay boasts that, in contempt of their religion, he has +turned their Refectory into a Chapel, and their Church into a +Refectory. The Hall and Combination Room still occupy the site of the +Church.] + +Emmanuel has little architectural beauty; but there are pleasant +grounds, with a swimming-bath, as at Christ's, and two larger ponds, +in which swans and wild ducks are kept. The swimming-bath and the +smaller pond are accessible only by the favour of a Fellow; but the +large piece of water is in a great open court (beyond the first +court). All are fed from a branch of the Hobson's Conduit stream, +runlets from which run down St. Andrew's Street, even as they run down +Trumpington Street. Beyond the swan-pond lie the new buildings, lately +erected to meet the greater expansion of the College, for Emmanuel, +after over two centuries of depression, now ranks (along with Caius +and Pembroke) at the head of the list with regard to relative numbers, +except Trinity alone. In actual numbers she broke in 1890 her record +of 1628, and has gone on advancing steadily since. Her shield bears a +blue lion ramping on a white ground and holding a laurel wreath, +emblematic of the victory of the "Lion of the tribe of Judah." + +Immediately opposite the front gate of Emmanuel there runs off, at +right angles, from the Via Devana, a thoroughfare known as Downing +Street. Till the present century it actually gave access to Downing, +the youngest of the Colleges to which the University officially +accords that title. In those days Downing consisted of a huge +parallelogram of prettily be-treed greensward, a furlong across and +three furlongs long,[115] thus covering far more space than any other +college. But in numbers it was the smallest of all, and also in +income, till finally agricultural depression reduced it to such +straits that it was forced to sell its northern frontage to the +University. Thus Downing Street now leads, not to Downing, but to the +great central huddle of University museums, laboratories, and +lecture-rooms, which have been incessantly rising during the last two +generations, and which are still continuing to rise. Here, cheek by +jowl (on the site of the old Austin Friary), are the magnificent +Geological Museum erected in memory of Professor Sedgwick, the Museum +of Botany, the Law Schools, the Museum of Archæology, the Museum of +Anatomy,[116] the Museum of Mineralogy, the Chemical Laboratory, the +Medical Schools,[117] the Physical Laboratory,[118] the Engineering +Laboratory, the Optical Lecture-room, and, beside these, the +Philosophical Library, and the huge Examination Hall which is the +latest addition to the equipment of the University. + +[Footnote 115: This occupied all but the whole space bounded by +Downing Street, Tennis Court Road, Lensfield Road, and Regent Street.] + +[Footnote 116: The ethnological series of skulls here ranks (with +those at Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Washington) as the most complete +in the world.] + +[Footnote 117: On the wall here is engraved Pasteur's inspired saying: +"_Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les +esprits préparés._"] + +[Footnote 118: This is called the Cavendish Laboratory, being the gift +of the late Duke of Devonshire, Chancellor of the University. The word +laboratory we may note is, in student speech, invariably "Lab," which +is even used as a verb.] + +To reach Downing to-day, one must turn to the left on leaving +Emmanuel, and continue along the Via Devana (here called Regent +Street) till large iron gates on the opposite side of the road invite +us to enter the College grounds. These give still an impressive sense +of space, though now curtailed at the southern as well as the northern +end, and form a pretty setting for the two parallel ranges of yellow +stone, which date from the beginning of the nineteenth century. For +though Downing was by that time keeping the centenary of its +foundation (by Sir George Downing, of Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire), +the funds had not hitherto admitted of the erection of college +buildings. When first set up, these classical frontages were +considered the _ne plus ultra_ of architectural perfection, and +strangers were taken to see them as the great glory of Cambridge. + +Regent Street, after we leave Downing, will soon bring us again to the +Church of Our Lady, so that we have now completed our circuit of +Cambridge. There remain, however, a few outlying spots worth a visit +should time serve. Nearest and most picturesque of these is Coe Fen, a +long strip of common, lying along the eastern bank of the river, +before it enters on its course through the Backs. The best time to see +it is at sunset, and the best way to gain it is by following down the +narrow byway beside Little St. Mary's, and turning to the left at the +bottom. We shall then find ourselves on the Fen, beneath the old wall +of Peterhouse deerpark, a delicious, heavily-buttressed, mass of red +brick-work, leaning over and curved with age, patched and re-patched +all over with all kinds of fragments, giving colour effects that are +quite charming.[119] Passing beyond its shelter, and that of its +continuing hedge (which divides us from Peterhouse and other gardens), +we may take the first turn to the left, up a narrow (and often dirty) +byway, which will lead us past the Leys School, the great Wesleyan +educational outpost of Cambridge, into the Trumpington Road, where it +joins Lensfield Road at Hobson's Conduit. Or, instead of turning to +the left we may turn to the right, and, crossing the Cam by the iron +footbridge, make our way over "Sheep's Green," the Common east of the +river, to Newnham Mill and the Backs. Or we may hold straight on, by +the footpath that runs the whole length of the Fen, which will bring +us out on the Trumpington Road just by the first milestone, where that +road crosses "Vicar's Brook." + +[Footnote 119: See p. 5.] + +It is from this side that we notice how this is no ordinary milestone, +but a grand monolith twelve or fifteen feet in length, and feel that +it must have a story. And so indeed it has, for it is the very first +milestone ever set up in Britain since the days of the Roman dominion +here. In those days every great road in the country had its series of +milestones recording the distance from the central milestone in +London, which still exists, in its decay, as "London Stone." But after +the mighty organisation of the Roman Empire lost its hold upon the +land, roads went to ruin, and milestones were broken up or used for +Anglo-Saxon gate-posts. Not till 1729 was the idea of restoring the +system entertained; and it was a Cambridge College, Trinity Hall, that +first took it up, and carried it out on the road from Cambridge to +London. Hence it is that these milestones bear the Crescent of the +College shield. And for their inaugural milestone was chosen this +grand monolith, which was itself an old Roman milestone. + +North-east of Cambridge stretch the mesh of dingy streets which make +up the great suburb of Barnwell. Hither and thither they run, in +soul-crushing monotony; yet even here there are gems of interest to be +found. The suburb came into existence, to begin with, through the +proximity of a great Abbey, the Augustinian Priory of Barnwell. This +House of Religion was founded in the first instance by Hugoline, the +pious wife of Picot, William the Conqueror's far from pious Sheriff of +Cambridgeshire. It was by her located close beneath his +dwelling-place in the Castle, and dedicated to St. Giles. Half a +century later, the Picot land was forfeited for treason, and granted +to Richard Peverel, who had been, in the First Crusade, +standard-bearer to Robert Curthose, the Conqueror's eldest son. He +transferred the House to the riverside, hard by a holy spring, the +Burn Well (or source of the Brook), where a hermit of special sanctity +had already reared an Oratory dedicated to St. Andrew. He also raised +the number of monks from six to thirty, to correspond with that of his +own years at the time. + +The Abbey grew and flourished. Its inmates, as appears from their +"Custom Book" of 1296 (lately published by Mr. J. W. Clark), led a +very civilised life--cleanliness being specially insisted upon; and +its proximity to Cambridge placed it in touch with political life. +Royalty stayed in it now and again; in 1388 even Sessions of +Parliament were held in it; Papal Legates visited it.[120] And when +civil wars broke out, it was a prize worth plundering; a fate it more +than once suffered. When the final plunder came, under Henry the +Eighth, the whole was utterly swept away; the only thing left being a +small stone building, which was apparently the Muniment room of the +Abbey. Though utterly ruinous, this little block is by no means +without architectural merit, and may be found by following the +Newmarket Road (which enters Cambridge as "Jesus Lane") to its +junction with East Road (the eastward continuation of Lensfield Road). +Here Abbey Street runs down to the river, and just off it is our +building, commonly known as the "Priory Chapel." Hard by is an old +red-brick dwelling-house, bearing the date 1578, and called the "Abbey +Barn"; and in its grounds are several venerable fragments. + +[Footnote 120: Here was held, in 1430, under the representatives of +Pope Martin the Fifth, the famous "Assize of Barnwell," which decided, +by Papal authority, that in the University alone was vested all +spiritual jurisdiction over its students, to the exclusion of the +ordinary Diocesan and Parochial claims.] + +In close proximity to these ruins is an actually surviving relic of +Barnwell Priory. This is a tiny church of Early English Architecture, +known as the "Abbey Church," or "Little St. Andrew's."[121] Small as +it is, it is the Mother Church of a huge parish (now happily divided +into districts) containing more than half the entire population of +the Borough of Cambridge. It was built by the Canons of Barnwell, when +their Priory was a century old, for the use of the little knot of +hangers-on whom every great abbey attracted to its doors, and whose +secular (and, perhaps, far from cleanly) presence was unwelcome at the +fastidious worship of the Priory Church. And they made it the +representative of the old hermit's Oratory of St. Andrew. For long +ages it sufficed for the adjoining population; but when that +population increased by the hundred-fold, as it did at the opening of +the nineteenth century, things got to a desperate pass, and Barnwell +became practically heathen, with an only too well-deserved reputation +for vice of every kind. + +[Footnote 121: So called to distinguish it from "Great St. Andrew's," +opposite Christ's College.] + +So matters stood when, in 1839, Dr. Perry, Fellow of Trinity College, +who was Senior Wrangler in 1828, and whom we have met with as the +devoutest attendant at the College Chapel, and as the builder of Great +St. Andrew's, came forward to stem the evil. Renouncing the comfort of +College life, he took upon himself the charge of this hopeless +district; for which he built, at his own expense, the commodious (if +ugly) red-brick church opposite the Abbey, and a like fabric (St. +Paul's) at the other end of the area, on the way to the railway +station. He laboured devotedly himself, he inspired others to work, he +invoked the help of a band of pious undergraduates who had already +begun a Sunday School on their own account,[122] and when he departed +to become the pioneer Bishop of Australia, he left a well-equipped +Parish organisation which is still in full activity.[123] + +[Footnote 122: This School still flourishes, and is still staffed by +undergraduates. It is known as "Jesus Lane Sunday School," its first +quarters having been in that street.] + +[Footnote 123: The parish has now been divided into half a dozen +districts. And its earliest houses, immediately round the Abbey +Church, remain (as they have been from the first) outlying fragments +of two small Town parishes, St. Benet's and St. Edward's.] + +[Illustration: _The Lepers' Chapel, Barnwell._] + +Pursuing the Newmarket Road, we find (at the point where it at last +ceases to be a Barnwell Street, and crosses the railway into the open +country beyond), yet another tiny ancient church, called traditionally +the "Lepers' Chapel." It is of Norman date, and probably served the +Lepers' Hospital, which we know to have existed hereabouts, as remote +as might be from the town. This hospital was endowed by King John +with the tolls of the great Fair held hard by on Stourbridge Common, +which even so late as the Eighteenth Century boasted itself the +largest and most important in all Europe, a position now claimed by +that of Nijni Novgorod in Russia. And, to judge by the accounts that +have come down to us, the boast was not unfounded. The Cambridgeshire +historian, Carter, writing in 1753, thus describes it: + + "Stourbridge Fair ... is set out annually on St. Bartholomew by + the Mayor, Aldermen, and the rest of the Corporation of + Cambridge; who all ride thither in a grand procession, with music + playing before them, and most of the boys in the town on + horseback after them, who, as soon as the ceremony is read over, + ride races about the place; when returning to Cambridge each boy + has a cake and some ale at the Town Hall. On the 7th of September + they ride in the same manner to proclaim it; which being done, + the Fair begins, and continues three weeks; though the greatest + part is over in a fortnight. + + "This Fair, which was thought some years ago to be the greatest + in Europe, is kept in a cornfield, about half a mile square, + having the River Cam running on the north side thereof, and the + rivulet called the Stour (from which and the bridge over it the + Fair received its name) on the east side, and it is about two + miles east of Cambridge market-place; where, during the Fair, + coaches, chaises, and chariots attend to carry persons to the + Fair. The chief diversions at Stourbridge are drolls, + rope-dancing, and sometimes a music-booth; but there is an Act of + Parliament which prohibits the acting of plays within fifteen + miles of Cambridge. + + "If the field (on which the Fair is kept) is not cleared of the + corn by the 24th of August, the builders may trample it under + foot to build their booths; and, on the other hand, if the same + be not cleared of the booths and material belonging thereto by + Michaelmas Day at noon, the plough-men may enter the same with + their horses, ploughs, and carts, and destroy whatever they find + on the premises. The filth, dung, straw, etc., left behind by the + fair-keepers, make amends for their trampling and hardening of + the ground. + + "The shops or booths are built in rows like streets, having each + their name, as Garlick Row, Booksellers'-row, Cook-row, etc. And + every commodity has its proper place, as the Cheese Fair, Hop + Fair, Wool Fair, etc.; and here, as in several other streets or + rows, are all sorts of traders, who sell by wholesale or retail, + as goldsmiths, toy-men, brasiers, turners, milliners, + haberdashers, hatters, mercers, drapers, pewterers, china + warehouses, and, in a word, most trades that can be found in + London, from whence many of them come. Here are also taverns, + coffee-houses, and eating-houses in great plenty, and all kept in + booths, in any of which (except the coffee-booth) you may at any + time be accommodated with hot or cold roast goose, roast or + boiled pork, etc. + + "Crossing the main road at the south end of Garlick Row, and a + little to the left hand, is a great Square, formed of the largest + booths, called the Duddery, the area of which Square is from 240 + to 300 feet, chiefly taken up with woollen drapers, wholesale + tailors, and sellers of second-hand clothes; where the dealers + have room before their booths to take down and open their packs, + and bring in waggons to load and unload the same. In the centre + of this Square was (till within these three years) erected a tall + May-pole, with a vane at the top; and in this Square, on the two + chief Sundays during the fair, both forenoon and afternoon, + Divine Service is read, and a sermon preached from a pulpit + placed in the open air, by the Minister of Barnwell; who is very + well paid for the same by the contribution of the fair-keepers. + + "In this Duddery only, it is said, there have been sold £100,000 + worth of woollen manufactures in less than a week's time; besides + the prodigious trade carried on here, by the wholesale tailors + from London, and most other parts of England, who transact their + business wholly in their pocket-books, and meeting here their + chapmen from all parts, make up their accounts, receive money + chiefly in bills, and take further orders. These, they say, + exceed by far the sale of goods actually brought to the Fair, and + delivered in kind; it being frequent for the London wholesale men + to carry back orders from their dealers for £10,000 worth of + goods a man, and some much more. And once in this Duddery, it is + said, there was a booth consisting of six apartments, all + belonging to a dealer in Norwich stuffs only, who had there above + £20,000 worth of those goods. + + "The trade for wool, hops, and leather here is prodigious; the + quantity of wool only sold at one fair is said to have amounted + to £50,000 or £60,000, and of hops very little less. + + "September 14, being the Horse Fair day, is the day of the + greatest hurry, when it is almost incredible to conceive what + number of people there are, and the quantity of victuals that day + consumed by them. + + "During the Fair, Colchester oysters and white herrings, just + coming into season, are in great request, at least by such as + live in the inland parts of the kingdom, where they are seldom to + be had fresh, especially the latter. + + "The Fair is like a well-governed city; and less disorder and + confusion to be seen there than in any other place where there is + so great a concourse of people: here is a Court of Justice always + open from morning till night, where the Mayor of Cambridge, or + his Deputy, sits as Judge, determining all controversies in + matters arising from the business of the Fair, and seeing the + Peace thereof kept; for which purpose he hath eight servants, + called Red-coats, attending him during the time of the Fair and + other public occasions, one or other of which are constantly at + hand in most parts of the Fair; and if any dispute arise between + buyer and seller, on calling out 'Red-coat,' you have instantly + one or more come running to you; and if the dispute is not + quickly decided, the offender is carried to the said Court, where + the case is decided in a summary way, from which sentence there + lies no appeal. + + "About two or three days after the Horse Fair day, when the hurry + of the wholesale business is over, the country gentry for about + ten or twelve miles round begin to come in with their sons and + daughters; and though diversion is what chiefly brings them, yet + it is not a little money they lay out among the tradesmen, + toy-shops, etc., besides what is flung away to see the puppet + shows, drolls, rope-dancing, live creatures, etc., of which there + is commonly plenty. + + "The last observation I shall make concerning this Fair is, how + inconveniently a multitude of people are lodged there who keep + it; their bed (if I may so call it) is laid on two or three + boards, nailed to four pieces that bear it about a foot from the + ground, and four boards round it, to keep the persons and their + clothes from falling off, and is about five feet long, standing + abroad all day if it rains not. At night it is taken into their + booths, and put in to the best manner they can; at bed-time they + get into it, and lie neck and heels together until the morning, + if the wind and rain do not force them out sooner; for a high + wind often blows down their booths, as it did A.D. 1741, and a + heavy rain forces through the hair-cloth that covers it. + + "Though the Corporation of Cambridge has the tolls of this Fair, + and the government as aforesaid, yet the body of the University + has the oversight of the weights and measures thereof (as well as + at Midsummer and Reach Fairs) and the licensing of all + show-booths, live creatures, etc.; and the Proctors of the + University keep a Court there also to hear complaints about + weights and measures, seek out and punish lewd women, and see + that their Gownsmen commit no disorders." + +Fuller (in the seventeenth century) gives us the tradition that the +fair originated with some Westmorland cloth dealers, who were here +overtaken by a storm on their way to Norwich, and found so ready a +market for the goods which they spread out to dry on the grass of the +common that they went no further but returned hither the next year, +and again. Thus the special prominence given to the "Duddery" here is +accounted for. The tradition does not seem improbable, for Kendal has, +from time immemorial, been renowned for its cloth--the famous "Kendal +green" worn, in old ballads, by the English archers. To this day the +shield of that town bears cloth-making implements, with the motto +"_Pannus mihi panis_" ("Flock is my food"). And Norwich was +(throughout the Middle Ages) the great commercial centre of the cloth +trade. That there was some marked connection between Cambridgeshire +and Westmorland is proved by the constant occurrence here of family +names derived from Kendal place-names (Sizergh, Docwray, Strickland, +Sedgwick, etc.) which have been current amongst the peasantry of +Cambridgeshire since the fourteenth century at least. + +Since Carter wrote, the great development of communication has made +fairs a mere survival, and Stourbridge Fair has fallen from its high +estate. It is now a very commonplace affair of a few days' duration, +mainly for the horse trade. But it still is declared open by the Mayor +of Cambridge or his delegate, and a dish of the white herrings which +Carter speaks of still forms part of the opening ceremony. And it has +an abiding interest for English readers, as the prototype of "Vanity +Fair" in the "Pilgrim's Progress." Bunyan, as a Bedford man, would be +familiar with the bustling scene, and, if we compare his pages with +those which we have transcribed from Carter's History, we see how +vividly he has allegorised it: + + "At this Fair are all such Merchandize sold as Houses, Lands, + Trades, Places, Honours, Preferments, Titles, Countreys, + Kingdoms, Lusts, Pleasures, and Delights of all sorts, as Whores, + Bauds, Wives, Husbands, Children, Masters, Servants, Lives, + Blood, Bodies, Souls, Silver, Gold, Pearls, Precious Stones, and + what not. + + "And moreover at this Fair there is at all times to be seen + Juglings, Cheats, Games, Plays, Fools, Apes, Knaves, and Rogues, + and that of every kind. + + "Here are to be seen, too, and that for nothing, Thefts, Murders, + Adulteries, False Swearings, and that of a blood-red colour. + + "And as, in other Fairs of less moment, there are the several + Rows and Streets, under their proper Names, here such and such + Wares are vended, so here likewise you have the proper Places, + Rows, and Streets (namely Countries and Kingdoms) where the + Wares of this Fair are soonest to be found. Here is the Britain + Row, the French Row, the Italian Row, the Spanish Row, the German + Row, where several sorts of vanities are to be sold. But, as in + other Fairs some one Commodity is the Chief of all the Fair, so + the Wares of Rome and her Merchandize is greatly promoted in this + Fair." + +We find also reference to the standing Court of summary jurisdiction +under "the Great One of the Fair," with "the trusty Friends" who +formed his police, that took cognisance of the "Hubbub and great Stir +in the Fair" caused by the demeanour of the pilgrims. + +As an instance of how wide a range the commodities sold at this fair +covered, we may mention that Sir Isaac Newton there bought his famous +prisms--three of them for £3. They were probably of French or Italian +make; no glass of this character was as yet manufactured in England. + + + + +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. + + +At the Lepers' Chapel we are clear of Cambridge and well on the road +to Newmarket, probably the most trafficked of all the great roads +which radiate from Cambridge. Of these there are seven; this Newmarket +Road going to the north-east, the Hills road to the south-east, the +Trumpington Road to the south, the Barton Road to the south-west, the +Madingley Road to the west, the Huntingdon Road to the north-west, +and, finally, the Ely Road to the north. This last takes us into the +Isle of Ely; the other six serve the county of Cambridge, more +strictly so-called, _i.e._, the southern half of the Cambridgeshire of +our maps, not so long ago quite separate, politically, from the +northern half, and even now not wholly united for administrative +purposes. + +The Isle, which contains the whole of the fenland forming this +northern half of Cambridgeshire, is far older as a political entity +than the southern part of the county. Its existence dates back to the +far-off days of the Anglo-Saxon conquest, in the fifth and sixth +centuries, when the poor remnants of the British population in East +Anglia, once the proud tribe of "the great Iceni," fled for refuge +into the "dismal swamp" of the Fens. Here they held out for centuries, +and formed themselves into a new tribe, the Girvii (as our earliest +Latin chronicler transliterates the Welsh name Gyrwy, signifying +"brave men," by which they called themselves). This Girvian +principality has ever since held together. It passed as a whole into +the hands of St. Etheldreda, by her marriage (in 652 A.D.) with the +last Girvian Prince, Tonbert, and from her to her successors the +Abbots and Bishops of Ely, whose jurisdiction survived until the +nineteenth century. + +Meanwhile the old southland homes of the unhappy Britons were being +shared up by their English exterminators. The East Anglians swarmed +over the uplands to the east, and joined hands (not in friendship) +with the more powerful Mercians swarming in from the west. Roughly +speaking the Cam divided these jarring tribes, which lived in undying +hostility till the various English Kingdoms were united into one (in +A.D. 827) by the genius and valour of Egbert, the first "King of the +English." But the boundaries were not effaced till the desolating +flood of the Danish invasions poured over all. + +When that flood was stayed by Egbert's glorious grandson, Alfred the +Great, and the district once more made English and Christian by his +only less glorious son, Edward "the Elder," it was formed by him into +a County called, from its chief town, Cambridgeshire (or, as it was +then, "Granta-bryg-shire"). This was in the year 921. But for the +first idea of any union between this new County and the old Isle of +Ely we must wait another two centuries, when, in 1107, the Abbot of +Ely became a Bishop, with the Isle and the County together for his +See. The ecclesiastical tie thus formed has gradually developed into a +civil tie also; just as the first union of the English race under a +common Primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury, paved the way for its +union under a common King. + +To many charming byways amid the streamlets and the meadows and the +gentle slopes of this southern Cambridgeshire the seven highways out +of Cambridge will successively conduct us. The highways themselves +are, as has been said, seldom inspiring thoroughfares, save for their +far-flung horizons; and the Newmarket Road least of all, for it is, as +might be looked for, motor-swept beyond all the rest. The one +near-hand object alone worth mention is the little Church of Quy, +whose far-seen tower dominates some miles of the road. But this has +little interest except its curious name, which is matter of dispute +amongst etymologists. "Cow-ey" is the most commonly accepted +derivation, meaning the Island of Cows. But Quy can never have been an +island. More probably it is "Cow-way," like the "Cowey Stakes" on the +Thames, signifying that here was a passage for cattle across the +marshy ground which bordered the little stream crossed by the road +before reaching the church. This stream flows out of Fulbourn Fen, an +isolated patch of fen-land a mile square, even yet only half +reclaimed, and of old so impassable that it determined the line of the +great Fleam Dyke, which runs up to it on either side but does not need +to cross it. + +[Illustration: _Quy Church._] + +The Fleam Dyke is one of the great prehistoric lines of defence which +were run from the Fens of the Cam to the summit of the East Anglian +heights. Those heights were in ancient times clothed with dense +forest, and formed an impenetrable barrier against enemies from the +west seeking to invade the East Anglian districts. So too did the +morasses of the fenland. But between fen and forest stretched a strip +of open grassland furnishing easy access. To defend this, the only +gate into their territory, was the great object of the inhabitants of +those districts; and they ran across it two stupendous earthworks, the +Fleam Dyke as their outer bulwark and the Devil's Dyke, which we meet +at Newmarket, as the inner.[124] The former stretches for a length of +some ten miles from the banks of the Cam at Fen Ditton to the uplands +by Balsham (its course broken by Fulbourn Fen); the latter ranges in a +long unbroken rampart from the Fen at Reach to Wood Ditton (_i.e._ +"the ditch-end in the forest"). + +[Footnote 124: There were other minor Dykes (such as the Warstead +Street, from Cherry Hinton to Horseheath), but these play no part in +history.] + +When these were constructed we do not know. They first appear in +history as the scene of desperate fighting between Britons and Romans +in the first century of our era. But they may very probably have +existed before even the Britons came into the land. Magnificent +earthworks they are, some 10 feet high on the inner side, and on the +outer at least 30, from the bottom of the great ditch which flanks +them to the crown of the parapet. When that parapet was topped by a +palisade of timber, they must have presented formidable obstacles +indeed. The Fleam Dyke we do not see from this road. But as we +approach Newmarket, and enter upon its famous Heath, we cross the +Devil's Dyke; and, as we look at its mighty dimensions, we cease to +wonder that our simple-minded ancestors should have ascribed its +formation to superhuman agency. + +The gap by which we pass through the Devil's Dyke deserves notice. It +is the one gap in the whole line of the work, and was left to admit, +not our road, but that which we now join, the London Road of +Newmarket. For this is one of the most venerable tracks in the land, +being the "Icknield Way," made how long ago Heaven only knows. From +the very first settlement of the country there must always have +existed some route along this open strip between fen and forest which +formed the only line of communication from the eastern to the midland +regions of our island. In British days the former were occupied by the +great clan of the Iceni, whose name survives in the English +appellation of the road, and can be traced in many place-names along +it, such as Ickleton in Cambridgeshire, and Ickleford in +Hertfordshire.[125] The road followed the western slope of the chalk +hills to the Thames and beyond, till it tapped the line of the great +Tin-road, by which that then precious metal was brought from Cornwall +to Thanet.[126] + +[Footnote 125: These forms show that the C was sounded hard. On the +coins of the clan the name is written ECEN. These coins are of gold +and bear the figure of a horse, being rude copies of the Macedonian +staters which the tin trade brought to Britain. The earliest known are +of the third century B.C., the latest (those inscribed with the name) +of the first half century A.D.] + +[Footnote 126: Tin was precious as a component of bronze, which, till +iron came in, was the material for weapons and tools. See my _Roman +Britain (S.P.C.K.)_, p. 33.] + +At the Roman conquest of Britain in 55 A.D. the Iceni were friendly to +the invaders, whom indeed they had invited into the land, to free them +from their subjection to the House of Cymbeline, King of Britain. But +when, a few years later, during the settlement of the country, the +Roman general Ostorius ordered them to give up their arms, they +regarded the demand as an intolerable insult, and bade him defiance, +manning the Fleam Dyke against him. But such was his energy that, +though he had no regular troops with him, his light-armed auxiliaries +stormed the whole length of the line at a single rush. The routed +Icenians fled in panic homewards, only to find their way hopelessly +barred by their own fortifications along the Devil's Dyke, and all but +the few who could force their way through the mad crush at this one +narrow gap, were, in spite of a desperate resistance, slaughtered +wholesale. The tribe were then disarmed, and endured unresistingly the +licence and greed of Roman officials and Roman moneylenders, till +goaded into madness, twelve years later, by the wrongs of their +"warrior-queen," Boadicea. Then followed that convulsive explosion of +popular rage and despair, in which every Roman within reach was +massacred with every circumstance of horror, and to which the Romans, +after their victory, replied by such a policy of extermination as to +blot the Icenian name from the page of history. Never again do we meet +with it. + +Between the Dyke and Newmarket lies the Heath, renowned as the +earliest English race-course. This form of amusement seems to have +come in with the Stuart Dynasty. James the First is said to have +inaugurated the sport. But the well-known tale of how Edward the First +escaped from his captivity at Hereford, by inducing his guards to ride +matches till their horses were exhausted and then galloping off on +his own fresh mount, shows that the idea was afloat long before. And +at Newmarket in particular such matches must often have been ridden in +connection with the great horse mart which has given the town its +name. + +This New Market is, like the New Forest, now far from new. It dates +from the year 1227, when a frightful outbreak of sickness frightened +away buyers and sellers from their older market-place two miles off at +Exning (a pretty natural amphitheatre of turf bright with many +springs), and sent them to meet for the future in the freer air of the +Heath. This word, by the way, does not, in Cambridgeshire, imply the +existence of heather, merely meaning an open space. + +Thus Newmarket came into being. The sport we first hear of in +connection with it is not racing but hunting. For the boundless range +of the moorlands to the east of the town (which even now astonish all +who first see them) were then haunted by innumerable herds of wild +deer, and afforded ideal ground for the chase. James the First, +accordingly, had here a hunting-box,[127] in which his unhappy son was +afterwards imprisoned for a while by the victorious army of the +Commonwealth. And thus the Heath became known to his "merry" grandson, +Charles the Second, who speedily saw how specially adapted its expanse +was for horse-racing, and established a regular annual race-meeting, +the first to be introduced into England. + +[Footnote 127: In the Register of Fordham Church (a few miles north of +Newmarket) is an entry to the effect that, on 27 February 1624, "The +Most High and Mighty Prince, King James the First of England and Sixth +of Scotland condescended to hunt six hares in Fordham Field!"] + +The Royal sport spread like wildfire, and the bare Heath became year +by year crowded by the gayest throng in England, thus vividly +described by Macaulay: + + "It was not uncommon for the whole Court and Cabinet to go down + there," Charles himself, to the admiration of his subjects, + posting down from London in a single day, with only two relays of + fresh horses. "Jewellers and milliners, players and fiddlers, + venal wits and venal beauties, followed in crowds. The streets + were made impassable by coaches and six. In the places of public + resort peers flirted with maids of honour, and officers of the + Life Guards, all plumes and gold lace, jostled professors in + trencher caps and black gowns. For on such occasions the + neighbouring University of Cambridge always sent her highest + functionaries with loyal addresses, and selected her ablest + theologians to preach before the Sovereign and his splendid + retinue. In the wild days before the Revolution, indeed, the most + learned and eloquent divine might fail to draw a fashionable + audience, particularly if Buckingham announced his intention of + holding forth; for sometimes his Grace would enliven the dulness + of a Sunday morning by addressing to the bevy of fine gentlemen + and fine ladies a ribald exhortation which he called a sermon. + With lords and ladies from St. James's and Soho, and with doctors + from Trinity College and King's College, were mingled the + provincial aristocracy, fox-hunting squires and their + rosy-cheeked daughters, who had come in queer-looking family + coaches, drawn by cart-horses, from the remotest parishes of + three or four counties to see their Sovereign.... Racing was only + one of the many amusements of that festive season. On fine + mornings there was hunting. For those who preferred hawking, + choice falcons were brought from Holland. On rainy days the + cock-pit was encircled by stars and blue ribbons.... The Heath + was fringed by a wild, gipsy-like camp of vast extent. For the + hope of being able to feed on the leavings of many sumptuous + tables, and to pick up some of the guineas and crowns which the + spendthrifts of London were throwing about, attracted thousands + of peasants from a circle of many miles." + +Nor were these beggars the only ones to profit by the festive +occasion. The townsfolk of Newmarket reaped a golden harvest; lodgings +for the press of visitors were at fancy prices, and many were glad to +pay a guinea a night for even the third of a bed; and "at Cambridge," +we read, "a hackney-horse is not to be got for money." + +When Newmarket became only one of many racing centres throughout the +land, this height of glory naturally departed. But to this day its +meetings rank in the very first class of such fixtures. And as a +training ground for race-horses it stands second to none. Training +stables rise all round it, and strings of young thorough-breds are +constantly to be met along the road, and are treated with reverence, +even by the drivers of motor-cars, who, for some distance on either +side of the town are not allowed to travel at any speed over ten miles +an hour. There are now seven principal annual racing fixtures here, +the chief being the "Craven," in the spring, and the "Two Thousand" in +the autumn. + +The town of Newmarket is now wholly in Suffolk, although till a few +years ago it lay partly in Cambridgeshire, for it is built on either +side of the Icknield Street, which here formed the county boundary. +But the Old Market at Exning was always in Suffolk; a little island of +which may be seen on the map, surrounded by Cambridgeshire territory. +Here we have an interesting historical survival. Whence came about +this curious delimitation? The answer is that when Cambridgeshire was +first formed into a county by Edward the Elder it was not yet +forgotten that Exning had long been a special residence of Suffolk +royalty. + +Suffolk, it must be remembered, is not, like Cambridgeshire, +Bedfordshire, and other counties named after their chief town, an +artificial division of the land, called into being by the Government +merely as an administrative unit, but, like the Isle of Ely, one of +the originally independent principalities the gradual accretion of +which has formed England. Very early Suffolk and Norfolk joined +together in one East Anglian Kingdom; but that Kingdom endured for +centuries, and was not extinguished till its last monarch, St. Edmund, +was murdered by the Danes in their great raid of 870 A.D. He was, +indeed, but a tributary monarch, under the King of the English; but +this was then only a quite recent arrangement, and his predecessors +had been wholly independent sovereigns. For many years they were +engaged in a heroic struggle to preserve their independence against +Mercia, the great power which occupied all the Midlands, and therefore +it was that they fixed their Royal abode at Exning, close to the great +dyke which bulwarked the East Anglian realm, as, long before, it had +bulwarked the Icenian. + +Hence it came about that Exning was the birthplace of St. Etheldreda, +the foundress of our great "sacred fane" at Ely, round which, almost +more than Cambridge itself, the fortunes of Cambridgeshire have +centred. Her father, King Anna, was called to the East Anglian throne +in troublous times. Christianity and Paganism were at death-grips +throughout the land. And the latter cause was championed by the +monarch who was, for the moment, far the most powerful of the English +sovereigns, Penda, King of Mercia. From his central position he struck +out north, south, and east, at his Christian neighbours. His first +blows were against Northumbria, where he successively shattered the +Roman Mission of Paulinus and the Celtic Mission of Aidan. Next he +drove into exile Kenwalk, the first Christian King of Wessex, and +finally, in 654, burst over the East Anglian frontier "like a wolf, so +that Anna and his folk were devoured as in a moment." + +But this breaking up of the Exning family did but scatter its members +to spread far and wide the cause of the Gospel. And a splendid band +they were. Not for nothing is Anna described by Bede as "a good man, +and the father of an excellent family." His eldest son followed him on +the throne (for Penda was slain shortly after his last victory, and +the Mercian dominion fell with him), and helped St. Etheldreda in her +great work at Ely; another son, St. Erconwald, became one of the most +famous of all the Bishops of London; while, of the daughters, one was +Abbess of Barking, another of Dereham, another of Brie, in +France.[128] Yet another, Sexburga, after being Queen of Kent, +succeeded Etheldreda as Abbess of Ely, and was herself succeeded by +her daughter Ermenilda, who, as Queen of Penda's son Wulfhere, had +taken part in St. Chad's great work of converting Mercia. Seldom has +any place bred such a household of Saints as this quiet little village +of Exning. A pretty village it still is; but is now fast becoming a +suburb of Newmarket. The bright little stream running through it is +derived partly from springs in the old market meadow already spoken of +(known as "the Seven Springs"), and partly from sources in a copse +some half-mile to the south, known as St. Wendred's Well. All we know +of this obscure Saint is that she had a local fame in the tenth +century, when her body, in a golden coffin, was brought from Ely to +the great battle between Edmund Ironside and Canute at Assandun, and +became the spoil of the victor. The church at March is dedicated to +her. + +[Footnote 128: Her abbey was for generations the favourite +boarding-school in France for young ladies from England.] + +The road from Newmarket to Ely (twelve miles) passes several places +worth notice. First comes Snailwell, with the flint-built round tower +of its little church rising so picturesquely above the "well," now a +broad, clear pond, from which the little river Snail crawls away into +the adjacent fen. At the adjoining hamlet of Landwade there was lately +unearthed a Roman villa, the fine tesselated pavement of which is now +in the Sedgwick Museum of Cambridge. + +Fordham, which we next reach, is a larger village, with a church of +most unusual architectural interest. The north porch has a stone roof +of no fewer than six vaulted bays, running east and west, and +supporting a parvis chamber, with late Decorated windows, approached +by a stone staircase from without, and, seemingly, designed for a +chapel with a separate dedication to St. Mary Magdalene, the Church +being St. Peter's. This development is unique. + +[Illustration: _Fordham Church._] + +Three miles on, we come to the furthest outpost of the East Anglian +uplands, the little market town of Soham, situated on an almost +isolated peninsula of the chalk, which here runs out into the fen, and +upon the very borders[129] of the Isle of Ely. The Cathedral is here a +conspicuous object, rising high upon its hill over the intervening +fen, and only five miles away. But Soham is associated with a yet +earlier development of local Christianity than Ely itself. Forty years +before St. Etheldreda founded her Abbey, one was here established by +St. Felix, "the Apostle of East Anglia." That title does not mean that +he was absolutely the first to preach the Gospel to the East English, +but the first whose work was permanent. For the introduction of the +Faith into these parts met with more than one set-back before it was +fairly established. + +[Footnote 129: These borders are now marked only in the Ordnance maps. +The line runs right across the county from west to east, following the +West River (the ancient course of the Ouse), to its junction with the +Cam, and then almost straight eastward to the boundary of Suffolk, +along a water-course known as the "Bishop's Delph" (_i.e._, ditch, +from the verb _delve_).] + +Within two years of the first coming of St. Augustine in 597 A.D., +Redwald King of East Anglia, who had succeeded the earliest Christian +monarch, Ethelbert of Kent, in the dignity of Bretwalda,[130] followed +him also in seeking baptism. His Christianity, however, was of too +unconventional a type to be acceptable. Bede tells us how "in the same +temple he had an altar for the sacrifice of Christ, and a small one to +offer sacrifices unto devils." This attempt (made under the influence +of his heathen wife) was foredoomed to failure, and was followed by a +period of religious confusion, till Sigebert, his son, succeeded to +the throne. He had been an exile in France, where he had become "a +most Christian and learned man," under the influence of St. Felix, a +holy man of Burgundy, whose help he asked, on becoming King, "to cause +all his province to partake" of his religion. + +[Footnote 130: This title implied a vague Primacy amongst the various +Anglo-Saxon monarchs, conferred, by as vague a recognition on their +part, upon him who was for the time the most powerful amongst them. +But though vague it was far from unreal. We find Ethelbert's +protection enabling St. Augustine to preach all over England. Indeed +the name (which etymologically signifies merely Broad Wielder) very +early got to be regarded as meaning Wielder of Britain.] + +[Illustration: _Fordham._] + +The landing-place of the Saint is still commemorated in the name +Felixstowe near Harwich, and thence he proceeded to preach with +entire success throughout all Sigebert's realm. Soham was his furthest +point, for the fenland beyond was already Christian (the population +being British, and provided for by Augustine's church at +Cratendune).[131] And at Soham he set up an Abbey, where he himself +was buried in 634, three years only after his landing. St. Etheldreda +(who was probably Sigebert's niece) was at this time a young girl. +Some imagine Soham to have been the site of a famous school set up by +Felix, "after the model of those in France, with masters and +teachers." But this is more likely to have been in his Cathedral city +of Dunwich, once the leading town in East Anglia, now wholly submerged +by the encroachments of the German Ocean. The See was transferred to +Thetford and then to Norwich. Soham Abbey flourished on side by side +with Ely, till both were destroyed in the great Danish raid of 870 +A.D. Why, when Ely was rebuilt, a century later, Soham was not, is +unknown. + +[Footnote 131: Augustine, true to his mission from St. Gregory, strove +to rekindle all over the land such embers of the Faith as still +smouldered on amongst the British refugees. For those in the fenland, +the Girvii, he had set up a small religious house at Cratendune near +Ely, which was afterwards absorbed by Etheldreda's larger Abbey.] + +The present parish church has a lofty Perpendicular nave, with fine +flowing Decorated windows in the chancel and transept, and a really +splendid tower, one hundred feet in height, crowned with a pinnacled +parapet of flint-work. Shortly after the Norman Conquest, Soham became +the objective of the first causeway to be made for civil purposes +between the island of Ely and the mainland.[132] This was due to +Bishop Hervey (the first to be Bishop of Ely as well as Abbot), and +was felt to be so epoch-making a work that it was ascribed to +supernatural influence. St. Edmund, the high-souled King of East +Anglia (who, after his martyrdom by the Danes in 870, became the +Patron Saint of the Eastern Counties), was said to have appeared in a +dream to a man of Exning, bidding him suggest the design to the +Bishop. The little island of Stuntney[133] formed a stepping-stone for +this causeway, so that only three miles out of the six between Ely and +Soham needed an actual embankment. + +[Footnote 132: William the Conqueror had already run a military +causeway across Willingham Fen to the south-west side of the island at +Aldreth.] + +[Footnote 133: The word "stunt" in the dialect of Cambridgeshire +signifies _steep_. The shores of Stuntney rise from the fen with most +unusual abruptness.] + +[Illustration: _Soham._] + +Soham, as has been said, was on all sides surrounded by fen, except on +the narrow ridge of firm ground between it and Fordham. So +water-logged, indeed, was the country round that sea-going vessels +made a port here. This fen is now all drained and become most prosaic +cornland. But a few miles east and west of Soham two little patches, +each about a mile square, remain in their original state. These are +Chippenham Fen to the east, and Wicken Fen to the west. Both are +fairly inaccessible spots, but when we get to them they enable us to +form a vivid idea of what the state of things must have been when the +whole fenland was such as this. Both give the impression of a morass +hopelessly impenetrable, covered with a dense growth of tall reeds +rising high above your head, through which you push your way blindly, +to be constantly checked by some sluggish watercourse, too wide to +jump, too shallow to swim, and impossible to wade, for the bottom is a +fathomless stratum of soft turf and ooze giving no foothold. To +stumble into one of these watercourses is, indeed, no small peril. If +you are alone the case is well-nigh hopeless, and even a friend on the +bank would find it hard to pull you out. His best course is to cut a +fairly large bundle of reeds, by trampling which under your feet you +may for a moment be able to stand while he rescues you. + +One can well understand how it came about that such a country was an +almost inviolable sanctuary for those whom despair drove to seek +refuge in its recesses. These small fragments of it still form a +sanctuary; for many rare plants and insects, exterminated elsewhere by +the march of progress, here still nourish. Conspicuous amongst these +is the lovely swallow-tail butterfly; which flits about, dashing with +bright touches of colour the weird and sombre beauty of the silent +scene. Very silent it is now. But it was not so of old, when the whole +fen was crowded with the swarming bird-life, so vividly described by +Kingsley in "Hereward the Wake": "where the coot clanked, and the +bittern boomed, and the sedge-bird, not content with its own sweet +song, mocked the notes of all the birds around, ... where hung +motionless, high over head, hawk beyond hawk, buzzard beyond buzzard, +kite beyond kite, as far as eye could see. Into the air whirred up +great skeins of wildfowl innumerable, with a cry as of all the bells +of Crowland; while clear above all their noise sounded the wild +whistle of the curlews, and the trumpet note of the great white swan." +Such was the fenland of old; but all this wealth of commotion is long +since gone, and scarcely do we see a bird now at Wicken or Chippenham, +except here and there a waterhen, and (at Chippenham) the pheasants +which are reared in coops on its margin. + +These birds belong to Chippenham Hall, a mansion built by Admiral +Russell, the hero of La Hogue in 1692, our first great naval victory +since the rout of the Armada, "and the first great victory that the +English had gained over the French since the day of Agincourt."[134] +It stands on the site of an earlier house, which, in its day, served +as a place of confinement for Charles the First in 1647, after the +raid by Cornet Joyce on Holmby House had transferred his custody from +the hands of the Parliament to those of the Army. Here he remained for +some weeks, while the somewhat sordid game of political intrigue (out +of which he still hoped to make his own) was being played around him, +"very pleasant and cheerful, taking his recreation daily at tennis, +and delighting much in the company of Cornet Joyce," but refusing to +listen to the famous Puritan stalwart, Hugh Peters, who was +accustomed to hold forth "with the Bible in the one hand and a great +pistol in the other," and who here "moved His Majesty to hear him +preach. Which His Majesty did the rather decline." + +[Footnote 134: Macaulay.] + +Within sight of Soham, across the fen to the east, and only three +miles away, stood for awhile another House of Religion, the Priory of +Isleham. But to get from one to the other it was (and is) needful to +go round by Fordham, making the distance at least double. A more out +of the way place than Isleham cannot well be found, but it is worth a +visit. All that remains of the Priory is an oblong structure of stone +buttressed with red brick, looking on the outside like a barn, and, +indeed, used as such. But it is, in fact, the hulk of the Priory +Church; and, inside, the pillars and capitals are in very fair +condition. The work is all Norman. This short-lived establishment was +built in the eleventh century, as a "cell" (or outlying colony), of +the Abbey of St. Jacutus de Insula, near Dol in Brittany. Within two +centuries the monks abandoned it in favour of their sister house at +Linton.[135] + +[Footnote 135: After the suppression of the alien Priories this +property went to the Crown, and was granted by Henry the Sixth to +Pembroke College, Cambridge, in whose hands it still remains.] + +They may have found Isleham too sequestered. It stands, like Soham, on +the verge of the Isle of Ely, and also on the verge of Suffolk, to +which county it seems actually to have belonged throughout great part +of the Middle Ages. But it was in the Bishopric neither of Ely nor of +Norwich, but of far away Rochester, to which it had been annexed, as +tradition went, by Alfred the Great. The Church, dedicated to St. +Andrew, has an exceptionally fine hammer-beam roof, bearing the +inscription: + + CRYSTOFER PEYTON DID MAK THYS ROFE + IN THE YERE OF OURE LORD MCCCCLXXXXV + BEING THE X YERE OF KINGE HENRY THE VII. + +A splendid brass records the memory of this benefactor's father, +Thomas, who brought the Isleham estates into the family by his +marriage with Margaret Bernard, the heiress of the former possessors. +She as well as her successor, Margaret Francis, are on either side of +him, in low-necked and high-waisted robes with ample skirts. That of +Margaret Bernard bears a large flower and scroll pattern, and on her +head-gear is inscribed the prayer "Jesu, mercy! Lady, help!" That of +Margaret Francis is plain, trimmed with fur. Both wear an identical +necklace, presumably the very same. Thomas himself (who was High +Sheriff of Cambridge and Huntingdonshire in 1442 and 1452) is in plate +armour of the most highly developed kind, with quaint and enormous +elbow-guards. The figures, which are some thirty inches in height, are +surmounted by an elaborate triple canopy. + +Another brass, much more worn, shows somewhat smaller figures of the +last of the Bernards, Sir John, and his wife, Dame Elizabeth Sakevyle. +He is also in plate armour of a simpler type,[136] and she in a +close-fitting kirtle and long gown, fastened by a cord across the +breast, with a horned head-dress from which a veil depends over her +shoulders. The dog at her feet implies that she was a lady in her own +right. And yet a third brass gives us Sir Richard Peyton (1574), who +was a Reader at Gray's Inn. Over his doublet he wears a gown, long, +loose, and lined with fur. In his left hand he holds a book, whilst he +lays the right upon his heart. His wife, Mary Hyde, beside him, is in +a plain dress, falling open below the waist to show a richly brocaded +petticoat.[137] + +[Footnote 136: He fought at Agincourt, and was one of the knights told +off to kill the French prisoners.] + +[Footnote 137: The Peytons held Isleham till the eighteenth century.] + +Besides these brasses, there is the fine tomb, in the north transept, +of the first Bernard to be Lord of Isleham, a Crusader, as is shown by +the crossed legs of his recumbent effigy. The _tailed_ surcoat over +his coat of mail fixes his date at about 1275. He was, in fact, one of +those who accompanied Edward the First (not yet King) to Palestine. +The moulding of the canopy above the tomb also connects him with that +monarch, for it is the same as that of the Coronation Chair in +Westminster Abbey, placed by Edward over the Holy Stone of Scone, +which he had carried off from Scotland in token of his claim to be +indeed the rightful King of that stubborn realm. + +Yet another point of interest in this church is the eagle lectern, an +exquisite piece of mediæval brasswork, so good, indeed, that it has +been copied in the lectern of Ely Cathedral. It is apparently +fifteenth century work, and was found buried in the fen, some half +century ago, between Isleham and Soham, so nearly half way that both +parishes laid claim to it, and even now Soham folk are not reconciled +to its loss. Whoever were the original possessors, it was probably +concealed in the fen to save it from the Puritan iconoclasts of the +seventeenth century, who, during the Civil War, habitually destroyed +lecterns of this type as "abominable idols." + +Eastward from Newmarket radiate most fascinating roads, leading +through heather and pine woods to Mildenhall, with its splendid church +and ancient market hall; and to Brandon, where men still make (as they +have made for 5000 years) palæolithic flint implements by the very +same methods used in those prehistoric days; and to Bury St. Edmunds, +with its wonderful ruins and great historical associations. But these +are all out of our beat. To the southward, however, we are in +Cambridgeshire, and a fine avenue, two miles in length, known as "the +Duchess's Drive," leads up to the ridge of the East Anglian heights. +It is noteworthy that almost along the whole length of that ridge, and +particularly hereabouts, villages cluster thick, whereas the slopes +below can show scarcely any, but form an unoccupied belt, two miles +wide, between the upland and the lowland populated area. A very +out-of-the-way district is this watershed between the broad basin of +the Ouse and those of the little rivers running into the North Sea, +for the nearest railways are miles away, and an old time peace broods +over everything. + +The first village we come to is Cheveley. The church here is +cruciform, with a piscina of rare beauty in its Early English chancel, +which is closed in by a fourteenth century rood screen of Decorated +work. To the same period belongs the church chest, which has the +unique feature of being made of cypress wood, and the tower, also with +the unique feature of an external bartizan or watch-turret, apparently +for a beacon fire. The dedication of the church is no less unique, +"St. Mary and the Sacred Host." + +The name of Cheveley is associated with what Professor Maitland calls +"the curious if disgraceful story of the decline and fall" of the +ancient Corporation of Cambridge.[138] When the Revolution of 1688 had +put a final end to the old Royal prerogatives over local +administration, "the Corporation stood free from national +supervision"; and Parliament, as time went on, appointed Commissioners +to undertake the duties of police and hygiene, which had formerly been +entrusted to it. With the cessation of recognised responsibilities the +Corporation also ceased to have a conscience, and shamelessly +squandered the corporate property on the personal greediness of its +members. The Duke of Rutland, from his great seat at Cheveley, became, +till the flood of nineteenth century reforms cleansed the Augean +stable, its absolute master, and his nominees only were chosen into +it, and thus, after a thousand years of strenuous, and mostly +beneficent life, "first as a knot of heathen hidesmen,[139] then as a +township of early English burg-men, then as a corporation of mediæval +burgesses," it finally dwindled to a small dining club, "with good +wine, and plenty of it," absolutely dominated by one great Tory +magnate, and claiming "the right to expend their income on themselves +and their friends, without being bound to apply any part of it to the +good of the Town." Reform came none too soon. + +[Footnote 138: _Township and Borough_, p. 96.] + +[Footnote 139: The original Corporation (not yet so called) consisted +of the local residents who held (or were rated at) a "hide" of land +(120 acres). This was at the end of the ninth century, when the +landowners were Danes and heathen.] + +Cheveley is some three miles from Newmarket, and, as much further on, +we reach another interesting little village, Kirtling. The local +pronunciation of the name is "Catlage," which is unhappily becoming +obsolete, like so many other local pronunciations throughout England, +under the orthographical dead level of elementary scholasticism. The +most striking edifice here is the great red-brick gate tower, with its +four octagonal turrets, which is all that remains of a mansion, in its +day one of the most famous in England. It was built in the reign of +Queen Mary by the first Lord North, whose family still hold "Kirtling +Tower," and whose son here magnificently entertained Queen +Elizabeth.[140] + +[Footnote 140: A constant tradition declares that she was imprisoned +(or hidden) here during part of her sister's reign, but it cannot be +verified.] + +The wide moat which surrounded it still exists, and reminds us that +this mansion was on the site of a great mediæval castle belonging to +the Tony family, from the days of William the Conqueror to those of +Henry the Eighth. The manor had once been the property of the +ill-fated King Harold, and was given by the Conqueror to Judith, widow +of the saintly hero Waltheof, after his judicial murder. The church +contains many North monuments, and Kirtling also possesses a pretty +little Roman Catholic church, being one of the five "Missions" in +Cambridgeshire--along with Cambridge, Ely, Newmarket, and Wisbech. For +the Norths still hold, not only their ancient seat, but their ancient +Faith. + +Not far from Kirtling is Wood Ditton; the last word signifying either +Ditch Town, or, more probably, Ditch End, for it stands at the upland +extremity of the Devil's Dyke. Along this ridge of the East Anglian +Heights the primæval forest was of old so dense that no artificial +defence was needed to check the progress of an invading army. It was a +veritable wall of oak, and ash, and thorn, and holly, and alder; no +route for an army at any time, and where the felling of a few trees +across the glades would speedily form an absolutely impenetrable +obstacle. Here then the great earthwork, which we saw on Newmarket +Heath, ends its ten-mile climb from the Fen at Reach, 350 feet below. +Wood Ditton is a picturesque little place, still suggestive of +woodland, especially around the flint-built church (constructed in the +twelfth century and remodelled in the fifteenth), which has an +octagonal steeple of specially graceful poise. A large brass, in +somewhat poor condition, dating from 1393, commemorates "Henry +Englissh and Wife Margt." Henry was a Knight, and wears what is known +as "Camail" armour, which consisted of a series of small steel +roundels fastened on to leather, hardened by boiling. Dowsing records +(under date March 22, 1643), "We here brake down 50 superstitious +pictures and crucifixes. Under the Virgin Mary was written: 'O Mother +of God have mercy upon us.'" + +The neighbouring village of Stetchworth (or Stretchworth) also +suffered in Dowsing's visitation. But he failed to notice that one of +the two ancient bells in the steeple had a "superstitious" +inscription: + + SANCTA MARGARETA ORA PRO NOBIS. + +So it remained unshattered, and still hangs in the belfry, where the +other bells also have noticeable inscriptions, two bearing the words +"God save Thy Church. 1608," and the third + + OMS·SPT·LAVDA·DNM. + ("Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.") + +This and the Margaret bell are ascribed to the fifteenth century. + +Stetchworth Manor, in the tenth century, was given to the Abbey of +Ely, to provide clothing for a newly-professed monk, the son of the +donor. This sounds an extraordinarily disproportionate gift; but the +clothing of an Ely monk was really a very serious item, and, as the +Abbey account books show, cost the convent the equivalent of something +very like £50 per annum. Readers of Chaucer will remember how +comfortably, and even luxuriously, the monk of his "Canterbury Tales" +is dressed. + +Of the remaining villages along this upland line there is not much to +tell.[141] They present a pleasant field for wandering exploration; +each has its picturesque features, no church is without something of +antiquarian interest, and over all broods a delicious aloofness. +Westley Waterless Church has a flint-built round tower, of the Norfolk +fashion, and a fine brass of 1325, representing Sir John de Creke and +his wife, Lady Alyne. He is shown wearing the curious surcoat then in +fashion, known as a _cyclas_, which, in front, reached only to the +waist, and, behind, to the knees. The lady is one of the first +examples of female portraiture in brass: her figure is strangely out +of drawing. + +[Footnote 141: The frequent occurrence of "West" in their +names--Westley, Weston, West Wratting, West Wickham--reminds us that +their geographical and historical connection is with Suffolk, to the +east of them, rather than with Cambridgeshire.] + +Weston Colville has also a brass, now affixed to the wall, and too +much damaged for identification. The church here is almost wholly +Early English, as is that of Dullingham. Borough Green contains some +fine twelfth century monuments, sadly knocked about. The Parson here +was ejected by the Puritan Earl of Manchester, Governor of Cambridge, +during the Civil War, for the heinous offence of saying "that he ought +to shorten his sermons rather than neglect reading the Common Prayer, +and that the Collects were to be preferred before preaching." Grounds +no less frivolous were a sufficient excuse for a like ejection of +half the parsons in Cambridgeshire at this period. The rest signed the +Covenant and renounced their Anglican heresies, sometimes with +considerable emphasis. One curate is recorded to have stamped the Book +of Common Prayer under his feet, in the face of the congregation, +declaring that he would henceforth be their minister "by no Prelatical +and Popish imposition of hands." Some score of these Vicars of Bray +lived to turn their coats once more at the Restoration. + +Half-way between Cambridge and Newmarket, and half a mile from the +main road, stands the fine Church of Bottisham, with good Decorated +windows, a stone rood screen of Perpendicular work, and noteworthy +sedilia and piscina. The beautiful fluting round the clerestory +windows is still more noteworthy, and also the arcading beneath those +of the south aisle both within and without. Here is the tomb of Elyas +de Beckingham, Justice of the Common Pleas under Edward the First, +who, almost alone, escaped in the clean sweep which that monarch made +of his Bench for corruption. Here, in 1664, the parson was ejected on +the grounds "that he was a time-server,[142] and one that observed +bowing towards the east, standing up at the _Gloria Patri_, reading +the Second Service at the Communion Table, and such-like superstitious +worship and innovation in the Church. That he is a very unable and +unfit man for the ministry; for half his parishioners cannot hear him, +neither did he ever preach to their edifying, neither is he able, as +the deponents do verily believe." + +[Footnote 142: _i.e._, An observer of holy times and seasons.] + +Bottisham, in all probability, played a part in that pathetic episode +in the life of King Charles the First, which began with his flight +from Oxford and ended with his vain appeal to the loyalty of the +Scottish army then besieging Newark. Finding that Oxford must needs +surrender to the Parliamentary forces closing in upon it, the King cut +off his hair and beard, and in the disguise of a servant, carrying the +cloak-bag of the two faithful chaplains who accompanied him, stole +away at three in the morning, on Monday, April 27, 1646, from the +beleaguered city, which had been his headquarters for so long. A long +day's ride of 50 miles brought the party that night to Wheathampstead, +near St. Albans, where a faithful adherent was found to give him +shelter, though the Parliament were proclaiming, with drum and +trumpet, that "what person soever shall harbour and conceal, or know +of the harbouring and concealing of the King's Person, and shall not +immediately reveal it to both Houses, shall be proceeded against as a +traitor, forfeit his whole estate, and die without mercy." The next +day, Tuesday, in clerical attire this time, and with only one +companion, Mr. Ashburnham, the hunted Monarch entered Cambridgeshire +(avoiding the towns) and that night, after another 50 miles of riding, +slept "at a small village, seven miles from Newmarket." This village, +Mr. Kingston, the historian of the Civil War in East Anglia, to whom I +am indebted for this picturesque story, thinks may have been +Bottisham, whence Charles could have reached Downham, his next stage, +by water. + +Bottisham is the first of a line of interesting villages. We next +reach, through a mile or two of pretty lanes, Swaffham Bulbeck, where, +again the church has some good Decorated work, and fifteenth century +seats, also a cedar chest of the same period, with carvings of the +Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Assumption of Our Lady. It is +remarkable that these should have escaped the specially thorough +"purification" which Dowsing here describes. "We brake down two +crucifixes (and Christ nailed to them), one hundred superstitious +pictures, and twenty cherubims, two crosses from the steeple, and two +from the church and chancel, and digged down the altar-steps." The +vicar was also ejected for being "zealous to put into execution Bishop +Wren's fancies." Wren, the builder of Peterhouse Chapel, was Bishop of +Ely 1638-1667, and deeply offended the Puritans by ordering the +Communion Tables to be set "altar-wise" at the east end of the +chancels (instead of being merely boards, which were habitually leant +against the walls, and at Communion time were placed on trestles +anywhere about the church). His High Church proclivities earned him +eighteen years' imprisonment in the Tower, till released by the +Restoration. + +To the north of Swaffham Bulbeck runs out an extension of the village +known by the remarkable name of "Commercial End." It consists of one +picturesque street, at the extremity of which we find ourselves on the +banks of a deep, narrow waterway, like an old canal. An old canal in +fact it is, and shows us that we have here reached the beach-line of +the ancient Fen; for this is Swaffham Lode, one of those artificial +cuts through the tangled swamp by which barges and even sea-going +vessels were enabled of old to reach the mainland. Of these Lodes +there were several; and the knot of population at the termination of +each shows the amount of traffic they anciently carried. Bottisham +Lode has given its name to a village larger than Bottisham itself, and +some three miles from it. And here at Swaffham the commerce of those +bygone days has left us Commercial End. Hard by are the insignificant +remains of a small Benedictine nunnery founded by the Bulbeck family +in the reign of King John. + +[Illustration: _Swaffham Bulbeck._] + +A mile further on brings us to another Swaffham, Swaffham Prior, with +its picturesque churchyard rising steeply fifty feet above the +village, and containing not one but two churches, dedicated +respectively to St. Mary, and SS. Cyriac and Julitta.[143] + +[Footnote 143: These martyrs were son and mother, and suffered in the +Diocletian persecution, the former being of very tender years. Julitta +cheered him on to his glorious death, and was then herself executed.] + +Till the Restoration these represented two separate incumbencies; the +former having been given to the Abbey of Ely by Brithnoth, the heroic +Alderman of East Anglia under Ethelred the Unready. Both churches have +passed through singular architectural vicissitudes. The design of the +Norman tower of St. Mary's (the lower of the two), square below and +octagonal above, was copied by the fifteenth century builders of St. +Cyriac's, and is the only surviving portion of their work--the body of +the church having been pulled down in 1667, at the union of the +benefices. + +[Illustration: _Swaffham Prior._] + +A century later the steeple of St. Mary's was struck by lightning, +which occasioned so unreasoning a panic amongst the worshippers that +they resolved to abandon the church altogether. In vain did the Squire +(then, as now, one of the Allix family)[144] offer to repair the +damage, which was but slight, at his own charge. Nothing would serve +but dismantling St. Mary's and using its spoil towards the rebuilding +of St. Cyriac's, in the shape of a hideous brick tabernacle, of the +worst Georgian style, attached to the ancient tower. St. Mary's would +have been entirely pulled down had not the ancient masonry proved so +solid that the work of demolition did not pay the local builder who +got the job. As it was, it remained a ruin for yet another century, +and it was not till the end of the nineteenth that it was +restored--still under Allix auspices. Now it is once more the place of +worship, and contains a specially well-executed rood-screen. But the +beautiful spire which crowned the whole steeple still awaits +replacement. The Georgian St. Cyriac's yet stands, and is used as a +parish museum. + +[Footnote 144: This family came into England amongst the Huguenot +refugees from France early in the eighteenth century.] + +[Illustration: _Swaffham Prior Churches._] + +From the churchyard of Swaffham Prior we get a grand view over the +limitless fen to the northward; Ely Cathedral, ten miles away, rising +conspicuous above it. The road we have been pursuing leads us on +Ely-wards; but, a mile hence, comes to a dead stop at the little +hamlet of Reach, once one of the most important places in the whole +county. For here the mighty earthwork of the Devil's Dyke runs down +into the fen. To meet it the greatest of all the Lodes was cut from +the Cam at Upware, and at its hithe (or quay) our road has its +termination. It is a striking surprise, for one comes upon it abruptly +round a corner, and suddenly finds oneself at the end of all things. +The hithe is a quiet green meadow now; but the clear brown water of +the lode still sleeps beside it, and even yet barges, laden with turf +or coal, occasionally creep up hither. Of old it was a constantly busy +spot, where sea-going ships were loaded and unloaded, and trains of +waggons attended, bringing and carrying off the cargoes. + +[Illustration: _The Castle Moat, Burwell._] + +Tradition gives Reach seven churches; but for this there is no +historical evidence whatever, and it is probably only a hyperbolical +way of extolling the ancient importance of the place. It is now merely +a chapelry under Swaffham Prior, in which parish the western side of +the township[145] is situated. For here the houses run in two lines, +about a hundred yards apart, with a little village green between, on a +gentle slope some quarter of a mile in length, having the fen level as +its lower boundary, and, for the upper, the stupendous bulk of the +Devil's Dyke, here cut clean off as if with a knife. All looks +ancientry itself; but, in fact, this cutting off of the Dyke is quite +a modern affair, not yet even two centuries old. Till then the Dyke +ran right through the village down to the fen itself, effectually +isolating the Swaffham Prior houses on the west from those on the +east, which belong parochially to Burwell. Cole, the prince of +Cambridgeshire chroniclers, whose voluminous MS. notes on the county +still await a publisher, mentions that when he visited Reach in 1743 +the Dyke still reached the fen; but when he came again in 1768 he +found the present state of things. Of how, or by whom, this act of +vandalism was perpetrated I can find no record. + +[Footnote 145: Reach is commonly spoken of as a "hamlet," but there is +still enough historical pride amongst the inhabitants to make them +resent this phrase.] + +Reach was of importance even in Roman days. The Dyke, of course, was +already ancient when they ruled Britain, and the lode, too, may very +probably have been already cut. The remains of one of their villas +have been unearthed here, near the point where the Cambridge and +Mildenhall railway now cuts through the Dyke. It has a well-preserved +hypocaust, or apparatus for warming the house by hot air. The Roman +"villa," we must remember, was the country mansion of the period, and +equipped with every known luxury. In the Middle Ages the annual Fair +at Reach (on the Monday before Ascension Day) was big enough to bring +over the Mayor of Cambridge to open it. And the custom survives even +today, when the occasion has dwindled to a very petty little +gathering. + +Reach, however, has still a local industry; the cutting of the peat, +or "turf" as it is here called, in the neighbouring fen, for use as +fuel. This peat forms a layer often many feet in thickness, and is +formed for the most part of moss, mingled with the vegetable mould +made by the decay of the dense forests with which the district was +covered for uncounted ages; before its final submergence, early in the +Christian era, destroyed the last of them. A like subsidence had more +than once produced the same results earlier; for the remains of four +or five forest beds at different levels have been found in the peat. + +The trunks of these prehistoric trees are often of enormous size, +especially the oaks.[146] One no fewer than 130 feet in length was +unearthed in 1909. The wood, after its ages of immersion, has become +black, hard, and heavy, like the Irish bog oak. Associated with such +débris, the peat often furnishes remains of the dwellers in these +archaic woodlands; whence we know that bears, wolves, wild boars, and +gigantic wild bulls roamed their shades. In the skull of one of these +last, now in the Sedgwick Geological Museum at Cambridge, is imbedded +a flint axe-head. The arm of the primeval savage who wielded that +weapon must have been strong beyond the arms of common men. + +[Footnote 146: The oaks are always found lying prostrate, but the fir +stems are frequently still upright for several feet of their length.] + +[Illustration: _Burwell Church, West End._] + +The peat is cut with a spade of peculiar construction, being flat, and +both longer and narrower than ordinary spades. It is shaped somewhat +like a fire shovel with a flange on either side, the object being that +each "turf" extracted should be of uniform size, like a brick. A +thousand of these should go to the ton; but though uniform in size +they are not of uniform weight, for the peat, as might be expected, is +more dense at its lower levels than near the surface. There is a good +market for this turf, which makes a hot and lasting fire with a +minimum of smoke, and that pleasant smoke. It is mostly sent off by +water to Cambridge, Ely, Wisbech, etc. + +This turf-cutting is not, of course, confined to Reach, but it has its +greatest development here, and at the neighbouring village of Burwell, +a mile or so to the eastward (to which, as we have seen, part of Reach +belongs). Burwell is an important village of considerable extent, with +a population of 2000, and a magnificent church, capable of seating +them all. It is of the finest fifteenth century workmanship, with a +few remains of Norman in the tower. The exterior is mostly flint; the +interior, like that of so many churches in Cambridgeshire, is of +"clunch," a hardened form of chalk, well adapted for building, and +easily worked for carving. The beautiful sculptures of the Lady Chapel +at Ely are of this material, drawn from the large quarries between +Burwell and Reach. Clunch is found in many places throughout the +county and has been worked (as existing remains show) ever since Roman +days. + +Burwell Church is specially connected with the University of +Cambridge, in whose gift is the preferment, burdened with the +condition that on Mid-Lent Sunday a sermon shall be preached there by +the Vice-Chancellor or his deputy. Till the nineteenth century this +condition was no light one; for the roads were in such a state that +half a dozen men on each side could hardly keep the preacher's +carriage from overturning, and, whenever possible, the cortege took to +the newly-ploughed fields in preference. The route was not round by +Reach but direct from Swaffham Prior. + +Here is a remarkable brass of John Lawrence de Wardeboys, the last +Abbot of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. For his readiness in abetting the +designs of Henry the Eighth, not only by eagerly surrendering his own +abbey, "which was not his to give," but by persuading others to do +like violence to their conscience, he was rewarded with a pension +equivalent to between two and three thousand pounds a year. His brass +records this venality of his principles. It was originally made during +his abbacy, and showed him in full abbatical vestments, mitre and all +(for Ramsey was a mitred abbey). After the surrender he had it turned +over, and on the reverse side, now uppermost, we see him in a simple +clerical gown and cap. He only lived a few years to enjoy his +ill-gotten gains, dying in 1542. + +[Illustration: _Burwell Church, N.E. View._] + +South-west of the church are some scanty remains of Burwell Castle, +which was built by King Stephen during the miserable "nineteen +winters" of his war with Queen Matilda, so forcibly described in the +Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, when the country was laid desolate by the +outrages of the robber barons. The particular brigand who afflicted +Cambridgeshire was one Geoffry de Magnaville, an outrageously wicked +plunderer, who "did not spare even the churches," regarded as +inviolable by ordinary malefactors. Both Cambridge and Ely were looted +by him, and he terrorised the whole district, till at length he was +slain, by an arrow through the throat, in attacking Burwell Castle. +"Nor was the earth permitted to give a grave to the sacrilegious +offender." + + + + +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. + + +At Burwell we are within touch of Exning, Fordham, and Soham, so that +we have now exhausted the interest of the Cambridge-Newmarket Road. +Next in order comes the Via Devana, which when it leaves Cambridge for +the south-east is denominated the "Hills Road." The reason for this is +that it shortly brings us to the most ambitious elevation neighbouring +the town, no less than 220 feet in height, and bearing the +high-sounding name of the Gog-Magog Hills. + +The origin of this curious appellation is still to seek. According to +some archæologists it is derived from the prehistoric figure of a +giant which was formerly to be seen on the slope, traced there by +cutting away the turf along the outline of the shape, such as that +still extant near Cerne Abbas in Dorsetshire. This, if it ever +existed, has long since disappeared. Others consider the name to be a +seventeenth century skit on the gigantic height of the hills. Others +again see in it a dim traditional recollection of the days when a set +of gigantic barbarians really were, for a time, quartered here. This +was in the reign of the Roman Emperor Probus (277 A.D.), who leavened +his mutinous British forces with prisoners from the Vandal horde +lately defeated by the Romans on the Danube. From one such detachment, +placed here in garrison, the name of Vandlebury is supposed to have +clung ever since to the great earthwork on the summit of the +Gog-Magogs. + +That earthwork, however, is of far older date, being of British, or +even earlier, inception. It is a triple ring of gigantic ramparts, +like those of Maiden Castle near Dorchester, and nearly a mile in +circumference. All is now buried in the shrubberies of Gog-Magog +House, the seat successively of Lord Godolphin and of the Dukes of +Leeds.[147] But before being thus planted out it must have been one of +the most striking examples in the kingdom of such fortifications. Till +the eighteenth century it was a favourite scene of bull-baiting and +other illegal sports amongst undergraduates, because the bare open +country all round made it impossible for the authorities to surprise +the offenders. Vandlebury was the original home of the legend, used by +Sir Walter Scott in _Marmion_, which told how in the ancient camp, by +moonlight, an elfin warrior would answer the challenge of any +adventurous knight bold enough to encounter him in single combat. + +[Footnote 147: It is now the residence of H. Gray Esq. In the stable +yard a monument records the celebrated "Godolphin," one of the first +Arabs (or, more probably Barbs) to be imported, at the beginning of +the eighteenth century, for the improvement of our thoroughbred +stock.] + +In the early decades of the nineteenth century the then Duchess of +Leeds here set up for her tenantry one of the earliest rural +elementary schools. Children of both sexes were taught in this +institution to read and to sew, the boys making their own smock +frocks. The boys might, if they would, also learn, as an extra, to +write; but not the girls, for Her Grace considered that it would +deleteriously affect their prospects in domestic service if they were +possessed of the dangerous power of deciphering their employers' +correspondence. + +Our road climbs the hill to the gate of Gog-Magog House, and plunges +down into woodlands on the other side, in a fashion very unlike the +usual Cambridgeshire highway, to meet the infant stream of the +Granta[148] on its meandering way to Cambridge. Our further course is +amongst the pretty villages along its valley, the best-wooded vale in +all the county. First of these comes Babraham (anciently Bradburgham), +with a pretty little Saxon-towered church snuggling in the park beside +the Hall. Babraham is noted for the epitaph of an old-time swindler, +who was enabled to pocket the Peter Pence[149] which he collected +under Queen Mary by sharing his spoil with Queen Elizabeth. It runs +thus: + + "Here lies Horatio Palavazene, + Who robbed the Pope to lend the Queen." + "He was a thiefe." "A thiefe? Thou liest; + For why? he robbed but Antichrist. + Him Death with besome swept from Babram + Into the bosome of old Abram. + But then came Hercules with his club, + And struck him down to Beelzebub." + +[Footnote 148: This branch of the Granta is more properly called the +Bourne.] + +[Footnote 149: From the ninth century onwards the Pope could claim, by +Royal grant, a penny a year from every house in England. This tribute +was known as "Peter Pence." The phrase is now used amongst Roman +Catholics for voluntary contributions to the Papal Exchequer.] + +A curious fresco on the north wall of the church is thought to +represent King Edward the Second. + +A little beyond Babraham we cross the Icknield Street, on its way from +Newmarket to Chesterford. Beside it runs, what is almost unknown in +England, a deserted railroad, built by the Eastern Counties Railway +Company (now the Great Eastern) in 1848, to afford direct +communication between Newmarket and London, and abandoned, as a +financial failure, in 1852, since which date the trains have gone +round by Cambridge. Where this long disused line runs on the level it +has melted back again into the adjoining fields, but the old cuttings +and embankments and bridges still exist, and a weird sight they are. + +At the adjoining villages of Great and Little Abington the road makes +a picturesque zig-zag through the village street, and passes on, +beneath a fine beech avenue, to Hildersham, where a pretty byway leads +across the stream to the fourteenth century church. Here there are +four good brasses (to members of the Parys[150] family), one of them +showing the unique feature of a lance-rest fastened to the cuirass, +and another (of 1530) being simply a skeleton. There are also two very +striking recumbent effigies representing a crusader and his wife, each +carved out of a single block of wood, now black with age. The +churchyard here is effectively planted with junipers and fir trees, +and the east end of the church is embowered in shrubs of rosemary, +said to be the finest in Cambridgeshire. + +[Footnote 150: The fourteenth century historian, Matthew Paris, is +said to have belonged to this family.] + +From Hildersham the road goes on to Linton, a mile or so further; +while the two places are also connected by a specially pleasant +footpath, starting from a fine old smithy, and so through the meadows +by the clear trout-stream, and past the yews and thorn-trees of the +moated grange of "Little Linton," while above rises (to nearly four +hundred feet, a proud height in Cambridgeshire) the appropriately +named Furze Hill, with some real gorse patches (also a proud +distinction in Cambridgeshire) upon its ridge. + +Before we reach Linton we cross the famous "Clapper" stile, which can +best be described as formed by three huge sledge-hammers (of wood) +with exceptionally long shanks, hinged near the head to an upright +post, each about a foot above the next. Normally the three +hammer-heads rest upon one another and look like a single post (about +a foot from the first); but, on attempting to cross, the shanks (the +ends of which are _not_ fastened but slide in a grooved post at their +side of the stile) yield to our weight, the heads fly apart, and, when +we are over, come together again with the "claps" whence the name of +the stile is derived. How old this curious device is does not appear, +but it is here immemorial. An effective sketch of this stile is given +by Dr. Wherry, in his "Notes from a Knapsack." + +Linton is a tiny town, smaller than sundry villages, but obviously not +a village, with a long street of undetached houses (duly lighted) +swinging down the slopes on either side the little river. There is a +fine Perpendicular church, with some Norman work remaining in it, and +a good tower, on the top of which an Ascension Day service is annually +held. Against a wall are suspended two fire-hooks (much lighter than +the one at St. Benet's, Cambridge) for the destruction of burning +houses. (See note on page 38). + +The main road here goes on, to pass out of Cambridgeshire into +Suffolk, a few miles further, at the upland village of Horseheath, +with its picturesque old-world village green on the hillside. The +church here has a fine fourteenth century brass to Sir John de +Argentine (a name familiar to readers of Sir Walter Scott, in the +"Lord of the Isles")[151] and some notable monuments, somewhat +knocked about, presumably by Dowsing, who records how he here "brake +down four pictures of the prophets Ezekiel, Daniel, Zephaniah, and +Malachi," besides other damage. + +[Footnote 151: Local antiquarian research, however, considers that the +name is more probably Audley. One of the Audleys of Horseheath (who +were in no way connected with the Reformation Audleys, of Audley End +and Magdalene College), distinguished himself at the battle of +Poictiers.] + +But a more interesting road from Linton is that which continues along +the Bourne Valley, and leads, not into Suffolk, but into Essex, which +is here bounded by that stream. A mile beyond the town we pass Barham +Hall, now a farm-house, but of old a Priory of the same Order that we +found at Isleham,[152] a Cell (or Colony) of the Abbey of St. Jacutus +de Insula in Brittany. Another mile brings us to Bartlow, where, hard +by the church, stand the three huge tumuli from which the name of the +village is said to be derived. How they came to exist is an unsolved +problem. Remains found in them, when excavated in 1835, were reported +to be Roman, but the science of archæology was then in its infancy, +and this report can hardly outweigh the wholly un-Roman appearance of +the "Hills," as they are locally called. They look far more like +British or Scandinavian work; but, indeed, three such mounds so close +together are not found elsewhere, of any age. + +[Footnote 152: See p. 183.] + +The little church has an ancient fresco of St. Christopher, placed, as +usual, opposite the entrance. For this Saint, by virtue of the legend +which tells how he carried Christ over a river,[153] was in mediæval +times regarded as a special example for Christians in their going out +and their coming in; to whom, therefore, was due their first and last +thought in passing the doorway. More noteworthy is the Saxon tower, +with its walls no less than six feet in thickness. For in this it is +quite possible that we may have a part of the very "minster of stone +and lime" raised by Canute in memory of his crowning victory over +Edmund Ironside at Assandun. + +[Footnote 153: The legend ran that St. Christopher was a giant heathen +who heard of Christ and desired to serve Him. Enquiring how he could +do this, he was told to devote himself to deeds of charity, which he +did by carrying pilgrims over a dangerous ford. Finally, a child whom +he thus transported proved to be Christ Himself, whence he gained the +name of Christopher (the Christ-bearer).] + +The location of that most dramatic of English battles, fought in the +year 1016, is hotly disputed amongst historians; but there is much to +be said for the early view which identifies Assandun with Ashdon in +Essex, hard by Bartlow. For ten miserable years, under Ethelred the +Unready, England had been ground in the dust, deeper and ever deeper, +beneath the heel of the invading Dane. Year by year the degrading +tribute wherewith she strove to buy off the foe had gone up by leaps +and bounds. All hope seemed dead, when the accession of a hero to the +throne roused the harried and exhausted nation into one last +convulsive effort for freedom. Six times in as many months did Edmund +of England and Canute of Denmark clash in battle. Five of these fields +were indecisive, and then, on St. Luke's Day, 1016, the champions met +once more at Assandun, perhaps on the slope still known as Bartlow +End. + +Treason decided the day against England. The fight began with a +brilliant charge by Edmund at the head of his bodyguard, which crashed +through the Danish phalanx "like a thunderbolt." But his absence from +the English line enabled a traitorous noble, one Edric (who was always +playing into Canute's hands, in hope of thereby making his own +advantage), to raise a cry that the King was slain. A panic set in at +once; and before Edmund could cut his way back, the whole army had +broken, and was being fearfully cut up in its flight by the pursuing +Danes. "And there the whole nobility of England was utterly +destroyed." Edmund died of his exertions the same year; and Canute +became King of England, the first monarch so to call himself. The +native title had always been "King of the English." In thanksgiving he +built a minster on the scene of his victory; and, as he had promised, +he lifted up the head of Edric "above all the nobility of +England"--upon the highest turret of the Tower of London. The "Roman" +theory notwithstanding, the three Bartlow barrows may well be a +memorial of this great fight, and so may the names of Castle Camps and +Shudy Camps which attach to the furthest villages in this far-away +corner of Cambridgeshire. The "Castle," however, of which only the +moat now remains, was built later by De Vere, the first Earl of +Oxford. Shudy Camps has a far-seen church on its lofty brow, visible +even from Barrington Hill, on the other side of the Cam basin, fifteen +miles away as the crow flies. + +[Illustration: _Cherry Hinton Church._] + +From the Via Devana, where it leaves Cambridge (just after the bridge +over the Great Eastern Railway), there branches off to the left +another road, which leads us to the scenes of earlier battles +between Dane and Englishman. This is the Cherry Hinton Road, named +after the first village along its course, some three miles on. Its +long straight vista suggests at first sight the idea that it too may +be a Roman road. In fact, however, it dates only from the enclosure of +the land (about the beginning of last century), when the best +ploughman in the village was employed, so the story goes, to drive his +straightest furrow across the whole breadth of the Common Field as a +guide for the road-makers. The older track between Cherry Hinton and +Cambridge was by what used to be, till within the last fifty years, a +pretty footpath across the fenny ground to the north of the field. It +is fenny no longer, and the path has become for three-fourths of its +length a somewhat dreary street through the dingy suburb of "Romsey +Town." + +Cherry Hinton itself is not yet absorbed by Cambridge, and remains a +bright spacious village, with a rarely beautiful church. The exquisite +Early English chancel is lighted on either side by four couplets of +lancet windows, in ideal proportion, while five equally ideal lancets +serve for an East window. Both walls have an arcading of cinque-foil +pattern; and the double piscina and the graduated sedilia are of no +less merit. All this loveliness is within a fine oaken screen of the +fifteenth century, and the rest of the church is not unworthy of it. +The great quarry, whence the "clunch" of which the church is mainly +built was drawn, is a conspicuous object on the hill-side above the +village; and above that again, equally conspicuous, is the reservoir +of the Cambridge Water-works, looking like a redoubt, on the summit of +the slope. At the foot clear springs break out from the chalk, which +are also utilised to supply the town. + +Close to the reservoir there is an actual fortification, an ancient +earthwork, known as the War Ditches, which the researches of Professor +Hughes have shown to be of British date.[154] At the bottom of the +fosse he discovered rough British pottery along with the bones of +domestic animals, and above these a layer of disjointed human +skeletons of both sexes and all ages, apparently due to a general +massacre, in some prehistoric struggle, of men, women, and children, +whose corpses were hurled over the parapet. Above these again came +Romano-British remains. From this earthwork the line of an ancient +dyke, now called Warstead Street, may be traced to the East Anglian +heights near Horseheath. + +[Footnote 154: Hughes' _Geography of Cambs_, p. 139.] + +Till the nineteenth century the fields between Cherry Hinton and +Cambridge were bright with the purple flowers of the saffron crocus, +which was grown, as it was by the ancient Greeks and Romans, for +medical use and for dyeing purposes. Its cultivation may very probably +have been introduced into Britain by the Romans. The saffron here +grown was considered the best in Europe, and fetched no less than +thirty shillings a pound. But its use, after so many centuries, +suddenly went out of fashion, and the plant is now wholly extinct in +Cambridgeshire.[155] + +[Footnote 155: _Ibid._ p. 96.] + +From Cherry Hinton Church a green lane leads to Teversham, a short +mile distant, but, except for pedestrians, more easily approached from +the Newmarket Road. The church here is a pretty little structure, +mainly Early English, with curious oval clerestory windows, and a nice +Perpendicular screen. The octagonal pillars have floreated capitals. +Dowsing's record of his destructions here is of special interest, +inasmuch as the objects of his Protestant zeal were not, as usual, +relics of pre-Reformation Popery, but the newly painted devices of the +Laudian vicar, Dr. Wren (the Bishop of Ely and builder of Peterhouse +Chapel). They consisted of the name JESUS, "in big letters" no fewer +than eighteen times repeated, of those of the Three Persons of the +Blessed Trinity, and of texts from Scripture: "Let this mind be in you +which was also in Christ Jesus," and "O come let us worship and fall +down and kneel before the Lord our Maker." All these were "done out" +as "idolatries"! + +From the springs at Cherry Hinton the furrow-drawn road (passing on +its way the County Lunatic Asylum) makes another bee-line of three +miles to Fulbourn. Here the church is of special interest. There are +no fewer than five mediæval brasses, including one, almost life-size, +of Canon William de Fulburne, 1380, which is notable as being, +probably, the earliest known example of a priest vested in a cope. +This ecclesiastic was one of Edward the Third's chaplains. In a wooden +shrine on the north side of the chancel is a moribund effigy of John +Careway, vicar here in 1433. This is beneath a sept-foiled arch, +beside which is another strangely irregular arch over a sedile. There +is also the very unusual feature of a fourteenth century pulpit of +richly-carved oak. + +The dedication of this church is as unusual. It is to St. Vigor, an +obscure sixth century bishop of Bayeux, who has only one other church +in England, at Stratton-on-the-Fosse in Somerset. Till late in the +eighteenth century there was a second church here in the same +churchyard, as at Swaffham Prior. This was All Saints', and was ruined +by the fall of its tower in 1766. The ruins were gradually stolen, the +wood going first, but it took ten years for the last of the bells to +disappear. + +At the church the road divides. The northern branch meanders through +the village past an ancient row of old-time almshouses to the station, +beyond which it becomes a pretty lane leading to the adjoining +villages of Great and Little Wilbraham. The church at the former has a +tower arch of strikingly peculiar development, a tall lancet, flanked +by segments of arches of much larger radius, inserted in the wall on +either side, which support the central member somewhat in the fashion +of flying buttresses. The parson here, "a widower with three small +children" (as the Puritan report gloatingly points out), was ejected +in 1644 by the Puritans, because "he said it was treason for any man +to give any money against the King, and in his sermons discouraged his +parish from doing anything for the Parliament, and that he never read +any book coming from the Parliament." Caution should be observed in +passing through these villages, as sundry well-seeming roads simply +lead down to Fulbourn Fen[156] and end there. Springs feeding the fen +are plentiful, and the ground is still very much of a swamp. + +[Footnote 156: See p. 170.] + +But the road to take from Fulbourn Church is that which winds away +south-eastwards, for in less than three miles it will bring us to the +Icknield Street,[157] close to the point where that famous war-path +cuts through the no less famous Fleam Dyke. This is the best place for +viewing and ascending that splendid prehistoric earthwork, the sister +and rival of the Devil's Dyke. It makes a most fascinating byway to +walk along, though it leads nowhither, ending abruptly where it dips +down into Fulbourn Fen.[158] The dry chalk is clothed with flowers +all the summer through. At Easter time we may here find the glorious +purple Pasch-flower, that queen of all the anemone clan; later on "the +turf is sweet with thyme and gay with yellow rock-rose, blue flax, +milkwort, pink-budded dropwort, sainfoin, kidney vetch, and viper's +bugloss, and here and there a bee orchis; with a dancing accompaniment +of butterflies overhead, graylings, skippers, chalk hill and Bedford +blues, and a host beside."[159] + +[Footnote 157: See p. 171.] + +[Footnote 158: Footpaths, however, lead across the fen from its +termination to Fulbourn and to Wilbraham.] + +[Footnote 159: Hughes' _Geography of Cambs_, p. 77.] + +[Illustration: _Great Wilbraham Church._] + +The air is inspiring and so also is the view, with Ely on the far +horizon to the north; and the historical associations are not less so. +We can imagine the oaken palisade which topped the dyke lined with the +Icenian clansmen in their tartan plaids shouting defiance to the +presumptuous Roman who dared to demand their arms; then the incredibly +audacious onslaught which, along the whole length of the Dyke at once, +carried Ostorius and his light-armed troops at one rush clear across +the mighty ditch, and up the forty feet of precipitous slope beyond, +to crown the parapet and whirl away the patriot levies in headlong +flight; then the merciless pursuit which forbade any chance to rally, +till the fugitives were stopped by their own second line of defence +at the Devil's Dyke, and slaughtered like rats beneath its +rampart.[160] + +[Footnote 160: See p. 172.] + +[Illustration: _Great Wilbraham._] + +Or our thoughts may turn to the later day when here was beheld the +last fight worthy to be called a battle ever fought in Cambridgeshire. +It is the year 905 A.D.; the great Alfred has been dead four years, +and his son Edward the Elder has been chosen King in his stead. For +the English monarchy is still elective, though already with a strong +tendency to become hereditary. And this tendency now gives trouble. +When Alfred himself was made King his nephew Ethelwald Clito, son of +his elder brother Ethelred, the late King, was passed over in his +favour. At that fearful crisis, when it was doubtful whether even an +Alfred could stem the Danish inrush, there could be no thought of +choosing a child as King. + +[Illustration: _Little Wilbraham._] + +But the Danes are now quietly settled in the Eastern Counties, and +Ethelwald has grown up to manhood, and is bitterly angry at being +again passed over, this time for his cousin Edward. If the English +will not choose him, he will try the Danes. So to the Danes he goes, +with promises of unlimited loot if they will support him, and, in the +words of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "entices them to break the peace," +so that they cross the Watling Street, and make a ferocious raid into +Mercia. "They took all they might lay hands on, and so turned homeward +again. Then after them came King Edward, as fast as he might gather +his force, and overran all their land between the Dykes and the Ouse, +as far North as the Fens." + +The Devil's Dyke and the Fleam Dyke are by this time known as "the two +dykes of St. Edmund," and now play their latest part in history as +defences. Edward is no Ostorius, being a valiant warrior of the +cautious rather than the daring type, and the Fleam Dyke brings his +avenging host to a standstill. Finally he resolves that to storm it +would cost too much, and retires his command. But his levies from Kent +are of another temper, and positively refuse to obey what they look +upon as an ignominious order. One after another, seven royal +messengers repeat it in vain; and finally the main body of the English +army marches off under the Royal banner, leaving the mutineers still +before the Dyke--probably at the very point where the Icknield Way +cuts it. + +This is the Danes' opportunity. They have now safely deposited their +plunder, and are ready for another outbreak. With their whole force +they sally forth, and fall upon these stubborn Kentish men, and the +fighting becomes desperate. The Kentish Alderman (who combined the +offices of High Sheriff and Lord Lieutenant) is slain, so is the +Danish King Eric, so is Ethelwald "the Atheling" himself, "and very +many with them. And great was the slaughter there made on either hand; +and of the Danish folk were there the more slain, yet won they the +field."[161] And thus, after so many ages of warfare, does the Fleam +Dyke, or Balsham Ditch, as it is also called, enter on its millennium +of peace. + +[Footnote 161: _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle._] + +[Illustration: _Balsham Tower._] + +For it played no part in the tragedy which, a hundred years after this +last fight, is associated with its alternative name. Once more Danes +and Englishmen are at hand-grips; but now it is no mere loose +aggregate of private hordes pressing, each on its own, into the land, +but Swend Forkbeard, the monarch of a great Scandinavian Empire +purposing to add England also to his dominions. And under the weak +sceptre of Ethelred the Unready, nothing beyond local resistance has +been offered him; and here alone is the local resistance serious. East +Anglia is under the governorship of the hero Ulfcytel, who has already +given the Danes an unforgotten taste of his "hand-play," and he +gathers her whole force to meet them at Ringmere. But the appalling +tidings of what Swend has done elsewhere, "lighting his war-beacons +as he went" throughout the length and breadth of the land, "with his +three wonted comrades, fire, famine, and slaughter," have taken all +the heart out of the English levies. For "all England did quake before +him like a reed-bed rustling in the wind." The battle is speedily +over. "Soon fled the East Angles; there stood Grantabryg-shire fast +only." + +Upon Cambridgeshire accordingly this vainly gallant stand brought down +the special vengeance of the conquerors. To and fro went Danish +punitive columns, and visited the district with a harrying even beyond +their wont. "What they could lift, that took they; what they might not +carry, that burned they; and so marched they up and down the land." +And at Balsham, perhaps because of some local resistance, they are +said to have killed out the entire population, man, woman, and child; +save one single individual only, who successfully defended against +them the narrow entrance to the Church steeple. + +It is quite possible that this doorway is the very one which we see +when we reach Balsham, where the Dyke ends, high on the East Anglian +heights: for, though the church was rebuilt in the fourteenth century, +the basement of the tower seems to be far older. Here we are four +hundred feet up, and the air has quite an Alpine freshness, after the +damp, sluggish atmosphere of the sea level at Cambridge. We feel well +why the old Chronicler, Henry of Huntingdon, speaks of "Balsham's +pleasant hills." + +[Illustration: _Cottage at Balsham._] + +There are in this church two most noteworthy brasses, one a +magnificent memorial, no less than nine feet in length, to John de +Sleford, rector here, the rebuilder of the church. He was a +distinguished personage, being Chaplain to Queen Philippa, Master of +the Wardrobe to her husband King Edward the Third, and Canon both of +Ripon and of Wells. The orphreys of his cope are embroidered with the +figures of Saints, five on either side,[162] and in the canopy over +his head his soul is being borne by angels to the Blessed Trinity with +the prayer PERSONIS · TRINE · POSCO · ME: SVSCIPE · FINE. The other +brass is no less magnificent in size and decoration, and commemorates +a yet more magnificent pluralist, John Blodwell, who was Rector here +in 1439, besides being Dean of St. Asaph, Canon of St. David's, +Prebendary of Hereford, and Prebendary of Lichfield. He, too, has +eight Saints on his cope, and eight more in his canopy.[163] Twelve +Latin verses give a dialogue between himself and Death, whose words +are incised, while his are in relief. The chancel has twelve fine +stalls on either side, and a grand rood screen, all from the +generosity of Rector Sleford. Yet another, and earlier, worthy +connected with this place, is Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely and +Founder of the earliest Cambridge College, Peterhouse. + +[Footnote 162: SS. Mary, John, Katharine, Paul, Magdalene, John +Baptist, Etheldreda, Peter, Margaret, Wilfrid.] + +[Footnote 163: These are SS. Michael, James, Katharine, Gabriel, +Margaret, ? ? John Baptist, Peter, Asaph, Bridgett, John, Andrew, +Nicolas, Winifred.] + + + + +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. + + +Due south from Cambridge goes the great London Road, a name now +practically supplanted by the local designation of Trumpington Road. +Trumpington, two miles out, is already joined to Cambridge by a string +of suburban villas; but these are only on one side of the road, while +the other is a continuous line of nightingale-haunted elms, not even +the stench and dust of the motorist having availed to drive away those +fearless songsters. In leaving the Town the road starts along Hobson's +Conduit, passing the Botanic Gardens, and crosses Vicar's Brook at the +historic milestone already described on page 160, the first to be set +up in England since the days of the Romans. + +Trumpington Church shares with Salisbury Cathedral the distinction of +being built wholly in the Early English style at its best; and it has +what is, perhaps, the best-known brass in England, that of Sir Roger +de Trumpington, one of the crusading comrades of Edward the First. The +knight is in full panoply of chain-armour, with steel epaulettes (or +ailettes as they were then called) protecting his shoulders. His +helmet is secured by a chain to his girdle, an unusual precaution, and +his large concave shield is charged with his punning arms, two golden +trumpets. + +From the Church an alluring hollow lane winds down to a flat green +island meadow (once a swamp, and still often flooded) between two +branches of the Cam, dividing Trumpington from the sister village of +Grantchester. On the Grantchester side of this island we come to a +mill, with a specially delicious mill-pool below it, overhung by a +wreath of foliage, chiefly chestnut. This is the representative of the +mill immortalised by Chaucer, in the Canterbury Tale which describes +so picturesquely the somewhat unsavoury adventures of the Cambridge +"clerks": + + At Trompyngtoun, nat far fro Cantebrigge, + There goth a brook, and over that a brigge, + Upon the whiche brook ther stant a melle, + And this is verray sothe that I you telle. + +The present mill, however, is not on the actual site of Chaucer's, +which stood some quarter of a mile higher up the stream. Its mill-pool +still exists, and is famed as "Byron's Pool." Hither the poet used +constantly to make his way when an undergraduate, as a retired spot +where he might enjoy his favourite delight of bathing, which even in +his day was a practice somewhat frowned upon by the academic +authorities. A century or so earlier, as has been already said, any +student found guilty of it was publicly flogged in the Hall of his +College.[164] It is a fascinating place, overhung by fine trees, and +remained in favour as a bathing-place even to the middle of the +nineteenth century. Now it has become so silted up as to be +practically useless. But on the river above it there is still a good +swimming reach, little used, however, as most students are content +with the University bathing sheds between Grantchester and Cambridge. + +[Footnote 164: See p. 153. After this preliminary domestic castigation +he was again flogged on the morrow in the University Schools by the +Proctors. A second offence meant expulsion from the University!] + +The footpath past these sheds is a pleasant byway between the two +places, through the green meadows along the riverbank, and so also is +the river itself, hereabouts no more than the "brook" which Chaucer +calls it. It is, however, by no means a water to be played with +rashly, having a tortuous course full of deep holes, in which many +lives have been lost. Indeed, no student is now allowed on this "Upper +River," unless a certified swimmer. A third alternative route is +afforded by the lane between Grantchester and Newnham. Though the +southern half of this suburb is actually in Grantchester parish, the +lane still runs through open fields, and Grantchester itself is in no +sense suburban. + +A strangely zig-zag road (with no fewer than four right-angle bends to +left and right alternately in as many hundred yards), climbs from the +mill to the church, which stands, like Trumpington, on the gravel +terrace above the river. These river gravels are amongst the most +interesting of Cambridgeshire geological formations. Not only does +their height above the present stream level (sometimes as much as +thirty feet) point to an age when the rivers must have been much +larger than now, but they are prolific in organic remains, indicating, +sometimes a warmer, sometimes a colder climate than ours. Here, at +Grantchester, bones of the mammoth and of the woolly rhinoceros +connote subarctic conditions; but a few miles further up the Cam, at +Barrington, the terrace is full of hippopotamus, along with elephant +and rhinoceros of African type, postulating a sub-tropical +temperature. + +Grantchester Church is chiefly noteworthy for its singularly beautiful +chancel, an almost ideal example of fourteenth century work, perched +most effectively above one of the bends in the road. The name, with +its "chester" has led many antiquarians to hold that here was a Roman +station.[165] But the application of the name to the village is only +some three centuries old. In earlier days it is always "Grantset." We +do find "Grantchester" in Bede (as mentioned in our account of Ely); +but the spot indicated is almost certainly Cambridge, then still in +ruins after its destruction during the English conquest of Britain. + +[Footnote 165: "Chester," "Caster," "Cester," are various Anglicised +forms of the Latin "castra" (= camp), which our conquering forefathers +applied to the Romano-British cities which they so ruthlessly +destroyed in the first sweep of their invasion.] + +On the top of the church-tower here we may notice a weird-looking +piece of iron work. This was put up in 1823 to facilitate the +astronomical work in the University Observatory, as it is exactly +south of the telescope dome there, two miles and a half away. With the +acquisition of collimating telescopes, in 1869, this relationship +ceased to be of value, and now the growth of trees has rendered the +tower wholly invisible from the Observatory. + +Not far from Byron's Pool we find the watersmeet of the two main +streams which make our Cambridge river; each so equal in size to its +sister that neither can be called the tributary of the other. The name +Granta is usually appropriated to the eastern stream, that of Cam to +the western. On some maps the latter is called the "Rhee," but this +(like the Isis at Oxford), is merely a map-maker's name.[166] + +[Footnote 166: On the western bank, hard by, is a large meadow known +as Lingay Fen, which is always (artificially) flooded during the +winter, in hopes of a frost. It forms an excellent skating ground, on +which even National Championships have been decided.] + +And as the river divides, so also does our London Road, one route +following either valley. The Granta route goes viâ Bishop Stortford +and Epping Forest, entering London by the Mile End Road, the other viâ +Royston, Ware, and Tottenham, coming in by Bishopsgate Street. The +division comes just as we leave Trumpington, at the lych-gate of the +village cemetery, whence the left-hand branch brings us to the twin +villages of Great and Little Shelford, with the Granta running between +them. Both churches are good, the former with an octagonal steeple, +and a churchyard kept like a garden, and the latter with a grand +square-headed Decorated window in its transept, where are preserved +some nice fragments of the ancient alabaster reredos. There are also +various good fifteenth century monuments of the De Freville family, +whose name still lives on as that of a suburban district in Cambridge. +Great Shelford Church is richly decorated, as it seems to have been of +old, for here Dowsing destroyed no fewer than 128 "superstitions." The +bridge over the Granta between the two villages was in mediæval times +under the charge of a hermit, like Newnham Bridge at Cambridge.[167] + +[Footnote 167: See p. 41.] + +[Illustration: _Great Shelford Church._] + +Villages continue to be found on both banks as we ascend the Granta. +The main road, on the east of the stream, leads through Stapleford, a +small place, to the large and important Sawston. Its size and +importance are due to the existence of that all too rare development, +a really thriving rural industry. For here is not only a flourishing +paper-mill, turning out its twenty tons a week of superfine +copper-glazed paper, but the much more uncommon manufacture of +parchment, and of the "shammy" leather used for cleaning plate, etc. +And this is produced in a delightfully rural and old-time fashion. +There are no machines here automatically grinding out facsimile +products; every process is confided to the skill and judgment of the +individual in charge of it. There are fifteen or sixteen such +processes involved, and a very little carelessness in any one of them +would spoil the whole series. Thus every workman is an expert, and +takes a pride in his work impossible to the mere driver of a machine. +The great aim of each is to "keep his skin in condition" while under +his hands, so as to have a right to glory in the finished article. + +The very terms used in this manufacture have an ancient smack about +them. The sheepskins used are called "pelts," and are supplied by the +"fell-monger." They are first immersed for a while in a solution of +lime, and then hung over nothing less primitive than the half of a +tree, sawn lengthwise, while a "flesher" scrapes and "couches" them +(_i.e._, removes all wrinkles). They are then "split," the inner skin, +called the "mutton" or "lining," being adroitly separated from the +outer "grain." This "lining" is next "frized" (_i.e._, rubbed), to +remove all fat, then again "limed," and thoroughly washed. It is then +"squeezed" and "punched" till "the water is killed," then soaked with +cod-liver oil. This causes fermentation to set in, during which the +skins have to be carefully watched by men whose duty it is to "turn +the heats" before "burning" takes place. Alkaline treatment follows, +and, finally, the skins are "ground," _i.e._, pared with a round knife +and smoothed with a wooden "scurfer," being sprinkled the while with +water from a bunch of butchers' broom, called by its old English name +"knee-holm." They are then packed in "kips" of thirty apiece, and put +on the market. Before "grounding," the taste of the ordinary customer, +who likes a pretty white "shammy," is consulted by bleaching most of +the skins with sulphur. Appearance, however, is thus dearly purchased, +for sulphur blackens silver, besides shortening the life of the skin. +The useful colour is dark brown. + +"For parchment the 'linings' are tied in a frame by strings fastened +round grooved pegs, on the same principle as a Spanish windlass.... +After being scraped with a 'half-round' knife, dried, 'shaved,' dabbed +with whitewash, and heated in a stove to remove the grease, they are +then scalded and rubbed with pumice until they are fine and +smooth.... The parchment workers wear clogs, sheepskin leggings, and +'basil' aprons. A basil is an unsplit tanned sheepskin. In this +well-managed factory all the refuse goes to make soap, glue, dubbin, +or manure, and not one scrap of material is wasted."[168] + +[Footnote 168: Prof. Hughes' _Geography of Cambridgeshire_, p. 106.] + +Sawston, moreover, is not only full of present interest, but rich in +associations with the past. The Village Cross stands on its ancient +site, and the church, which retains some Norman features, has several +mediæval brasses, though none of special merit. The Hall is yet more +remarkable. It was built in the reign of Queen Mary with materials +from the ruins of Cambridge Castle, granted by her in consideration of +the earlier hall having been destroyed for sheltering her. At the +death of her brother Edward the Sixth, the Protestant Lords of the +Council sought to arrest her as she approached London. Hearing of +their design she took refuge at Sawston Hall, then as now the seat of +the Huddleston family, who then as now steadfastly adhered to the +ancient faith. Her presence there being reported at Cambridge, a +Protestant mob, under the direction of the authorities, pounced upon +the hall so suddenly that she had barely time to escape on horseback +behind one of the serving men, her course lighted by the flames of the +burning building, which was utterly destroyed by the disappointed +Protestants. A missal taken in the sack was, on the following Sunday, +held up to public derision and formally torn to pieces in the +University Church. + +By the time the rebuilding of the hall was completed another, and more +thoroughgoing, Protestant persecution had broken out. To hear Mass was +made treason-felony, punished by forfeiture of goods and perpetual +imprisonment, while to say it was an act of high treason, for which +the offending priest suffered the lingering death assigned by the law +to traitors, being first half-hanged, then disembowelled, and finally +quartered. The Catholic chapels of the day were accordingly placed in +the garrets, as in that still existing at Sawston Hall, where the +worshippers had most warning in case of a domiciliary visit by the +authorities. Secret cupboards were contrived for hiding the sacred +vessels, books, and vestments, and secret exits by which the priest +might, if possible, be smuggled out of the house, and, in case these +proved unavailable, "Hiding Holes" in which he might take refuge. That +at Sawston Hall is in the staircase, and is described by Mr. Allan Fea +in his _Secret Chambers and Hiding Places_: + + "The entrance is so cleverly arranged that it slants into the + masonry of a circular tower, without showing the least + perceptible sign, from the exterior, of a space capable of + holding a baby, far less a man. A particular board in the landing + is raised, and beneath it, in a corner of the cavity, is found a + stone slab containing a circular aperture, something after the + manner of our modern urban receptacles for coal. From this hole a + tunnel slants downwards, at an angle, into the adjacent wall, + where there is an apartment some twelve feet in depth, and wide + enough to contain half a dozen people.... The opening is so + massive and firm that, unless pointed out, the particular + floor-board could never be detected, and when secured from the + inside could defy a battering ram." + +This is an unusually commodious Hiding Hole, large enough to hold not +only the refugee priest but provisions to maintain him during the +search, a very necessary item of the precautions. For when the +pursuivants pounced upon a Catholic mansion they always began by +locking up the inmates, that no succour might be given to the outlaw +whose presence they suspected, and then proceeded to a most systematic +and thoroughgoing search, in which chimneys, cellars, and roofs were +exhaustively explored, panellings pulled down, and floors torn up, for +days together. The ransacking and wrecking sometimes lasted a whole +fortnight on end; but with such art were these retreats constructed +that they constantly defied even so stringent a test, unless +betrayed--sometimes by the unintentional emotion of those in the +secret. + +Like most others in England this Hiding Hole at Sawston Hall was due +to the ingenuity of a Jesuit, one Nicolas Owen (nicknamed "Little +John" from his diminutive stature), who, "with incomparable skill and +inexhaustible industry," devoted his life to contriving these +recesses. "And by this his skill," says a seventeenth century writer, +"many priests were preserved from the prey of persecutors." Finally he +was himself betrayed into the hands of the Protestant Government, who +write exultingly of their "great joy" in his arrest; "knowing his +skill in constructing hiding-places, and the innumerable number of +these dark holes which he hath schemed for hiding priests throughout +the kingdom." It was hoped that he might be induced to reveal these +places, "to the taking of great booty of priests." But Owen remained +staunch against all threats and blandishments, and finally allowed +himself to be tortured to death without suffering the secret "to be +wrung from him," as Cecil ordered that it should be. "The man is +dead--he died in our hands," is the laconic report of the Governor of +the Tower in answer to this order. + +The knee-holm, or butchers' broom, used in the Sawston leather work, +grows at Whittlesford, on the other side of the Granta, a pretty, +shady village with an interesting church; the development of which, +from a Saxon nucleus, is a nice (and not yet satisfactorily solved) +problem for lovers of mediæval architecture. There is a wooden porch +(oak) of the fourteenth century. At Whittlesford Bridge, where the +Granta is crossed by the Icknield Street, close to the railway +station, one sees, hard by the road, a decayed stone edifice, with a +high pitched roof thatched with reeds, now used as a barn. + +[Illustration: _Whittlesford._] + +This is the chapel of the ancient Hospital of St. John, founded in the +thirteenth century. There were several such institutions in +Cambridgeshire, started, not specially for the care of the sick, but +for "hospitality" in the widest sense of the word. Here travellers +were entertained, the hungry were fed, the needy were ministered to, +according to their several necessities. The Hospitals were rarely +large institutions, and this one, as the size of its chapel shows, was +quite a small affair, only endowed with some sixty acres of meadow +land and a water-mill, equivalent, probably, to some £200 a year in +all. But having been under the direction of a prior (appointed by the +Bishop of Ely), it is sometimes known by the high-sounding title of +Whittlesford Priory. The interior of the building still retains some +beautiful early English work. A specially pleasant roadside hostelry +next door (the Red Lion), with deliciously quaint carvings on mantel +and ceiling, may be held, in some sense, its modern representative; +and, indeed, is thought by many authorities to have actually formed +part of it. + +Though, for some reason, always associated with the name of +Whittlesford, this Hospital is actually in the adjoining parish of +Duxford, or rather in one of the two (now consolidated) parishes of +St. John and St. Peter, between which this little village is divided. +Both churches still exist (though St. John's is now only used for +burials in its churchyard), and both are very much of the same build, +mainly Early English, with a little Norman, of which St. John's +steeple is the most noteworthy example. St. Peter's has a beautiful +"low-side" window in the northern wall of the chancel. + +To the west of Duxford the Icknield Street traverses a wide bleak +expanse of treeless fields which, until the nineteenth century, were +the unenclosed turf-land forming the famous Triplow Heath, the scene +of the first breach between the Long Parliament and its army. In the +view of the Parliament that force had now done its work. The Cavalier +levies had been stamped out, the king had been "bought" from the +Scots, and was in Parliamentary custody at Holmby House in +Northamptonshire, the Scots themselves had withdrawn to their own +country; why then should not this costly, and rather dangerous, army +be disbanded? + +But this was far from being the view of the soldiers themselves. A +return to the monotonous routine of civil life, after the thrilling +excitements of civil war, had no attractions for them; least of all, a +return without their pay. That pay--one shilling a day--was more than +double the current wages; and now it was many months behindhand--a +whole year in some cases. The suggestions of disbandment were met, +accordingly, by the concentration of the troops, including Cromwell's +famous regiments, on Triplow Heath, in his own East Anglian district. +This was on the 10th of June, 1647. + +[Illustration: _St. Peter's Church, Duxford._] + +Commissioners from the Parliament were sent down from Westminster, +with offers of two months' pay in cash and debentures for the +remaining arrears, contingent on disbandment. But this was not nearly +good enough; and the offers were met with cries of "Justice! Justice!" +from the men, and with significant hints from the officers of a march +on London if their claims were not speedily satisfied, "for a rich +city may seem an enticing bait to poor beggarly soldiers to venture +far to gain the wealth thereof." + +And, while the baffled Commissioners returned, to call out the London +train-bands to meet the threatened attack (finding them so reluctant +to face this new and terrific foe that the death-penalty had to be +denounced against all malingerers), the Army took more effective +action by despatching Cornet Joyce, with a troop of horse, to seize +the King at Holmby House and bring him along as a prisoner; or, as +they put it, to rescue him from his Parliamentary jailers, and invite +him to trust his person with his faithful soldiers. They might thus be +able to sell him again to the Parliament, as the Scots had done, or +they might really restore him, for a sufficient consideration, or make +their own of him some way. And, while Charles was being thus carried +off, as we have already seen, to Chippenham, they struck their camp +and marched off along the Icknield Street to Royston, and thence to +St. Albans, as a demonstration against London. When the unhappy +monarch, a fortnight later, on Midsummer Day, was brought by the same +route from Newmarket, crossing Whittlesford Bridge and passing through +the midst of Triplow Heath, the scene had already returned to its +habitual loneliness. + +Triplow itself lies to the west of the Heath, and has a far-seen +cruciform Church, sister to that in the adjoining village of Foulmire, +or Fowlmere as it ought to be spelt. An actual mere, noted for its +wealth of wild fowl, existed here till little more than half a century +ago. It is now a worthless patch of land, full of springs and runlets. +There is also a small prehistoric earthwork, known as "The Round +Moats." + +From Duxford, a pretty byway--far prettier till, a year or two ago, +the picturesque wooden foot-bridge across the Granta was replaced by +an iron modernity--leads to Hinxton, where the church has some +interesting architectural developments, and a good brass to Sir Thomas +de Skelton, steward to "old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster." +He is shown in full plate-armour, and his two wives lie beside him. +The Parochial Register here dates back to the very first institution +of such documents, in 1538, by Thomas Cromwell. This is quite rare; +for the idea was, in its first inception, to the last degree unpopular +both with clergy and people, who suspected, from their experience of +Henry's illimitable greed, that a tax would be exacted upon each of +the ecclesiastical functions thus registered. + +On the outside of the spire, which is of wood covered with lead, hangs +a "Sanctus" (or "Sacring") Bell, which of old was rung at those places +in the High Mass where a small bell is sounded by the Server at the +Altar; that is to say, at the _Ter Sanctus_ and the Consecration of +the Host. Thus those of the faithful who were unable to attend church +were invited to unite themselves in spirit with the worshippers there +at the most solemn moments of the Service. Few of these bells remain, +as their associations were, of course, specially distasteful to +Protestant feeling, so that they were mostly destroyed at the +Reformation. + +At Hinxton we are on the borders of Essex, and a shady +westward-running lane takes us on, across the river and the railway, +to the last Cambridgeshire village on this line, Ickleton, where the +church is of quite unique interest. Here, too, there is a Sacring +Bell, on the side of the steeple; surviving, doubtless, through the +same unknown local influence which also saved that on the sister spire +of Hinxton. But the real interest of the church is entirely hidden +from passers by. Those even who look from the pretty little Village +Green to the southward see nothing that calls for notice, except the +Sacring Bell and a fairly good Geometrical window in the steeple. The +rest of the exterior shows only poor fourteenth century work--and +cruelly "restored" at that. + +But, once inside, we discover that the unsightly exterior is but an +outer shell, built round, and over, a smaller and far older church, +still standing, and so entirely enclosed that its clerestory lights +now open into the existing aisles. Above them are the lights of the +later fourteenth century clerestory, which, no doubt, originally +contained Geometrical, or more probably Flowing, tracery. Now, +however, they are mere "churchwarden" apertures, of various indefinite +shapes, with mean wooden sashes, having been remorselessly doctored in +the second decade of the nineteenth century. + +It is when we look closely at this interior church that we note its +truly astonishing features. At the first glance it might be taken for +an ordinary Norman structure, with its round pillars and round arches; +and, in fact, it is usually so described by the few authorities who +notice it at all. The rudeness of the capitals, however, and the +general aspect of the arcade, does not somehow look like Norman work, +but more suggests Saxon architecture. And the very small clerestory +lights, mere loopholes, still more lead us to this conclusion. Some +archæologists, therefore, consider this interior church at Ickleton to +be a Saxon edifice; and, so far as the clerestory is concerned, it is +exceedingly probable that they are right. The piers of the tower +arches, however, are unmistakably Norman, as is also the west doorway. + +But what is the arcade? When we examine the massive circular pillars +which support it, we see to our amazement that, instead of being built +up in the usual manner, every one of them is a monolith! We are now +obliged to confess ourselves in the presence not of Norman or Saxon +but of _Roman_ work, for no example of such monolithic construction is +known in any later architecture, and was, indeed, sparingly employed +even by the Romans. + +How did these pillars come to be here? They are of Barnack stone from +Northamptonshire, and must have been brought at an expense well-nigh +prohibitory to the finances of a small country parish. We may dismiss +the idea that they were hewn out of the quarry in this specially +costly form, and fetched all the way from Barnack by the builders of +this little unpretending church. + +Dismissing this, there remain two other alternatives. A mile distant +from Ickleton to the southward stands Chesterford, the site of an +important Roman station, commonly identified with the _Icianos_ of the +third century "Antonine" Itinerary. The place derived its name, and +its importance, from its position at the point where the River Granta +is crossed by the Icknield Way, the line of communication along the +strip of greensward between the Cambridgeshire fens and the forest +topping the East Anglian heights, which gave access to the territory +of the Iceni in Norfolk and Suffolk. The Saxon builders of Ickleton +Church may have found these pillars amid the ruins of _Icianos_, or of +some villa in the neighbourhood, and have brought them that short +distance for their edifice. As they were ready made this would be a +cheap job. + +Such is the one alternative. The other, to which I myself incline, is +that they did not need to fetch the pillars at all, but utilised them +on the very spot where they originally stood. According to this view +we have here an example, unique in Britain, of Roman work _in situ_. +The very arcading which we see I take to have stood north and south of +the central hall of some large Roman mansion. Such a mansion usually +contained an oblong central hall of this kind (often roofless), with a +peristyle, or cloister, on either side opening into it, a portico at +one end, and a smaller _tablinum_ or guest-chamber at the other. +Lanciani has pointed out how this structural arrangement suggested the +nave, aisles, porch, and chancel of the earliest ecclesiastical +edifices at Rome.[169] The same suggestion may have influenced the +builders of Ickleton Church to utilise this old Roman arcading, +roofing in the enclosed space, but with a clerestory to prevent too +great loss of light. If this view is correct the narrow north aisle +probably represents the width of the original peristyle. + +[Footnote 169: See my _Roman Britain_, p. 266.] + +The south aisle is far wider, as wide indeed as the nave and north +aisle together; and one asks why the fourteenth century architect +planned his work so very unsymmetrically. The answer, I think, is to +be found in the remarkable architectural development of the steeple. +The piers of the tower are, as I have said, unmistakably Norman, but +upon them are set, quite unconformably, arches at least a century +later in date. The tower is pierced by these arches on all four sides, +and was evidently meant as the centre of a cruciform church with +transepts. For some reason this Norman plan was never completed, but +it is very probable that the south wall of the church marks the limit +to which the transept (which may have been actually begun) was meant +to extend. + +The church has also later features of interest. There are some good +mediæval seat finials, shaped with the axe and bearing grotesque +figures, musical instruments, and symbols; the word ORATE being +decipherable upon one of them. The rood-screen is fifteenth century, +and is placed across the eastern arch of the tower, with no trace of +there having ever been a rood-loft. + +The land of Ickleton was almost wholly _Terra Ecclesiæ_. A priory of +Benedictine nuns existed here, founded in the twelfth century by +Aubrey de Vere, the first Earl of Oxford; while the Abbeys of East +Dereham in Norfolk, Tyltey in Essex, and even Calder (a "cell" of +Furness), in far-off Cumberland, each possessed a Manor in the +Parish. All alike were given by Henry the Eighth to Goodrich, Bishop +of Ely, in exchange for the far more valuable property of Hatfield +House. Queen Elizabeth, however, afterwards demanded them all back +again, with much other land, as a condition of appointing Bishop +Heton, in 1600, to the See, which she had kept vacant to fill her +coffers for no less than nineteen years. The Manors were sold by the +Crown, and are now in private hands. The benefice is in the gift of +the Lord Chancellor. + +The name Ickleton, like those of Ickborough in Norfolk, Ickingham in +Suffolk, and Ickleford in Hertfordshire, is derived from the position +of the village on the line of the Icknield Way. It may indeed be the +direct linguistic descendant of the Roman _Icianos_. We must bear in +mind that a prehistoric track, such as the Icknield Way, was not one +single-metalled thoroughfare like a Roman road or a modern highway, +but a broad line of route along which each traveller made his own +"trek," so that the "Way" was a series of roughly parallel ruttings +over the breadth of a mile and more. Such, to this day, are the routes +across the Siberian steppes, which are often four or five miles +across. Thus we found the Icknield Way at Whittlesford, three miles +north of Chesterford, and it is probable that all the various "fords" +we have been meeting--Shelford, Stapleford, Whittlesford, +Duxford--have to do with its various passages of the Granta. + +Beyond Chesterford the Granta comes down in tiny streamlets from the +Essex chalk near Saffron Walden, with its wide-naved church, which +Cromwell's troops used for a drill-shed and council-chamber, and its +historic mansion of Audley End, once Walden Abbey, and its memories of +the days, scarcely a century by-gone, when great crops of saffron were +grown in its fields, leaving their only existing trace in the name. +And even that is dying out; few of the inhabitants call their home +anything but Walden. But this town is beyond our Cambridgeshire +border. + + + + +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. + + +The Cam Valley road from Trumpington leads us over a singularly bare +mile, edged by sparse thorn-trees, to Hauxton Mill, where we cross the +Granta. The repair of the bridge here was, in mediæval days, paid for +by the grant to all who aided this good object of a forty days' +Indulgence. This does not mean a licence to sin with impunity for that +period, as perfervid Protestants imagine, but merely the abrogation of +any ordinary ecclesiastical censure incurred. The little church of +Hauxton, not far beyond, is one of the few Norman village churches +existing in Cambridgeshire, for the county suffered so severely in the +Norman Conquest that little church building could be afforded till a +century later, when Norman had given place to Early English. + +In this church, upon the east wall of the south aisle is a fine fresco +of Thomas à Becket, dating from within a few decades of his own +lifetime. Representations of this Saint are extremely rare, for, as an +ecclesiastic who had braved his king--and that king a Henry,--he was +specially detested by Henry the Eighth. His Festivals were all +suppressed, his name was erased from every Service Book, and his +effigies were destroyed with ruthless diligence, so that this is +almost the only one known to exist in all England. It was only saved +by the niche in which it is painted being hastily bricked up and +plastered over; to be forgotten for upwards of three centuries, till +accidentally discovered in 1860 during some restoration work. + +Hauxton Church stands a little off the main road, on a by way running +from Shelford on the Granta to Haslingfield on the Cam. West of +Hauxton this route becomes a mere field track, but quite a pretty one, +crossing the Cam at an idyllic nook called Burnt Mill Bridges, where +the green banks and clear waters are closed in by ancient elms and +thorn bushes. It brings to the mind Milton's lines in Il Penseroso: + + There in close covert, by some brook, + Where no profaner eye may look, + Hide me from day's garish eye." + +Haslingfield (which is more directly reached from Cambridge by the +Barton Road) has a fine and spacious church of the fourteenth century, +the steeple being of special merit. Above it rises steeply the eastern +extremity of a chalk spur to the height of 220 feet. From the summit, +though so low, we get one of the widest panoramic views in England, +embracing the whole valley of the Cam. "Ashwell Bush,"[170] which +marks the source of the river, is conspicuous on a hill some ten miles +to the south-westward, and Ely Cathedral, just beyond its junction +with the Ouse, may be seen, twice as far away to the north; Cambridge, +with its spires and pinnacles, lying between, five or six miles +distant. Our eastward limit of vision is the long line of the East +Anglian Heights, from Swaffham steeple[171] on their northernmost +visible swell, twenty miles away, to the far-off jut of Sharpinhoe, +near Dunstable, more than thirty miles in the opposite direction. +Beneath us, in the valley, steeple after steeple rises amid its +village elms, dotting the landscape like knots in net-work. No fewer +than eighty of these can be made out, the most conspicuous being the +cruciform church of Triplow.[172] + +[Footnote 170: This "bush" is actually a group of young elms.] + +[Footnote 171: See p. 191.] + +[Footnote 172: See p. 230.] + +[Illustration: _Haslingfield Church._] + +This eminence was anciently known as White Hill, from the three great +"clunch" quarries,[173] which still conspicuously scar its sides, +and must have done so much more conspicuously of old, when this +material was much more generally used for building than it is now. +From these quarries came, for example, the stone used in the First +Court of St. John's College, Cambridge. The "pits," as they are +locally called, are rapidly greening over, for the clunch is now only +dug for the mending of farm roads, and occasionally for marling the +fields; as Pliny records that the ancient Britons marled them two +thousand years ago. + +[Footnote 173: See p. 198.] + +At the summit of the ridge a small roadside cottage, known as "Chapel +Bush," represents the once famous shrine of "Our Lady of White Hill"; +in mediæval days a noted centre of local devotion, which drew pilgrims +in large numbers from a wide area, so that their accommodation, as we +read, was no small profit (and, often, difficulty) to the neighbouring +villages. No ruins, even, of this ancient chapel remain; but, in 1885, +there was discovered on its site a leaden _bulla_ of Pope Martin the +Fifth, the first Pope to be generally acknowledged after the Great +Schism; when for forty years two (or three) claimants to the Holy See +were reigning simultaneously, supported some by one part of +Christendom, some by another. He reigned 1417 to 1431, and was the +consecrator of Milan Cathedral. It was he who, at the "Assize of +Barnwell" (1430), pronounced that all spiritual jurisdiction over the +students of Cambridge was exclusively vested in the University +authorities. His _bulla_ bears the heads of SS. Peter and Paul, with +the traditional features, which Lanciani has now established as +historical; St. Peter having a broad face with curly hair and beard, +while St. Paul is thin-faced and straight-haired. + +On the southern side of the hill lies Barrington, perhaps the +loveliest of all Cambridgeshire villages. It consists of two long +lines of scattered cottages, straggling along either side of a Village +Green nearly a mile in length. The Green is traversed from end to end +by the "Church Path," a pebbled causeway of immemorial antiquity. The +church, to which this leads, stands at the north-eastern extremity of +the Green, and is a noble structure of the twelfth century, with later +developments. The south doorway and door are thirteenth century, and +are wonders of graceful work; while the fourteenth century seats are +of special interest as having been constructed with book-boards, +showing that reading was not the rare accomplishment in those days +that it is commonly supposed to have been.[174] There is also an +iron-bound chest dating from the tenth century, a splendid specimen of +the smiths-work for which England was then so famous. The font, too, +is equally old, showing on its margin the depressions (now filled in), +often provided in fonts of the period when baptism by immersion was +the rule, as outlets for accidental overflow. + +[Footnote 174: The Chantry Priests, of whom there were two in +Barrington, often acted as village schoolmasters, the Chantries +themselves serving as classrooms.] + +[Illustration: _Farmhouse at Haslingfield._] + +Here and there along the Green gush out bright fountains of delicious +water from artesian wells driven into the "greensand," some 200 feet +below the surface. Throughout all its length the village is sheltered, +on the north, by the ridge of White Hill, while, on the south, the +orchards and closes with their "hedge-row elms," slope down to the Cam +and its water-meadows. The stream here runs beneath a gravel-terrace +of its own formation, which has proved exceptionally rich in the +remains of pleistocene mammalia, mostly, as has been said,[175] +connoting a semi-tropical climate. Specimens of elephant, +hippopotamus, rhinoceros, bison, urus, lion, bear, hyæna, derived from +Barrington, are to be seen in the Sedgwick Museum at Cambridge. +Associated palæolithic flint implements, and red-deer antlers rudely +cut, show that human intelligence existed here along with these +monsters, at least 5000 years ago, at the lowest estimate, which some +geologists multiply fifty fold; and excavation has shown that the site +has been populated pretty well ever since. Neolithic, British, Roman, +Anglo-Saxon, and Mediæval relics have here been unearthed in quite +astonishing abundance; and, though no Roman villa has yet been +located, Roman coins have been found literally by the hundred. + +[Footnote 175: See p. 221. The gravel here is older than that at +Grantchester.] + +This wealth of finds has been largely due to the "coprolite" digging, +as it was inaccurately called, which went on here (and throughout the +neighbourhood) during the whole latter half of the nineteenth century. +It had been discovered that the "upper greensand"[176] (here a narrow +deposit immediately over the gault and usually some fifteen or twenty +feet below the surface) was full of organic remains worth extracting +for manure. These remains were never true coprolites, but mostly +formless nodules rich in phosphate of lime, many being sponges, along +with abundance of sea-urchins, mollusca, crabs, and innumerable +sharks' teeth. + +[Footnote 176: So called because full of green grains of "glauconite," +which appear to be the internal casts of the shells of foraminifera. +This bed, however, is not the true Upper Greensand, but "riddlings" +from it.] + +The industry brought a wave of prosperity to the district; for +coprolites were worth some £3 per ton, and the average yield was some +300 tons per acre. The merchants were, therefore, willing to pay well +for the privilege of digging them out, and usually offered the +landowner £150 or more per acre for three years' occupation of the +land (more than its capital value); being bound also to level and +resoil it at the end of their tenancy. Wages, too, ran high; a good +"fossil-digger" could earn his 40_s_. per week. This produced a +corresponding rise in agricultural wages, which went up from 10_s_. or +12_s_. per week to double that amount. The fossil-digging was all +piecework, the men being paid by the cubic yard of earth moved. + +[Illustration: _South Porch, Barrington Church._] + +After being brought to the surface the fossil-bearing greensand was +washed in a horse-mill on the spot, an artesian well being bored, if +necessary, to supply the water. This separated out the nodules, while +the greensand and water was run off as thick mud; used, when dry, for +levelling the land, and sometimes for brick-making. The nodules were +ground to powder in central works at Royston and elsewhere, and +treated with sulphuric acid, thus producing super-phosphate of lime +adapted for manure. At the height of the industry as many as 55,000 +tons per year were extracted from the Cambridgeshire beds; but with +their gradual exhaustion the trade dwindled away till it was finally +destroyed by imports from Charleston, U.S.A., where the like +"coprolites" are found as a superficial deposit, needing no digging. +And with the trade has disappeared the artificial prosperity which it +brought, to be succeeded by the full weight of the agricultural +depression. + +Barrington Hall is the seat of one of the oldest of English county +families, the Bendyshes, who have held their estate here since the +reign of John. Their residence at Barrington dates, however, only from +that of Edward the Third, for whom, during his siege of Calais, they +raised money by mortgaging their earlier abode at Radwinter, in Essex, +to the monks of that place. Before the king by repaying their loan put +them in case to redeem the mortgage, the monks had foreclosed; thus +driving the family to reside on their Cambridgeshire property at +Barrington. They are not, however, lords of the Manor there (though +they are in the adjoining parish of Foxton). That position belongs to +Trinity College, Cambridge, who are also rectors of the church, by the +gift of their earliest founder, Hervey de Stanton, Chancellor to +Edward the Second. + +From either end of Barrington lanes lead southward across the Cam to +Foxton and Shepreth respectively. Both these villages are hard by the +main road which we are following. Foxton Church has a most beautiful +Early English east window, and some very good Geometrical tracery. +Here is found that rare form of rural industry, a book-printing +establishment, which to some extent mitigates the depression mentioned +above. At Shepreth this is done on a larger scale by the making of +cement, for which the clay procurable here is, like that on the +Medway, peculiarly adapted. This is a little gem of a village, with a +clear and copious brook running across its maze of thick-shaded lanes. +The source of these waters is in the ancient Fowl Mere already spoken +of.[177] + +[Footnote 177: See p. 230.] + +Another such tributary rises in our next village, Melbourn, and runs, +on its way to the Cam, through the adjoining Meldreth, an old-world +place, where the parish stocks are still to be seen at the village +cross-roads. Till the nineteenth century was well on its way, these +instruments of punishment were in actual use for the correction of +minor offences such as vagrancy. They consist of a low upright frame +of rough wood, so contrived that the prisoner's feet, as he sat upon +the ground beside it, were passed through holes in the structure and +there secured. The parish constable was supposed to keep sentry over +him, but actually seldom kept off either the friends, who might +alleviate his captivity by beer and tobacco, or the more numerous +enemies, who found it a good joke to tease and pelt his helplessness. +The hands were sometimes also secured, sometimes not; but in any case +the culprit's situation was exceedingly unpleasant, and the stocks +proved a most wholesome deterrent. + +[Illustration: _Shepreth._] + +Melbourn is a larger place, and boasts that rare possession, a village +trysting-tree. This is a huge elm, standing by the roadside at the +churchyard gate. It is now at the extremity of elm life, some three +hundred years old, and only the stump (still clothed with leafage) +remains. But the vast massiveness of the roots show its former +grandeur. At this tree, in 1640, the villagers spontaneously gathered +to resist the imposition of the "ship-money," whereby Charles the +First was striving to recruit his exhausted exchequer. "And they fell +upon the sheriff's men with stones and staves, and hedgestakes and +forks, and beat them and wounded divers of them, and did drive them +out of the highway into a woman's yard for their safety. And were +forced for saving of their lives to get out of the town a back way; +which, notwithstanding, some thirty or forty able men and boys pursued +them above a quarter of a mile, stoning them, and driving the bailiffs +into a ditch, where some of their horses stuck fast. And the multitude +got some of the bailiffs' horses and carried them away, and would not +redeem them without money." + +This stirring episode shows that the men of Melbourn were already +Puritan stalwarts, a character which the place has ever since +maintained. Three years later the parson himself removed from the +church "sixty superstitious pictures," and a cross from the steeple, +and digged down the altar steps. And after the Restoration, when +Nonconformity was put under the straitest ban of the law, its worship +still continued here to be practised, so that the place became, as it +still remains, the chief centre of the Free Church form of religion in +this part of the county. + +Three miles further the road brings us to the small but flourishing +town of Royston, which, though now wholly in Hertfordshire, was till a +few years ago partly in Cambridgeshire, with which it has a far closer +physical connection than with its new county. The place has an +interesting history. Like Newmarket, at the other end of +Cambridgeshire, it is not, as are the villages around, one of the +original English settlements dating from the fifth or sixth centuries, +but a burgh of mediæval growth, owing its existence (again like +Newmarket) to its position on the line of the Icknield Way, here +crossed by another presumably British and certainly Roman road, the +Ermine Street, which joined, as it still joins, the two great +nerve-centres of Roman Britain, York and London. It is still known as +the Old North Road. + +Such a junction was necessarily an important spot, and the wonder is +that there was not always a town here. It was left however still +occupied when, in the eleventh century, the Lady Roesia, wife of Eudo +Dapifer, the Norman chieftain to whom the land hereabouts was assigned +by William the Conqueror, set up here, at the meeting of the ways, one +of those stone wayside crosses by which mediæval piety so often marked +such junctions. A century later the new-born devotion to St. Thomas of +Canterbury led the then lord of the manor, Eustace de Mark, to found +and dedicate to him a Priory, called, from the neighbouring cross, +"_De Cruce Rosae_." This, as so often happened, became the nucleus of +a little town, which got to be called Roesia's Town, or Royston. + +[Illustration: _Melbourn._] + +At the same period Royston was the scene of yet another ecclesiastical +development, by the establishment of a famous hermitage in its still +celebrated cave. This cave is a curious bottle-shaped excavation in +the chalk below the Icknield Way, of prehistoric origin, having been +apparently one of those "dene holes" from which the ancient +inhabitants of Britain used to procure chalk for marling their fields. +It is not so long since this method was discontinued, and numbers of +these holes are still to be found in Kent and elsewhere. They were +always made on the same plan. A shaft was sunk to the desired depth, +and the chalk excavated all round the bottom as far as safety +permitted. The hole was then abandoned, and usually filled in. This +one at Royston, however, remained open, and in the twelfth century was +taken as his abode by a hermit, who employed himself in carving +devotional figures and emblems all round the walls. + +He must have been a true Solitary, for his shrine was only accessible +by a rope ladder twenty-five feet long let down through the narrow +opening at the top. It remained, however, a place of devotion till the +Reformation, when it not only became disused, but was so effectually +filled up that its very existence was forgotten for some two hundred +and fifty years. Then curiosity was aroused by a subsidence at the top +(under the very centre of the town), and the hole once more cleared +out, a more convenient approach being cut from adjacent premises, by +which it may still be visited. + +The Priory of Royston was, of course, suppressed under Henry the +Eighth. But its church was suffered to be bought by the inhabitants of +the town, who besought the king to spare it to them on the ground +that, though Royston stood in five several parishes, there was "never +a parish church within two miles." This was literally true, the +parochial boundaries having been already long established before the +town grew up. The five parishes were those of Melbourn, Barley, +Bassingbourn, Reed, and Therfield. They had therefore attended the +Priory church, and been ministered to by its monks. The place was, in +answer to this petition, constituted a parish, and the church +rededicated to St. John the Baptist instead of to Henry's _bête +noire_, Thomas à Becket. But the old connection of Royston with this +saint survives to this day in the annual Fair held in July (near the +date of his "Translation"), which is still popularly called "Becket +Fair." + +At Royston the Icknield Way used to be the boundary of +Cambridgeshire, as at Newmarket, so that it was convenient for the +resident magistrates to be in the Commission for both counties. Thus, +by merely crossing the road, they could exercise their authority in +whichever might be desired. Beyond the town, the way continues to run +south-westwards, along the foot of the East Anglian heights, which +here form the watershed between the basin of the Ouse and that of the +Thames. Their northern escarpment is, at this point, still in its +primæval condition, a steep slope of virgin turf, known as Royston +Heath, the common property of the township. The Heath has a +far-reaching view and delicious air, and the Royston folk do well in +jealously guarding against any usurpation of their rights in it. That +golf links should not exist on such a magnificent stretch of turf +would almost be unthinkable, but even over this development many shake +their heads as an encroachment. + +As we continue our way along the hedgeless road at the foot of this +delightful common, the Great Northern Railway, from Cambridge to +London, keeps us close company on our right. A mile or so beyond it +rises a conspicuous line of poplar trees. These mark the village of +Bassingbourn, one of the most interesting in the county to the +historian. For here there is preserved in the church a whole library +of antique books, and amongst these (in manuscript) the churchwardens' +accounts from 1498 to 1534, kept with an accuracy which enables us to +picture faithfully the village life of those days. We find that it was +a period of high wages, for a labourer got threepence a day if +boarded, and fivepence unboarded. His board then was worth a shilling +per week. Nowadays it is reckoned at ten shillings at least, so that +we must multiply all the items by ten to express them in current +value. His wages were thus equivalent to twenty-five shillings per +week, double the present rate, while artisans could command nearly +twice as much. The times were thus abnormally prosperous, and the +parishioners could afford to spend so lavishly in merrymaking at the +"Church Ales" that an annual profit equivalent to nearly £50 was +usually made on these entertainments, which corresponded to the +Parochial Teas and concerts of the present day. These profits went +towards the "reparacyon" of the church, and the current church +expenses, including such heavy items as refounding the bells, at a +cost equal to over £200, and renovating the clock and the organ. +Further funds were raised by a great "Miracle Play" of St. George and +the Dragon, to which the whole neighbourhood assembled. + +All this prosperity (founded, as always, on the high rate of wages) +was the result of that fearful catastrophe, the Black Death, which, a +few generations back, had all but decimated the population, and +shattered the old social system of England, wherein the labourers were +"villains," tied to the manor on which they were born, and bound to do +for their lord (in lieu of rent) so many "jobs"[178] a year. A "job" +meant 100 minutes' work, a strange subdivision of time, implying some +fairly accurate means of measuring its flight, though we know not what +these may have been. A Cambridgeshire "inquisition" of 1313 values +each job at a halfpenny, so that the day's work of a "villain" was +worth about threepence. + +[Footnote 178: This word is derived from the Latin _Opus_ ("work") +which in the Manorial account books was usually written j.op. (_i.e._, +one _Opus_).] + +But the demand for labour after the "Death" became so great, and so +many of the estate owners had died, that villenage came to an end, and +the labourers could, as now, go where they would and make the best +wages they could get in open market. + +The result, after a while, was, as we have seen, a great increase in +prosperity, testified to by the abundant Perpendicular work in almost +every parish church in England. But the immediate effect was fearful +distress, and a chaotic dislocation of the old feudal relationships, +giving birth to the socialistic dreams which for a moment so vainly +tried to materialise themselves in the anarchical outbreak which we +call Wat Tyler's Rebellion. An example of this dislocation of ordinary +conditions is furnished by the Papal registers, which tell us that the +rectory of this very Bassingbourn (estimated at the equivalent of no +less than £1,200 per year) was made over, in 1410, to the Chapel Royal +of St. Martin's-le-Grand, London, "considering that the said chapel +hath been ruined by the Great Storm, and its lands lie waste for lack +of labourers through the pestilence." + +The "great storm" here referred to took place on St. Maur's Day +(January 15th), 1361. Of both storm and pestilence we shall find a +most interesting record in the church of Ashwell, the next and last +place which we should see in this corner of the county. To reach it we +have, indeed, to cross the border and go some half mile beyond; but +though politically in Hertfordshire, Ashwell physically belongs to +Cambridgeshire. For here is the source of the Cam, and such a source +as few would dream of for the sluggish unclear stream that we see at +Cambridge. In the midst of the village the ground sinks into a sort of +amphitheatre, some 100 yards in length by thirty in breadth and ten in +depth, with abrupt sides covered with brushwood and overshadowed by +ancestral ash-trees. All round the floor of this gush forth springs +upon springs of the brightest, most sparkling water; so copious that +when the infant stream escapes through a breach towards the north it +is already nearly thirty feet broad. No prettier river-source is to be +found throughout the length and breadth of England. The ash-trees, +however, are not, as one is apt to think at first, the origin of the +name, but its consequence. The first syllable really embodies that +Celtic word for water which, as Axe, Exe, Esk, and Usk, meets us in so +many places all over Great Britain; and this syllable, at some +far-back date, suggested the planting of ashes around the well. + +[Illustration: _Ashwell._] + +Not far from these bounteous springs rises the splendid tower of the +church, springing high into the air with the same undaunted Early +English ambition which raised the spire of Salisbury. And on its wall +(inside) is carved, in rude and deeply incised lettering of Old +English style, varied by some curiously Greek characteristics, the +record already spoken of, dealing with the Black Death and the storm. +This consists of four lines, intended for Latin elegiacs, again with a +Greek touch, and runs thus: + + M . Ct . Xpenta . miseranda . ferox . violenta . + M.CCC.L. + Supest . plebs . pessima . testis . in . fineque . vents . + Validus . oc . anno . maurus . in . orbe . tonat. + M.CCC.LXI. + +The opening words stand for the date: + + Ct = Cter = CCC, and Xpenta = XXXXX = 50 + +The interpretation therefore is: + + 1350! Miserable, wild, distracted, + 1350! + The dregs of the people alone survive to witness. + And in the end a wind + Full mighty. This year St Maur thunders in the world. + 1361. + +The year 1349 marked the most fatal stage of the Black Death in these +parts. In that year, to judge by the Diocesan records, no less than +eighty-five per cent. of the beneficed clergy were swept away, which +implies a corresponding mortality amongst other classes. By 1350 the +worst was over, but the full wretchedness of the situation was now +developing itself. The plague lingered on, constantly growing milder, +till 1361, when the great storm was supposed to have cleared the fair +of the last remnants of infection. A like popular distich about this +later visitation is quoted by Adam of Murimuth: + + C ter erant mille decies sex unus, et ille, + Luce tua Maure, vehemens fuit impetus auræ. + Ecce flat hoc anno Maurus in orbe tonans. + +That is, in English: + + There were 300 + 1000 + 60 + 1 and that + Mighty blast of wind was on thy day, Maurus. + Lo! in this year bloweth Maurus thundering in the world. + +[Illustration: _Ashwell Church from the N.W._] + +St. Maur was a Gallican saint of the sixth century who was the first +to introduce monasticism into France. There are several other +interesting _graffiti_ on the same wall as the above, one of them +representing old St. Paul's with its lofty steeple, the highest in the +world (510 feet), and the famous Rose Window of the transept which +Chaucer mentions in his Canterbury Tales. + +Another, and perhaps prettier, way of reaching Ashwell from Cambridge +is by taking the road that runs along the Backs, and following it out +of the town in its course to the south-west. Its local designation is +the Barton Road, but to antiquarians it has been known, since the +seventeenth century, as the Akeman Street. It was at that period that +the accepted identification of our Roman roads came into being, mainly +through the fearless erudition of Gale. Their names (except that of +the Via Devana) are as old at least as the Norman Conquest; but, save +only in the case of the Watling Street, the main line of which has +never been disputed, the connection between any given name and any +given road has been matter for the wildest conjecture. Thus, Geoffrey +of Monmouth, writing in the eleventh century, makes the Ermine Street +(which we now, with strong reason, identify with the Old North Road +from London to York) run from St. David's to Southampton! Our Akeman +Street is supposed to connect Wells on the Wash with Aust on the +Severn, passing on its way through Bath (the Ake-man-chester of the +Anglo-Saxons, _i.e._, "the stone stronghold of Aquæ," Aquæ being the +Roman name for Bath). But a lot of this is mere conjecture. The +"Barton Road," however, is undoubtedly on the line of a Roman road. + +In spite of its name, it does not pass through the village of Barton. +Indeed, like the other roads leading westwards from Cambridge, it +curiously avoids the villages on its line, or rather (for the road is +older than they) the villages have curiously avoided being directly +upon it, though they lie thick on either side. Possibly the first +Anglo-Saxon settlers may have had in this district some superstitious +dread of a deserted Roman road, such as they certainly entertained at +first for the deserted Roman towns, which they did not occupy for many +a year (as at Cambridge), though they located their hamlets all round +them. + +[Illustration: _Ashwell Church._] + +But though the Akeman Street does not actually take us through +Barton village, it does lead us past the rare object of interest to be +found connected with the place, the ancient Archery Butts of the +parish. These are to be seen just opposite the sign-post which points +to Haslingfield, and are worth a pause to contemplate, for they give a +most impressive idea of what archery meant to our forefathers. Every +parish, it must be remembered, was bound by law in mediæval times to +have such a stretch of ground, and every yeoman was bound to constant +practice upon it. And what practice! These "butts" are a stretch of +greensward, some hundred yards across, and in length no less than +three furlongs (660 yards). It looks an almost incredible distance for +a bowman, but it was the standard, so far as we can judge by the very +few butts of which the memory still survives. The length of the short +street in South London, still called Newington Butts, is nearly the +same. + +Here, then, we can picture the sturdy archers of Plantagenet days +stretching themselves; their bows, not the toys of the modern +toxophilite with their thirty or forty pounds of pull, but of twice +the power (eighty lb. being a common pull in those times), and their +"cloth-yard" arrows, over three feet long, whistling to a target not +planted forty or fifty yards away, but twelve times the distance--the +whole length of these butts. Indeed, for anything under two furlongs +light arrows were not allowed, and the heavy regulation war arrow had +to be used. Each man was taught, as Bishop Latimer tells us in +recording his own youthful training, to draw his bow not by mere +strength, but by sleight of hand, "to lay the weight of his body into +the bow," and to draw the bowstring not to his breast, like other +nations, but to his ear. Small wonder that with eye and sinews so +trained our English archers became the wonder and the dread of Europe, +or that their shafts decided so many a battlefield--Cressy, Poictiers, +Agincourt, Flodden. + +A mile further we cross the Bourn Brook, a tiny tributary which joins +the Cam near Grantchester, hard by a small station on the Cambridge +branch of the London and North Western Railway, called Lord's Bridge, +from the Lord Hardwicke who, in the beginning of the nineteenth +century, substituted a bridge for the earlier ford here. To our right +we see, across the fields, the church tower of Comberton; where, on +the little village green, can still be seen the worn remains of a +turf-built "maze," first traced out no one knows when, but certainly +not later than the sixteenth century. Various mystical reasons are +conjectured for the origin of these mazes, of which a fair number +still exist in England (especially in the Eastern counties), while +many more are known to have been destroyed by the Puritans of the +seventeenth century as relics of heathen superstition. Such, indeed, +they probably are. Mr. Walter Johnson, in his "Folk Memory," considers +them to be exceedingly primitive, begun in connection with "ceremonial +dances of painted heathen round a prehistoric camp fire." This +Comberton maze is fifty feet in diameter, while the tracks are two +feet in width, divided by slight banks of turf, once, it would seem, +about a foot in height, but now much worn down. + +The next turn (to the left) leads to Harlton, a pretty, shady village, +with a fine Perpendicular church, having a stone rood screen, which is +rare, and, what is yet rarer, a still surviving stone reredos of the +fifteenth century, with a central recess, once closed with a door, and +evidently intended as a "Tabernacle" for the Reservation of the +Blessed Sacrament. The six niches on either side of this recess were +as evidently meant for images of the twelve Apostles. + +Harlton lies close under White Hill, that chalk spur which we have +already met at Haslingfield.[179] Here, too, there is a "clunch-pit" +in the hill-side, from which the material for the church was probably +dug. It is now disused, except for occasional marling purposes, and +some unknown benefactor has planted its slopes with larches and +laburnums, forming a most fascinating little dell, the charms of which +are free to all. + +[Footnote 179: See p. 236.] + +Our road now climbs the hill, which it crosses through a cutting, with +a fine view from the summit in either direction. In the little clump +of trees just to the west of the road there stood, till the 'seventies +of the nineteenth century, Orwell Maypole, the last of its class to +survive in these parts. In mediæval times every village had its +maypole, round which the lasses and lads hied them to dance on May +Day. But, like the mazes, they were called (and actually were) +remnants of heathenism, and, as such, were destroyed wholesale in the +years of Puritan ascendancy. So it befell with the great maypole which +gave name to the church of St. Andrew _Under-shaft_ in the City of +London. It was hewn down, and, as it lay along the street, sawn in +pieces, each householder taking for firewood the length that lay +opposite his own door. The Restoration set a certain number up again, +but the continuity of their use had been broken, and its revival (as +May Day was connected with no special Festival of the Church, like +Easter and Christmas, which were also originally heathen feasts) +became a merely artificial reaction, bound to dwindle away. So it +befell that Orwell Maypole, after being disused for generations, +finally perished by natural decay. It stood almost exactly upon the +meridian of Greenwich, so that it was a valuable and far-seen +landmark. + +Orwell itself lies, as usual, just off the road, on the southern slope +of the hill. Half a century ago it was the prettiest of villages, with +its eponymous "well," shaded by magnificent trees, gushing from the +hill-side, in the midst of a prehistoric earthwork, just below the +noble church. But, about 1870, the earthwork, unhappily, was found to +contain "coprolites" (worth probably about £100 after the expenses of +getting them had been paid). For this paltry sum the whole place was +destroyed. Well, trees, earthwork, all are now gone; only the church +is left, perched on its slope high above the village street. It has a +grand decorated chancel, the roof of which is covered with heraldic +devices, and contains an interesting epitaph in Latin verse to one of +the seventeenth century rectors of the parish, beginning: + + Pastor eram dum pastor eram tunc fistula dulcis + Tunc tuba qua torvum sprevit ovile lupum. + + ("I _was_ a Pastor, while a Pastor I; + Sweet then my pipe; loud then my trumpet-call, + Whereat my flock defied the wolf so grim.") + +In the south aisle is preserved a small crucifix of stone, dating from +the thirteenth century. It had been built into the wall to save it +from destruction at the Reformation, and was not discovered for three +hundred years. + +About a mile further we find a village along the road itself, the +village of Wimpole. But we notice that the houses are all modern, and +that no church is to be seen amongst them. A church there is belonging +to them, but it stands a mile to the west, where the village also +stood till towards the close of the eighteenth century. At that time +the mansion and park of Wimpole Hall were being enlarged to their +present magnificence by Philip, the first Earl of Hardwicke (the +builder of Lord's Bridge). Plebeian cottages were not to be tolerated +"betwixt the wind and his nobility," so he pulled down the entire +village and planted it, where it now is, along the Akeman Street. The +church, which could not well be moved, he faced with red brick to +match his new-built stables, close to which it is situated. + +[Illustration: _Great Eversden._] + +Wimpole Hall has passed through various hands. The central portion was +built, in 1632, by Sir Thomas Chicheley, the wings were added a +century later by the Earl of Oxford, from whom it came to the +Hardwicke family. It is now the seat of Viscount Clifden. The house is +on a splendid scale, and the grounds on a scale yet more splendid, +with a double avenue of elms, three miles long, running to the south. +Here Queen Victoria stayed when visiting Cambridgeshire shortly after +her marriage, and won all hearts by her graciousness. It is still +remembered how when, by some blunder, the attendant in charge of her +jewels was not forthcoming, she came down to the ball-room with a +simple wreath of roses in her hair, "and not all the jewels in the +world could have made her look so queenly." + +There is, of course, a public road leading from Wimpole village to the +church, which is also accessible from the west, where the great iron +gates of the park are usually unbarred at the request of respectable +visitors. These gates open upon the Ermine Street, which the Akeman +Street crosses a mile beyond New Wimpole, after also crossing the +great avenue. Close by them is another transplanted village, +Arrington, whose church stands on the hill half a mile westward. The +traffic of the old North Road is responsible for this move, and also +for the delightful old coaching inn here, the Hardwicke Arms, with its +old-fashioned rooms and long range of stables. + +At the junction our road ceases. To continue our westward course we +must go along the Ermine Street for half a mile, either northward or +southward, where we shall find lanes, either of which will carry us +on. The northern lane here will take us along the line of the hill, to +Tadlow, Wrestlingworth, Potton, and, finally, Bedford, and will enable +us, if we will, to explore the three Hadleys (East Hadley, Hadley St. +George, and Cockayne Hadley), of which the two last have fine halls +and parks. The southern, however, is the preferable route. It follows +the course of the infant Cam, crossed by a bridge on the Ermine +Street, and brings us first to the wholly obliterated Shingay, which, +though once the most important parish hereabouts, and still giving its +name to the Rural Deanery, has absolutely ceased to exist, church and +all; its parishioners being affiliated to the neighbouring village of +Wendy. + +The cause of this ruin was the suppression, at the Reformation, of the +institution which was literally the life of Shingay, a House of the +Crusading Order of St. John of Jerusalem, or, as they were commonly +called, the Knights Hospitallers. This title was given them because, +at their original foundation, they dwelt in a Hospital (or house for +the hospitable entertainment of pilgrims) at Jerusalem. We now connect +this name only with places where the sick are ministered to; but it +originally connoted far wider ministrations, and, indeed, rather +corresponded to the other form in which the word has survived into our +present speech--hotel. We read it on a leaden seal found here at +Wendy, in 1876, which bears on one side a conventional representation +of the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre, surrounded by the legend +IHERVSALEM, HOSPITALIS. On the other is the name of Guarin de +Montaigu, who, from 1232 to 1269, was Grand Master of the Order. + +The Hospitallers, as readers of "Ivanhoe" know, were, like the +Templars, a military Order, who, for over six centuries, fought +unceasingly for Christendom. First at Jerusalem, then at Rhodes, then +at Malta, they held out with never-failing devotion against the +on-sweeping torrent of Mahommedan aggression; and it is scarcely too +much to say that but for their eight-pointed cross Christianity might +well have been crushed throughout Europe. Not till the nineteenth +century was their last stronghold, Malta, reft from them by Napoleon, +to pass finally under the flag of England. The Order still survives, +but the modern sodality calling itself by the same name, connected +with what we now call hospital work, was set up in quite recent days. + +Preceptories of the Order, as their branch Houses were called, were +found in every land, and not least in England, where they were so much +beloved that, when the rival Order of the Temple was suppressed, in +the fourteenth century, its property was made over to them. Here, at +Shingay, their establishment was a small one consisting of the +preceptor, two knights, and three priests, one of whom acted as Vicar +of Wendy. The gross income of the House was, in 1332 (as we know from +a Report still existing in the Record Office at Malta), £187 12s. 8d., +equivalent to about £3,500 at the present value of money. Of this the +land (about 1,000 acres) brought in £71; the mills, houses, etc., £4 +13s. 4d.; the work of the villains £38 10s. 0d.; and the Rectories of +Wendy and Sawston, which formed part of their endowment, £66 13s. 4d. +The rest was derived from the fees paid by visitors; for, by the rule +of the Order, the doors of the House were open to all comers. The +expenses of the year amounted to less than half the income, for they +lived frugally, their keep only coming to about £3 a week (in present +value) for the six inmates, besides servants and guests. Men servants +were paid at the rate of £12 a year (besides their keep), and each +knight was allowed the equivalent of £25 a year for clothing and +pocket-money. Thus a large sum was available for the war-chest of the +Order, and was annually forwarded to the headquarters at Jerusalem or +Rhodes. + +One of their sources of income was a special privilege which is still +remembered in local tradition. Their House (like those of the +Templars) was exempt from every ban, even that of the Pope himself. +Thus, in the dismal days of King John, when England was placed under +an Interdict, when no rites of religion could be observed, and even +burial of the dead was forbidden, so that "you might see human bodies +lying everywhere about the fields unsepultured," Shingay shone out as +the one spot in the whole district where the consolations of religion +were still attainable. Here Mass continued to be said, here the +departed could still be laid in hallowed earth. And hither they were +brought from all sides. And thus it is that peasants may be found who +still tell how, at some far off, unknown period, those who, for some +forgotten, inexplicable reason, might not be buried like Christians in +their own churchyard, were spirited away by night in a "fairy-cart" to +Shingay, there to be committed in peace to the ground. This +"fairy-cart" is an echo of the word _feretorium_ (or bier on wheels), +in which the conveyance was actually effected. + +[Illustration: _Rood Screen, Guilden Morden Church._] + +Not a building of any kind now exists at Shingay, and very few at the +adjoining Wendy, where, at every turn, we are greeted by a wealth of +fresh-springing waters, derived from the artesian wells of the old +coprolite diggings. The height in which the water in these wells rises +is strangely variable. They are always made on the same system; an +ordinary well being dug through the upper strata till the impervious +gault is reached, which may be any distance from six to sixty feet +below the surface. A four-inch bore is then made through the gault by +means of a sort of Brobdingnagian cheese-taster, four or five feet +long, screwed to an iron handle three times that length. Again and +again the taster is brought up, full of gault, and its contents or +"core" thrown aside. As the bore gets deeper more irons are added, +till the water-bearing greensand or "rock" is attained, usually in the +second hundred feet of the bore. The taster is then removed and a +"chisel" substituted for "striking the rock," _i.e._, punching a hole +by lifting the entire length of irons a few feet and letting it fall. +By and by up comes the water, quite suddenly for the most part, +gushing from the bore and filling the well till it finds its level. +This, as we have said, is curiously different in different spots; in +some it does not reach the surface, and has to be pumped up; in +others, as here at Wendy, it will supply a fountain eight or ten feet +in height. One of these picturesquely gushes out from the top of an +old wooden gate-post, up which some artistically-minded +coprolite-digger has engineered its course. It is almost medicinal in +the quantity of iron with which it is impregnated, but delicious to +drink, and the softest possible. + +This gate-post is beside the lane leading on Guilden Morden, the last +village before we once more reach Ashwell, and itself standing on an +outlying mound of the Ashwell chalk. Round this elevation the Cam +takes a wide sweep. We may record that Wendy is the highest point +along its course which navigation has ever attained. The breadth at +Ashwell at once suggests to visitors that a canoe could reach the +spot, and many an attempt has been made by ambitious undergraduates. +But the upper reaches are so choked up with reeds and weeds and rushes +and bushes that no one has ever penetrated further than this spot, +some four miles, by water-way, below the source. + +Guilden Morden has a far-seen church, a conspicuous object from White +Hill, over Barrington, twelve miles away. It is a fine building, with +an unusually spacious tower of Northamptonshire stone, and a Saxon +font. But it is chiefly interesting for the remarkable development of +the fourteenth century rood-screen, which on either side expands into +a small "parclose" or pew, enclosed to the height of twelve feet by +rich decorated tracery, ornately painted (the original pattern having +survived sufficiently to be restored). On the west panel of the +northern parclose may be discerned the figures of St. Erconwald and +St. Edmund, both members of the royal line of East Anglia. The former +was a brother of St. Etheldreda, the foundress of Ely, and became a +much-beloved Bishop of London in the seventh century. The latter was +the hero king martyred by the Danes a century later, the chosen friend +of our great Alfred, of whom so lovely a picture has been left us by +the old chroniclers:-- + + "From his earliest years the truest of Christians, he showed + himself of such promise that, by the unanimous will of all his + folk, he was not so much chosen as rushed into the kingship over + them. For his very look was worthy of this high estate; so bright + was it with the calm beauty of holiness and of a conscience like + the sea at rest. Kind was he of speech and courteous to all; the + grace of Humility came natural to him; and amongst his comrades + he kept his place as their Lord with wondrous meekness and no + touch of pride. For already the Saint bare in his face that which + he was afterwards, by God's will, to show forth; seeing that as a + boy he had pressed with all his might into the Way of + Righteousness, which, as God's pity foreknew, would end for him + in the Way of Martyrdom.... And walking in the King's Highway, he + turned aside neither to the right hand, by being puffed up with + his own merits, nor to the left, by yielding to the faults of + human weakness. To the needy was he a cheerful giver, to the + widows and orphans the kindest of Patrons; ever keeping before + his eyes the saying of the Wise Man: "Behold they have made thee + Prince; but be thou among them as one of themselves."[180] + +[Footnote 180: Chronicle of St. Neots.] + +[Illustration: _Cottage at Steeple Morden._] + +These parcloses seem to have been made to serve as confessional boxes, +devices which were very rare in England before the Reformation. +"Shrift," of course, was universal; but neither priest nor penitent +were shut from view. The former sat in a chair, usually at the altar +rail, while the latter knelt beside and facing him. In these parcloses +the priest's head as he sat on the seat would be visible to those in +the church, but the kneeling penitent would be hidden. That such was +the purpose here would appear from the lines in old English lettering +painted upon their sides:-- + + Ad . mortem . duram . Jhesu . de . me . cape . curam . + Vitam . venturam . post . mortem . redde . securam . + Fac . me . confessum . rogo . te . Deus . ante . recessum . + Et . post . decessum . cælo. mihi . dirige . gressum . + + "Jesu, in Death's dark vale, be Thou my stay, + Make safe my Life to Come from every foe, + Grant me Confession, Lord, ere hence I go, + And then to Heaven do thou make straight my way." + +From Guilden Morden a lane leads straight to Ashwell, leaving on the +left Steeple Morden (which lost its steeple in the great storm of +1703), and Littlington, the cradle of Cambridgeshire Nonconformity, of +which hereafter. Here the old parish Lock-up survives; a dismal den of +red brick, some ten feet square, with iron-clenched door and +closely-barred window. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + Oxford Road, Observatory, Neptune, Cambridge + Discoveries.--Coton.--Madingley.--Hardwick.--Toft, St. + Hubert.--Childerley, Charles + I.--Knapwell.--Bourn.--Caxton--Eltisley, St. Pandiana, + 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." + + +Due westwards from Cambridge, turning leftwards out of the Via Devana +just beyond Magdalene College, runs what used to be the old coaching +road to Oxford. Till quite recently the milestones along it gave the +distance to that city, between which and Cambridge there was of old a +good deal of traffic, for the Universities were more closely connected +then than even now. Popularly this road was called the _Ad eundem_ +road, a nickname referring to the not so long by-gone privilege by +which any graduate of either place might be admitted to the same +degree (_ad eundem gradum_) in the sister University simply on payment +of the fees and without any further examination. It is now spoken of +as the Madingley Road, from the first village along its course, or the +St. Neots Road, from the first town to which it leads. Thence it went +on to Oxford by way of Bedford, Buckingham, and Bicester. + +A short two miles along this road brings us to the porticoed front and +white domes of the University Observatory, erected in 1822. More than +a century earlier its embryo had been set up on the summit of the +Great Gate Tower at Trinity College, for the benefit of Sir Isaac +Newton; but this seems to have been little used after the death of +that greatest of scientists. Even after the new Observatory was set up +a certain lack of keenness pervaded its work. Thus it came about that +Cambridge and England lost the glory of the discovery of Neptune, the +most distant planet of our Solar System. + +For more than a decade the irregularities in the motion of Uranus +(itself not long discovered) had suggested to astronomers that there +must be another planet exterior to it, when, in 1841, John Couch +Adams, then only an undergraduate of St. John's College, set himself +to grapple with the arduous task of finding by analytical computation +the orbit and place of this supposititious body. So stupendous were +the difficulties that when, after four years of concentrated effort, +he submitted his results to the Astronomer Royal, begging that the +planet might be looked for in a certain spot (where we now know that +it actually was visible at the time), his suggestion received very +incredulous acceptance. Was it likely that a mere youth should have +solved this gigantic problem? + +That very autumn of 1845 another young man, quite independently, +devoted himself to the same quest, the brilliant French mathematician +Leverrier. He, in the following summer, published the results he had +so far attained. Adams had never published; but these new results so +strikingly agreed with his that the Astronomer Royal's incredulity +gave way, and he desired that search should be made with the great +equatorial telescope, then newly erected at Cambridge through the +generosity of the Duke of Northumberland. + +His injunctions were carried out; but the lack of a trustworthy star +map made the work long. And it was made longer by lack of promptitude. +The minute celestial object (only equal to a star of the eighth +magnitude) had been actually seen, but further observations were +needed to establish the fact that it was indeed a planet moving +amongst the stars around it. And these observations were delayed at +the crucial point by the observers adjourning for a cup of tea! When +they returned the sky had clouded over and no favourable night +occurred for many evenings after. Meanwhile Leverrier had called in +the aid of the Berlin Observatory; where there did exist a good star +map, and also the eagerness so sadly lacking here at Cambridge. The +very day his letter was received (23rd September, 1846), the great +Berlin telescope was directed to the spot which he indicated,--and +there was the planet. + +The story goes that when the tidings of this overthrow of hope +reached Cambridge, and were reported to the Fellows of Trinity as they +sat at dinner in their Hall, it was as if a thunderbolt had fallen +amongst them: + + "And all talk died, as in a grove all song + Beneath the shadow of some bird of prey; + Then a long silence came upon the Hall," + +broken at last by Adam Sedgwick, the venerable Professor of Geology, +who solemnly raised his clenched fist and brought it down upon the +High Table, not with violence but with a concentrated tension of +indignation, saying slowly, with an equal solemnity: "Confound their +lymphatic souls."[181] As for the Observatory, the blow thoroughly +roused it up; and ever since it has remained, both in material and +moral equipment, amongst the foremost of the great Observatories of +the world, where solid and useful work is continuously being done, +while up-to-date instruments, methods, and records are never to seek. +On one evening of each week during term time any member of the +University may see the practical working of the place, and bring +friends with him. + +[Footnote 181: The discovery of Neptune is by no means the only +discovery the honour of which has been lost to Cambridge through that +scientific temper of mind which is loth to publish investigations at +an early stage of their verification. Months before Marconi introduced +wireless telegraphy to the public it had been practised here by +Professors Rutherford and Sir J. J. Thomson; the first serious +messages being exchanged, over a distance of two miles, between the +Cavendish Laboratory and the Observatory. At the same Laboratory the +Röntgen rays were being investigated ere yet Röntgen became a +household word. And long years before Bunsen and Kirchoff (in 1859) +published the true explanation of Fraunhofer's dark lines in the solar +spectrum, that explanation had been given to his pupils by yet another +Cambridge Professor, Sir George Gabriel Stokes. Such indifference to +mere fame reminds us of the old saying that an Oxford man looks as if +all the world belonged to him, a Cambridge man as if he did not care +whom it belonged to.] + +A mile further we reach the foot of the chalk slope which bounds the +Cam valley. At this point lanes diverge to the right and left. The +latter almost immediately brings us to Coton, a tiny village with a +tiny, but most picturesque, fourteenth century church, having a +(restored) Norman chancel, a pretty spire, and a yet prettier south +doorway. There is, too, a massive rood screen, and a curious +"palimpsest" Table of Commandments, the original sixteenth century +lettering showing beneath repainted characters of the seventeenth +century. Altogether the place is well worth the slight divergence +needed to visit it, more especially as the lane between it and our +road gives a view of Cambridge almost comparable to the prospect of + + "That sweet City, with her dreaming spires" + +which the Cumnor slopes (as Matthew Arnold sings) provide for +Oxonians. Coton can also be reached from Cambridge by a delightful +field path beneath overhanging oaks, which runs straight from Garret +Hostel Bridge. Coton spire (as has been already mentioned) is the +"objective" of the Trinity avenue, though the view has long been +closed out by the growth of the branches. + +The other lane, to the right, which leads to Madingley, is also worth +traversing. From its hedgeless "switch-back" terraces we look +northwards across the valley, not of the Cam but of the Ouse, bounded +by the uplands of the island of Ely, ten miles away at the nearest +point, and nearly twice as far where the ridge is crowned by the dim +and distant towers of the cathedral. Conspicuous in the nearer +distance is the red-brick mass of the Ladies' College at Girton, some +three miles away from us. Madingley, to which half a mile or so of +this prospect leads us, is a little place of steep pitches and +tree-shaded lanes, very different from the usual Cambridgeshire +village, but with a special charm of its own. It has a pretty little +church nestling beneath a fine Elizabethan hall of red-brick. Both +church and hall contain portions of the spoil of the church of St. +Etheldreda, which once stood at Histon and was pulled down by Mr. +Justice Hinde, the first builder of Madingley Hall, to whom the sacred +edifice was given by Henry the Eighth. Its Norman font is now in +Madingley Church, while part of its roof is still to be seen in the +Hall. + +At Madingley Hall King Edward the Seventh was quartered while an +undergraduate of Trinity College. Tradition asserts that it once +sheltered another monarch, the ill-fated Charles the First, in a +momentary attempt to escape from the clutches of the rebel army during +his enforced residence at the neighbouring Hall of Childerley, as will +be narrated in connection with that place. The Hall has, since that +date, passed from one family to another, and is now the seat of +Colonel Harding, D.C.L. + +[Illustration: _Coton._] + +Madingley is a centre of pretty lanes. Besides that already spoken +of, another, an avenue of greenery, leads northwards to the Via +Devana, another westwards to the village of Dry Drayton, and another +up the hill southwards, to rejoin our St. Neots road on the summit of +the ridge. Here we are 220 feet above the sea, overlooking the valley +of the Ouse to the north and to the south that of the Cam, or, rather, +of its tributary the Bourn Brook. The road keeps the highest ground, +almost on the level, while a succession of lanes to the right and left +lead down to the villages on either slope. + +First comes a southward turn to Hardwick, the church of which is so +conspicuous an object in the view from the roof of King's College +Chapel. Here, in 1644, "Mr. Mapletoft, parson thereof, with a wife and +seven children, had these articles exhibited against him, viz., that +he refused to read anything from the Parliament, but read many things +from the King at Oxford with great boldness; that he prayeth not for +the Parliament nor hath found them any arms at all; that he is a man +devoted to many superstitious ceremonies, and commonly useth +altar-worship, east-worship, and dropping-worship,[182] and after his +sermon came out of the pulpit into the chancel and there made an end +of his will-worship." Whereupon, by the Earl of Manchester's warrant, +he was promptly ejected and sequestrated. The previous year the church +had been purified by Dowsing, who notes with disgust that for dealing +with "ten superstitious pictures and a cross" he was here paid only +3s. 2d. instead of the 6s. 8d., which was his regular fee. + +[Footnote 182: _I.e._ genuflecting.] + +The great iconoclast has the same grievance in the adjoining village +of Toft, where he got "only 6s. 8d." for a specially heavy +"purification" of the church, involving the destruction of +"twenty-seven superstitious pictures in the windows, ten others in +stone, three inscriptions, _Pray for the souls_, divers _Orate pro +animabuses_ [sic] in the windows, and a bell _Ora pro anima Sancta +Katharina_." The "pictures in stone" were doubtless the alabaster +images of the reredos, fragments of which are still preserved in the +church, exquisite in modelling and colour. The most noticeable is a +headless figure of St. Hubert, the mighty hunter of legend, who was +converted by meeting a white hart with golden horns (supposed to be an +emblem of Christ), and received from St. Peter a key wherewith to cure +hydrophobia. The key is here in his hand, with a dog beneath it, and +the golden-horned hart couched by his side. + +Just before we reach the seventh milestone from Cambridge another +south-running lane diverges to Caldecote, with its retired little fane +on the hill-side over the Bourn, a very oasis of devotional peace and +quietude. Confronting it across the stream is the steeple of Kingston, +where there is a fine fourteenth century fresco in the north aisle, +and a delicious little niche in the western wall of the tower, +outside. + +[Illustration: _Cottage at Toft._] + +At the point where this lane leaves the road, another, looking like a +mere farm road, turns off northwards. This leads to Childerley Hall, +now a farm house, but in 1647 of sufficient consequence to serve as a +sleeping place for Royalty. Hither King Charles the First was brought +by his captors, when carried off by Cornet Joyce from Holmby House in +Northamptonshire, as has been already narrated.[183] He was not +altogether an unwilling captive, for both he and the Army hoped to +arrive at some mutual accommodation which would make both independent +of that Parliamentary control of which both were heartily wearied. + +[Footnote 183: See p. 182.] + +He was treated, accordingly, with the utmost respect; and during his +stay at Childerley Hall[184] (from Saturday, June 5, to Tuesday, June +8), the students of Cambridge "flocked apace" to pay their homage to +him. "He is exceedingly cheerful," writes a contemporary scribe,[185] +"shows himself to all, and commands that no scholler be debarred from +kissing his hand, for which honour they return humble thanks and +_Vivat Rex_; and there the Sophs are in their gowns and caps as if no +further than Barnwell." Nay, even the great chiefs of the army, the +men who at Marston and Naseby had faced and conquered him, Fairfax, +Ireton, and Whalley, and Cromwell himself, came hither to join in this +hand-kissing, and, one after another, to be astonished at the ability +and graciousness which their distressed Sovereign showed in the +private interview granted to each in turn. + +[Footnote 184: Childerley was then the seat of the Cutts family.] + +[Footnote 185: Quoted in _East Anglia and the Civil War_ by Mr. +Kingston.] + +But, if local tradition is to be trusted, beneath all this gallant +show of gracious acquiescence in the inevitable, there lurked in the +King's heart a deep conviction that the hope on which it was founded +was forlorn indeed. For this tradition tells of a truly desperate dash +for freedom, the success of which was all but impossible. It has been +constantly handed down at Madingley Hall that on one of these June +midnights a white figure knocked at the door, and a subdued voice +asked for "Jack" (Sir John Cotton, a noted loyalist, whose seat the +Hall was at that time). He came, and found this mysterious visitor +none other than the King himself, disguised in a peasant's smock, and +imploring concealment till he could escape from the country. By a +secret stair, traces of which still exist, he was conducted to a +hiding place in the roof. But it was too late; his flight had been +discovered, and the pursuing troopers were already out in search of +him. Madingley Hall would, of course, be amongst the very first places +to be suspected of harbouring him, and the wild venture ended in +despair. All was hushed up; for both he and his captors wished to keep +up the fiction that he was with them willingly. + +But they kept a tight grip upon him, and, when he left Childerley that +Tuesday morning, would not allow him to ride on to his state prison +at Newmarket through Cambridge (where the streets were being decked in +his honour with "whole rose-bushes and strewn with rushes and herbs"), +lest these demonstrations should kindle too ardent a flame of loyalty. +He was accordingly carried round by way of Grantchester and +Trumpington. Since that time Childerley Hall has been rebuilt, but the +room in which the King slept is still to be seen. And hard by the Hall +there still stands the unpretentious little red-brick chapel (now a +barn) in which he worshipped on that memorable Sunday. + +A mile further along the road, lanes again branch off north and south. +The northern leads to the secluded hamlet of Knapwell, where a spring +of ferruginous waters, held of old to be wonder-working, still +justifies its ancient name of the Red Well. The southern brings us to +Bourn, where the Bourn brook rises. On the slope above the stream +stands the beautiful cruciform church, of late Norman and Early +English architecture; the arches which open from the tower into the +nave and the aisles being particularly noticeable. Bourn Hall is a +fine Elizabethan mansion, the seat of J. Briscoe, Esq., and is the +modern representative of a castle (the moat of which still exists) +erected here by Picot, Sheriff of Cambridgeshire under William the +Conqueror, and the scene of hard fighting in the Barons' War, when it +belonged to the Peverells. + +Eleven miles from Cambridge we cross the Ermine Street, a junction +sufficiently important to have been selected by the wisdom of our +ancestors as the site of a gibbet; the object being that as many as +possible should see the gruesome spectacle of malefactors hanging in +chains, and thus, if evilly disposed, take warning, or, if well +disposed, be encouraged by this visible vindication of the Law's +majesty. The gibbet has been gone for a century and more; but till +quite lately the sign-post here directed the traveller simply TO +LONDON and TO YORK on either hand, reminding us that this was the old +North Road. + +A mile along it, towards London, stands the little town of Caxton, +from which the gibbet derived its name. A prosperous place in the old +coaching days (as the size of its inns still testifies), it is now a +mere village with 450 inhabitants. But it continues to boast itself a +town. As the nearest point on the North Road to Cambridge, it was an +important junction. The historian, Carter, writing in 1753, mentions +that a mail was carried twice a week (on horseback) between Caxton and +Cambridge; the only mail connection our University town then had, +except with London and Bury St. Edmunds! We read also that, in the +Jacobite rising of 1745, when it was seriously expected that the +Stuart forces, after their wonderful success in reaching Derby, would +march on to London, many Cambridge students, who cared little about +the issue, secured windows at Caxton "to see the Scots pass by." + +Sixty years before this another gleam of interest lights up the name +of Caxton. In 1686 the Bishop, Francis Turner (one of the famous Seven +prosecuted by James the Second and afterwards deprived by William the +Third as a non-juror), made a strenuous effort to get Mattins and +Evensong said daily, according to the Rubric, throughout his Diocese. +The following characteristic letter addressed by him to the Vicar of +Caxton was discovered in 1908 amongst the church muniments: + + Ely, + _Sept. 11th, 1686._ + + GOOD BROTHER, + + The good character I have received concerning you ... has given + me a particular confidence in yr. care to putt the directions of + my printed letter in practice. Yr. parish, if it be not so + numerous as I suppos'd, yet lyes on the Great Northern Roade; it + would be for our Churches Honor and for the consolation of well + dispos'd travellers to find Daily Prayers in yr. Church. I press + them all over the Diocese where it is practicable, but at Caxton + I wd. have them by all means, tho' you begin with a congregation + of but a widdow or two. Have them if you please at 6 or 7 in the + morning if that will be best for passengers. My good friend you + have been bredd in a camp to toyle and hardship. I know the + putting my orders in execution, that is the making of so many + careless people Christian indeed, will cost you a great deale of + labour. But do not grudge it; you are sure of as great a Reward + in Heaven; and in good time you may find your account by it + here.... In the mean time do your Business with all your might, + and sett into it presently, before the Visitation. By which you + will more than a little oblige, Sir, + + Yr. affect. friend and Brother, + FRAN. ELY. + + MR. SAY OF CAXTON. + + P.S.--If you have no little Schoole in your town I shall wonder, + and you ought to procure one. If there bee one, then you need not + want a congregation for both morning and evening prayers. + +After crossing the Ermine Street we come to Eltisley, where there is a +pretty Village Green and a good village inn; and the church, though +small, has some fine Early English work. It is dedicated to St. John +the Baptist and St. Pandiana (or Pandionia), an obscure personage, +said by Leland to have been a Scottish[186] princess, who found in +this remote spot a refuge from the importunities of her suitors, and +was here buried by the side of a spring still known as St. Pandiana's +Well. Her nunnery perished after the Conquest, and in the fourteenth +century her body was translated into the church, along with that of +the yet more obscure St. Wendreda,[187] a purely Cambridgeshire saint, +whose name is also connected with the church of March, and with a +"well" near Newmarket. + +[Footnote 186: _I.e._ Irish. The name of the Scots lingered on in +their original home for many centuries after it became more famous in +North Britain, whither they began to migrate in the fifth century.] + +[Footnote 187: See Miss Arnold Forster's Studies in Church +Dedications, chap. xxxi.] + +The village is the scene of a dramatic tale found in Roger of +Wendover, under the date 1234. A famine was raging, and the hungry +poor invaded the ripening harvest-fields and devoured the crops, "for +which they may scarce be blamed. Of the farmers, however, (who ever +from their avarice, look upon the poor with an evil eye,) many were +highly wroth at this pious theft. And they of Alboldesley hied them +all on the next Sunday (July 16th) to the church, and with tumult +required the priest to excommunicate upon the spot all who had thus +plucked their wheat-ears. But one pious man alone adjured him in God's +name to pronounce no such sentence for _his_ crops; adding that he was +right well content that the poor should take from him in their need, +and that he commended to the Lord's care whatsoever was left. + +"Now scarcely had the priest perforce begun the curse, than there +suddenly arose such a storm of thunder, lightning, whirlwind, rain and +hail, that the corn in the fields was torn from the ground as by a +blast from hell; and all that grew therein, and the cattle, and the +very birds, were destroyed, as though trodden down by carts and +horses. But that just man found his land without trace of harm. And +thus it is clear that as the angels sing Glory to God in the Highest, +so on earth is there Peace toward men of Good-will. + +"This storm began on the borders of Bedfordshire (at Eltisley), and +passed eastwards through the Isle of Ely. And here is a wondrous +thing. Such crops as still stood when it was over were found so +rotted that neither horse nor ass, steer nor pig, goose nor hen, would +eat thereof." A cyclone of precisely the same character devastated +Essex on June 24, 1897, and was as capricious in its visitations. + +At Eltisley we reach the termination of the long ridge which has kept +us at an upland level all the way from Madingley, and our road now +runs rapidly down into the valley of the Ouse. We reach that noble +stream at the old-world, but thriving, town of St. Neots, where there +is a fine old bridge and a magnificent church. The name of this place +is locally pronounced not _Neats_, but _Notes_. This last is the +correct form, for the name is derived from Neotus, the eldest brother +and friend of King Alfred, whom that greatest of our monarchs +recognised as the good genius of his life. + +The original name of this notable personality was Athelstane. He was +the eldest grandson of Egbert, the first "King of the English," and +held, accordingly, the under-kingship of Kent, at that time the usual +appanage of the heir-apparent. This dignity he resigned to enter +Religion, at the Abbey of Glastonbury, under the name of Neotus. A +special bond of affection united him with his youngest brother, +Alfred, who, as an enthusiastic boy of seventeen, took this dearest of +brothers as his spiritual guide and counsellor. When, five years +later, the successive deaths of the intervening brethren brought him +to the throne, we read that the inconsiderate zeal with which he +suppressed abuses drew anxious warnings from St. Neot, who foresaw +that this overweening course would surely bring disastrous +consequences. + +"But Alfred heeded not the reproof of the man of God, nor listed what +he foretold. Wherefore (seeing that a man's sins must needs be some +way punished, either in this world or in that which is to come), the +Righteous Judge and True willed that he should not be unpunished here, +that so he might be spared hereafter."[188] + +[Footnote 188: The Chronicle of St. Neots.] + +The punishment was that sudden and disastrous Danish inroad which +overwhelmed the whole of the kingdom, and drove Alfred himself into +hiding at Athelney. While he was there St. Neot died at the +neighbouring Glastonbury. We read there, ere his departure, the saint +had promised that as he had been Alfred's spiritual guide in life, so +should that spiritual guidance and wardship still abide with him. +"Thy guide have I been ever; thee and thine will I lead on." "I will +be thy captain, I will be thy champion; thou shalt be glad and rejoice +in me." "Lo, I will go before thy banner; thine enemies shall perish +at my presence." And when, a few weeks later, the King led on his +forces to the crowning victory over the Danes at Ethandune, he was +persuaded that this promise was being fulfilled. With the eye of +ardent faith he beheld the blessed spirit of his brother leading on +the Christian banners to the onset. "See ye not?" he exclaimed to his +men, "See ye not? That is indeed Neotus, Christ's glorious servant, +Christ's unconquered soldier; and through him is the victory even now +given to our hands." + +Thus it came about that St. Neot remained the object of unforgotten +reverence, not only to Alfred himself, but to his heroic son and +daughter. The former christened after this sainted uncle his own +eldest son Athelstane, afterwards "Athelstane the Magnificent," the +mighty King of the English and Emperor of Britain; and when the latter +delivered Mercia from the yoke of the Danes, she called by his name +one of the fortress towns, which she founded on the Ouse to keep them +in check, St. Neots. + +It is appropriate that one of the earliest and most spirited of the +Chronicles that record the great deeds of Alfred should have been +preserved for five centuries in the Church of St. Neots, and should +still be known as the "Chronicle of St. Neots."[189] The north aisle +of this church is known as the "Jesus Chapel," having been built by a +local mediæval fraternity called "The Guild of Jesus." The sacred +monogram IHC, is to be seen on the beams of the roof inside and on the +buttresses outside. + +[Footnote 189: To this Chronicle we owe some of the best known legends +in English History, the story of Alfred and the cakes, for instance. +It was probably written in the tenth century. (See my "Alfred in the +Chroniclers.")] + + * * * * * + +One of the most delightful routes of the district is that by which we +make our way along the Ouse from St. Neots to Ely, by way of +Godmanchester, Huntingdon, and St. Ives. On leaving St. Neots the road +climbs Paxton Hill, where its shady course overhangs a beautiful sweep +of the broad stream 120 feet below. Thence it drops to the river at +Paxton itself, where the church has some good Saxon features, and +thence continues along the water to the twin villages of Offord Darcy +and Offord Cluny, close together on the right bank, and so over +another little eminence to strike the river again at Godmanchester. + +The etymology of this name shows it to have been a Roman station, and +Roman remains have been found here. It is commonly identified with the +_Durolipons_ of the Antonine Itinerary. Here the Via Devana, running +straight from Cambridge, strikes the Ermine Street, and the final +syllable of the Latin name suggests that the united roads crossed the +river by a bridge before separating on their respective lines towards +Chester and York. If so the bridge must have stood somewhere near the +present one, which, however, was not built till the thirteenth +century. Godmanchester is now a reposeful little town, with a uniquely +picturesque view across the verdant expanse of Port Holme, the largest +meadow, as it boasts itself, in the world, a wide, wide flat of breezy +grass, across which, more than a mile away, rise the buildings of +Huntingdon. In flood time, when this flat becomes a shining lake, the +scene is striking indeed. + +From the northern end of the town a long causeway, pierced with many +arches to carry off these floods, leads across the fields to the +bridge, with its high pitch, its recessed and pointed buttresses, and +its old bridge-chapel (now used for secular purposes) on the central +span. Immediately behind lies the town of Huntingdon, larger and more +stirring than its elder sister Godmanchester. It owes its existence to +the same cause as St. Neots, being one of the fortresses erected by +the "Children of Alfred," Edward the Elder and his sister Ethelfleda, +"the lady of the Mercians," to ensure their pacification of these +parts when reconquered from the Danes. It is famous as the birthplace +of Oliver Cromwell, the entry of whose baptism, in 1599, is still to +be seen in the register of All Saints' Church. The same book contains +a record of his having been put to public penance, at the age of +twenty, for scandalous living. The register of St. John's (now united +to All Saints') tells us that the body of the unhappy Mary Stuart +rested in that church during its removal by her son, James the First, +from Peterborough Cathedral to Westminster Abbey. + +From Huntingdon our road, keeping close in touch with the river, +takes us through the pretty villages of Hartford, Wyton, and Houghton, +to St. Ives. A yet prettier way is to recross the stream at Houghton +Lock and take a field-road across the meadows to the two Hemingfords, +Hemingford Abbots and Hemingford Grey. The latter is famous as the +birthplace of the Misses Gunning, who were the leading beauties of the +Court in the early days of the reign of George the Third, and married +into the highest families of the Peerage. Both churches stand on the +very brink of the Ouse, about a mile apart, their graceful steeples, +with that of Houghton to the north-east and that of St. Ives to the +north-west, watching as guardian sentinels over the rich Ouse meadows +between. All have spires, but that of Hemingford Grey lost its upper +part by an equinoctial gale in the middle of the eighteenth century, +and only the base now remains. + +St. Ives is yet another of Edward the Elder's fortresses, and is +probably named from the Cornish town similarly designated. It is +possible that it may be even a colony from that far-off strand, which +had never swerved in its allegiance, planted here to leaven the +turbulent Danish elements around. Certain it is that here Ednoth, +Abbot of Ely, erected a church dedicated to St. Ivo. Who this saint +may have been originally is not known; probably he (or she) was one of +the many obscure Celtic saints whose names dot the map of Cornwall. +But there grew up in the eleventh century a wild legend that Ivo, a +Persian (!) bishop, had settled down in the neighbourhood. In the +fifteenth century a stone sarcophagus, found by a peasant when +ploughing, was declared to contain the body of this holy Oriental, and +was translated with due pomp to the neighbouring Abbey of Ramsey. St. +Ives was specially connected with this House, and it was an Abbot of +Ramsey who built the beautiful bridge, the ditto of that at +Huntingdon, by which we here recross to the left bank of the Ouse. + +Our next point, on leaving St. Ives, is the tiny village of Holywell, +which we may reach either by road, through the hamlet of Needingworth, +or (preferably) by a field-path running westwards from near the +railway station. The little church here stands on a slope above the +river, and in the churchyard the holy well is still to be seen. But +the delight of the place is its strand along the Ouse, a rarely +picturesque medley of old houses on one side of the road and on the +other the broad clear stream, here crossed by a ferry. This road +continues (as a mere field-path) to another delicious ferry a mile +lower, with a charming little inn beside it, in a grove of lofty +trees. This lovely spot is named Overcote. Here travellers may cross +into Cambridgeshire and make their way along the "Hundred Foot" +embankment (so called because it is thirty yards in width) along the +river to Earith. For motors the way lies through Needingworth, and +past the pretty little Church of Bluntisham, with its three-sided apse +and its churchyard yews. + +Earith is a hamlet of Bluntisham, but a much larger place, owing its +importance to its situation on the point where the great works +connected with the drainage of the fens have their beginning by the +diversion of the Ouse waters from their ancient bed into the two +"Bedford Rivers," the Old and the New, which from this point run +straight as a die (like the supposed "canals" in Mars) across the fen +to Denvers Sluice, twenty-two miles away. The former was made in 1630, +the latter in 1650, at the expense of what we should now call a +company, promoted by the Earl of Bedford. No such cuts exist elsewhere +in the world. Along them a clear horizon is to be obtained, and here, +accordingly, was conducted, some forty years ago, a decisive +experiment for proving the sphericity of the earth. + +At that time a deluded gentleman, who called himself "Parallax," was +obsessed with the notion that the globe was a flat disc, and used to +go lecturing with great vigour on the subject. After these lectures he +invited questions, none of which were able to shake his belief. When +asked, for example, "Why does the hull of a ship disappear below the +horizon while the masts remain visible?" he would answer, "Because the +lowest stratum of air is the densest, and, therefore, soonest conceals +objects seen through it." In view of the present Polar exploration, it +may interest our readers to know that one of his points was the +absolute non-existence of the South Pole. "Explorers say they cannot +get near it, because of an icy barrier. Of course. That barrier is the +raised rim of our world plate, and they can but sail round and round +inside it." Finally he showed his wholehearted belief in his absurd +views by laying a heavy wager that no one would disprove them. The +stakes were deposited in the hands of judges, and the trial, under +agreed conditions, took place upon the New River. Three boats were +moored three miles apart, each provided with a cross-tree of equal +height. If the earth was spherical the central cross would appear +above the other to an observer looking through a telescope levelled +from the cross-tree of the boat at either end; if it was flat he would +see both the other cross-trees as one. "Parallax" declared that he did +so (!), but the judges decided against him, and the poor man lost his +money. + + + + +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. + + +From the bridge over the Ouse by the Earith sluice we see the +sea-board (for that and nothing less is the word which its appearance +irresistibly suggests) of the Island of Ely, rising before us, with a +couple of miles of level fen between. We may reach it, if we will, by +the main road, which leads eastward to Haddenham, the southernmost of +the island villages. Haddenham stands on a projecting peninsula of +high ground, the highest in the island, rising to nearly 150 feet, +almost cut off from the rest by two inlets of fen (Grunty Fen on the +north-east and North Fen on the north-west), and nearer than any other +part to the mainland on the south. This quasi-insulation has left a +curious mark on the Ecclesiastical map of Cambridgeshire. Throughout +the whole Isle of Ely--the old Fenland Archipelago--the Bishop acts as +his own Archdeacon. An Archdeacon of Ely there is; but his +jurisdiction is confined to Cambridgeshire proper, Cambridgeshire +south of the Isle. It extends, however, over Haddenham and the +neighbouring village of Wilburton, the two parishes in this peninsula. + +Haddenham has a fine Decorated church; the tower showing the first +development of that style from Early English (1275), and the transepts +its transition into Perpendicular (1375). The fifteenth century font +is richly panelled, with roses and shields supported by lions and +angels. This church was founded by Owen, the "Over-alderman" who +governed the Island of Ely under St. Etheldreda, the Foundress of the +Cathedral, and Queen of the Isle as the childless widow of its last +native ruler, King Tonbert.[190] Owen's name is interesting as +testifying to the Celtic survival in the fenland, already spoken +of.[191] The broken cross bearing his name, now in the south aisle of +Ely Cathedral, was originally set up at Haddenham; and, after being +for ages an object of veneration, was, at the Reformation, mutilated +and degraded into a horsing-block. At length the revived decency of +the eighteenth century removed it to Ely. + +[Footnote 190: See Chap. XIV.] + +[Footnote 191: See Chap. VIII.] + +The village of Haddenham lies chiefly along the road running southward +to the hamlet of Aldreth, on the very verge of the Island. The nearest +point of the low-lying mainland is only half a mile away; the "Old +River" of the Ouse (now, since the construction of the Bedford Rivers, +become quite a scanty watercourse) flowing between. This was the point +selected by William the Conqueror for the famous Causeway, whereby, +after being once and again baffled by the valour of Hereward, he +ultimately succeeded in forcing his way into the Island.[192] For +centuries afterwards this continued to be the chief entrance from the +Cambridge district, till superseded by the present road viâ Stretham. A +small barrow at the southern end of this causeway, which is now a mere +field-track, still bears the name of Belsar's Hill, after the knight +who, in this campaign, acted as the Conqueror's Commander-in-Chief. + +[Footnote 192: See Chap. XIV.] + +Wilburton, a mile to the east, was given to Ely by St. Ethelwold, +Bishop of Winchester, the prelate who aided in King Edgar's +restoration of the Monastery of Ely, after its destruction by the +Danes, in 870, had laid it waste for upwards of a century. The church +has some fine woodwork in stalls, screen, and roof, adorned on the +spandrills and bosses with the three cocks of Bishop Alcock, the +founder of Jesus College. While Archdeacon of Ely he here entertained +Henry the Eighth, when, as Prince of Wales, he accompanied his father +on the last Royal Pilgrimage ever made to the shrine of St. Etheldreda +at Ely, which he himself was so soon to despoil and destroy. A good +brass (now affixed to the wall) commemorates Alcock's predecessor in +the archidiaconate, Richard Bole (1477). And yet another Archdeacon, +Wetheringset, is also here buried. Some curious metal-work hangs from +the roof, and on the north wall of the nave are ancient frescoes, +representing not only St. Christopher, the usual subject, but the much +less known St. Blaise and St. Leodegar. The former was Bishop of +Sebaste, and was martyred in 316 A.D. He became the patron saint of +wool-combers, and was specially venerated in Leeds and Bradford. The +latter was Bishop of Autun in Gaul, during the seventh century. There +is here a fine old red-brick manor-house, called the Burgh-stead (or +Bury-stead), built in 1600 by a London alderman to whom Queen +Elizabeth sold the Manor,--after filching it from the Bishop of Ely, +according to her usual practice. + +[Illustration: _Wilburton._] + +The whole peninsula is specially rich in memorials of long past ages. +In the peat of the old Ouse channel by Wilburton was found a great +hoard of bronze weapons, lying in a promiscuous heap, "in such a +manner as to suggest that a canoe with a cargo of bronze scrap had +been upset there," as Professor and Mrs. Hughes picturesquely put it, +in their "Geography of Cambridgeshire." Grunty Fen has produced a +bronze sickle, and two splendid ornaments of twisted gold; while, a +mile east of Wilburton, a British urn was discovered, associated with +the bones of the urus, or gigantic wild ox of the Neolithic Age. And +between Earith and Wilburton there has been dug out gold ring-money. + +[Illustration: _The Burystead, Wilburton._] + + * * * * * + +But a yet more striking approach to the Island of Ely may be made by +taking at Earith the road through the toll-gate which leads northward +immediately alongside the great embankment of the New River, and lies +some few feet below the level of its waters. For three miles this +association continues; then road and river part company, and the +former drives straight across the fen to climb the western shore of +the island. The change of scenery when you reach that shore is +striking in its suddenness. You have been travelling for miles through +the bare, treeless, dead level of the fen, with its immense width of +view; then, almost in a moment, you find yourself ascending a steepish +hill through a tree-shaded hedge-bordered cutting which might be in +Kent or even Devonshire. + +At the top of this brow you look down on the fen behind you and on +either hand, your southern horizon being bounded by the near uplands +of Haddenham, with the flat bay of North Fen between. And very shortly +you come to the undulating village street of Sutton, with its highest +point crowned by the truly glorious church. This church is all in one +style, Decorated, on the verge of developing into Perpendicular, +having been built by Barnet, Bishop of Ely 1366 to 1373. The splendid +tower is crowned by an octagonal steeple, and that again by a second, +richly pinnacled, and is a landmark for many miles along the valleys +of the Ouse and Cam. + +From Sutton we reach Ely by way of Wentworth and Witchford. The former +name is supposed to be a corruption of Owensworth, and to commemorate +that the place was of old the property of St. Owen. The little church +has a Saxon porch, with twisted pillars, and contains a remarkable +carving of the same date, representing an ecclesiastic wearing the +pall of a Primate. His left hand supports an open book, while in his +right he holds, not a cross or pastoral staff, but something more +suggestive of an aspersory for holy water. The corbel in Ely Cathedral +depicting the burial of St. Etheldreda shows us a figure similarly +equipped. + + * * * * * + +In looking southward from Sutton Church, three steeples are specially +conspicuous in the Ouse valley. They are those of Over, Swavesey, and +Willingham. All are churches of the first class, and all are best +reached from Cambridge by way of the Via Devana, which, after crossing +the "Great Bridge" and climbing the ascent past the Castle, continues +its straight course to the north-west under the designation of the +Huntingdon Road. Just as it leaves the town a branch-road on the right +leads to the village of Histon, which the jam factories of Messrs. +Chivers have made one of the most flourishing in the county. The +church here has some good Early English work, and a remarkable "Rood" +(much defaced) on the gable of the S. transept. This is an almost +unique example of the early "Majestas" type of crucifix (p. 339). +Christ, with outspread arms, wears, not the Crown of Thorns, but the +Old English "king-helm," and is fully robed. About 1200 this ideal +type gave place to the later "realistic" crucifix. + +[Illustration: _Sutton Church._] + +A mile beyond the last houses of Cambridge the Via Devana comes to the +huge red-brick mass of Girton College, which has been already spoken +of.[193] Its spacious grounds and never-ending corridors impress the +mind with admiration for the enthusiasm and energy which has thus +materialised Tennyson's vision of University education for women. At +this point another northward turn takes us to Girton Church, where +there are good brasses to two successive fifteenth century parsons. In +their day the living belonged to Ramsey Abbey, by the gift of Eric, +Bishop of Dorchester (1016). We next come to Oakington, the Mecca of +Cambridgeshire Free Churchmen. For here, in the quiet little +Nonconformist Cemetery, rest, side by side, the three men to whom the +chief sects of the county trace their spiritual ancestry--Francis +Holcroft, Joseph Oddy, and Henry Oasland. + +[Footnote 193: See p. 144.] + +The first named was a Fellow of Clare College where he had for his +"chum" (_i.e._ chamber-mate, as we find the word used in "Pickwick") +Tillotson, the future Archbishop of Canterbury. He began his +ministerial career by taking on himself to supply the place of a +brother collegian, the Puritan minister in charge of Littlington, near +Royston, who, most un-Puritanically, was often incapacitated by drink +from performing his duties. Later, in 1655, when still only +twenty-two, he himself became pastor of the adjoining parish of +Bassingbourn. When the "Black Bartholomew" of 1662 deprived him of +this charge under the Act of Uniformity, he preached, at the risk of +fine and imprisonment, throughout the neighbourhood, binding together +his adherents in a loosely-knit organisation, whose members were +admitted on subscribing the following Profession of Faith: + + "We do in the presence of the Lord Jesus, the awful crowned King + of Sion, and in the presence of his holy angels and people and + all besides here present, solemnly give up ourselves to the Lord + and to one another, by the will of God, solemnly promising and + engaging in the aforesaid presence to walk with the Lord and with + one another in the observation of all Gospel ordinances, and the + discharge of all relative duties in this church of God and + elsewhere, as the Lord shall enlighten us and enable us."[194] + +[Footnote 194: _Cambs. Monthly Repository X._] + +His efforts were vigorously seconded by Oddy and Oasland, whose +consciences, like his own, would not permit them to use the Anglican +Prayer Book; and the units of this embryo Church, who were often +spoken of at the time as "Mr. Holcroft's disciples," became widely +spread throughout the county. Already, before the end of 1662, they +had regular meetings at Barrington, Eversden, Waterbeach, and Guyhirn, +as well as Cambridge; and when, ten years later, they became licensed +by the King's Proclamation of Indulgence, we find the number increased +fourfold. So far Nonconformity had been the only bond between these +scattered bands of worshippers; but they now began to differentiate +themselves into Baptist, Independent, and Presbyterian Congregations, +though the lines were not as yet sharply drawn, and, indeed, are not +even now sharply drawn in the country villages, where a man is +"Church" or "Chapel," caring little what may be the precise +denomination of his chapel. The strength of the Dissenting spirit thus +implanted at Oakington may be measured by that of the language +employed by the zealous Archdeacon of Ely, who, in 1685, declares this +to be "the most scandalous parish and the worst in the diocese. The +people most vile. A Fanatic Schoolmaster." + +From Oakington the lane leads on to Long Stanton, where the two +churches of St. Michael and All Saints are both noteworthy. The former +is a simple Early English building with a _thatched_ roof (till lately +made of reeds from the fen, a far more durable material than straw, +but now unobtainable), a rich double piscina, and an oak chest dating +from the twelfth century. The latter, at the other end of the "long" +village street, is a Decorated cruciform structure, the south transept +having become the mortuary chapel of the Hatton family, who bought the +lordship of the manor from Queen Elizabeth. + +That rapacious monarch, her father's worthy daughter in ecclesiastical +spoliation, had seized upon it amongst the surrenders which she +exacted from Bishop Cox, the first Protestant to be Bishop of Ely. On +his accession she confiscated a full half of his episcopal property, +and was constantly insisting on further denudations, including Ely +House, Holborn. On this final act of despotism goading him into +remonstrance, she is reported (in Strype's _History of the +Reformation_) to have made the well-known reply, "Proud priest! I made +you. And I will unmake you. Obey my pleasure, or I will forthwith +unfrock you." Only his speedy death (in 1581) prevented her from +actually carrying out this threat. After it she kept the whole +property of the See in her own hands for no less than nineteen years, +when she handed it over to Bishop Heton, shorn of yet another moiety, +which included the Manor of Longstanton with its ancient episcopal +palace. + +This palace had a further connection with Elizabeth; for in it she was +entertained by Bishop Cox after that visit to Cambridge in 1564, when +her erudition so thrilled the University.[195] And it was here that +she was disgusted by the blasphemous entertainment got up for her +benefit by the Protestant undergraduates, in which a performing dog +danced with a consecrated Host in his mouth. King's College Chapel was +the scene originally intended for this outrage; but the graver +academic programme there lasted so long that the Queen could not stay +for the afterpiece. The disappointed students begged leave to follow +her and give an evening performance at Long Stanton. Mutual disgust +was the result. As soon as Elizabeth understood what was going on she +indignantly swept from the room, ordering every light to be instantly +extinguished, leaving the wretched boys to grope for their properties +and get back to Cambridge as best they could. + +[Footnote 195: When praised for loveliness by the Public Orator she +showed, to the loud admiration of her auditors, that she both +understood and spoke Latin by exclaiming coyly "Non est verum."] + +[Illustration: _All Saints' Church, Long Stanton._] + +Following the road to Long Stanton station (six and a half miles), we +there cross the G. E. R. (St. Ives Branch) and proceed, along a +somewhat dreary stretch, to Willingham (nine miles), where an +exceptionally fine church (All Saints) rewards our toil. After +lingering in neglect and decay for years beyond the neighbouring +churches, it has now become an ideal example of judicious restoration, +very different from the drastic process too often known by that name. +Every ancient feature and development has been preserved, including +the beautiful roof,[196] with its elaborate carving, its tiers of +angels and its double hammer beams, the fine parclose screens, and the +Perpendicular pulpit. Beneath the clerestory may be seen traces of no +fewer than four successive layers of frescoes, which, from the twelfth +to the seventeenth century, each in turn adorned the walls. But the +most striking feature of the church is the small Decorated "treasury" +adjoining the north wall of the chancel. It is wholly of stone, even +to the roof with its richly wrought "beams"; an almost unique example +of this method of treatment. Dowsing here destroyed, on 16 March, +1643, "forty superstitious pictures, a crucifix, and two superstitious +inscriptions, also two pictures of the Holy Ghost and one of the +Virgin Mary in brass." + +[Footnote 196: This roof is traditionally said to have been that of +the great church of Barnwell Abbey (see p. 160). It obviously was made +for a larger nave than that of Willingham, and has been cut down to +fit its present purpose.] + +From Willingham a field road will take us, if desired, to Belsar's +Hill,[197] which, besides its historical associations, is rich in the +pretty crystals of selenite or gypsum. And though, as has been said, +the track is now all but disused, it is still possible to follow the +Conqueror's causeway to the Ouse and get ferried over to Aldreth. + +[Footnote 197: See p. 283.] + + * * * * * + +The next turn on the Via Devana is the southward lane to Madingley, +already described. Southward also lie Lolworth, Boxworth and Elsworth. +The last has an exceptionally fine church, Decorated throughout, and +displaying the almost unique feature of small lockers for books in the +fourteenth century stalls. Conington, near the road on the same side, +has a stone-ribbed spire containing three mediæval bells--a rare +survival. They bear the following inscriptions: + + 1. ASSVMPTA . EST . MARIA . IN . CELIS . GAVDENT . ANGELI + LAVDANTES . BENEDICVNT . DOMINVM. + + Mary is taken up to Heaven. The Angels are glad. + They praise and bless the Lord. + + 2. SANCTA . MARIA . ORA . PRO . NOBIS + Holy Mary pray for us. + + 3. VIRGO . CORONATA . DVC . NOS . AD . REGNA . BEATA . + O crownèd Maid lead us to realms of bliss. + +[Illustration: _Over, South Porch._] + +Northward we find the magnificent churches of Swavesey and Over +already mentioned. The former is one of the noblest in Cambridgeshire. +The nave is Perpendicular, but the large windows in the south aisle +are really Early English lancets, the Perpendicular tracery being +inserted--a most unusual development. The finials of the fourteenth +century benches are to be noticed, especially in the north aisle, +where they take the form of grotesque animals. The small size of these +seats suggests that they were meant for children. The little ones +would be charmed with these delightful finials, representing a fox +and a goose, a fox and a stork, a bear and a dog, a wolf and a hound, +an eagle and a snake, a wild boar, a lion, a pelican, a cherub, St. +Peter, and an angel playing upon a dulcimer. + +[Illustration: _Over._] + +At Over every feature of the church is noteworthy. It is entirely +built of Barnack stone, richly ornamented externally with running +ball-flower patterns. The southern porch is beautifully proportioned, +and the gargoyles extraordinary specimens of birds and beasts, +apparently under the same inspiration as the Swavesey finials. Over +the west door is a sculpture (almost weathered out of knowledge) of +Our Lady in Glory, a very rare subject; also the arms of Ramsey Abbey, +to which the benefice was presented by Ednoth, Bishop of Dorchester, +who lies buried in Bishop West's chapel at Ely.[198] The tracery in +general is Decorated, but the spire rises from an Early English tower, +and the chancel is also Early English, with inserted Perpendicular +windows. The Sanctus Bell[199] still hangs over the eastern gable of +the nave. The interior woodwork is of the best, the roof is +Decorated, and there is an exceptionally good sixteenth century +pulpit. The arcading above the windows of the south aisle, with its +banded Early English shafts, is another beautiful feature here. On +some of the churchyard tombstones wall-rue may be found growing, a +rare sight in this neighbourhood. From Over a lane leads on, crossing +the Hundred Foot Bank to Overcote, that fascinating Ferry Inn upon the +Ouse whose charms have already been dwelt upon. + +[Footnote 198: See Chap. XVII.] + +[Footnote 199: See p. 231.] + + * * * * * + +Formerly, as we have said, the regular road from Cambridge to Ely was +by way of the Causeway at Aldreth. But this roundabout route of over +twenty miles compared unfavourably with the shorter line taken by the +Cam, which was accordingly the favourite for such as could afford +boat-hire. In the eighteenth century regular packet-boats ran daily +between the two places, drawn by horses. To-day the only passengers on +the river are pleasure-seekers, and the ordinary way to Ely from +Cambridge is by the road supposed to represent the hypothetical Akeman +Street of Roman days.[200] This road turns northwards round Magdalene +College, and runs through the suburb of New Chesterton. Old Chesterton +stands on the river, east of the road, and has a finely-proportioned +steeple, with particularly melodious bells, and a slender spire. At +this point is the winning-post of the College boat races.[201] On the +opposite bank, a mile lower down the stream, is Fen Ditton, the "Ditch +End" where the Fleam Dyke strikes the river.[202] Ditton Corner, just +beneath the parish church, is the favourite spot for seeing these +races, as it commands a view of two long reaches, and is also (as a +bend in the stream must needs be) a highly probable spot for bumps. + +[Footnote 200: See p. 252.] + +[Footnote 201: See p. 146]. + +[Footnote 202: See p. 170.] + +Leaving these to the right, we reach Milton, whence the poet's family +name is said to be derived, and where the church has seventeenth +century altar rails, a very rare possession. Just opposite, with a +ferry between, is Horningsea, where there is another good church. +Between this and Fen Ditton is an ancient building, now used for farm +purposes, which the Ordnance Map marks as "Biggin Abbey." An abbey, +however, it never was, being only one (and the smallest) of the many +scattered mansions of the Abbot and Bishop of Ely. On the stream +beside it is Baitsbite Lock, the starting-point of the boat races. +Here along the towing path may be seen the posts, set at regular +intervals on the brink of the stream, to which each boat is moored by +the "starting cord" held in the coxswain's[203] hand. He must not let +it go till the gun is fired. Thrilling moments pass while he counts +aloud the last seconds--"five ... four ... three ... two ... one," and +the muscles of the crew grow ever tenser, till, at the signal, he +flings the cord into the water, and every oar strains its utmost in +the first stroke. + +[Footnote 203: This word is invariably abbreviated to "Cox," which is +also used as a verb.] + +[Illustration: _Swavesey._] + +The next lock is Clayhithe, two miles further down the river, with an +inn beside it in special favour for Cambridge boating pic-nics. Here, +too, is the lowest bridge over the Cam, indeed the only one below +Cambridge. It belongs to a private company, and is rigorously tolled. +A pretty shady lane leads to it from Horningsea. Hard by, on the left +bank, are the villages of Waterbeach and Landbeach. They are +respectively four and twelve furlongs from the stream, and mark +successive boundaries of the fenland waters. Between them runs an +ancient earthwork, the Car Dyke (probably of Roman date), which of old +kept those waters in flood time from drowning the meadows to the +south. Starting from the Cam at Clayhithe it runs along the whole +western limit of the fenland. It reaches the Ouse near the large +village of Cottenham (where the east window of the fourteenth century +church is copied from one in Prior Crauden's Chapel at Ely) with over +2,000 inhabitants, and goes on past the tiny and picturesque Rampton, +with under 200, to Willingham and Earith, Ramsey and Peterborough, +Deeping and Sleaford; finally ending its long course on the banks of +the far off Witham, hard by Lincoln. + +[Illustration: _Swavesey Church._] + +For a mile or so our "Akeman Street" follows the course of the Car +Dyke, and then strikes northward across the fen, along a causeway of +its own, passing near the remains of Denny Abbey, a small foundation +which passed through unusual vicissitudes. Originally a Benedictine +House, it was transferred in the twelfth century to the Templars, and +in 1290, passed from them to the Minor Sisters of the Franciscan +order. Marie de Valence, the foundress of Pembroke College, was a +noted benefactress to Denny, and in her statutes solemnly enjoined on +the scholars of the former institution "kindness" towards the recluses +of the latter. The abbey is now a farm, but there are more remains of +the monastic buildings here than almost anywhere else in the county. +Much of the church is built into the farm house, and the refectory is +in use as a barn. Many old walls and dykes may be traced, while a +large entrenchment to the south is known as "Soldiers' Hill." This +name may be due to the Templars. + +Two miles further we cross the old bed of the Ouse (containing now +only such scanty waters as the Bedford rivers have left to it) at +Elford, and enter the Isle of Ely. The ramp of the Island, however, +lies two miles further on yet. We climb it by the village street of +Stretham, where the ancient Town Cross still exists, an interesting +and rare feature. It stands hard by the church, which contains various +ancient tombstones, one to Nicholas de Ryngestone, rector under Edward +the First, and a late fifteenth century brass to Dame Joan Rippingham, +mother of two other rectors. A later rector was ejected in 1644 "for +having made new steps to the altar, himself bowing twice as he went +up, and as often while he came down." The church was an ancient +possession of Ely, but was reft from the See by Elizabeth. Stretham +lies at the extreme end of the little peninsular ridge on which +Wilburton and Haddenham stand.[204] Beyond it we sink to the enclosed +inlet of Grunty Fen, passing the hamlet of Little Thetford, and rise +again to the higher ground where the towers of Ely greet our eyes, a +little over a mile away. + +[Footnote 204: See p. 282.] + +[Illustration: _Cottage at Rampton._] + +After leaving Waterbeach our road has diverged widely from the Cam. +Those who have followed the river course, either by boat or by the +towing-path, will be rewarded by finding themselves, in course of +time, at Upware, the tiniest and most sequestered of hamlets, where +the wide Fens spread all around, bare, treeless, houseless, open to +the sweep of every breeze, and giving the same delicious sense of +space as a sea view. The whole atmosphere breathes remoteness, the +very inn calls itself "FIVE MILES FROM ANYWHERE." But, though wide, +the view is not like a sea view, boundless. The Island of Ely limits +it to the north-west, and to the south-east the nearer uplands of East +Anglia. For here is the nearest point on the Cam to Reach, the little +hamlet once so important an emporium, where the Devil's Dyke runs down +to the Fen.[205] To Upware, accordingly, there was cut through the +sedge and peat, at some time beyond memory, the long straight waterway +of Reach Lode, whereby even sea-going ships were able to discharge +their cargoes on Reach Hithe. At a later date, but as early as the +twelfth century, Burwell Lode was led to the same outlet. Those to +Swaffham and Bottisham come in somewhat higher up the river. + +[Footnote 205: See p. 194.] + +[Illustration: _Dovecote at Rampton._] + +A mile to the east of Upware we can see how mighty a task those men of +old undertook who cut these lodes through the primæval jungle. For +here is that Wicken Fen, which we have already spoken of,[206] where +a square mile of that jungle is preserved in its primæval condition, +and where (in all but the old bird life) the fauna and flora of the +old Fenland may still be studied in their old environment; where the +peat is still spongy under your foot, and the tall crests of the reeds +rise high above your head. To dig out masses of that spongy peat, to +cut through miles of those tall reeds would be no light business even +with our own modern means of excavation. What must it have been to the +rude implements of the ancients? + +[Footnote 206: See p. 180.] + +[Illustration: _The Quay, Ely._] + +Some two miles beyond Upware the Cam falls into the Ouse, and the +united stream sweeps past Thetford and round the corner of the island +to Ely, where the Cutter Inn (near the railway station) makes a good +landing-place. + + + + +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 + Assandun.--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. + + +The tourist through Cambridgeshire should now turn his attention to +Ely, a place second only in interest, if indeed second, to Cambridge +itself. The central point of note in Ely is the Cathedral; known to us +ever since our schooldays through Macaulay's picture-giving pen, which +sets it before us as "Ely's stately fane." We hope soon to learn +something of the history of this great church, of her growth, of her +decay, of her restoration, of those men and women who have made her +what she is, of the tumults and storms she has over-lived. Truly we +may say, with Stirling the poet that the Minster at Ely + + "Still ship-like on for ages fares, + And holds its course, so smooth so true, + For all the madness of the crew; + It must have better rule than theirs." + +Before we actually visit the place itself let us make ourselves +familiar with the outline of its chequered history. + +The city of Ely has a population approaching 8,000, and stands on the +western edge of the Island of Ely, once truly an island, being an area +of dry land rising from the midst of the fens, and, till their +drainage, accessible only by boat or causeway. This _Island_, a true +bit of natural _terra firma_, measures about eight miles by six, and +lies at the southern end of a much more extensive fenland +archipelago, of irregular shape, measuring approximately thirty miles +by twenty, known from of old as the _Isle_ of Ely. The waters of the +Fen, which, so lately as a century ago, made this wide area an +archipelago indeed, have now given place to a "boundless plain" of +fertile corn-land, so rich in harvests as to be often called "The +Golden Plain of England." + +A twelfth century chronicler, the writer of the "Liber Eliensis," +asserts that, within the first years of the seventh century A.D., +Ethelbert, King of Kent, newly converted to Christianity, founded a +monastery at Cratendune, about a mile south of Ely, and that Saint +Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated it. But we +cannot say that the authentic history of Ely begins till seventy years +later, when we see an Anglo-Saxon lady founding a monastery on this +rising ground in the midst of the Fens. The lady is Etheldreda, once +Queen of Northumbria; her monastery is known to us as Ely. She is the +daughter of Anna, King of East Anglia, who had reigned at Exning, +almost within sight of Ely. + +King Anna was a devout man, who himself died a hero's death, fighting +for the Cross and for his country against the overwhelming onset of +Penda, the heathen King of Mercia, who made it the object of his life +to stamp out English Christianity. But, though Anna fell, his cause +triumphed. Penda shortly died, and his work perished with him. Not so +Anna's. After his death the tide of Christian progress ran the +stronger; and all over England it was through members of his family +that it was specially championed. + +Married to the King of Northumbria, his daughter Queen Etheldreda had +renounced her husband and her northern kingdom, and had returned to +her native Fenland, there to found a monastery for both monks and +nuns. In taking this step she had been influenced by two persons of +note; by St. Hilda, her aunt, the foundress and first Abbess of +Whitby, and by St. Wilfrid, Bishop of York. Hilda had in early life +gained a firm hold on the heart of her niece, who had become fired +with the wish to follow her example and herself to found a monastery. +In spite of this resolve, of which she made no secret, she had been +forced (while strongly protesting) into a nominal marriage with +Egfrid, the youthful King of Northumbria. After twelve years of +unhappy life, she had been induced by St. Wilfrid to quit her +husband; from St. Wilfrid's hand she had received the veil, before him +she had taken the vows that bound her to a monastic life. It is a +strange, unnatural tale, that cannot claim our approval; but there it +is, and its truth is not questioned. + +Queen Etheldreda, accompanied by certain attendants had then fled +southward, with her deeply wronged husband in chase. She had been +sheltered on one occasion from his pursuit by a tide of unprecedented +height, which protected her on a rocky hiding-place while the King +passed by, all unaware that he was close to her. At length she had +reached her own fenland country; and here, still following Hilda's +example, she set herself to build a monastery, choosing the highest +ground available. She was a well dowered lady, for her first husband, +Tonbert, was a Prince of the Girvii, a Celtic tribe descended from +those refugee Britons who had sought safety in the fens when all else +was conquered by the English invaders two centuries earlier. This +prince had bequeathed to his childless widow all his wide fenland +domains; so Etheldreda had no need to seek further for an endowment +for her monastery; while her brother Adwulf, now King of East Anglia, +defrayed the cost of the new buildings. These ere long became the home +of both monks and nuns, who lived in separate houses and met only for +their common worship in the Abbey church. No Abbot was appointed, but +Etheldreda herself was their Abbess, ruling both sexes alike. + +It is probable that from its foundation the monastery at Ely was under +the influence of the rule of St. Benedict, for St. Wilfrid during +Etheldreda's life-time was a frequent resident there, and he was in +close touch with St. Botolph, that most influential, though half +legendary saint, who, from his hermitage at Ickenhoe in Suffolk, was +introducing throughout East Anglia the rule of the monks of St. +Benedict, those great preservers of civilisation, which, but for them, +must in many lands have perished, when the strong hand of the Roman +Empire lost its grip. + +[Illustration: _The North Triforium of the Nave, Ely._] + +Little is recorded of Etheldreda's life as abbess; and, after a rule +of seven years, she died at the age of forty-nine, in the year 679, +her death being due to an epidemic then prevalent, combined with a +tumour in the neck. The death-bed scene is sculptured on one of the +corbels of the Octagon Towers at Ely, where the more picturesque +events of her life are quaintly set before us in stone. The saintly +lady died after much suffering, which the ministrations of her devoted +physician Cynifrid failed to allay; though he did for her all that the +surgery of those days allowed. She bore her sickness with composure of +mind, and when she knew that the end was at hand, she (as others have +done before and since) summoned her whole household to her chamber to +take her last farewell of them all. She told them that the time of her +departure was at hand; she spoke to them of the vanity of this world's +enjoyments, and recommended them to keep Heaven always in view, +whereby they might in some measure have a foretaste of its joys. After +this she received the Communion in both kinds from the hands of Huna, +a priest devoted to her service; then, while praying for the +inhabitants of the monastery, she passed from earth. It may be of +interest to remember that throughout the seven years of her rule at +Ely, Theodore, the great organiser of the Anglican Church, "the first +Archbishop whom the whole Church of England obeyed," filled the See of +Canterbury. + +It was Etheldreda's wish to be buried with all simplicity in the +cemetery set apart for the nuns of Ely; so we are glad to learn that +this her last desire was respected by her followers, and that she was +laid to rest among the nuns in a wooden coffin. Her elder sister, St. +Sexburga, widow of the King of Kent, took her place as Abbess, and +ruled at Ely till another generation was arising. After sixteen years +had gone by, those who still remembered and loved Etheldreda wished +that her body should be with them at their devotions in the church, +and they resolved to translate her remains from the cemetery to the +Abbey. + +No common coffin was held to be a fitting casket for those precious +relics; but in a waste place named Armeswerke,[207] fifteen miles up +the River Cam (which may be identified as now forming part of the +Fellows' garden at Magdalene College, Cambridge, between the terrace +and the river), there was found a marble sarcophagus of Roman +workmanship.[208] This was brought to Ely; and with careful and simple +ceremony the body of the first Abbess was lifted from the wooden and +laid in the marble coffin, all being carried out under the +superintendence of Sexburga. On beholding the uncorrupted body of the +dear sister who had died in so much pain, Sexburga was heard to +exclaim, "Glory to the name of the Lord most high!" All the look of +suffering had gone, and the Saint appeared as if asleep on her bed. +Gently removed from the wooden to the stone coffin, the body was +carried into the Abbey Church, and placed behind the high altar; and +for eight centuries the shrine of St. Etheldreda was visited by troops +of pilgrims, who came from far and near to worship, to leave their +offerings, and to seek healing from disease and infirmity. Sexburga +was followed as Abbess by her sister, Ermenilda, Queen of Mercia. Thus +Ely had three sister queens as her first three Abbesses; and hence +perhaps the three crowns that still form the arms of the Bishopric. + +[Footnote 207: This is the word used by the "Historia Eliensis." Bede, +our earliest authority, speaks of "a small waste city, which in the +English tongue is called Grantchester." He almost certainly means +Cambridge. See p. 221.] + +[Footnote 208: Doubt has been cast on this story, owing to the +incidental mention by the chronicler of a shaped head-space in this +coffin. This has been held to point to a twelfth century origin for +the Legend, inasmuch as such head-spaces were not used until that +date. In the present year(1910), however, an undoubtedly Roman +sarcophagus thus shaped has been unearthed in Egypt. It is figured in +the _Illustrated London News_ (July 23, 1910).] + +St. Etheldreda was long remembered with affection, and was commonly +spoken of as St. Audrey. The popular Pilgrims' Fair held at Ely was +known at St. Audrey's Fair; and the cheap fairings bought and sold +there (especially the coloured necklets of fine silk known as "St. +Audrey's chains") were called, from her name, "tawdry"; and thus a new +word was coined for us with a strange story of its own, a word hardly +worthy of the great Abbess of the Fenland to whom it owes its origin. +Centuries later, St. Audrey's Fair, held in October, had grown to be +one of the most important in the land, lasting for a fortnight. By the +year 1248 it had become such a centre of merchandise as to interfere +with the traffic of the Fair which Henry the Third had lately +established at Westminster in honour of St. Edward the Confessor; the +King therefore issued a warrant interdicting the fair at Ely. This +suspension meant serious loss to the Bishop, Hugh de Northwold, "who +made a heavy complaint to the King concerning the matter, but he +gained from him nothing except words of soothing promises of future +consolation," says the chronicler. + +For two hundred years after the death of the foundress, the abbey of +monks and nuns went on with its pious works and ways. Then, in 870, +appeared the Danes, still pagans; and after working their way through +Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, where they "wasted with fire and sword all +that ever they came to, they brake down all the abbeys of the fens; +nor did Ely, so famous of old, escape." Having laid waste +Peterborough, then known as Medhampsted, they came across the fens to +Ely. The abbey and all the buildings pertaining to it were burnt; the +monks and nuns put to the sword. Before setting fire to the buildings +the Danes had secured for themselves all they contained of value, and +great was the store, for the people of the neighbourhood had brought +their goods into the monastery as to a place of safety. All was seized +by the invaders, and what they could not carry away they destroyed. +Thus Etheldreda's Abbey, after lasting 200 years, was left a deserted +ruin; but her coffin of stone escaped without injury. One of the +depredators, indeed, is said to have made an attempt to break into it, +with the result that his eyes started from his head, and then and +there he died, as the chronicler relates. The ancient sarcophagus had +proved worthy of its trust. + +The hour was one of direst need; for all England lay spent and gasping +beneath the bloodstained feet of the heathen pirates. But, with the +need, there arose the deliverer. In 871, the year after the sack of +Ely, Alfred the Great, "England's darling," succeeded to the kingship +of the exhausted realm; and the life and death struggle entered on its +last and most desperate phase. For one moment even he seemed to go +under, and was driven to an outlaw life in the marshes of Athelney; +the next, we see him shattering the invaders by his miraculous victory +of Ethandune, and, with incomparable state-craft, negotiating that +Peace of Wedmore, whereby the Danes had to acknowledge him as their +Overlord. + +As such, he shortly established a College of Priests at Ely. Eight of +the clerics who had witnessed the sack of the monastery came back to +their old home, and rebuilt a part of the church that it might serve +again as a place of worship. These priests were not monks, and are +said to have had wives and children. They lived in poverty; for all +the endowments of the Abbey had been seized by Burgraed, the last King +of Mercia. But gradually, as the children of Alfred won back the +kingdom, the endowment of Ely began afresh. Here a fishery, and there +a wood, and again a mill with adjoining pastures, was bestowed on the +little College--a term which still clings to the Cathedral precincts +of Ely, called to this day the College, not the Close as in most +Cathedral cities. + +With the accession, in 958, of the great Edgar, the first English King +to be Emperor of all Britain, the monarch who, nearly a thousand years +ago, gained for himself, as but one of our kings has done since, the +title of "Peacemaker," brighter days dawned. Then, as now, the +Catholic Church might have been well called "Cette éternelle +recommenceuse," able to rise from her ashes with life renewed. From +the havoc wrought by the Danes, the Abbey of Ely, as a Benedictine +House, arose once more, rebuilt, refounded, and re-endowed by King +Edgar, who restored to it by Royal Charter all that Etheldreda had +originally bestowed; adding thereto several demesnes and sundry +privileges. The re-constitution of the Abbey was carried out under the +guidance of Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. + +The monks were thus restored; but the nuns of Ely have disappeared +from view. As for those secular priests who were in possession and had +maintained the sacred character of the spot for well-nigh a hundred +years, ever since its devastation by the Danes, they were allowed to +stay on if they submitted to the Benedictine Rule, otherwise they were +dismissed. + +In the year 970, on the Feast of the Purification, a day that we shall +again find eventful in the annals of Ely, the new and restored +monastic buildings were consecrated by Dunstan, who now, as Archbishop +of Canterbury, filled the highest office in the Church of the land. +The chronicler, Roger of Wendover, tells us how, by Dunstan's counsel, +King Edgar "everywhere restrained the rashness of the wicked, +cherished the just and modest, restored and enriched the desolate +churches of God, gathered multitudes of monks and nuns to praise and +glorify the Great Creator, and built more than forty monasteries." +This shews us that, the events taking place at Ely were in no sense +isolated, but were part of a great revival going on throughout the +whole country. + +In the year 991 the restored Abbey becomes connected with one of the +most stirring poems of the English language, the "Song of Maldon." The +Danish invasions, which had been checked for a century by the glorious +line of monarchs who inherited King Alfred's blood and energy, were +beginning again. One of these pirate hordes had landed in East Anglia, +now no longer a separate principality but merely a district of the +United Kingdom of England, governed by an "Alderman" named Brithnoth. +Ethelred, surnamed the Unready, was on the throne--a King who for his +lack of good judgment well deserved this contemptuous sobriquet--and +his want of energy and capacity threw on to the shoulders of his +subordinates the burden of the defence of his realm. + +Brithnoth rose to the emergency, as a true Christian hero. At the head +of his retainers he hurried to meet the foe, calling out the local +levies to join his march. At Ely, as he hastened past, he, with his +men, was royally entertained. The day before, when he was passing +Ramsey Abbey, the Abbot had offered him hospitality, but only for +himself and half a dozen picked friends. This niggardly invitation +drew from Brithnoth a scornful answer: "Tell my Lord Abbot," he +replied, "that I cannot fight without my men, neither will I feed +without them." At Ely meat and drink were placed before leader and +followers without distinction, and well were the monks rewarded, for +Brithnoth requited their hospitality by the gift of no fewer than nine +manors, all lying near Cambridge--Trumpington, Fulbourn, and +others--stipulating only that, if slain in battle, his body should be +brought back to their church for burial. + +At Maldon in Essex on the River Panta (or Blackwater, as it is now +called), he met the Danes, who began by sending a herald demanding a +ransom, to be fixed by themselves, as the price of peace: + + "Then back with our booty + To ship will we get us, + Fare forth on the flood, + And pass you in peace." + +This degrading offer Brithnoth contemptuously refuses: + + "For ransom we give you + Full freely our weapons, + Spear-edge and sword-edge + Of old renown." + +The Danes at once make their way across the river and attack the +English levies: + + "Then drave from each hand + Full starkly the spear, + Showered the sharp arrows, + Busy were bows, + Shield met shaft, + Bitter the battle." + +In the end the pirates are driven back to their ships, but at the cost +of Brithnoth's own life. He is pierced by a spear, and sinks dying to +the ground; to the last exhorting his soldiers to fight on, and +commending his own soul to God in the following beautiful and touching +lines: + + "To Thee give I thanks, + Thou Lord of all living, + For all good hap + In this life here. + Sore need I now, + O Maker mild, + That Thou should'st grant + My spirit grace; + That my soul to Thee + May depart in peace, + And flee to Thy keeping, + Thou King of Angels. + To Thee do I pray + That the Gates of Hell + Prevail not against me." + +[Illustration: _West Aisle of the North Transept, Ely._] + +The Danes carried off Brithnoth's head; but his body was rescued; and, +according to his wish, the monks came and brought it back to Ely, +where the Abbot buried it, replacing the missing head by one of wax. +During the eighteenth century the skeleton was met with in the course +of some excavations and recognised as Brithnoth's by the absence of +the skull. It now lies in Bishop West's beautiful chapel, along with +the bones of other Anglo-Saxon worthies. + +The Lady Elfleda, Brithnoth's widow, added largely to the benefactions +he had bestowed on Ely; she gave the Abbey valuable lands within easy +reach of the monastery, and she moreover presented to the church a +golden chain, and a curtain worked with the most notable deeds of her +husband's life. Those who have seen the Bayeux tapestry, representing +the events of the life of William the Conqueror, can picture to +themselves what Lady Elfleda's curtain may have been a century +earlier. + +In the next generation (1016) a body of the monks of Ely accompanied +another hero to battle against the Danes. The hero of this generation +was Ethelred's son, King Edmund Ironside; the battle was the great +fight of Assandun, a place impossible to locate with certainty, but +not improbably situated on the south-east border of Cambridgeshire. +During the last twenty-five years the Danes had become more and more +daring, and now, under their great king, Canute, the mightiest of all +Scandinavian monarchs, they were attempting nothing less than the +organised conquest of England. Thus Canute and Edmund were face to +face in a desperate struggle, and, after five indecisive battles in a +single year, Edmund was defeated, on St. Luke's Day, at Assandun, and +his defeat was shortly followed by his death. Canute then assumed the +crown, by right of conquest, a right which he proclaimed by calling +himself not, like his predecessors, "King of the English," but "King +of England." + +He proved, however, not at all a bad king. He had been brought up a +Christian, and he took the Church under his protection. He bore no +malice against the monks of Ely for their support of Edmund Ironside, +but, on the contrary, treated the Abbey with marked favour, and gave +her rich endowments. More than once he visited Ely, and we all know +the lines of the cheery old ballad which relates how Canute in his +barge was rowing near the island. It runs thus: + + "Merrily sang they, the monks at Ely, + When Cnut the King he rowed thereby; + Row to the shore, men, said the King, + And let us hear these monks to sing." + +This was in the summer-time,[209] when the waters were open; but not +seldom Canute made his visits in the depth of winter, when, on the +Feast of the Purification, the Abbot of Ely each year entered on his +Chancellorship of the realm, an office which he shared in turn with +the Abbots of Canterbury and Glastonbury, each holding this office for +four months at a time. The legend may well be true, which tells how, +on one of these mid-winter visits, Canute reached Ely (from +Soham)[210] in a sledge, preceded by the heaviest man that could be +found (characteristically nick-named "Pudding"), who skated ahead of +the King to ensure the ice would bear. On another occasion Canute was +accompanied by his wife Queen Emma, and she, in token of her regard +for the Abbey, left behind, as her gift, splendid hangings for the +church, and for the shrine of the foundress. An altar frontal of green +and red and gold, and a shrine cover of purple cloth, bedecked with +gold and jewels, are described as being of exceptional beauty and +value, "such as there was none like to them in richness throughout all +the realm." + +[Footnote 209: Archdeacon Cunningham doubts this.] + +[Footnote 210: See p. 178.] + +This was not Emma's first connection with Ely. While she was yet the +second wife of Ethelred the Unready (after whose death she married the +victorious Canute), her younger son, Edward, afterwards King Edward +the Confessor, had here been presented in infancy at the altar, and +had been in childhood a pupil of the choir school, where his special +proficiency in learning psalms and hymns gave promise of his future +saintliness. The Ely choir school was, at this time, probably the most +noted educational institution in England, and was under the direction +of the Precentor, who had general charge over all the literary work of +the house, such as the reproducing of books, etc. That this precocious +scholar, who left Ely at nine years old, ultimately came to the +throne, while Alfred, his elder brother, did not, is due to one of the +most ghastly tragedies of English history. + +After the death of Canute in 1035, it became a question whether this +same Alfred, "the Etheling" (_i.e._ Prince), Emma's eldest son by +Ethelred, now a man of over thirty, or Harthacnut, her only son by +Canute, a boy of sixteen, or one Harold, who, though not an Etheling, +claimed to be Canute's eldest son, should be chosen King of England. +Harold, in spite of grave doubts as to his paternity, "had all the +cry"; and when Alfred, "the innocent Etheling," made an attempt to +protect his widowed mother against the new King's oppression, he was +sent as a prisoner by ship to Ely. Before being landed his eyes were +put out, in a manner so brutal that he shortly died of the shock, to +find a grave in the Abbey church under its western tower. The +Anglo-Saxon Chronicler records this crime in a pathetic ballad, +denouncing it as even beyond the horrors of the Danish wars: + + "Nor was drearier deed + Done in this land, + Since Danes first came." + +That no blame need be attached to the monks of Ely for this atrocity +is indicated by the fact that, when Alfred's brother, Edward the +Confessor, came to the throne, he confirmed all their ancient +charters, granting lands and privileges to the Abbey, and himself +became a benefactor to the place of his education. + +With the Norman invasion, Ely again becomes a centre of war. Led by +Christian the Bishop, and Osbiorn the Earl, a force of Danish +adventurers had appeared in the Humber, professing to be the allies of +the English in their struggle with the Normans. Their real object was +to place their own King Sweyn, the nephew of Canute, on the throne of +England, and, if foiled in this purpose, at least to enrich themselves +with England's plunder. After partaking in scenes of devastation in +Yorkshire, they sailed southward till they reached Ely, where they +took up their quarters. Here the fenland folk forgathered with them, +for the Norman was a more thoroughgoing oppressor than any Dane; and, +in especial, the "strenuous" outlaw Hereward "the Wake" joined them +"with his gang." + +To show their zeal against the French--and to indulge their lust of +plunder--they set off, by water, to Peterborough, where the Abbey had +been recently conferred on a Norman ruffian named Thorold. To save +this good old English foundation from such degrading occupancy, +Hereward, as their guide, led them on, first to sack and then to burn +it to the ground. The Danes, having got their booty, promptly sailed +away, while Hereward returned to Ely, there to make his memorable +stand against William and the Normans. Fiction may have embroidered +the tale of his prowess; but there remains a foundation of truth, even +after the superstructure of romance has been removed. At Ely were now +gathered together to him a mixed company of fugitives; misfortune, +according to her repute, making strange bed-fellows. + +When William had conquered at Hastings, England, as a whole, was at +first disposed to accept the verdict of battle, and to acknowledge +his claim to the throne, as it had acknowledged Canute's. But when the +necessities of his position, as the captain of an invading army, +forced him to confiscate every estate in England (except the Church +lands), and to bestow it on some Norman adventurer; when every single +Englishman in high office, Sheriff and Alderman, Bishop and Abbot, was +turned out to make room for a Frenchman,[211] the whole nation glowed +with outraged patriotism, and Ely seemed likely to become a second +Athelney, whence the spark of resistance to the tyrant might spread +like wildfire throughout the length and breadth of the land. + +[Footnote 211: See my _History of Cambridgeshire_.] + +And had there been a second Alfred this might well have actually come +to pass. As it was, many of the magnates who could not brook +submission retired to the "Camp of Refuge," as the Island of Ely now +got to be called. This fastness, being surrounded on all sides by deep +fens "as by a strong wall," promised them a sure retreat, and for a +while enabled them to baffle all the efforts even of the mighty +Conqueror to subdue them. Thither came Archbishop Stigand (deposed by +the Conqueror to make way for the great Lanfranc); thither came the +Abbot of St. Albans, thither came the valiant Ethelnoth, Bishop of +Durham; thither came Morcar, the last Earl of Northumbria, "with many +a hundred more," both clergy and laity. Here they received shelter and +hospitality from Thurstan, the last of the English Abbots of Ely. + +By the general voice Hereward was chosen as their captain, and +fortified the island against the Conqueror. William, on hearing of +this, hastened to Cambridge with his whole army, and invested the +place (so far as it was possible to invest it) both by land and water, +building a castle at Wisbech on the north, and at Reach on the south. +At Aldreth, where scarcely a mile of fen parted the Island from the +mainland at Willingham, he made a floating bridge of trees and +faggots, fastened underneath with cow-hides; but when his men +attempted to cross it, the unsteady structure capsized, and that +portion of the army engaged in the attempt was drowned. + +Perplexed and almost daunted, William, with his court and army, +retired for a time to Brandon in Suffolk; while the refugees at Ely +spent stirring days. The knights and churchmen were hospitably +entertained in the refectory of the abbey, every man with his shield +and lance hanging near him, to be ready in case of sudden alarm. Their +days were diversified by raids into the surrounding country beyond the +fens, to snatch what provisions they could for their fastness; and +these raids of the islanders were so dreaded throughout the district, +that its inhabitants were thankful for the protection of William's +soldiery. + +Hereward, according to the legend, hearing that another attack was +imminent, followed the example of Alfred the Great by betaking himself +in disguise to Brandon to learn the King's designs. He found that +William, by a judicious mixture of severity and conciliation, had won +over a certain number of the outlying fen-folk, and had imposed upon +them the task of conveying a great store of wood and faggots for him +to Aldreth, with which to construct there a causeway once more. +Hereupon Hereward, still in his disguise, feigned that he was himself +one of these traitors to England, and eager above all the others to +help the Conqueror against the marauding thieves of the Camp of +Refuge. It was he who was foremost in collecting faggots for the +wood-pile at Aldreth, and then, when all was gathered, who was it but +Hereward that set it on fire so that all was lost? And once more, when +the besiegers were making a third attempt to gain the island, under +the auspices of a reputed witch whom the pious William deigned to +employ for the sustaining of his men's sunken courage, it was Hereward +who fired the reed-beds through which the foe was advancing, so that +the whole column, witch and all, were involved in one common +destruction. + +Finally William, finding that he could not reduce the island by force, +resolved to bring it under by political pressure, and threatened to +grant to his supporters all the Abbey lands within his power. On +hearing this the Abbot and monks resolved to surrender, and they sent +secret messengers to William, who was at Warwick, offering to submit +to him on condition that he would spare the possessions of the Abbey. +To this the King consented; and during Hereward's absence from Ely on +a foraging expedition, he landed without resistance on the fen-girt +island. Hereward on his return found that all was lost, and himself +barely escaped with a few followers, to live on as outlaws in the +greenwood for a few desperate years, till at length he, too, "came +in," and was granted "the King's peace." + +On William's unopposed success through their connivance the monks +fondly imagined that they had something to expect from his gratitude, +and were preparing a formal welcome and act of submission when it +should please him to visit the abbey church in thanksgiving for his +victory. William, however, had other designs, and paid his visit +without notice, at an hour when he knew that the brethren would be in +the refectory at dinner. He stood alone before the High Altar, and +casting upon it a single mark of gold, equivalent to about £150, +quietly departed. + +Meanwhile the hapless monks were startled from their meal by the +abrupt entrance of a Norman knight, Gilbert de Clare, with whom they +had made interest, and who now rushed in shouting to them: "Ye +wretched drivellers! Can ye choose no better time for guzzling than +this when the King is here, yea, in your very church?" Instantly every +monk sprang to his feet, and the whole community made a rush for the +church. But it was too late. William was already well on his way out +of Ely, and the unhappy monks had to run three miles before they +caught up to him at Witchford. There they did at last succeed in +impetrating his pardon, but he laid upon them a fine of no less than +700 marks of silver,[212] to meet which almost all the ornaments of +the church had to be melted down. The ingots were minted into coin in +the abbey itself; but the moneyers employed proved fraudulent, and the +royal officers at Cambridge, to whom the cash was paid, reported it +deficient in weight. This gave William an excuse for laying on a +further fine of 300 marks, so that altogether no less than the +equivalent of £20,000 was wrung by him out of the Brotherhood. + +[Footnote 212: A mark of silver was worth 13_s._ 4_d._; a mark of gold +was 100 shillings. A labourer's wage was at this date 1_d._ per day, +so that these sums must be multiplied thirty-fold to get their +equivalent value at the present day.] + +Yet the monks were not mistaken in thus casting in their lot with the +Normans, for though William imposed these heavy fines upon them, +though he heaped vexatious indignities upon them, though he inflicted +shocking mutilations on their adherents (not on themselves, for he was +careful to spare the monks in this respect), though he compelled them +to maintain a foreign garrison of forty French knights at their very +doors, yet in spite of all this the Abbey, with its seventy monks, +prospered under his iron rule. The strange condition of the house at +this juncture is vividly recorded for us by a picture, still preserved +in the Bishop's palace at Ely and known as the "Tabula Eliensis." + +This "tabula" is a painting of no artistic merit, dating probably from +the reign of Henry the Seventh, but copied from an older one which has +perished. It is divided into forty squares, and in each of these +appears a knight and a monk, the names of both being given fully and +distinctly. The knight is helmeted and holds his drawn sword in his +right hand, while between him and his neighbour, the cowled monk, +hangs his shield emblazoned with his arms. All indicate how the +knights and monks, when thus forced to dwell in close contact, became +friendly together as time went by. + +Several of the monks bear names which show us that the ancient British +stock of the Girvians still survived in the neighbouring fenlands. +Among them we find, Donald, Evan, Cedd, Nigel, Duff, David, +Constantine: names familiar to us in connection with Highland, Welsh, +or Cornish literature. Strange as it seems to include such names as +David and Constantine in this list, we have history, legend and +geography to justify our counting them as in use among the later +Britons. And it may be noted that, until the twelfth century at least, +a man's name is an almost certain guide to his nationality, as (to +some extent) it is to this day. After that, the old English +nomenclature, both male and female, was almost wholly supplanted by +that of the Normans; the only native names to survive being those of +special heroes and saints, such as Alfred, Edward, Edmund, Edgar, +Ethel, Audrey and Hilda. + +The nave and transepts of Ely Minster erected during the century that +followed, still stand to show us to what splendid purpose Norman +architects could design and Norman workmen could build. For here, as +elsewhere throughout England, one of the first and most striking +results of the Conquest was such an outburst of church building as the +country had never yet known. Edgar's church, though barely a century +old, was condemned as hopelessly out of date. Something on a much +grander scale was now felt needful. The new Church was founded, in +1083, by the aged Abbot Simeon, an act of great courage and faith in a +man so old. He it was who began to build the north and south +transepts. He also laid the foundation of the central tower and of an +apsidal choir. Both tower and choir have fallen and been replaced, but +the transepts stand to this day. + +As soon as the choir was ready for it, the body of the first Abbess +was brought from the Anglo-Saxon church close by, built under Edgar +the Peacemaker, where it had rested for 130 years, and was placed in +the new Norman choir behind the high altar. At her feet was laid her +sister Sexburga, who had succeeded her as Abbess, and, on either side, +the sister and niece who had, each in turn, followed after her as +rulers of the house. The earlier church was then pulled down. All this +did not take place till 1106, and long before then Simeon, like his +namesake a thousand years before, had sung his "Nunc dimittis," +leaving his work to be carried on by the devoted and energetic +Richard, the last of the non-episcopal Abbots of Ely. + +For an event of even greater moment than the building of the church +took place about this time. Early in the twelfth century, in order to +quell some dispute that had arisen as to the authority of the Bishop +of Lincoln over the Abbot of Ely, the Pope had consented, at the +request of King Henry the First and Archbishop Anselm, that the Abbot +of Ely should become a Bishop, with the Isle of Ely and the County of +Cambridge as his See.[213] More than 700 years went by before any +change was made in the extent of the diocese thus created; for it was +not till 1837 that the counties of Huntingdon and Bedford and the +western half of Suffolk were added to it. + +[Footnote 213: The county, at this time, comprised only the district +south of the Isle. This ecclesiastical connection between it and the +Isle was the first towards their later unification. See p. 8.] + +We owe to the creation of this Bishopric the very existence of Ely +Minster as it now stands; had it remained merely an abbey, instead of +being also a cathedral, it would have perished at the Reformation, +along with the yet greater church at Bury St. Edmund's not far away, +and with many another sister abbey throughout the land. At Ely, too, +we should see before us ruined arches open to the sky, beautiful +indeed and pathetic, but no longer a centre of worship. To this day +the Bishop of Ely sits in his cathedral not as Bishop but as Abbot; +not at the south-eastern but at the south-western end of the choir +stalls, while the Dean occupies the seat once belonging to the Prior +at the north-western end. Richard, as we have said, was the last of +the Abbots of Ely who were Abbots and nothing else. Hervey, appointed +in 1109, was the first Bishop-Abbot. He had already been Bishop of +Bangor, whence he had been driven by a Welsh revolt. + +This may be the place to say something of the abnormal civil position +held by the Bishops of Ely till recent times. Etheldreda, the +foundress of the Abbey, reigned, as the widow of her first husband, +Tonbert, over the whole Isle of Ely, and exercised therein the full +Royal rights of secular jurisdiction. These rights passed on to the +Abbesses who succeeded her, and then in turn to the Abbots who +followed; they were confirmed by the Charter of Edgar in 970, and +again by Edward the Confessor, and when the abbots became bishops they +still continued to exercise this jurisdiction. Each succeeding Prelate +enjoyed rights throughout the Isle somewhat resembling those of the +Prince Bishops of the continent. + +This went on until Henry the Eighth fell upon the Church, and took +away not only many of the Episcopal demesnes but also many of the +Episcopal privileges (if indeed they may be so termed). Such rights as +the King spared survived for 300 years longer. The Bishop of Ely still +possessed a jurisdiction of considerable importance and dignity, +holding almost sovereign authority within his "Franchise," which was +styled "the Royal Franchise or Liberty of the Bishops of Ely." He +himself appointed his own Judges to hear all cases within the Isle of +Ely; Assize and Quarter Sessions were held in his name and at his +pleasure; his chief bailiff acted as High Sheriff, and he nominated +the magistrates. It was the Bishop's Peace, and not the King's Peace, +against which malefactors throughout the Isle were held to offend. +This went on till 1836, when on the death of Bishop Spark, these last +remnants of Etheldreda's jurisdiction as Queen-Abbess ceased by Act of +Parliament. + +But to this day there live on some far-off echoes of the Girvian +principality. The Isle of Ely, with its three Rural Deaneries and +forty-six benefices, is ecclesiastically under the immediate +jurisdiction of the Bishop; no Archdeacon holds any authority there, +as in other parts of the diocese, except in the parishes of Haddenham +and Wilburton. True, we have an Archdeacon of Ely, but he ought +rather to be designated Archdeacon of Cambridgeshire, for, with the +exceptions named, beyond the limits of the county proper he is +powerless. The Isle, moreover, has its own County Council quite +distinct from that of Cambridgeshire, while the common High Sheriff of +both divisions is nominated from each in turn. + +And in the very heart of London, close to Holborn Circus, traces of +this civil jurisdiction still survive in Ely Place, where stands, +abutting on houses of the most commonplace type, the beautiful chapel +dedicated to St. Etheldreda, built at the close of the thirteenth +century, and once attached to the town palace of the Bishops of Ely. +Ely Place was a "Liberty," and, within the memory of those still +living, the Royal writs did not run here, and no police-officer or +sheriff could follow a debtor who had here taken sanctuary; it was, +moreover, rated on a basis peculiar to itself. The "Liberty" is still +governed by certain Commissioners, elected annually by the +householders. It has its own day and night watchmen, with their +gold-laced hats, who fulfil the function of policemen, and the silence +of the night is, even in this twentieth century, broken by their call, +hour by hour, as of yore. We all remember how Shakespeare makes +Richard the Third say to the Bishop of Ely, + + "My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn + I saw good strawberries in your garden there," + +and the reference to these lines in the "Ingoldsby Legends" is hardly +less familiar. Palace, strawberries, garden are no more; the property +once held in this region by the See of Ely has passed by purchase into +other hands, but the chapel is still here, well tended, the same House +of Prayer, after many vicissitudes, that it was 600 years ago; the din +of modern city life being there shut out by walls eight feet thick. + +There exists in London one more very different relic of the old +demesne of the Bishops of Ely. On the frontage of a great house in +Dover Street, now occupied by the Albemarle Club, with massive stone +facings without and marble halls within, there may be seen, over the +second storey, a mitre carved in stone, shewing that once it was the +abode of the Bishops of Ely; for after their old Palace in Holborn was +sold, this "Ely House," built about 1775, took its place, to be sold +in turn early in the twentieth century with a view to forming a +nucleus toward the endowment of a new bishopric, when the proposed +subdivision of the present diocese can be carried out. Times have +changed; and the Bishop of Ely is now free from the burdensome luxury +of an official residence in London. + + + + +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. + + +The fact that Ely had been made a Bishop's See did not prevent her +from remaining a monastery, the home of busy monks, living in +refinement and cleanliness according to the Benedictine Rule. Year by +year they beautified their Abbey Church; the western tower rose stage +by stage till it became, as it still continues to be, a landmark for +the surrounding plain. During the episcopate of Eustace, lasting from +1198 till 1215, the western porch, known as the Galilee, came into +being. + +The year of his death was disastrous for Ely. It was then raided by a +horde of foreign mercenaries, hired by King John to support him +against the Barons; they robbed the Minster of its treasures, and only +on receiving a heavy ransom were they dissuaded from burning it. "When +the Barons" (who were in London, at that time their headquarters) +"heard these things," writes the chronicler, Roger of Wendover, "they +looked one upon the other and said, 'the Lord gave and the Lord hath +taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.'" + +Later in the same century a Choir, or Presbytery, of exquisite design +and workmanship, in the Early English style, was thrown out eastward +by Hugh de Northwold, Bishop of Ely from 1229 till 1254. We have heard +already of this prelate, and we must now do more than mention his +name. It was he who had been chosen to take the "toilsome and +perilous" journey to Provence, thence to bring back Eleanor as bride +for Henry the Third, and that weakling monarch turned to him on other +occasions, when in need of a trusty servant. + +We read that the Presbytery of Ely Minster was built at the sole +expense of Hugh, Bishop of that place, a special observer of all that +was honourable and good. His hospitality knew no bounds. At the +dedication of his presbytery and other works in the Minster, the King +himself, with his eldest son, Prince Edward, a boy of thirteen, was +present; innumerable prelates and nobles came to Ely, and after a due +observance of spiritual festivities (which included the rededication +of the whole church to St. Peter, St. Mary, and St. Etheldreda), were +regally entertained by the Bishop in the leaden-roofed palace he had +lately built; yet he lamented the small number of the assembled +guests, declaring that the entertainment was in great measure shorn of +its dimensions. He, however, "rejoiced in spirit that by God's favour +he had been allowed to wait for that day, in which he had seen the +happy consummation of all his designs." + +This dedication took place in 1252. "Two years later the good bishop +died at his manor at Downham, and his body was carried with much +reverence to Ely, where it was buried in a magnificent Presbytery +which he had founded and built." Such is the witness of Matthew Paris, +a contemporary chronicler. We may mention that the income of the See +of Ely was at this time equivalent to £30,000 a year. + +Many years had gone by since the festivities thus described for us, +when Henry and his son again appeared before Ely under very different +circumstances. The Barons who had fought against the King, in their +struggle to secure constitutional liberty, had met with a crushing +defeat at Evesham (1265), where their heroic leader Simon de Montfort +had been slain. Their lands had been virtually, though not nominally, +confiscated, and for this reason they called themselves "the +Disinherited," and gloried in the name. They refused to accept defeat, +and made the Island of Ely their headquarters. In vain did the Bishop, +Hugh de Balsham (the founder of Peterhouse), endeavour to prevent this +occupancy of his domains; his efforts were fruitless, and only brought +upon him the reproaches of the King and many others, who attributed +his misfortunes to his incapacity. The insurgent Barons refused to +quit the Island, and lived on there, supporting themselves by raid and +pillage, as Hereward and his comrades had done of old. We are told +that they entered Cambridge, and carried off abundance of booty; and +that they seized on the persons of Jews and other rich citizens +residing there, and took them back to the island as prisoners, to be +set at liberty only on the payment of a heavy ransom. + +The inhabitants of Lynn, then as now the chief seaport of the Fenland, +found these marauding Barons such objectionable neighbours, that they +resolved on an expedition against them. A number of citizens, mostly +of the lower orders, manned a fleet of boats and went up the river +toward Ely. Forewarned of their coming, the insurgent Barons met them +drawn up on the bank, with a great array of standards and banners; +then, feigning terror at the approach of the enemy, they fled inland; +whereupon the men of Lynn, unversed in war and its strategy, landed +intent on pursuit. Suddenly they found themselves surrounded by the +foe; in vain were their efforts to regain their boats; many were slain +by the dauntless Barons, others were made prisoners, while the few who +escaped were received with derision on their return to Lynn. + +The Bishop and the burghers of Lynn had failed alike to overcome the +Disinherited; the Papal Legate now tried what he could do, as the +state of affairs in the Fenland was growing desperate. He sent +messengers admonishing the insurgents "to return to their Faith and to +obedience to the Roman Curia, and to unity with Holy Mother Church; +and to cease from robbery and to make reparation." To this, from their +fastness, the Disinherited reply, "that they hold the same Faith as +other Catholic men; that they believe and keep the articles of the +Creed, that they believe in the Gospels, and in the Sacraments of the +Church as the Church Catholic believeth, that they are ready to live +and die for this Faith. They avow further that they do indeed owe +obedience to the Church of Rome as the Head of all Christendom, but +not to the avarice and greed of those who ought to govern it better." + +[Illustration: _Ely: The Presbytery._] + +They urge that they had been unjustly disinherited by order of the +Legate, and that he ought to make amends to them; that he had been +sent to England to make peace, but that by adhering to the King he +kept up the war: that the Pope had ordered that no one should be +disinherited, but that the King had demanded a ransom equivalent to +disinheritance; that their first oath had been for the benefit of +the kingdom and the whole Church; that they were still ready to die +for it. They asserted, moreover, that many of the partisans of the +King and Prince Edward had committed robberies, feigning that they +belonged to the Disinherited; they insisted that their own lands must +be restored to them, so that they might not be under the necessity of +pillaging. Lastly, they exhort the Legate to recall his sentence; +otherwise they would appeal to the Apostolic See, to a General +Council, and, if needs must, to the Supreme Judge of all (_i.e._, the +God of Battles), "seeing that they fight for the common weal of Church +and Realm." + +Such was the daring message that, according to Matthew Paris, issued, +in the year 1267, from the Fenland stronghold. The Bishop and the men +of Lynn had failed to daunt the recusants, and now the Legate had met +with no better success. The following year came the King in person, +along with his valiant son Edward "Longshanks," to try what the Strong +Hand could do; and besieged the island. We can imagine how the father +and son, as they sighted Ely, must have felt the contrast between +their approach this time and their arrival fifteen years before. Then +all was peace and welcome, now it is bitter war. They had Scottish +troops at their command, and by constructing bridges of hurdles and +planks they forced an entrance to the island; and soon the insurgents +had no choice but to yield; some surrendered, while the rest took to +flight. Their cause seemed lost; but in truth it was destined to +triumph, for when Edward the First, six years later, returned as King +from his Crusade, he granted all, and more than all, that the Barons +had asked for, by calling into being England's first representative +Parliament. + +Throughout the course of these wars and tumults the House of God at +Ely stood uninjured in beauty and security. But about the opening of +the fourteenth century there appeared cracks in the great Central +Tower. These massive Norman towers were not so strong as they looked, +their piers being not, as they appeared to be, of solid stone, but +only hollow pipes filled in with rubble. It was known that a similar +tower at Winchester had fallen; the same disaster now threatened Ely; +the monks were warned against entering the Abbey Church, and were +bidden to say their office in an ancient chapel adjoining the Chapter +House. + +The catastrophe long foreseen came to pass on February 22, 1322. Late +in the evening, as the monks were retiring to their dormitories, "with +such a shock," says the chronicler, "that it was thought an earthquake +had taken place," the tower fell toward the east, crushing the walls +and pillars of the Norman choir. Northwold's presbytery further east +remained unhurt, nor did the shrine of St. Etheldreda behind the high +altar receive any damage. The nave and transepts likewise escaped +injury. No one was killed, for in consequence of the timely warning +the church was deserted. + +Providentially the monk at this time in charge of the Cathedral fabric +was an architect of rare genius, the most gifted, probably, that +England has ever produced. For the Sacrist when this calamity befell +was none other than the famous Alan of Walsingham, who was called by +his contemporaries "the flower of craftsmen," and he it was who, in +virtue of his office, was responsible for repairs. In the full vigour +of life, a man of twenty-eight, who had been trained as a goldsmith, +he rose to the occasion, and proved well able to cope with the problem +and task before him. + +The chronicler tells us how he "rose up by night and came and stood +over the heap of ruins, not knowing whither to turn. But recovering +his courage, and confident in the help of God and of His kind Mother +Mary, and in the merits of the holy virgin, Etheldreda, he set his +hand to the work." In answer to his prayers, an inspiration came to +him. In place of the square tower that had fallen, he would build one +octagonal in form, with a wider base gained by cutting off the angles +of the transepts and choir, and he would crown it with a lantern of +woodwork. His idea was bold and original, and the lantern-crowned +Octagon of Ely Cathedral as it now stands, a glorious specimen of the +Decorated work of the fourteenth century, still bears witness to the +genius and courage of the young architect who designed and engineered +it, while at the same time he planned the reconstruction of the Norman +choir. + +With this scheme in his mind, Alan of Walsingham set labourers at once +to remove the huge mass of rubbish, and meantime he sent far and near +to procure timber for the work in hand; while the famous quarries of +Barnack in Northamptonshire supplied him with stone. By 1349, after +twenty-six years of toil, the tower with its lantern of wood was +finished. This wood was covered outside with lead, while within it was +gorgeous with gold and stencilled painting, all the work of the most +skilled hands that could be hired. We are told that the Sacrist +himself provided gold florins to be turned into leaf by "Ralph le +goldbeter." The very names of the workmen employed have an interest +for us, as we read of John Attegrene, the master mason, of William +Shank, the chief decorator, of John of Burwell, the best wood-carver. +Nor must we forget John Hotham, of whom we shall hear more. Being +Bishop at this juncture, he provided funds for the restoration and +beautifying of his cathedral. + +King Edward the Third and his well-loved Queen Philippa came down to +see the work, already famous, that was being carried out at Ely. In +honour of her visit the Queen brought her robes of state, embroidered +with "squirrels," first worn at her thanksgiving for the birth of the +Black Prince. These robes she gave to the Prior John of Crauden, to be +made into three copes and other vestments for the clergy. Whether the +ancient cope still preserved at the Deanery can be identified as one +of these is doubtful. It is of rich myrtle-green velvet, worked in +gold thread, silk, and pearls, with plume-like flourishes that might +well suggest the term "squirrels." Along its straight edge there is +laid on a richly embroidered border, representing the Annunciation in +the centre and saints with their emblems on either side. The design of +the border indicates that it belongs to a date somewhat subsequent to +1330, the year when the Black Prince was born; but, seeing that it is +quite separate from the velvet, it must have been added later, and the +main portion of the vestment may actually be part of Queen Philippa's +gift. + +But we must not suppose that the Ely builders were engaged during +these twenty-six years only on the Octagon Tower and the adjacent +restoration. Almost contemporary with the tower is Prior Crauden's +lovely chapel, built to the south of the Minster from the designs of +Alan of Walsingham, while at the same time, adjoining the +north-eastern transept, there arose the glorious Lady Chapel. The +foundation-stone of this wondrously elaborated edifice was laid in +1321, on Lady Day, by Alan of Walsingham himself; for it was he who, +as architect, designed the building, though the actual carrying out of +the work was committed to John of Wisbech, the Subsacrist of the +Abbey. + +The funds were partly supplied by Bishop Montacute (whose premature +death prevented the full completion of the design); partly by "the +alms of the Faithful," or, as we should now say, by public +subscription, and partly from a find of treasure-trove which is thus +picturesquely described by the Abbey chronicler: + + "Now when the aforesaid chapel was in beginning, this Brother + John had but little money in hand, or laid by, for the + prosecution of so great a work. He betook himself therefore to + prayer, and thereafter called his mates together, some being + monks, some, likewise, seculars. And them he besought to meet at + a certain hour, and help him in digging out a square trench which + might serve for the foundation of the whole fabric. + + "At the appointed time, accordingly, they met one night, and + began to dig, each separately by himself in the place assigned to + him. Thus it chanced that the aforesaid Brother John was digging, + all alone by himself, in the place allotted to him. And, by the + special will, as we verily believe, of God, he found there, not + one of his mates wotting thereof, a brazen pot full of money, as + if placed there on purpose to relieve his need. + + "And when the whole night was well nigh spent, in the earliest + dawn, a small rain came on, to the annoyance of those digging. + Calling then his mates from their work, he said: 'Brethren mine, + and fellow labourers, yea, most heartily do I thank you for all + your long and well-wrought task. And good it is now to pause a + little after your work. Therefore I commend you to God. And may + He pay you a full worthy wage for your labour.' But when they + drew off, he himself remained on the spot all alone, and bare off + that urn, as secretly as he might, and hid it in the dormitory + under his own bed. And he took that money, all befouled with rust + as it was, and cleansed off the rust by rubbing it with chalk and + water, and paid therefrom, while it lasted, the wages of his + workmen." + +From this account it would seem that this money was not gold, as that +never tarnishes, but silver; probably old Saxon coins hidden at the +time of the Danish sack of Ely. Even in the fourteenth century money +was still largely estimated by weight, without much regard to the +particular coinage; so that these old pennies would still be good +currency. + +The chapel is surrounded by seats of stone, each with its canopy of +the same material, a veritable dream of artistic design and +workmanship. With its completion, at the close of the year 1348, John +of Wisbech ended his work on earth; a few months later, on June 18th, +1349, he, like many another priest of these eastern counties, fell a +victim to the Black Death, which in some districts slew nine priests +out of ten. He left as his monument this church, a wonderful example +of the latest Decorated work, in its detailed sculpture and all but +Perpendicular windows. It is built of clunch, a local stone that lasts +well for interior use, but perishes somewhat when exposed to the +weather. This was brought by water from Reach, where the great +quarries from which it was hewn may still be seen. + +This chapel was built, as its name denotes, in honour of the Virgin; +above and below its canopies stood figures of exquisite grace, +representing, for the most part, scenes from her life as related in +the Apocryphal Gospels and later legends then current. For two hundred +years these sculptures remained intact, till Thomas Goodrich became +Bishop in 1533. He held the See for twenty-one years, and he made it +his business deliberately to deface all this statuary. We may +attribute his action either to his zeal for the extirpation of +Mariolatry, or to his fear lest sacred legend should be confounded +with sacred history. Whatever may have been the actuating motive, his +deeds as an iconoclast remain before our eyes. In October, 1541, he +issued a mandate to the clergy of his diocese, ordering the utter +abolition and destruction of all shrines, images, and relics; and we +find it hard to forgive him for such indiscriminating breakage, even +when we remember how much we owe to him for his admirable setting +forth of our duty to God and to our neighbour preserved to us in the +Catechism of the Church of England. He was also the translator of St. +John's Gospel in the version known as the "Bishop's Bible." + +[Illustration: _Ely Lantern._] + +With the close of the fourteenth century the development and +beautifying of Ely Minster almost comes to a standstill. She is rich +in Norman, in Early English, in Decorated work; but when Perpendicular +architecture arose, that type peculiar to England, there came a pause +at Ely; and the instances of the Perpendicular style to be met with +here are comparatively unimportant insertions. In Bishop Alcock's +Chapel, built by 1500, we meet with late Perpendicular work; while in +Bishop West's, built about 1525, are traces of the Renaissance +decoration that came in with the revival of classical literature and +art. Such decoration gained hardly any foothold in England, and is +extremely rare within our shores, but on the Continent it swept away +before its inrush many a shrine of earlier date, sparing nothing for +the sake of its associations or antiquity. With Bishop West's Chapel, +the story of growth and development closes. Then came the +Reformation under Henry the Eighth, and we come face to face with the +work of iconoclasts rather than of builders. + +Of all English cathedrals Ely perhaps possesses the most complete +series of every style of Gothic architecture; and as the Minster +records and registers relating to the whole period of her construction +have been fortunately preserved, we can date approximately every arch +and window, knowing when it was built, and, in many cases, who was the +builder. Thus Ely provides a key to the dating of all English Gothic +architecture. As we travel through our own country, and on the +Continent, we realise the marvellous solidarity that in those Middle +Ages held Christendom together. Whenever a new architectural +development calculated to promote beauty, strength, or light, came +into being in one Catholic land, it spread without fail to the others, +even to those furthest removed; what was the fashion in Italy, Spain, +or France became the fashion in Scotland, and, so long as the Latin +Kingdom of Jerusalem endured, even in the Holy Land; where the +Crusaders built most diligently, as the yet surviving ruins of their +churches and castles abundantly demonstrate, even to the present day. + +But with the development of the Perpendicular style, about the year +1375, England began to strike out a line of her own. Buildings of this +insular type arose, year by year, all over our land, but it never came +into vogue on the Continent, where the more floreated styles of +architecture, known as Flamboyant, became prevalent; while in England +there was a reaction in the opposite direction in favour of less +ornate tracery. + +Roughly speaking we may say that mediæval architecture in England +occupied four periods: + +Norman architecture prevailed from 1075 to 1175; + +Early English from 1175 to 1275; + +Decorated from 1275 to 1375; + +Perpendicular from 1375 till stopped by the Reformation. + +In a careful study of the history of Ely Cathedral we shall find a +confirmation of these dates. + +Let us, for instance, stand outside the Minster at the east end, and +we shall have before our eyes specimens of all these four great styles +of Gothic architecture. We can see early Norman work in the transepts +begun under Simeon, who was Abbot from 1081 to 1093. If we direct our +attention to the east window with its lancet-shaped lights, built by +Hugh de Northwold, Bishop from 1229 to 1254, we shall gain an idea of +the exquisite grace and beauty of Early English architecture. In the +windows of the Lady Chapel, constructed under John Hotham, Bishop from +1316 to 1337, we see Decorated work, with its branching tracery, at +its culminating point; while in the chapel built by Bishop West, who +filled the See of Ely from 1515 to 1533, on the south side of the east +window, we have an instance of Perpendicular tracery, with its +characteristic upright shafts running straight from the top to the +bottom of the window. Comparing the table given above with the dates +at which the work before us is known to have been carried out, we +shall find it confirmed, and we may gain much by letting it be well +impressed on our minds. + +At Ely one feature of beauty is lamentably absent, namely stained +glass contemporary with the building. In the Cathedrals of York and +Lincoln much ancient glass survives, while remnants exist in many +village churches; but at Ely, once no less richly be-jewelled, nearly +all has been swept away. There is no record of its destruction, which +may have taken place under the unsparing hand of Bishop Goodrich, or a +century later, it may be, during the Civil Wars. We are the losers, +and we can hardly feel that our loss is made good by the coloured +glass with which during the last hundred years many of the windows +have been refilled, though here and there fine modern glass sheds its +glow on the grey stonework around. + +Yet as we walk round this glorious Minster, surveying it whether from +within or from without, the feeling uppermost in our minds is rather +one of thankfulness that so much has been spared than of indignation +that so much has been destroyed. We can understand what the +poet-philosopher Coleridge meant when he spoke of Gothic architecture +as "Infinity made imaginable"; and we may enter into the feelings of +the peasant woman who, in simpler language, expressed the same idea, +when after her visit to Ely Minster she remarked, "That Cathedral is +like a little Heaven below; everybody should see it, both rich and +poor." + +We have now come to the end of the story of the building of Ely +Minster; her Bishops and Deans have since then had enough to do in +keeping her stonework in repair without adding to it; and this work of +restoration has been carried on from century to century with real, if +sometimes misguided, devotion. Originators have had their day; the +repairer is now in possession. + +Great as were the architectural achievements of the seventy monks of +Ely, we must not suppose that all their time went in superintending +such work. We do not know, indeed, whether they did much of it with +their own hands at all. We have, it is true, seen John of Wisbech, the +builder of the glorious Lady Chapel, himself digging out the +foundations with his mates; but on the other hand we are told how +skilled artisans from a distance were hired to undertake the more +delicate work in completing the lantern. That the Brethren spent much +time in writing we have abundant proof. Our own familiar word _ink_ is +a standing testimony to their industry in this respect, being derived +from _inc._, the abbreviation universally used in the Abbey account +books for _incaustum_, the Latin word for their writing fluid. + +In the reign of William Rufus, that monarch's Commissioners came to +Ely, and carried off 300 volumes from the Abbey library, besides all +the Service books; and we need hardly doubt that most of these books, +if not all, had been copied on the spot. One beautifully written +Breviary from Ely is still to be seen in the University Library at +Cambridge. It is of the fourteenth century. + +The monks and Bishops were, moreover, constructors of bridges, of +roads, and of causeways; they made new ones, they restored the old; +and they were licensed to exact tolls for the upkeep of their work. In +1480 Bishop Morton led the way towards the draining of the Fens, by +cutting the great drain, forty feet across, extending twelve miles, +from Peterborough to Guyhirn, and still known as Morton's Leam. The +Bishops also built numerous episcopal residences. Among others, Ely +Place in Holborn, a castle at Wisbech, palaces at Somersham and +Downham, manor houses at Doddington, at Fen Ditton, at Hatfield, were +erected as the centuries slipped by; and seeing that the Bishops were +also Abbots of Ely, we may believe that the monks did their part in +carrying out episcopal work. + +Ely possesses a unique record of her early days in her celebrated +Liber Eliensis, a folio volume of 189 leaves of vellum, ten and +a-half inches by seven and a-half, begun by Thomas, a monk of the +convent, who lived about the close of the twelfth century, and +professing to give the history of the monastery from its foundation up +to his own day. Two copies of this manuscript are known to exist, +bearing witness to the industry of the monks as scribes, while others +have doubtless perished. The monks of Ely, moreover, wrote the +Episcopal Rolls and Registers with the utmost care; these are still +preserved with their entries as to the expenditure of money, as to +ordinations, as to the granting of indulgences, as to appeals to the +Pope, all kept with scrupulous exactitude. + +Ely is rich, moreover, beyond most foundations, in other written +records of her past; and these are preserved, some in the Cathedral +library, some in the muniment room of the dean and chapter forming +part of the restored "Steeple" or "Sextry" gateway, some in the +library of Lambeth Palace, some in the British Museum. The existing +rolls, or account books, kept by the chief officers of the monastery, +number 288 in all, and give us full and clear detail as to what was +spent not only on the building, the alms, and the services of the +Abbey Church, but also on the food, the wine, the clothing, and the +medicine of the monks. One item of medicine is "dragon's blood," one +of food is "blankmang, a mixture of rice and almonds." + +The following summary from the Chamberlain's Roll, recounting what was +the cost of clothing a monk, will show us that he was expected to +dress with dignity and comfort. The clothing of an Ely monk was really +a very serious item of expenditure. A monk, like the parson of a +church, was in England _ex officio_ a gentleman; and his maintenance +cost his convent the equivalent of £200 per annum (in the present +value of money).[214] Of this sum at least a fourth went in clothing, +which, as compared with food, was much dearer then than now. The +account books still preserved at Ely give us the items. Each monk +received annually the following garments (for which we give the value +at the present rate of money): + + £ _s._ _d._ + + 1 Cowl 1 0 0 + 1 Monk's Frock 5 10 0 + 1 Pellice[215] 3 0 0 + 1 Winter coat 4 10 0 + 1 Summer ditto 4 5 0 + 1 Shirt (?) 2 5 0 + 1 Pair of linen drawers 3 0 0 + 2 Pair boots[216] 2 5 0 + 1 Pair Gaiters and Slippers 1 5 0 + 1 "Wilkok"[217] 10 0 + 1 Counterpane 4 10 0 + 1 Coverlet 2 0 0 + 1 Blanket[218] 12 6 + +[Footnote 214: We find the monks complaining that the £300 a year +(equivalent to £9,000 now), to which the Abbey income sank in the +twelfth century would barely support forty monks. The best working +standard by which to ascertain how much money is worth in any given +age is the current day-wage of a labourer. In the fourteenth century +this was 1_d._; it is now 2_s._ 6_d._ Therefore money went thirty +times as far then as now.] + +[Footnote 215: This was a cassock lined with wool. The word _surplice_ +is derived from it, being an alb roomy enough to wear over a pellice.] + +[Footnote 216: The boots were of soft leather rising nearly to the +knee.] + +[Footnote 217: This was probably the head-covering which the monks of +Ely wore, by special licence from the Pope, "on account of the windy +situation of their church." The name may survive in our modern +"billy-cock."] + +[Footnote 218: The blanket was 3-1/2 yards long, as blankets are +still.] + +This was in the year 1334,[219] and is a fair average specimen of the +cost, which varied very little from year to year. Readers of Chaucer +will remember how comfortably, and even luxuriously, he represents his +monk in the Canterbury Tales as being dressed. The old garments of the +monks were, at the end of the year, returned to the Camerarius for +distribution amongst the poor. + +[Footnote 219: It is given by Bishop Stubbs, in his _Historical +Memorials of Ely_.] + +Each monk had to enter the convent provided with a pair of blankets, +garments of all kinds, bedding, towels, a bag for clothes for the +wash, a furred tunic, day and night boots, a silver spoon, and many +other articles. The novices had tablets hung round their necks on +which to write in pencil each breach of the rule as it was committed +lest it should be forgotten in the public confession of such formal +transgressions which every brother had to make at the daily Chapter. +These youths had also each to carry, in a pouch provided for the +purpose, a knife, a comb, a needle, and some thread. + +A complete set of Cellerarius Rolls is preserved at Ely, and these +give a full account of the food in use in the monastery, with details +as to its cost; and it appears to have been both wholesome and +plentiful. Beef, mutton, venison, bacon, fowls, fish, butter, +vegetables, rice, and sugar were provided, and bread of five different +qualities. No less than 2,450 eggs were required for a single week's +consumption. There was an ample allowance of milk; but the principal +drink was beer, made in the brewhouse bequeathed to the convent by +Bishop Hugh de Balsham, and supplied, like the bread, in five +different qualities, the most inferior being known as "Skegman." All +the food was in charge of the Cellerarius and Granatarius, themselves +brethren of the monastery. The latter functionary was responsible for +the bread and the beer, as being both made from grain. Wine was only +produced at special festivals, and was almost wholly imported from +Bordeaux, Oporto, or Xeres in Andalusia; a trade still recorded in our +current words "port" and "sherry." For though vineyards were common in +mediæval England (and notably at Ely, as the epitaph to Alan of +Walsingham reminds us), yet they very seldom produced drinkable wine, +and practically existed only to supply vinegar, a condiment much in +use for rendering dry fish less unpalatable. + +The Benedictine Rule was strict in itself. The day began at 2 a.m., +when every monk had to leave his bed for Mattins and Lauds, a Service +occupying two hours. Then came an hour during which he might return to +his bed,[220] to be waked again at 5 a.m., for Prime and Terce.[221] +Then followed the daily Chapter Meeting, when the work of the coming +day was apportioned, and the faults of the past day rebuked. This +ended, all had to attend Low Mass, and at eight o'clock High Mass, +which was over by ten. Then, and not till then, the monks partook of +the first meal of the day. For this they repaired to the refectory, +and on entering they paused and saluted with a profound bow the +crucifix, hanging over the High Table, and known to them as the +"Majestas." (This title was due to the phrase in the familiar hymn, +_Vexilla Regis_, "God reigneth from the tree."[222]) Their food was +eaten in silence while portions of Scripture were read aloud by one +of the brethren. He was bound to prepare this reading carefully, and +was directed to avoid all hurry, and to repeat any passage of special +note, in order that it might make the deeper impression on his +hearers. After this came study in the Cloisters, varied by a stroll in +the Burial Ground for meditation on mortality. At 3 p.m. they went +again to the church, to sing Vespers; at 5 p.m. came supper with the +same accompaniment as the morning meal; Compline followed; and then it +was bed-time. On some occasions the Rule was relaxed and the monks +were allowed to take part in quiet games, particularly at +Christmastide. + +[Footnote 220: The beds were stuffed with hay, which the Camerarius +was bound to change once a year, at the annual cleaning of the +dormitory.] + +[Footnote 221: The remaining "Short" Offices were probably said, Sext +after High Mass, and Nones at mid-day (whence our word Noon).] + +[Footnote 222: In this earliest type of crucifix Christ was royally +crowned and robed (as in the famous _Volto Santo_ at Lucca). See p. +288.] + +Once in six weeks each monk had to undergo the _Minutio sanguinis_, or +blood-letting, supposed in those days to conduce to health; and this +drove him into the infirmary, where he had to spend about a week along +with a batch of his brethren undergoing the same treatment. This +custom, which sounds to us so unreasonable, tended at least to break +the monotony of monastic life. Those who could stand it all, and gain +good by it, must have been men of iron both in mind and body. + +Such was the discipline through which those men had to pass who built +Ely Minster, and dwelt and worshipped there for close upon nine +hundred years. The "Liber Eliensis" tells us "There was one Rule for +all; the chief requirement was obedience, love of sacred worship, and +a full resolve to maintain the honour of God's House." In words that +form part of their Rule, they could say "We believe that the Divine +Presence exists everywhere, but above all when we attend Divine +Service." + +In the year 1539 the Monastery was dissolved by Henry the Eighth, and +reconstituted as a Chapter of Dean and Canons. As we read this the +question forces itself upon our minds "What became of the monks thus +disbanded?" At Ely the monastery could, it is true, hold seventy +monks, but the full roll were seldom, if ever, in residence at one +time. After the Black Death (in 1349) the number fell to twenty-eight; +and in the year 1532, seven years before the monastery was dissolved, +there were only thirty-six monks on the spot, besides the Prior. +Father Gasquet, a most diligent searcher into the history of that +time, allows that, in spite of all his labour, "hardly any detail of +the subsequent lives of those ejected from the dismantled cloisters of +England is known to exist." It is, however, recorded that three of the +Ely monks, being noted as good choir men, received a pension of £8 a +year (equivalent to about £80 now) besides an office. But such traces +are scanty indeed; some monks who were priests were appointed to the +cure of souls; others lived on the pensions allotted to them which +were usually equivalent to about £50 a year, paid as a rule fairly and +punctually; some received on quitting the monastery a grant of money; +we hear that one band of monks went out into the world each with a sum +of twenty-six shillings and eightpence in his pocket (barely £15 at +the present value of money). Such was the fate of the inmates of the +Abbeys that submitted to the demands of the King, as did Ely under +Goodrich, the last of the Abbots. Where "voluntary surrender" was +refused, as it was by the Abbots of Glastonbury, Reading, Jervaulx, +and other Houses, on the ground that their monastery was "not theirs +to give," the monks were turned adrift without any provision +whatsoever for the future. Some fled to the Continent, others to +Scotland, while many died as the natural result of a sudden change in +their mode of life combined with privation and distress. + +It is nearly four hundred years since all these changes befell Ely. +Many devoted men have during these long years filled the See, men of +mettle, of learning and piety. Among others we may mention Thomas +Thirlby, Bishop from 1554-1559 during the reign of Mary Tudor, who was +deposed under Elizabeth on refusing to take the oath of the royal +supremacy, "having declared that he would sooner die than consent to a +change of religion." For this he was imprisoned in the Tower for three +years, till a visitation of the plague led to his being sent from the +infected air of London to the purer atmosphere of Canterbury, as the +prisoner-guest of Archbishop Parker, under whose charge he remained +for seven years. His imprisonment does not appear to have been +rigorous, as far as physical comfort was concerned; but, with the +illiberality universal in those days, he was denied the consolations +of his religion; he might neither say nor hear Mass, he might read no +books except Protestant ones; he might write no letters, nor even +converse with anyone save under strict supervision. At Lambeth Palace +lodging was provided for him, till he died in the summer of 1570, and +was buried in the adjoining Parish Church. + +In the reign of James the First, from 1609-1619, Ely had as her Bishop +Lancelot Andrewes, whose well-known Book of Devotions bears witness to +his piety. That he was also a man of culture is evident by his being +chosen to be one of the translators of the Bible. + +In Matthew Wren, who was Bishop of Ely for twenty-nine years, from +1638-1667, we meet with another prisoner for his faith. Bishop Wren +was anti-puritan in his aims; throughout his diocese his influence was +exercised in favour of the re-introduction of reverent ceremonial in +public worship; and for this he was sent to the Tower, where he +remained for eighteen years, till the Restoration set him free and +brought him back once more to his well-loved Cathedral. + +He died in 1667, and by his own wish was buried in the chapel of +Pembroke College, Cambridge, which he had built as a thankoffering for +his release from prison--(that prison which his friend Archbishop Laud +had left only for the scaffold); his nephew, the famous Christopher +Wren, being engaged as architect. Thirty years before, he had, while +Master of Peterhouse, built from his own designs the chapel of that +college. The two chapels still face each other across the Cambridge +street in strange contrast. The earlier one betokens an effort to +restore Gothic architecture; the later shows that classical ideals +had, for the time being at least, won the day. + +Peter Gunning, who was Bishop of Ely for eight years, from 1675 to +1683, had likewise faced imprisonment for the sake of his religion. As +vicar of the church of St. Mary the Less at Cambridge, and later at +Tunbridge, while on a visit to his mother, he preached sermons in +support of King Charles the First and in defence of the Church of +England, which excited against him the resentment of the prevailing +faction and led to his imprisonment. But before long he regained his +liberty and returned to Cambridge, where, on his refusing to subscribe +the Covenant, he was deprived of the Fellowship he held at Clare Hall. +He then sought refuge with the King at Oxford; and on the surrender of +that city to the Parliamentary forces betook himself to London, where +his use of the English Liturgy, and the sermons preached by him in the +Exeter House Chapel, drew down upon him the censure of Cromwell in +person. At the Restoration he was given posts of high responsibility. +He was called upon to assist at the Savoy Conference in the +remodelling of the Book of Common Prayer, in which the "Prayer for all +sorts and conditions of men," compiled by him, took its place. At +Cambridge he held successively within the next ten years the +Masterships of St. John's and of Corpus Christi, and was also +successively the Lady Margaret and the Regius Professor of Divinity; +he was appointed to the See of Chichester in 1670, and in 1675 was +translated to Ely, where, after eight years, he died. It is recorded +of him that in 1678 he had the courage to raise in the House of Lords, +where he sat as Bishop of Ely, a strong protest against the shameful +Test Act, which imposed upon all civil servants of the Crown, all +officers, both in army and navy, all professional men, lawyers, +doctors, and teachers of every grade, that odious formula, the +so-called Royal Declaration, an age-long source of bitterness, now, +happily, at last, no longer Royal. + +Francis Turner likewise, who held the See from 1684 till 1691, was yet +another Bishop of Ely who suffered for his principles. He was one of +the famous seven bishops committed to the Tower in 1688 for refusing +to promulgate James the Second's Declaration of Indulgence, which they +regarded as an unjustifiable stretch of the royal prerogative; and +later he was deprived of his bishopric for declining, as a non-juror, +to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, whom he considered +to be usurpers of the royal dignity; showing thus (as Sir Walter Scott +puts it) that while he could, in the interests of what he held to be +justice, resist his sovereign, even in the plenitude of his power, +like a free-born subject, so he would at all sacrifices maintain what +he believed to be his king's legitimate rights, even in the depths of +his adversity, like a loyal one. + +[Footnote 223: See page 274.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + Approach to Ely.--The Park.--Walpole Gate.--Crauden + Chapel.--Western Tower, + Galilee.--Nave.--Baptistery.--Roof.--Prior's + Door.--Cloisters.--Owen's Cross--Octagon.--Alan's + Grave.--Transepts.--St. Edmund's Chapel.--Choir + Stalls.--Presbytery.--Norman Piers.--Reredos.--Candlesticks. + + +The foregoing pages have taught us something of the history of Ely +Cathedral, of the men and women who have loved it and worked for it; +of those who have defaced and pillaged it; of the wars and revolutions +that have surged around it. Now we propose to visit it, and to see for +ourselves the very stones which, though silent, can speak to us; +hoping to be favoured with a fine day, that we may be able to study +the Minster advantageously from without as well as from within. And +let us come provided with a glass, for much of the best carved work is +high above our heads. + +It may be unenterprising to come to Ely by rail; but yet there is no +approach that can give us a finer impression of the Minster than we +gain by our first view of it from the train, whether we arrive from +the north or from the south. In either case we have been travelling +over flat dull country, when suddenly there stands up before our eyes +the "stately fane" of which we have heard so much, and our first +impulse is to show her some token of reverence. We take a good look at +the pile of building before us, and we resolve not to forget our first +sight of this our new friend. Well did the quaint historian, Thomas +Fuller, write of Ely Minster in 1660, "This presenteth itself afar off +to the eye of the traveller, and on all sides, at great distance, not +only maketh a promise, but giveth earnest of the beauty thereof." + +Leaving Ely station, our best course will be to walk toward the +Cathedral, taking the second turn to the right. This brings us into a +commonplace street; where, however, we should notice on our right a +row of thatched cottages, with their overhanging upper storeys, that +have survived from olden days. Just opposite these cottages is an iron +gateway which invites us into the Cathedral "Park," an undulating +piece of ground some sixteen acres in extent grazed by cattle and +sheep, its highest point being an artificial mound, now densely +clothed with trees, called Cherry Hill. An award of the seventeenth +century speaks of it as Mill Hill, an early print shows it topped by a +windmill; so here, doubtless, stood the windmill of the Monastery, +mentioned in the epitaph on Alan of Walsingham as one of the four +wonders of Ely due to his genius (the others being the Lantern, the +Lady Chapel, and the Abbey vineyard). The place of the mill (which +itself superseded the Norman keep built on this eminence by William +the Conqueror) is now occupied by a monument in memory of Bentham, the +historian of the Abbey of Ely, who wrote in the eighteenth century. + +Grassy hillocks rise between us and the cathedral; and we gain an +impression as of some great ship riding majestically over ocean +billows. The church, indeed, is actually about the size of a large +liner, and the green swells of the park are not unlike in magnitude to +those of the Atlantic. Turner's painting of Ely Minster gives this +same ship-like impression of the place, thus embodying the history of +this wondrous pile. It has in truth weathered many a tempest, has been +wrecked and built afresh, has sunk and been restored, and is preserved +for us still as a holy and classic House of God. + +The first of the Abbey buildings that we come to on our walk is the +tithe barn with its tiled roof, one of the largest in England, +constructed in mediæval days, with no architectural beauty, yet with a +dignity of its own. It still bears witness to a financial state of +affairs, when rent was paid in kind, far removed from that which now +exists, since the commuting of tithes for payment in cash. + +Leaving this barn on our left, we find ourselves in front of a massive +gatehouse, known as the "Ely Porta" or "Walpole Gate." It was begun +about 1396, and finished under Prior William Walpole, whose name still +clings to it. This gatehouse has been used for various purposes, for +a chapel, for a prison, for a brewery. To-day it serves as the chief +schoolroom of the "King's School," which represents the famous Choir +School where Edward the Confessor was educated. His coat of arms, a +cross and five martlets, is carved accordingly on the northern +hood-moulding of the gateway, those of the See of Ely on the other +side. It was never finished according to the original design; the +money of the Abbey being needed for other matters, of which one was a +tedious lawsuit relating to the Bishop's jurisdiction. + +We will not pass through the gateway yet; but, again turning to the +right, follow the alley that leads us toward the cathedral itself. We +will stop first at Prior Crauden's Chapel, a small upper room with a +vaulted chamber beneath it. Passing through a narrow doorway, we climb +a spiral staircase which brings us into the little Sanctuary, built by +Prior Crauden, from the designs of his friend Alan of Walsingham, for +his own private use. The Abbey records speak of him in monkish Latin +as follows "Brother John of Crauden ruled the convent as a peaceable +shepherd, and was beloved by God and man; may his memory be held +blessed for ever. Adjoining the Priory he built a chapel of wondrous +beauty, where he might worship God in prayer and praise. Hither did he +resort by night and day for spiritual meditation, unless prevented by +sickness; here he would commend to God, himself, his Church and all +that concerned the Church. His face and his form were goodly to +behold." Let us picture him to ourselves at his devotions in this tiny +chapel--it only measures 31 feet by 15 feet--a very gem of Decorated +architecture; and from the delicate leaf-like tracery around us, let +us learn what to expect when we reach the Minster itself, which +abounds in the work of this period. The contemporary mosaic pavement, +representing Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, is specially +noteworthy. So is also the dim fresco of daisies and trefoils, as +delicate in design as it is true to nature, still visible on the +southern wall. + +[Illustration: _Prior Crauden's Chapel._] + +John of Crauden held the office of Sacrist from 1321 till 1341, while +John Hotham was Bishop. On the Bishop's death, in 1337, the monks of +Ely unanimously elected Prior Crauden to succeed him, as being a man +of marked piety and generosity; but the Pope annulled this election, +and Simon de Montacute became Bishop. We are not told how the +saintly prior took this rebuff; we may believe he bore it with a grace +reflected from or by the chapel that he had built. Not only was he a +builder and a man of piety; he was also a promoter of education; +providing an endowment for the maintenance of three or four young +monks in the then yet youthful University of Cambridge. For +generations this chapel was partitioned into three rooms and belonged +to the adjoining house. It has been restored of late years for +devotional use, and here the boys of the King's Grammar School attend +daily Mattins and Evensong. + +The Canon's residence which adjoins the chapel was once the Priory, +and is attached to the professorship of Hebrew at Cambridge. Here +Prior Crauden entertained Queen Philippa, when she visited Ely with +her husband, Edward the Third. Further on we see the Deanery, built of +old as the dining-hall of the Abbey. Adjacent to it is the "Fair +Hall," designed for great receptions, now the residence of the Head +Master of the King's School. + +Retracing our steps, we have on our right ancient buildings at present +used by the boys of the same school; beyond them we reach again the +Ely Porta; and this time we pass through it to find ourselves in a +side street of the little city, along which run the station omnibuses. +Opposite the gateway is a modern building, "Hereward Hall," occupied +by the King's Scholars; while the dignified Chamber of the Ely Porta +is also at their service in school hours. Turning to the right we +follow the street, here styled "the Gallery," and we make straight for +the cathedral. On our left is the wall of the Palace garden, and, +showing well above, we see its splendid plane tree, planted in 1639, +and said to be the finest in England. + +Now we are actually approaching the western tower and the +south-western transept of the cathedral; and these we may take as an +object lesson. Ely, like Rome, was not built in a day, and it took +centuries to complete its tower. Begun during the latter half of the +twelfth century, the lower part is of late Norman work, with round +arches and bold simple mouldings; but the architect and workmen who +built these passed away, and their work had to be continued by the +hands of others on whom had dawned the beauty of pointed arches. These +later builders were not to be tied down by what they felt to be the +crude ideas of former generations; and we see the workmanship of the +tower and transept, stage above stage bearing evidence of growth, till +through the Early English period it has passed into a narrowed +octagonal tower with windows of Decorated tracery. There is a +delicious harmony in it all; in the intricacy of the masonry, in the +very colour of the stone; and we admire those builders of yore who, +while respecting the work of their forefathers, did not hesitate to +deal with their material according to their own fuller light and +skill. Perhaps we shall doubt as to calling the topmost octagonal +tower wholly in keeping with the base of the steeple; yet if we had +the power we should not have the wish to alter it. + +It is well that we should realise how much the preservation of this +stately steeple has cost. Ever since the central tower fell in 1322, +sacrists, priors, monks, bishops, deans, have lived in constant terror +lest what had befallen the central might also befall the western +tower. We can read how they have braced it with iron and wood, how +they have weighted it with bells; how they have lightened it by +removing its wooden spire, how they have buttressed it, how they have +plastered it. Century after century they have continued the repairs, +sometimes making mistakes, but never asking the question, fatal to all +good work, "Is it worth while?" There it stands, surveying its vast +plain for thirty miles around, with its air of unbroken security. + +Jutting out from the tower, westward, is the so-called Galilee Porch. +It is conjectured that it was so named because, as Galilee was the +district of the Holy Land furthest from Jerusalem, so this western +porch was the part of the sacred building farthest from the High +Altar. Much doubt exists as to the date of this porch. It is commonly +said to have been built under Bishop Eustace, who died in 1215; but +some authorities hold that it belongs to a somewhat later period, when +the style in which it is built had fully developed. Probably it dates +from the close of his episcopate. Anyhow, it is a beautiful specimen +of that Early English work of which we shall see so much more before +we leave the Cathedral. Its walls are thicker than needful if the +porch alone were to be considered, and it is thought that it was built +thus massively with a view to acting as a buttress to the tower, which +needed support. Over the porch is a parvise chamber, now disused; it +may in early days have served to accommodate musicians, or as a place +of sanctuary for criminals fleeing from justice. During the eighteenth +century the Galilee narrowly escaped demolition; for Essex, who was +architect to the Chapter of Ely, advised that it should be pulled down +as being of no use, and in a condition too ruinous to admit of repair. +Happily his counsel was rejected, and the Galilee still stands to +gladden our eyes with its beauty. + +From the Galilee we step into the nave. To attempt any description of +the view before us would be futile; when we say that we are "uplifted" +by it we have expressed in one word all that we dare to formulate. By +moonlight, when the minster is empty; or on some day of Choral +Festival, when arch and pillar echo back the music, this wondrous +fabric, hallowed and mellowed by time, says to us, with a voice almost +audible, "Sursum corda!" "The place whereon thou standest is holy +ground." + +The nave in which we are standing is wholly Norman in its +architecture; its pillars, alternately clustered and cylindrical, +support round arches; these again support the round-headed double +arches of the triforium, and these yet again the triple lights of the +clerestory windows, three tiers in all. The arches are somewhat +stilted, starting with a straight line, and are rather higher than +semi-circular. All this severe architecture of Norman type leads on, +as it were, to the more delicate tracery and moulding of the Early +English lancet lights of the east window. + +It seems almost paradoxical to say that the western arches as we see +them are of more recent date than the tower which they support; yet +this statement is true, for they were constructed in the fifteenth +century to strengthen the steeple built more than two hundred years +before. The more ancient masonry is for the most part completely +hidden by the newer, but the tops of the original archways remain in +full view to show how much they have been contracted by this encasing +stonework. During the previous century six bells had been hung in the +steeple; moreover, the eight-sided turret had been built on the top of +it, and all this additional weight must inevitably have led to the +fall of the whole, but for the strengthening and underpinning of the +piers. + +[Illustration: _South Aisle of the Nave, Ely._] + +Over the westernmost archway is a modern window inserted by Bishop +Yorke toward the close of the eighteenth century, noteworthy only for +its Flemish glass. In the lower southern light we see St. John the +Evangelist playing with a partridge, illustrative of the legend which +relates how his disciples found him, as an aged man, thus engaged, +and how, in answer to their expression of surprise at this unwonted +relaxation, he remarked to them "A bow cannot be kept always strung." +Strange to say, this story, which would seem specially fitted to call +forth the painter's gifts, is almost unknown to art. + +Through the southern of these archways we step into the western +transept, the Baptistery of the cathedral, where stands a font of +modern date. Here to the east is the apsidal chapel known as St. +Catharine's. All tracery and ornament around us is still strictly +Norman in character, and zigzag moulding prevails; but we can see here +how the round arched stone-work, as it intersects, forms graceful +lancets, thus suggesting the pointed or two centred arch; and when +once the architect's eye had caught its beauty, he refused to let his +compass trace out the simpler one-centred arch of the Norman period, +and Early English architecture came in with a rush. + +St. Catharine's Chapel is used daily by the students of the Ely +Theological College, and a beautiful altar of alabaster and jasper, +placed here in 1896, harmonises, in its character of dignity and +permanence, with the Norman stonework around. The apse in which it +stands is a modern restoration, having been for many years a ruin; +indeed the whole of this western transept was for long cut off from +the Tower by a wall of stud and plaster, and served as a workshop and +lumber-room, where materials for use in the repairs of the Cathedral +could be stored, till Dean Peacock set himself in 1842 to remedy this +condition of things. It is now one of the most romantic corners of the +Minster. + +We return to the Tower, and pause for a moment to notice "the +Maze"[224] inlaid in marble in the pavement. From this quaint design +at our feet we turn to look at the roof of the nave over our heads, +painted with scenes from the Old and New Testaments. The western end +is the work of Mr. Le Strange, who died in 1864, before his work of +love was completed. Happily it was continued and finished by Mr. +Gambier Parry, as devoted a lover of the Church and of art, a personal +friend of Harvey Goodwin, who was Dean at the time, and at whose +request the artist undertook the arduous task of roof-painting. A +slight change in the character of the designs shows where one painter +ended his work and the other took it up. + +[Footnote 224: This is a wholly modern device. Mediæval mazes are +common in Continental churches; but none are found in England.] + +These over-head paintings take us from the Creation of Man and his +fall, through the old Testament up to the Annunciation and Nativity, +in a series of scenes instructively thought out; while Patriarchs and +Prophets lead on to the Evangelists. Some part of the design is said +to be due to a visit paid by Mr. Le Strange, on the advice of Sir +Gilbert Scott, to the Church of Hildesheim in Hanover, where there +existed a then untouched painted ceiling of mediæval date; but in the +main it was his own conception. + +Let us next turn aside into the southern aisle to look at the "Prior's +Door." If we find it locked we can get it opened by asking one of the +vergers to let us go through it. We shall thus obtain a sight of its +outer mouldings; bold and fantastic, yet withal dignified and +graceful, executed about the year 1180, and due, it may be, to some +Masonic Company that had handed on its traditions from east to west, +generation after generation; perhaps to members of that "Comacine +Guild" that had its headquarters on an island in Lake Como, where its +members had taken refuge from the Gothic invaders of Italy. In the +tympanum, within a vesica shaped panel, is sculptured our Lord in +Glory, holding in His left hand a book and a cross, while the right is +raised in the act of blessing. On the door-posts are carved designs +somewhat grotesque, suggesting the Signs of the Zodiac, and the course +of human life. + +This unique doorway opens into the garden of the Deanery, where once +stood the Cloisters. In the walls that bound it, traces of the +cloister windows still remain, now filled in with brickwork. The +garden has its own especial charm, in its gay borders and pleasant +paths; but when we picture what once it was, when we recall the +cloisters we have perhaps ourselves seen, at Westminster, at +Salisbury, at Gloucester, at Chester, we cannot but feel this +walled-in garden, attractive though it is, a place of ruin. Beyond +almost any other abbey where the church still stands, Ely has been +robbed of her cloisters. They once ran round this garden, the southern +wall of the nave forming one side, the whole being thus sheltered from +the northern wind, while catching all the warmth and light of the +sun. Traces are still left in the masonry, proving that Norman +cloisters once existed here, but that these were removed and replaced +during the fifteenth century. + +Could we have passed through this ornate doorway while the cloisters +were still in use, what should we have met with in this "haunt of +ancient peace"? We should have entered a covered cloister forming a +square, with each side approximately one hundred and forty feet +long,[225] its windows opening into the well-turfed cloister garth. +Low-recessed archways in the cathedral wall, facing south (one of +which still exists), would hold a set of aumbries or cupboards +containing a good library of books of reference, the works of the +great doctors of the church, and of profane authors as well. Of such +books there was an ample and well-replenished store, for Bishop Nigel +had, towards the close of the twelfth century, bequeathed certain +tithes to provide for the "making and repairing of books" at Ely, and +this bequest would doubtless be spent on books for purposes of study +in the cloister, as well as for use in church. Opposite to these +aumbries we should see a row of carrells, or wainscoted cells, under +the windows, each holding a desk fitted up suitably for reading and +writing, large enough for the use of one monk, and there we should see +him in his black Benedictine robes seated at his work. Through his bit +of the window, if his eye wandered from his books, he could look out +on the pleasant plot of enclosed grass, and see the other three sides +of the cloister. During the fifteenth century glass came into use in +the cloister windows, chiefly on the side next the church, where most +of the writing and reading was done. It would appear that the +cloisters were not only used for study but served also as a +school-room, where novices and choir boys received instruction; and +the part chiefly dedicated to study was the northern side, close to +the bookcases. The Cloister, we must remember, was the centre of +monastic life, giving its very name to the calling of a monk, for here +the brethren spent their working hours. + +[Footnote 225: This was the average length in the larger abbeys, +notably surpassed only by the splendid dimensions of Glastonbury, +where the cloisters were a square of 221 feet on each side.] + +We shiver at the very thought of the cold that life in the cloister +must have entailed. We hear of a scribe whose hands were so paralysed +by cold that he had to delay finishing his copy of the works of Bede; +one author had to lay aside his writing for the winter till spring +should return. No attempt was made to heat the cloisters, but in +mid-winter a single fire was kept burning in a room called the +"_calefactorium_" where the brethren might go in turn to warm +themselves. We speak of life in the open air as an idea of modern +days; in truth it had been forestalled by the monks of old. The +cloisters were lighted by lamps fed with grease from the kitchen, and +the candles used were of rush-pith dipped in the same. + +Silence was maintained in the cloister, and the monks used signs +instead of words when asking for a book. Strict rules were laid down +as to the keeping clean and putting back of books. One Benedictine +writer adds to his manuscript the following note: "Whoever pursues his +studies in this book should be careful to handle the leaves gently and +delicately, so as to avoid tearing them; and let him imitate the +example of Jesus Christ who, when he had quietly opened the book of +Isaiah and read therein attentively, closed it with reverence and gave +it again to the minister." The lending of books was counted as one of +the principal works of mercy, but only to be done under the most +careful regulations as to the return of the volume lent. Such is in +outline the scene we should have beheld had it been our lot five +hundred years ago on this very ground, + + "To walk the studious Cloister's pale." + +We now re-enter the cathedral through the Prior's Door, and taking a +few steps further along the interior of the aisle we come to Owen's +Cross. Owen was St. Etheldreda's faithful steward, the "Primus +Ministorum" (or "Over-alderman," as the Anglo-Saxon has it,) of her +fenland kingdom, and governor of her family. His Welsh sounding name +bears witness to his being a fenman of British ancestry. Bede tells us +that Owen was a man of much piety; that when his royal mistress no +longer needed his services he forsook the world and became a monk +under St. Chad, Bishop of Lichfield. Owen set forth on his journey to +the monastery dressed in a plain garment, carrying a pick-axe and +bill-hook, to denote that as he was little capable of meditating on +the holy scriptures he would the more earnestly apply himself to the +labour of his hands, and had not come to the monastery, "as so many +do," to live idle. St. Chad received him with much favour, and it was +Owen who was permitted to hear the angelic voices that announced to +the holy bishop that he was to die within seven days. + +Owen was himself canonized, and this cross became an object of +veneration at Haddenham, where pilgrims from Cambridge crossed the +Ouse. During the eighteenth century its mutilated base was brought +into the cathedral from Haddenham, where it had long served as a +horsing-block. It is now more worthily placed, and we can still read +the inscription in Latin which runs as follows (the name of Owen being +Latinized almost out of recognition), + + LUCEM TUAM OVINO + DA DEUS ET REQUIEM. + AMEN. + + Grant O God to Owen Thy light and rest. Amen. + +A little further on, still in the south aisle, we come to the "Monks' +Door," with its strange outer carvings of dragons, its one door-post +enriched with spiral fluting, a sister doorway to the prior's, but by +no means a twin. Almost touching it is the half of an ancient arched +doorway now walled up, its door-post spirally and deeply sculptured. +In both doorways one door-post is hidden by the masonry of a great +buttress built here by Alan of Walsingham to support his central +tower. We are here in the last remnant of Ely's cloisters, and let us +not fail to observe the recessed archway for books in the southern +wall of the nave mentioned above. Before leaving the aisle we should +notice that its windows are for the most part late insertions, the +original Norman fenestration being replaced by Perpendicular. + +We now come to the wonder of Ely, of which we have already heard much, +its Octagon Tower and Lantern. Other features in the cathedral we may +meet with elsewhere, but this central feature was not itself a copy, +nor has it served as a pattern--it remains alone, a brilliant +make-shift, a great Necessity having proved the mother of a great +Invention. We can hardly here enter into the details of this Octagon +Tower as an engineering feat, but we can remind our readers how, by +enlarging the base of his steeple, by making it rest on eight +supporting piers, instead of on four like its fallen predecessor, +Alan of Walsingham gave it greatly increased stability. + +[Illustration: _The Tower from the Cloisters._] + +Thomas Fuller, whom we have quoted before, thus racily describes the +Lantern at Ely, as it was at the close of the Commonwealth, and draws +from it the lesson he loved to find underlying outward things. After +speaking of the beauty of the minster, he goes on to say, "The +lanthorn therein, built by Bishop Hotham, is a masterpiece of +architecture. When the bells ring the woodwork thereof shaketh and +gapeth (no defect but perfection of structure) and exactly chocketh +into the joints again; so that it may pass for the lively emblem of +the sincere Christian who, though he has _motum trepidationis_ of fear +and trembling, stands firmly fixed on the basis of a true faith." + +We, too, can admire the ingenuity with which the woodwork forming the +Lantern is fitted together so as to be self-supporting; and our +attention should be called to the vast size of the eight upright beams +of oak above us, fore-shortened, as we see them from the floor, so +that we hardly realise that the length of each is sixty-eight feet. We +can well believe the chronicler who tells us that Alan "procured them +with much trouble, searching far and wide, and with the greatest +difficulty finding them at last, paying a great price for them, and +transporting them by land and water to Ely." During the nineteenth +century, when this woodwork had to be restored, and to some extent +replaced, the difficulty met with in procuring and conveying the +timber required was almost enough to daunt those responsible for the +work. + +On the central boss of the groining we see a half-length figure of +Christ in Glory, carved in oak, the right hand raised to bless, +considerably above life size. In the sacrist's accounts for the +building of the Lantern, under the date of 1340, occurs this item: +"Paid to John of Burwell, for carving the figure upon the principal +Key Vault, two shillings and his keep at the Prior's table." A good +two-shillings' worth, even if we multiply the sum by thirty to make it +equivalent to the present value of coin. + +The modern glass of the windows above these arches commemorates those +whose names are connected with Ely; eight personages in each window. +The south-east window gives us in its upper lights, St. Etheldreda as +Queen, with her father and her two husbands; below she appears again +as Abbess, with Bishop Wilfrid and the two sisters who followed her as +Abbesses, Sexburga and Ermenilda. In the north-east window is +represented her niece Werburga, who also became Abbess, and St. +Withburga; and, on a line with these ladies, St. Edmund and Archbishop +Dunstan; in the lower four lights stand Bishop Ethelwold, Earl +Brithnoth, Abbot Brithnoth, and King Edgar the Peaceful, the refounder +of the Abbey after the Danish desolation. The north-west window +depicts in the upper tier four kings of England, William the +Conqueror, Henry the First, Henry the Third, and Edward the Second. In +the row beneath stand Abbot Simeon, Hervey, the first Bishop of Ely, +Bishop Northwold, and Alan of Walsingham. In the four upper lights of +the south-west window are portrayed Queen Victoria in her Coronation +robes, Prince Albert arrayed as Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Edward +the Third and Queen Philippa; below come Bishop Turton and Dean +Peacock, who both contributed to the cost of this glass, and in a line +with them are Bishop Hotham and Prior Crauden. + +At the ends of the hood-mouldings of the diagonally placed arches of +the Octagon are carved eight heads. Edward the Third in his crown +gazes with kingly bearing across the archway at his Queen, Philippa, +who wears an expression of cheering benignity, well becoming a queen; +Bishop Hotham looks his part, and Prior Crauden has the countenance of +a saint and an enthusiast. On the north-western archway Alan of +Walsingham, clean shaven, and his master mason, with flowing locks, +face each other carved in the stone that they knew so well how to +manipulate. The seventh and eighth heads are grotesque. + +Slightly higher than these portrait heads, supporting canopied niches, +come the celebrated corbels on which are sculptured the leading events +of the life of St. Etheldreda in the following order: + + I. She appears at her second marriage, as a most reluctant bride, + forced into holding the bridegroom's hand. + + II. Having escaped from her husband, she takes the veil from St. + Wilfrid. + + III. Her pilgrim's staff bears foliage and fruit. + + IV. Seated on a rock, the tide protects her from her husband's + pursuit. + + V. She is enthroned as Abbess by St. Wilfrid. + + VI. Her death and burial. + + VII. A prisoner is miraculously released by her prayers. + + VIII. The first translation of her body. + +Just where the nave and the Octagon Tower join is a slab, which some +hold to cover the grave of Alan of Walsingham. A well-worn stone is +all we see, but we can trace on it a dimly embossed matrix, showing +that once it held a brass of rich workmanship, since torn away. +Whether this be his tomb or no, Alan has his monument here in the +structure we behold above and around us, bearing witness to his life, +which ended in 1364 when he had reached the age of seventy. On the +brass which once marked his resting-place we know that there was +engraved a lengthy epitaph in Latin verse, still extant, of which we +offer an abridged translation as follows: + + "These things of note are at Ely, the Lantern, and Chapel of Mary, + A windmill too, and a vineyard that yieldeth wine in abundance. + Know that the Choir before you exceedeth all others in beauty, + Made by Alan our brother, Alan the wise Master Builder; + He who of craftsmen the flower, was gifted with strength in his lifetime. + Alan the Prior, forget not, here facing the Choir lieth buried. + He, for that older Tower which fell one night in the darkness, + Here erected, well-founded, the Tower ye now are beholding. + Many the Houses of God that, as Prior and Sacrist, he builded. + May God grant him in Heaven a seat as the end of his labour." + +From this epitaph we may conclude that Alan of Walsingham had given +Ely both a windmill and a vineyard; of these no trace exists (though +we know that the mill stood on the summit of "Cherry Hill"); but "the +Lantern and Chapel of Mary" and the western bays of the Choir, as +built under him at Bishop Hotham's charge, remain for us to this day. + +From the Octagon we can view the transepts begun in 1083 by Abbot +Simeon. The columns and mouldings bear witness to the fact that these +eastern transepts are of earlier date than the nave. At the western +corner of the north transept we notice a doorway of classical design +inserted in 1699 by Sir Christopher Wren, to repair a fall which had +taken place there. Before leaving this transept let us enter the +Chapel of St. Edmund (one of two screened off chambers against the +eastern wall), and take note of the alabaster reredos, exquisite in +design and material, placed there in 1898 by Canon Stanton, in memory +of his father. + +[Illustration: _Cathedral Towers._] + +On this reredos Christ appears in glory, as the ascended High Priest +of His Church, interceding for His people. Beneath on the retable is +inscribed in Greek the words: "Able to save them to the uttermost that +come unto God by Him." The chapel is intended to be used for private +meditation and for services connected with missionary work. We leave +it with the sense that the highest message the minster has to give is +still remembered among us. + +From the Octagon we may pass into the Choir, where gates of brass open +through the richly carved screen of oak. This screen is a really +beautiful creation of the nineteenth century, while the tabernacled +oaken stalls within are mediæval, dating from 1337, and are yet more +beautiful, forming as they do part of Alan of Walsingham's great +restoration. For over four centuries these stalls stood where Alan +placed them, under the Octagon, separated from the nave by a massive +Norman screen of stone. About 1770 they were moved by the architect +Essex to the eastern end of the Choir. The stalls having been thus +removed, Essex saw no reason for preserving the Norman screen, so he +had it destroyed. Had the venerable structure still stretched across +the nave we should feel it purposeless, and it would undoubtedly have +been inconvenient: so we ought perhaps to admit that Essex really +conferred on the cathedral a boon by his drastic act on which a less +daring and more conservative architect would not have ventured. Still +we send a sigh of regret after the ancient work, that had stood +through so many centuries only to be pulled down as an encumbrance, +and carted away at last as rubbish. + +The stalls after their removal eastward were painted to look like +mahogany (!) in accordance with eighteenth century standards of beauty. +They were left in this far eastern position for about eighty years, when +they were shifted half-way back again, into their present place, under +the supervision of Sir Gilbert Scott, the architect employed to direct +the restoration then in progress. Their upper panels have been filled +with Bible scenes carved in high relief in wood; mostly the work of a +Flemish artist of the nineteenth century. On the south are scenes from +the Old Testament, on the north from the Gospels. They repay a careful +study, being beautiful and original in design. Twenty-five in number on +either side, arranged chronologically, they face each other, answering +in several instances as type and antitype; the Deluge corresponds with +the Baptism, Jacob's Deception of Isaac with the Betrayal; the Lifting +up of the Brazen Serpent with the Crucifixion, the Ascent of Elijah with +the Ascension. Whether this is intentional or accidental we leave to be +decided by those who, familiar with Bible incidents, are wishful to +exercise their ingenuity and their power of discernment, in discovering +further and less obvious correspondence. + +The stall seats are on hinges, and are known as "Miserere" (_i.e._ +mercy) seats. They were thus named from being so contrived that when +turned back they gave a merciful support to the monks, who could thus +sit after a fashion, instead of having to stand, during the lengthy +nocturnal services in which they were engaged; but if the occupant of +the stall abused this relief by permitting himself to be overcome with +sleep, he and his seat fell forward together with a crash, to his +great discomfiture. When turned back the quaint carvings usual under +such seats may be seen, the work of the fourteenth century carvers. +The subjects represented are strangely varied; scriptural, legendary, +grotesque, according to the taste and fancy of the carver, and no two +are alike. We find here Noah's Ark, a pelican feeding her young, a nun +at prayer, monkeys and dragons, a woman beating a fox for robbing her +hen-roost, a fox attired as a bishop, a monkey extracting a man's +tooth, a king and a monk fighting, St. Martin sharing his coat with a +beggar. The upper canopied work of these stalls is of delicate beauty, +little damaged by all it has undergone, whether of neglect or of +change, during the six centuries and a half of its existence. + +But while admiring these choir stalls, we are almost inclined to +grudge their presence, for they obstruct the view of the stone arches +against which they stand. We are still beholding the work of the great +Alan; after the tower fell he and his workmen built these three bays, +with the triforium and clerestory arches above; and we feel how +perfectly brain, heart, and hand must have worked together in harmony +to produce so exquisite a result. It was Bishop Hotham who provided +the funds for most of this work. + +Passing on up two steps beyond these three bays we come to arches +somewhat different; while we observe a corresponding change in the +character of the liern vaulting overhead. We are now in the presence +of Early English masonry, wrought a century before under Bishop +Northwold, and perhaps yet lovelier than the Decorated work which was +her daughter. Arch beyond arch, six in number, extends this +Presbytery, as it is called, ending in an east window of three lower +lancet lights, with an upper tier of five smaller lancets. The +Northwold Presbytery does not merge imperceptibly into Alan's Choir; +for the transition is marked on either hand by a semicircular shaft of +stone that soars aloft, the only remnant left to us of the eastern +limb of the original Norman church. These venerable piers therefore +deserve our special notice, though they might not attract it if we +were ignorant of their story. They themselves stand as raised by their +builders, but Bishop Northwold gave them new capitals of Purbeck +marble harmonising with the work he was erecting eastward. + +Next let us study the modern reredos or altar screen, all of white +stone and marble, having as its background the three lancet windows of +the east end, filled with not unworthy modern glass, against which it +stands out with grace and dignity; a space of thirty feet intervening. +The reredos consists of five spandrels surmounted by gables, and is +made of alabaster, lavishly gilt and bejewelled, inlaid with mosaic. +On the highest gable stands a figure representing Christ in Glory, His +hand held forth to bless His people. Immediately below comes the +Annunciation, carved in low relief in a trefoil-shaped medallion. +Below again is a statuette of our Lord, with Moses and Elijah on +either hand, and beneath these, under a canopy of alabaster, is the +Last Supper. In a line with this, still in the same high relief, is +sculptured our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, His washing of +the Disciples' feet, His agony in Gethsemane, His bearing of the +cross. Immediately over these Gospel scenes, under the shadow of a +marble canopy, we have the heads of the four great prophets, Isaiah, +Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, on one side, balanced on the other by the +four Latin doctors of the Church, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. +Augustine, St. Gregory. Within the four side spandrels are carved the +heads of Mary Magdalene, of Mary the mother of James, of St. John the +Evangelist, and St. John the Baptist; on the points of the gables +above are the four Evangelists, while between them, and flanking them, +stand on spiral pillarets delicate figures emblematical of faith, +hope, and charity, of justice, prudence, and fortitude--those graces +and virtues which made the saints here represented to be such. + +On the retable at the foot of the reredos, stand two massive +candlesticks of silver gilt. These were procured for the cathedral in +1660, on the restoration of the Chapter and the return of Bishop Wren +after his imprisonment of eighteen years. During the Commonwealth the +cathedral staff had dwindled down to one canon and one verger. It is +recorded that the first requisites purchased by the Chapter on being +reinstated were these very candlesticks--plus a wheelbarrow and a +broom. + +And now we shall do well to make an appreciable physical effort, in +order to get a view of two bosses of special interest in the vaulting +overhead. It is somewhat neck-racking work, and a glass is absolutely +necessary if we are to carry away any definite impression of the +sculptures in question. On one of these bosses the coronation of the +Virgin is carved most gracefully and reverently; on the other is St. +Etheldreda, crowned and gorgeously robed, seated with a crozier in her +right hand, as Abbess. Both are richly coloured, and have escaped, +through being inaccessible, the injury done to the other images in the +cathedral. For more than 600 years they have looked down on the tomb +of Bishop Northwold, the builder of this noble Presbytery, erected, we +must remember, to do honour to the shrine of the Foundress. + +This Presbytery of wondrous beauty, enriched by the best that could be +wrought by human hands, alike in the past and in our own days, may +well recall to us Keble's lines: + + "Love delights to bring her best, + And where Love is, that offering evermore is blest." + +The "Angel Choir" in Lincoln Cathedral, built at the same time, is so +nearly a twin with Bishop Northwold's Choir at Ely that to distinguish +the two, if their photographs are placed side by side, requires some +nicety of observation. Whether either was actually copied from the +other we do not know, for in those days the torch of architectural +inspiration quickly passed from hand to hand. This is the case in our +own time with regard to inventions due to the increase of scientific +knowledge; when no part of the civilised world remains long behind the +rest, if light, locomotion, or medicine is concerned. Age after age +man sets himself to make his own the best that can be obtained, and to +say for himself, no less than for the world at large + + "Let Knowledge grow from more to more." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + Monuments.--West's Chapel.--Alcock's Chapel.--Northwold + Cenotaph.--Basevi.--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. + + +The monuments within the Ambulatory may now claim our attention. +Starting at the southern entrance, let us look first at a canopy of +coloured stone, the tomb of De Luda, Bishop of Ely from 1290 to 1298. +The builder of Ely Chapel,[226] Holborn, he was eminent for learning, +and was keen to enrich the See; as a man of note he was sent by Edward +the First to France to settle terms of peace. Here we can study the +details of Decorated work at its best. Close at hand is Bishop +Barnett's tomb of grey marble, of a date somewhat later, robbed of the +effigy in brass which was once part of it. Next we come to the +cenotaph of Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, who lived during the Wars of +the Roses. He had travelled to Jerusalem, and had made his home in +Italy, and was known as "The Pilgrim Scholar." A pioneer of Greek, +then reviving in the schools of Western Europe as the result of the +fall of Constantinople, he was also a patron of Caxton and his novel +printing press. Under Edward the Fourth he tried his hand at governing +Ireland, where his cruelty toward the Lancastrians gained for him the +name of "the Butcher." He was beheaded in 1470, and appears here in +marble lying between his two wives. Next note Bishop Hotham's tomb, of +the Decorated period. His name is familiar to us as having promoted by +every means in his power the work carried out by Alan of Walsingham. + +[Footnote 226: See p. 322.] + +So far the tombs we have noticed have stood in a line under three +arches of the Presbytery, as the eastern part of the Choir is called: +we now turn to the south aisle to look at that of Peter Gunning, +Bishop of Ely under Charles the Second, who wrote (as we mentioned +before) the prayer to which we owe the phrase "All sorts and +conditions of men." The mitred bishop rests his head on one hand, in +an attitude somewhat ungainly, and his monument is of little artistic +merit. But the resolute, delicately-cut features deserve our study, +and the epitaph is of interest as recording how he had vindicated the +Church of England in the presence of Cromwell himself. Let us pause a +few steps further east to look at the calm face of Canon Selwyn, a +nineteenth century lover of the cathedral; and then, as we pass the +tomb of Bishop Eustace, who built the western porch, let us go back in +thought to the far-off troublous days of King John. + +From the Retro-choir we enter Bishop West's chapel, rich with the +ornament of Perpendicular architecture at its highest pitch of +elaboration. Nicholas West was Bishop of Ely under Henry the Eighth, +from 1515 to 1533; and little did he foresee that the sanctuary he was +adorning with the devotion of a lover who offers of his best would be +despoiled and defaced by his own immediate successor in the See. + +He was no novice as an architect when he came to Ely; for while Dean +of Windsor he had completed the vaulting of St. George's Chapel. This +chantry abounds in work characteristic of the Renaissance, extremely +rare in England. Again and again, always with arabesque ornament that +recalls the designs of Raphael in the Loggie of the Vatican, is +reproduced the bishop's favourite motto, _Gratia Dei sum quod sum_ +("By the grace of God I am what I am"), alluding, it may be, to his +own humble parentage; for, born the son of a baker in Putney, he rose +to be Bishop of Ely, and to live "in the greatest splendour of any +prelate of his time"; he kept a hundred servants; nor did he forget +the poor, feeding two hundred of them daily at his gate; or it may be +that the motto refers to his having in early life brought upon himself +disgrace by his violent temper. He had been turned from these evil +ways to become the friend and ally of the two saintliest men in +England--Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher. + +Besides embellishing this chapel with this motto, he adorned it +further with exquisite statuary. Here delicate canopies, upwards of +two hundred in number, still overhang corresponding pedestals, on +which there stood once, for a few short years, statuettes of +workmanship equally delicate; but of these nothing is left beyond a +few traces of their feet, which being carved out of the solid stone +did not give way when the tiny statue of which they formed a part was +broken off by the mandate of Bishop Goodrich. When the quarrel arose +between Henry the Eighth and the Pope as to his repudiating Catharine +of Aragon, Bishop West was true throughout to the cause of the injured +Queen; but he died in 1533, just before the bursting of the storm in +which his friends, More and Fisher, laid down their lives, and was +buried in the chapel that bears his name. + +Here, too, lie the bones of the great Earl Brithnoth, who, as we +remember, was brought back hither headless, from the battle of Maldon, +by the monks of Ely to be buried amongst them according to their +promise. We connect this warrior's character with the dying words +attributed to him in Anglo-Saxon poetry, "God, I thank Thee for all +the joy that I have had of Thee in life."[227] Other Anglo-Saxon +worthies of the ninth and tenth centuries rest also in this chapel: an +Archbishop of York, a Swedish Bishop, and several Bishops of Elmham, +in Suffolk, and Dorchester, in Oxfordshire--Sees which were in later +years transferred to Norwich and Lincoln respectively. It is held that +these were retired prelates, who had come to end their days at Ely; +where they were welcome guests, as they were licensed by the Diocesan +to perform the often-needed episcopal functions of the Abbey, without +calling in the distant and over-busied Bishop of Dorchester, to whose +See Ely belonged. This was a convenience both to the Brotherhood and +to the Diocesan himself. The names of Earl Brithnoth and of these +contemporaries are inscribed on tablets let into the wall of this +chantry. + +[Footnote 227: See p. 312] + +Touching it on the northern side, behind the screen of the High Altar, +we see a fine tomb, Perpendicular in style, where lies buried the +Cardinal de Luxembourg, a foreign prelate presented to the See of Ely +in 1438 by King Henry the Sixth, but never (it seems) canonically +confirmed as Bishop. In order to gain space for his chapel, Bishop +West did not scruple to take a slice off the tabernacled work of +unrivalled beauty that adorned this adjoining tomb, but the northern +side he left in its perfection. Notice, too, close at hand, a bronze +monument to Dr. Mills, professor of Hebrew, who died about the middle +of the nineteenth century. The recumbent figure is of great beauty. + +Next we come to Bishop Alcock's chapel, occupying the northern corner +of the ambulatory, as Bishop West's does the southern. It was built, a +generation earlier, by Bishop Alcock only a few years after his +reconstitution of St. Radegund's Priory at Cambridge as Jesus College, +recorded in our sixth chapter, and is marked as his by the frequent +recurrence of his "canting" armorial bearings, a shield and crest _all +cocks_, or, rather, black cocks' heads. He was a great builder, a +great worker, and, like many another ecclesiastic of his day, a great +politician, being Lord President of Wales, and Comptroller of the +Royal Works to Henry the Seventh; yet withal he was a man of marked +sanctity. His chapel is rich in Perpendicular ornament. A wreath of +grapes and vine-leaves in stone runs round it in all directions, as if +verily clambering. The undercutting of this wreath is wondrous, but +perhaps the marvel of it culminates in a pendant boss of vine-leaves +on the northern side so deeply wrought that we can see right through +it, yet perfect to-day as when first carved. + +The masons who worked here liked their joke; and one of them made a +boss of foliage, graceful enough when seen from above,--but stoop down +to look at it from below, and behold a grinning imp. This stonework +was chiselled _in situ_, the rough blocks were placed where they were +to stay, and there they were cut into the shape required, several +being even yet unfinished. Canopied niches abound here, but of the +statuary that once filled them one figure alone has escaped +destruction, and still indicates how beautiful its companions must +have been. To Bishop Alcock Jesus College, Cambridge, owes its +existence, and Peterhouse many benefactions; and here is his tomb. In +1900 Bishop Alwyne Compton filled the window of this chapel with +stained glass, depicting four of his most noted predecessors. + +Leaving this chantry behind we see on our right, under his own Early +English bays, the monument to our old friend, Hugh de Northwold, who +lies buried not in this spot but in the middle of his presbytery. +Before he became Bishop of Ely he had been Abbot of Bury St. +Edmund's, for which place he ever retained a warm affection. His feet +touch a block of marble, on which is sculptured the martyrdom of St. +Edmund, whom we see tied to a tree and shot to death by Danish arrows, +while his beheading is also represented. Here, too, is a wolf guarding +the Saint's head, according to the legend. The story ran that, after +the Saint's martyrdom and decapitation, his surviving subjects, to +whom his "universal graciousness which yet suffered no unbecoming +familiarity" had deeply endeared him, sought, so soon as the Danes had +marched away, to take up his remains for fitting burial. The body they +soon found, but the head had been cast into a thicket, and was not +discovered till the searchers heard a voice crying, "Here! Here! +Here!" which guided them to the spot where it lay. A huge wolf was +standing, as it were, on guard over the sacred relic, but did not +offer to attack the finders, who, on their part, suffered it to remain +unhurt. The faithful beast followed them like a dog till it saw the +head laid together with the body, and then quietly departed into the +forest, no man doing aught against it. + +Close at hand, leaning against the northern wall of the aisle, is a +detached fragment of stonework, once the arm of Northwold's abbatial +chair which he brought with him from Bury St. Edmund's. This, too, is +made in the form of a beast of prey (somewhat distantly resembling a +wolf), holding between its paws a human head. The Abbey of Bury St. +Edmund's, it may be mentioned, was, in some sort, a daughter House of +Ely. When King Edgar, "the Peacemaker," founded that monastery in +honour of the Royal Martyr he populated it, in the first instance, by +drafting forty monks from Etheldreda's earlier royal foundation. + +We will next look at the impressive monument of William of Kilkenny, +Bishop of Ely for three years under Henry the Third. He gave great +offence through being consecrated bishop by the Archbishop of +Canterbury in Italy, instead of in England, where it was felt that +both prelates ought to have been attending to their duties at home; +he, moreover, died abroad on a journey to Spain, whither he was going +on the King's business. A traveller and statesman, he was also a +generous promoter of education, as is shown by his founding +scholarships at Barnwell Priory. A recumbent figure holding a crozier, +he rests on a pillow as if asleep. + +Next we reach the tomb of Bishop Redman, who held the See for a very +short time in the opening years of the sixteenth century. The tomb is +of fine Perpendicular work, and the Bishop lies under a canopy rich in +armorial bearings; but the figure is strangely truncated at the foot, +which derogates not a little from its beauty. + +Retracing our steps for a few yards, we find beneath our feet a brass +which records one of the tragedies that the Minster has witnessed; +here lies buried Basevi, the gifted architect of the Fitzwilliam +Museum at Cambridge, who met with his death in 1845 while accompanying +Dean Peacock over the work of repair going on in the western tower. +The Dean had just a moment before given the architect a caution to +take care how he walked. Basevi, familiar with scaffolding, smiled at +the advice, and going on with his hands in his pockets, came to a hole +he had not perceived, and fell through in a way that would have been +well-nigh impossible had his hands been free; his feet struck the +pavement below with a jar so intense that death was almost +instantaneous. + +And now we end our tour round these sepulchres and monuments by +contemplating all that remains of what was once the rallying centre +for those countless pilgrims who travelled hither in search of +spiritual and physical benefit--the shrine of St. Etheldreda. It was +once enriched with gems and costly hangings. It has been told how +Queen Emma, in 1016, gave it a "purple cloth worked with gold and set +with jewels."[228] Sixty years later the shrine is described as "made +in part of silver, as adorned with pearls, emeralds, onyxes, +alamandine stones, embossed with images in relief, among which were +two lions carved in crystal, also four figures of angels carved in +ivory." Such it was made by Theodwin, who was Abbot for three years +under William the Conqueror, and such he left it. After another sixty +years it was robbed by Bishop Nigel, who took away much of its gold +and silver and used it for his own purposes. + +[Footnote 228: See p. 314.] + +But if it was despoiled in one century it was enriched in the next. +From 1252 it stood behind the High Altar in Bishop Northwold's +Presbytery, erected purposely for its reception; with the figure of +the Foundress of the Abbey gazing down upon it from the central boss +of the vaulting overhead. The shrine was thus held in honour till the +reign of Henry the Eighth; when the Royal greed swooped down upon it, +the dust of Etheldreda was thrown we know not where (though the chapel +in Holborn bearing her name, and the church of the Dominicans at Stone +in Staffordshire claim to possess relics of her hand), her coffin was +broken up and destroyed, the treasures that adorned her shrine were +dispersed. Love of loot was the great motive for this spoliation; +hatred of abuses, some real, some imaginary, was the hypocritical +excuse. Whatever may have been the pretext for its demolition, the +shrine was robbed and left empty. + +The existing monument is a vaulted canopy of the fourteenth century, +and is held to be due to Alan of Walsingham. Much of the ancient +colouring survives on its northern side, but the southern has been +completely refaced with new stone-work. Let no one leave without +stooping down to pass beneath it, where it is easy to stand upright. +It was here that pilgrims congregated, happy in the sense that they +were in close proximity to the bones of the sainted Abbess. Here once +was sheltered the sarcophagus of marble that held the body of the +Foundress of the Abbey. Sturdy blows must have been needed to +annihilate it; but destroyed it was, and no tradition gives any record +of its fate, nor has any remnant of it ever been recovered. Stripped +as we see the shrine, now set aside in the northern aisle of the +presbytery, it seems left to prove that dignity may linger on for +ages, long after the word has been spoken "Thy glory is departed." + +Before leaving the cathedral we must pass into the Lady Chapel +adjoining the north-eastern transept, connected with it by a passage. +We have already told when and by whom it was built, and when and by +whom it was desecrated. At the Reformation it was rededicated to the +Holy Trinity, and became a parish church, replacing the church of St. +Cross, which once stood close to the cathedral, but was pulled down +during the sixteenth century. Our visit must have its painful side, as +we remember how one form of faith built this chapel and another +defaced it. We could envy those who saw it fresh from the hand of +gifted sculptors and masons, its windows, now so bare, all aglow with +colour of a richness to which the few poor fragments that remain bear +eloquent testimony. + +This chapel measures a hundred feet in length and is about half that +width, the roof is of a single span, with no pillars to support it. +Around it runs a stone bench, divided up by canopied niches still +bearing traces of the old colouring--red, blue, green and gold. The +canopied work over these niches is in almost perfect preservation, +rich and free in design, but the statuary which once abounded under +and above it has been ruthlessly and deliberately broken. Only one +head half hidden by sculptured foliage escaped the iconoclasts as they +went round the hallowed walls to "break down all the carved work +thereof with axes and hammers." + +We look up and see some relics of stained glass, accidentally spared +when the rest was smashed, in colour most harmonious, the greens and +reds incomparably mellow in tone; while certain small outlined figures +strangely traversing it, stiff yet vigorous, recall the painting on +Egyptian monuments. A few square feet of this precious glass, a +multitude of headless yet graceful statuettes canopied by unblemished +stone-work, are still left to show us how beautiful the whole must +have been when in its glory. We leave with a sigh the chapel, designed +by Alan of Walsingham, and built by his faithful subsacrist John of +Wisbech. + +Those who desire it can, before they quit the Minster, climb to the +top of the western tower, and if the day is clear they will be well +rewarded by a superb view over the "boundless plain" below; towns and +hamlets, steeples and spires, spread there beneath us, nor must we +forget the railways, with their kindly evidence of modern life at its +fullest. To the east the horizon is bounded by those East Anglian +uplands which nurtured Etheldreda for her great work here. But, beyond +almost any other, this is essentially a man-made landscape; its +salient features are not hills, but buildings, not rivers but lodes. +Peterborough, the sister Abbey-Cathedral, is in view twenty miles away +to the north-west, and many a church of note and beauty is prominent +within nearer range, including the towers and spires of Cambridge +fifteen miles to the south. The very cornfields and pastures beneath +us have been reclaimed from the marsh by man; while, far on the +north-east, is "Denvers Sluice" protecting the rich fenland from +inundation. The view from the top of the tower is well worth a climb, +if we have time and strength for the venture. + +Those who wish to be acquainted with the structural secrets of the +cathedral should make an effort to gain admittance to one of the +spiral staircases to the upper passages that lead from triforium to +triforium, from clerestory to clerestory. In these higher regions we +shall still come upon deeply wrought crocketing, such as that in the +upper eastern lancet windows--crocketing seen only by the stray +visitor, yet worked with ungrudged labour and skill. Here we may step +along the plank that takes us from beam to beam for a hundred feet +over the vaulting of the Choir, through the spacious chamber that +separates this vaulting from the outer roof. On every beam stands a +pail of water ready in case of fire. + +Through a low doorway at the end we pass to the circle of the lantern. +Here a shutter-like panel can be opened and we can look downwards if +we will, but we shall probably elect rather to spend these rare +minutes in gazing upwards, on the figure of Christ in the key boss of +the vaulting, now that for once in our lives we find ourselves near +enough to John of Burwell's carving to see how bold and yet how +reverent it is.[229] + +[Footnote 229: See p. 358.] + +One question forces itself upon us, how was it placed here? How was +Mr. Gambier Parry able to paint the glowing angels on these panels? We +see in imagination the scaffolding, the ropes, the pulleys, that have +been in use here, where now all is calm and rest, and we feel that +William Watson might have had this very scene before him when he wrote +the lines: + + "No record Art keeps + Of her travails and woes: + There is toil on the steeps, + On the summit repose." + +The tourist has one further duty to perform; for he must not leave Ely +without walking round the cathedral outside. He will then be perplexed +by the anachronisms before him; he will see Perpendicular windows +inserted in Norman aisles, Decorated tracery in Early English masonry; +he will observe this from without more plainly than from within, and +he will realise how the monks who designed and built it all had a firm +belief in themselves, and in their own age, so that they did not +shrink from what we should now count as acts of Vandalism. They no +more hesitated to displace the work of their forefathers by their own, +than we hesitate to light our houses and churches with electricity, +instead of being content with the gas that was good enough for our +grandparents. + +As we turn to the north, on leaving the cathedral by the western door, +we shall be puzzled by the strange appearance of the steeple on its +northern side. For Ely Minster, we cannot deny it, is lop-sided; it +has no north-western transept to correspond with the south-western. On +the north side of the tower there is masonry proving that once it had +the support of such a transept; but there is no record of its fall or +demolition, so we are left to surmise that perchance it shared the +fate of the adjoining church of St. Cross, described as a "lean-to," +dark and "uncomley, very unholdsome for want of thorrowe ayre" which +we know to have been pulled down during the reign of Elizabeth. + +We must now go eastward, and, keeping close to the cathedral as we +follow the path that surrounds it, we shall be able to drink in the +view, described earlier, of the Minster as seen from the east. From +this point we can grasp it all, and we can feel ourselves in close +touch with the builders of yore, with Simeon, and Richard, and Hugh, +and Alan, and John; for the work of each is here before our eyes at +once. They now rest from their labours, leaving them as a priceless +legacy to benefit ourselves and others. Look at Richard's transepts +resting on old Simeon's foundations; look at Hugh's lancet windows, at +Alan's incomparable lantern, at the Lady Chapel which John was able to +build through his finding of that brazen urn. The space that lies +between us and these men of mark seems bridged by a span as we +contemplate their work and try to understand it. + +As we complete our circuit of the East end, and stand at that of the +south transept, we shall be struck with a conspicuous range of ruined +arches built into the Canons' residences to the south-east. These are +the remains of the Infirmary; which we have seen to play such an +important part in the life of the Abbey. It had its own chapel, hall +and kitchen, and stood on the site of the original Saxon church. The +space between it and the Minster was called the Slype, and served as a +kind of market, whither travelling merchants brought their wares for +the inspection of the Prior, Sacrist, and other chief officers of the +Abbey. These officers, we may mention, did not share the common life +of the monks, but had houses of their own, fragments of which still +dot the "College,"--mostly, like the Infirmary, now built into the +residences of the various Canons. + +Not a stone's throw from the Galilee Porch, just across the street +towards the west, stands the episcopal palace. At one time this palace +was actually connected with the cathedral by a covered gallery +crossing the street. We can see from an old print how seriously this +erection must have blocked the traffic, and on this account it was +finally removed; yet its name adheres to the thoroughfare over which +it once passed, and which is still called "the Gallery." The Bishop of +Ely is fortunate in having his house close to his cathedral, unlike +too many of the episcopal residences, which are at an inconvenient +distance from the central city of the See. Moreover, his palace is of +reasonable size; not too large nor yet too small for the hospitality +to which a bishop must be given if he is to live up to the Scriptural +standard; and it has another great practical advantage in being near +to a station where several lines converge, and where all trains stop. + +The Palace was built in the main by Bishop Alcock toward the end of +the fifteenth century. It is of chequered red brick with stone +facings; his own arms, three heads of the barn-door cock, and the arms +of the See, three crowns, are worked in stone on the face of the front +wing looking north; there project, moreover, three niches (now empty) +with the canopies he loved so well. Thirty years later Bishop Goodrich +(who robbed these niches of their statuary) added the western gallery, +a hundred feet long, with its beautiful oriel window, on whose outer +panels he caused to be engraved his original version of our Duty +toward God and our neighbour, which we may still read for ourselves if +we can contrive to see through certain bushes that hide it. These +inscriptions are on two slabs of freestone beneath the two side-lights +of the oriel window in the gallery of the palace. Unhappily they are +rapidly perishing under the action of the weather, and will soon be +altogether lost. This is unfortunate, as they are of no small +interest, representing, as it would seem, Goodrich's original draft +for the "Duties," which were afterwards expanded into the form so +familiar to us in the Catechism. Nor does any one seem to have been +at the pains to record them verbatim while they remained legible; so +that now many conjectural words have to be supplied, by considering +the number of letters in the spaces worn away. In the following +reproduction these conjectural words are placed within brackets and +italicised. The duty towards God, which is on the eastern side, is in +Roman capitals, and probably had eleven lines, the first three of +which are wholly gone. It runs thus:-- + + [_The . duty . toward . god . is . to . + believe . in . him . to . love . him . + with . all . our . hert . & . soul . + and_] . all . our . power . to . wors + hippe . god . to . give . him . tha + nkes . to . put . our . whole . trust + in . him . and . to . cal . on . him . to + honoure . his . holy . name [_and + his_] . worde . and . to . serve . god + [_truly_] . all . the . days . of . our + lyfe. + +The duty towards our neighbour, on the western side, is in Old English +letters, in fourteen lines, as follows:-- + + The . duety . [_towards . our . neigh_]boure . is + to . love . him . a[_s . we . do . ourself . an_]d . to + do . to . all . men . as . I . wo[_uld . they . do ._ ]to . me + to . honour . and . obay . [_the . King . and . all . set_] under . him ? ? ? + beme ? ? [_and . to . order . ourselves_] + lowly . to . all . [_our . betters_] . to . hurt . no + body . by . word . nor . d[_eed . to . be . jus_]te . in . all + our . delyng . to . bear . no . [_malice_] . in . our . hert + to . kep . our . handes . from . stelyng . & . our + tong . from . evil . speaking . to . kep . our . bo + dys . in . temperance . not . to . covet . other . mens . + goods . but . laboure . truly . for . our . lyvyng . in . y^e + state . of . lyfe . it . plese . God . to . call . us . on . to . + +Of the many residences once belonging to the See, this palace is all +that is left. In looking back, we must remember that in days when +travelling was difficult it may have been of real advantage to the +Bishop to have places of abode dotted all over his diocese, where he +could stay, and where he could exercise his episcopal functions. We +read, for instance, how, in 1487 and the following year, Bishop Alcock +admitted between forty and fifty persons to minor or higher orders in +his chapel at Downham Manor. + +[Illustration: _St. Mary's Church._] + +Beyond the Palace stands St. Mary's Church, built by Bishop Eustace +about 1200, while Norman architecture was developing into Early +English. It has been remarked that "its architect was disposed to +adopt the new style without quitting the old one." The columns of the +nave are simple Norman; the chancel and chapel on the south are +distinctly Early English; the tower and spire are of Decorated work; +and we meet with inserted Perpendicular windows. In the midst of a +well-kept churchyard may be seen a broken and ancient font, with an +inscription embossed in lead stating that it has been so placed that +it may receive only the water of heaven. + +The citizens of Ely throughout the Middle Ages were well provided with +churches, having for their devotions both St. Mary's and also St. +Cross, of which we have spoken before. The name St. Cross has an +interesting history. When first the abbey was built, there stood +against the stone rood-screen thrown across the nave an altar known as +the Altar of the Holy Cross; here the inhabitants of the city were +invited to worship, while the monks said their office quite apart +within the screen. But, as time went on, the monks found that this +twofold worship was not convenient, and, wishing to have the Abbey to +themselves, they built, immediately outside it on the north, a church +for their lay neighbours, "for doing such things as should be done in +a parish church," and named it St. Cross, after the altar within the +Minster which was thus superseded. With the dispersion of the monks +the nave came again into public use, and the church of St. Cross was +permitted to decay, and was finally removed. + +Adjoining the churchyard of St. Mary's stands the vicarage. It is a +rambling house of moderate size, quaintly made of rough hewn beams +with reed-stiffened clay in between, and opening on to the street. +This house has a notable history. It was first built as a tithe house, +and was within the same ring-fence as the great barn or granary for +the storing of the tithe sheaves belonging to the monastery. In this +house lived the farmer of the tithes, who bore the title of Steward, +and collected tithe, first for the monks, later for the Dean and +Chapter of Ely; and as this office became hereditary the name of +Steward was taken as a family surname. The last of these Stewards was +Sir Thomas, who died in 1636, leaving no son to succeed him; but his +daughter Elizabeth was the mother of Oliver Cromwell, and Oliver by a +very natural arrangement stepped into his grandfather's office. He +accordingly left his home at St. Ives, sixteen miles distant, bringing +his wife, his mother, and several children, to live in the tithe house +at Ely; the older lady thus returning to the home of her childhood. + +[Illustration: _The Cathedral from the West Fen Road._] + +For ten years the Cromwell family occupied this very house, which +still remains pretty much what it was in their time. Here two children +were born, and one died. Mrs. Cromwell was an excellent housewife, +being we are told "as capable of descending to the kitchen with +propriety as she was of acting in her exalted position with dignity." +To Cromwell's duties as tithe farmer were added, in the course of +time, those of Governor of the Isle of Ely. On St. Mary's Green, in +front of this house, he used to drill and instruct the levies of his +newly-formed "Eastern Counties' Association," which by and by +developed into his formidable "Ironsides." The result of his drilling +speaks for itself in the history of the Civil War; of his precepts, +one at least, commonly attributed to him, was good, "Say your prayers, +and keep your powder dry." + +The same house served as the residence of the tithe farmers till the +passing of the Tithe Commutation Acts, when, after the death of the +last of the officials in 1840, the Dean and Chapter sold it. Only in +1905 was it purchased by the Vicar of St. Mary's, to become the +vicarage of his church; appropriate in every way from size and +position and association for this purpose. The Tithe Barn was a +massive structure of stone thatched with reeds, but no trace of it is +left; for it was pulled down about the middle of the nineteenth +century, when tithe having ceased to be paid in kind[230] it no longer +served any useful purpose; and on its site were built the almshouses +and national schools, now to be seen quite close to the vicarage. + +[Footnote 230: Within living memory the tithe paid to the parson or +other tithe owner, was actually the tenth sheaf in every row +throughout the harvest field. The corn might not be carried till the +owner's agent had "docked" these sheaves, (_i.e._ marked each by +crowning it with a dock leaf). He might begin his count with any one +of the first ten, for obvious reasons. The docked sheaves were +conveyed to the tithe barn either before or after the carrying of the +others.] + +Cromwell was no friend to the cathedral services, nor did his +residence near at hand tend to make him love them. He at the tithe +house, and Bishop Wren at the Palace, must have lived in avowed +antagonism; but they ceased to be neighbours in 1642, when the Bishop +was sent to the Tower by warrant of Parliament for his persistent +effort to restore reverent ceremonial in public worship. The services +in the Minster were conducted at this time by Canon Hitch, Vicar of +Holy Trinity, to whom Cromwell wrote as follows from his house hard +by: + + Ely _10th January 1643_. + + MR. HITCH, + + Lest the soldiers should in any tumultuary or disorderly way + attempt the Reformation of the Cathedral Church, I require you to + forbear altogether your Choir Service, so unedifying and + offensive:--and this as you shall answer for it if any disorder + should arise thereupon. I advise you to catechise, and read and + expound the Scriptures to the people; not doubting but the + Parliament with the advice of the Assembly of Divines will direct + you further. I desire your sermons too where they usually have + been, but more frequent. + + Your loving friend, + OLIVER CROMWELL. + +Canon Hitch took no notice of this letter, and the "Choir Service" +went on as before; wherefore Cromwell, sword in hand, his hat on his +head, attended by a party of soldiers, went to the cathedral at the +time of Divine Service, and spoke aloud these words: "I am a man under +authority, having soldiers under me, and am commanded to dismiss this +assembly." Canon Hitch, who was conducting the Service at the +Communion Table, paid no attention, and went on without stopping; +whereupon Cromwell, followed by soldiers and rabble, went up to the +clergyman, laid his hand on his sword, and, bidding him "leave off his +fooling and come down," drove the congregation out of the cathedral. + +Five years after this scene took place, an order was made by the House +of Commons to the effect "that the Cathedral Church in the Isle of +Ely, being in a ruinous condition, should be examined with a view to +its being pulled down and its material used to make provision for sick +and maimed soldiers and their families." Providentially this order was +not carried into effect, Cromwell's own influence being presumably +used against it. + +If we continue our walk for a few minutes further westward along the +street, we come to a quaint and picturesque building now known as St. +John's Farm. It was built by Bishop Northwold, in order to unite the +two Hostels of St. John the Baptist and St. Mary Magdalene. These +Hostels had been founded for the use of monks who, though residing in +Ely, wished to be independent of the greater monastery; Bishop +Northwold put an end to this undesirable state of things by erecting +one Hostel for the use of the two communities, and placing it under +the direct supervision of the Sacrist of Ely. The Hostel is now an +unpretending homestead, much rebuilt, yet retaining bits of thirteenth +century work still untouched and therefore of interest. + +Those who approach Ely from the south must notice two prominent +buildings standing quite apart from the cathedral. One is the +Theological College, a structure of red brick well placed on rising +ground, where twenty students can reside while preparing to take Holy +Orders in the Church of England; it was founded by Bishop Woodford, +who filled the See for twelve years from 1873. The College has its own +private chapel for daily use, but by its constitution the students are +bound to attend many services in the cathedral; the founder having +insisted on this proviso as tending to maintain the link between the +new foundation and the ancient Minster, a link which he foresaw might +otherwise dwindle away. As a rule students have one year of special +training and study; and during this time they take part in the +parochial work of the cathedral city. + +[Illustration: _St. John's Farm._] + +The other conspicuous building is a round castellated structure that +might well pass for a Norman keep, but is, in fact, the water tower of +Ely, supporting a huge tank into which water is forced from springs at +Isleham some seven miles distant.[231] The inhabitants of the city +have good reason to be thankful for this water supply; not a hundred +years ago the natural springs on the spot were so inadequate for their +use that most of the water for brewing and washing had to be brought +up from the river, slung in a pair of leather bags on horseback, an +arrangement manifestly inconvenient, "though providing," as the +historian adds, "a comfortable subsistence for many industrious poor." +Let us hope that these poor folk did not bear a grudge against Dean +Peacock, to whose zeal the waterworks of Ely are mainly due. + +[Footnote 231: See p. 183.] + +One of the chief industries of Ely is the making of jam, for which the +rich fruit-growing fields in the neighbourhood supply the material. +And if we follow the main street down to the wharf on the river Ouse +we shall see in the piles of willow wands that lie ready stripped on +its banks, evidence of a much older industry still carried on here. +This is the basket-making, for the which the fenland districts of +Britain were famed even before the Romans reached the country. +Posidonius, the Rhodian geographer under whom Cicero studied, and who +himself visited our island about 100 B.C., mentions "British baskets" +as exported for use on the Continent. A century later Strabo tells us +of their extensive home use, for storing corn, and Martial, in the +next generation, gives us the very word, which was adopted into the +Latin from the Celtic original (still used in Welsh), as it has since +been adopted into English. In sending a present to a lady he alludes +to it as: + + "A basket rude, from painted Britons come." + ("Barbara de pictis venio _bascauda_ Britannis.") + +The withies of which the baskets are made were at first, doubtless, +the shoots of the willows found growing wild along the streams. Now +they are cut from carefully tended osier-beds, small enclosed areas +which are periodically flooded, where the willows are regularly +cultivated with a view to the production of long shoots suitable for +this industry. "They are regularly cut, peeled, and seasoned and +afford employment to large numbers of people."[232] Nor is the making +of baskets the only purpose for which willows may be profitably +cultivated; for, as Fuller says:--"This tree delighteth in moist +places and is triumphant in the Isle of Ely, where the roots +strengthen the banks and the lop affords fuel for the fire. It groweth +incredibly fast; it being a by-word in this county that the profit by +willows will buy the owner a horse before other trees will pay for his +saddle." + +[Footnote 232: Hughes. _County Geography of Cambs_, p. 98.] + +Having thus come to know something of Ely Minster, we shall feel the +greater interest in all our further explorations through those +highways and byways of the surrounding district over which she +presides with the air of a Mother, and a Queen. + +[Illustration: _Willow Walk._] + + + + +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. + + +The vast Fenland district of which the Isle of Ely is the core +consisted, until the fens were drained, of an archipelago of scattered +islets rising out of a morass, through which the rivers from the +uplands around stagnated in a complex system of waterways, constantly +changing, as one branch or another got silted up and the streams had +to make themselves new channels. + +The foreshore of the uplands may still be traced on a contour map, and +is seen to be deeply indented, with bays running in from the fen and +capes running out into it. The southernmost point of the morass was at +Fen Ditton on the Cam, two miles below Cambridge. Its western boundary +went by, Waterbeach, Cottenham, and Willingham, to Earith; thence +through Huntingdonshire to Ramsey and Peterborough; thence, by +Deeping, Holbeach, and Spalding, to the Witham, a few miles below +Lincoln. Throughout all this length ran a Roman earthwork, the Car +Dyke, still existing at many points, evidently thrown up by these +mighty civilisers to keep the floods in check. A like Roman +embankment, of much larger dimensions, is to be seen on either shore +of the great estuary which of old brought the sea-shore as far south +as Wisbech. The eastern boundary of the Fenland needs no such defence, +as on this side the higher ground sinks much more abruptly to the fen +level. It passes from Fen Ditton by Horningsea, Bottisham, Swaffham, +and Reach to Burwell. Here a peninsula projects to Soham, followed by +a deep inlet to Isleham and Mildenhall. Then it runs north and west to +Downham, in Norfolk, and thence due north to the sea by Lynn. + +We must not, however, suppose that the whole of this immense tract was +always morass. Oscillations in the land level have more than once +raised it high enough and long enough for great forests to clothe it; +the trees of which, frequently of giant size, are constantly exhumed +from the peat which the later depressions have formed over them.[233] +The last of these forests seems to have lingered on into Roman times. +A Roman roadway may still be traced, running east and west across the +whole breadth of the district, from Denver, at the south-western point +of the Norfolk uplands, to Stanground, near Peterborough, on the +Huntingdonshire mainland. The Fens must have been very different from +what they afterwards became for such a road to be in use. But before +the collapse of Roman Britain in the fifth century of our era all +seems to have gone to fen once more; and the islets in it served as a +refuge for the remnant of the British population when the flood of the +Anglo-Saxon Conquest burst over the land.[234] + +[Footnote 233: See p. 196.] + +[Footnote 234: See p. 168.] + +These islets number some thirty and more, and vary considerably in +size. Far the largest is that on which Ely stands, the southern part +of which has been spoken of in Chapter XII. At its extreme northern +point, on a subsidiary islet of its own, is the large village of +Littleport, chiefly memorable as having been the focus of a most +serious agrarian outbreak, which in the year 1816 convulsed the +district. Widespread agricultural distress marked the first decades of +the nineteenth century. The wholesale enclosure of the common fields +and the waste lands brought with it no small suffering to the +peasantry; who everywhere lost, by the Enclosure Acts, the advantages +which the waste lands had afforded them, receiving in exchange a +scanty portion of "town land" in each parish, the rent of which is +applied to local charities. And in many instances the policy of the +Government placed these "town lands" in the least accessible corner of +the parish; for the express purpose of preventing labourers from +acquiring allotments in them and thus becoming less dependent on their +wages. The draining of the fens, moreover, which was then in full +progress, by exterminating the old abundance of fish and wildfowl +deprived the marsh-men at once of their chief recreation and their +most savoury food. Wages were only nine shillings a week, while wheat +was no less than five guineas a quarter. These grievances actually +drove the peasantry to arms, not without countenance from sympathisers +of a superior class, who felt that the demand of the rioters for wages +enough to purchase a stone of flour a week, which was all they asked, +could not be called unreasonable. + +"Assembling by sound of horn at Littleport, they sacked some of the +houses of the most prosperous, levied contributions on others, and +then marched on Ely in formidable force, armed with guns, pistols, +scythes, etc., and under cover of a waggon, on which they had mounted +four punt-guns. These formidable weapons, used for wild-fowl shooting, +with barrels eight feet long, whose charge was no less than a pound of +gunpowder, projected over the front of the vehicle to clear the way if +needful. But though the leading inhabitants of Ely had hastily armed +themselves, and been sworn in as special constables they were not +prepared to face this artillery, and the town passed without +resistance into the power of the mob, who repeated their Littleport +doings on a larger scale, though with little bodily hurt to anyone. +Unhappily the mob soon got out of hand, and the movement rapidly +degenerated into a mere drunken riot, the chief sufferers in which +were, as usual, those who had done most for the relief of the +poor--the local shopkeepers, who had aided them by credit, and the +local clergy, who had organised soup-kitchens for them. + +"At the first approach of the military force sent for to suppress +them, the rioters retreated in good order, still under cover of their +armed waggon, to Littleport, where, however, only a handful made any +sort of stand when the soldiers actually arrived."[235] The rest +dispersed in panic, and not a blow was struck in defence of those, +some eighty in number, who were selected to be made an example of. A +special commission was held for the trial of these unhappy men. "In +spite of strong testimony to character, five were hanged, and five +more transported for life, the rest undergoing various terms of +imprisonment; all to the accompaniment of ecclesiastical rejoicings, +the Bishop entering the cathedral in solemn procession, to the strains +of the triumphal anthem, "Why do the heathen rage?", with his Sword +of State borne before him (by his butler!), and escorted by fifty of +the principal inhabitants, carrying white wands. No fewer than three +hundred of these wand-bearers guarded the execution of the five +rioters; yet the sympathy for them was so strong that the bishop could +not get a cart to carry them to the gallows under five guineas for the +trip." + +[Footnote 235: From my _History of Cambridgeshire_.] + +Such was the last serious exercise of the Bishop's long-descended +secular jurisdiction over the Isle. From the Girvian Princes to the +Abbesses of Ely, from the Abbesses to the Abbots, from the Abbots to +the Bishops that Palatinate jurisdiction had been handed on for twelve +hundred years;--and this was its sordid close. It died none too soon. + +Littleport is now quite a thriving and prosperous place, with a +shirt-factory employing over 300 hands and a most effective system of +agriculture in the reclaimed fens around. It has a fine Early English +church, and a grand tower, through the basement of which goes the +footway of the street. Until the nineteenth century the place was so +inaccessible by land that the Cambridgeshire annalist Carter (1752) +tells us that "it is as rare to see a coach at Littleport as a ship at +Newmarket." + +From Littleport the road pursues its level way for seven miles across +the fen, till, after crossing the small islet of Hilgay, it strikes +the Norfolk uplands at their south-western corner, hard by Denver +Sluice; the present boundary of the North Sea tide, which once ran up +almost to Cambridge. This magnificent Sluice is the keystone of the +whole drainage scheme of the fenland. Here the New and the Old Bedford +Rivers, whose start we saw at Earith (p. 280), once more rejoin the +Ouse, having conveyed in twenty-two miles the waters which by the old +channel would have taken thirty-three. This, of course, gives them a +better fall, and renders them less liable to silt themselves up. + +Practically the New River does all the work, very little water being +in the Old except what the tide brings up. It is a striking sight to +be on the Sluice at high water and gaze at the sea waves ridging up +this old river with force that seems illimitable. And yet not enough +pass in, before the ebb calls them back, ever (or hardly ever) to +reach Earith, as a glance at the channel there instantly shows. Still +more striking is it to be on the Sluice when the spring tides are on, +and see the sea on the north of the Sluice standing fifteen or twenty +feet higher than the fresh waters on the south. One realises what +widespread disaster would ensue if the Sluice were to give way. Small +wonder that during the Fenian dynamite scare of 1867 the place was +watched day and night by a guard of soldiers. The Sluice itself is a +massive dam of stonework; having a big lock with two sets of gates, +one against the stream of the river, the other against the tideway of +the sea, which reaches this point by a broad cut from the important +seaport of King's Lynn. + +This present erection was built 1752. Its earlier predecessor was set +up 1651 by the Dutch engineer Vermuyden, the maker of the Bedford +Rivers, to whose genius the whole present scheme of drainage owes its +existence. He carried through his plan in face of most determined +opposition, especially from the towns of Lynn and Cambridge, who +complained that "whereas of old ships from Newcastle were wont to make +eighteen voyages in the year to Cambridge with sea coal, now, since +the blocking of the stream at Denver and the diversion of its waters +at Earith, they can make but ten or twelve, whereby the price of fuel +hath increased by half." When this first sluice was "blown up" by the +tide in 1713 there were loud rejoicings. The consequences, however, +proved so serious, that the next generation was fain to see it +replaced. + +Lynn is the point to which the road we have been following ultimately +leads. On leaving Ely by this road, the first turn to the right will +bring us down to the famous Roslyn (or Roswell) Pit, beloved of +geologists and botanists. It is a large water-filled excavation by the +side of the railway, nurturing various rare water plants, and +presenting the wonderful spectacle of chalk lying _above_ +boulder-clay, a phenomenon now attributed to ice action.[236] + +[Footnote 236: See Hughes' _Geography of Cambridgeshire_.] + +[Illustration: _St. Wendreda's Church, March._] + +The western declivity of the Island plunges down to the fen at Mepal, +on the New Bedford River. After crossing this, the road leads straight +across the fen to Chatteris, and is called Ireton's Way; the causeway +on which it runs having been made by that great Puritan general, for +strategic purposes, during the Civil War. Chatteris was the first of +the wonderful chain of Abbeys which swept round the Fenland from Ely +into Lincolnshire. The others are Ramsey and Peterborough on the last +verge of the mainland; with Thorney and Crowland, rising, like +Chatteris, on islands in the morass.[237] Of these, Chatteris and +Thorney alone are in Cambridgeshire; though Peterborough is within +half a mile of the county boundary. The former, a nunnery, was founded +by the Lady Alwyn, foster-mother to Edgar the Peacemaker. It was never +a large House, and no remains of it survive; but Chatteris is now the +seat of another Benedictine community, exiled from France in 1901. The +place possesses some curious wells of warm water, not of any great +depth, as such usually are, but penetrating only some ten or twelve +feet into the fen deposits. Local chemical decomposition is supposed +to account for the phenomenon. The fen hereabouts is rich in +geological and archæological remains. And within sight of his mother's +convent, only six miles away across the fen, her son (also an Alwyn), +the Alderman or Earl of the district, founded, on the projecting cape +of the Huntingdonshire mainland, the much larger abbey of Ramsey, +whose abbot was one of the higher or "mitred" class, privileged to +give the "Minor" Orders (_i.e._ those beneath the grade of Deacon). + +[Footnote 237: The history of the Houses outside our county we only +touch upon where connected with spots inside.] + +Thorney was of earlier date; coeval, indeed, with Peterborough. Of its +foundation a graphic description is given by the chronicler. After +telling how King Wulfhere of Mercia (whose wife was sister to St. +Etheldreda), endowed Peterborough and its abbot Sexwulf with broad +possessions, he continues: + + "Then said the King: 'This gift is little, but it is my will they + hold it so royally and so freely that neither geld nor fee be + taken from it....And thus free will I make this Minster, that it + be under Rome alone: and my will it is that all we who may not go + to Rome visit St. Peter here.' + + "While thus he spake, the Abbot prayed of him that he would give + him whatsoever he should ask. And the King granted him. Then said + the Abbot: 'Here have I God-fearing monks, who would fain live as + anchorites (_i.e._, hermits), knew they but where. And here is an + island which is called Ancarig[238] (Thorney). And my boon is + that we might there build a Minster, to the glory of St. Mary, so + that they who would lead the life of peace and rest may dwell + therein.' + + "Then the King answered and said: 'Beloved Sexwulf, lo! not only + that which thou hast asked, but all else on our Lord's behalf I + thus approve and grant.' ... And King Wulfhere first confirmed it + by word, and after subscribed it with his fingers on the Cross + of Christ" (_i.e._ he signed his name with a cross, on which he + laid his finger, saying, "I deliver this as my act and deed," as + we do with the seal on a deed at present. Seals did not come in + till the Norman Conquest). Amongst the witnesses to his signature + we find "Wilfrid the Priest, who was afterwards Bishop," _i.e._ + the great St. Wilfrid of Ripon. + +[Footnote 238: This name has probably nothing to do with "anchorite," +but is of Celtic derivation.] + +Thorney, however, was long in rising to abbatial dignity, and remained +the abode of anchorites, so humble and so sequestered that in the +great Danish raid of 870, when Ely and every other Religious House +throughout the Fenland was destroyed, the plunderers did not take the +trouble to seek it out, and it became a haven of refuge for the +survivors of the sack of Crowland. The story is graphically told in +the "Chronicle of Crowland"; in its present form probably a thirteenth +century work, but obviously compiled from earlier sources. + +After describing vividly the utter overthrow, at a great battle in +Kesteven (West Lincolnshire), of the local forces hastily called out +to meet the Danish host, he tells how a few poor fugitives got them to +the Church of Crowland, and interrupted the Midnight Service with +their crushing tidings. + + "At this news all was confusion. And the Abbot, keeping with + himself the oldest of the monks and a few of the children (of the + Abbey School), bade all those in their prime to take along with + them the sacred relics of the monastery (namely the holy body of + St. Guthlac, his scourge, and his psalter) and the other chief + treasures, and thus to flee into the neighbouring fens. With + sorrow of heart did they his bidding, and, having laden a boat + with the aforesaid relics and the charters of the Kings, they + cast into the cloister well the frontal of the High Altar (which + was covered with plates of gold) along with ten chalices ... and + other vessels. But the end of the frontal, so long was it, always + showed above the water; whereupon they drew it out and left it + with the Abbot; for ever could they see the flames of the towns + in Kesteven draw nigher and nigher, and feared lest the Heathen + should on a sudden burst in upon them. So took they boat, and + came unto the wood of Ancarig on the southern march of their + islet. And here abode they with Brother Toretus, an anchorite, + and other brethren, then dwelling there, four days, thirty in + all, of whom ten were priests. But the Abbot, and two old men + with him, hid the aforesaid frontal outside the church, to the + North; and afterwards he and all the rest clad in their sacred + vestments, met in Choir, and kept the Hours of Divine Service + according to their Rule. And the whole of the Psalms of David + went they through from end to end. After this sang they High + Mass, the Abbot himself being Celebrant.... + + "Now, when the Mass was drawing to an end, and the Abbot and his + deacon and subdeacon and the taper-bearers had already + communicated in the Holy Mysteries, came the Heathen bursting + into the church. And upon the very Altar, by the cruel hand of + King Oscytel, was the venerable Abbot himself sacrificed, a true + martyr and victim of Christ. All they who stood round and + ministered with him were beheaded by the savages; and the aged + men and children, as they fled from the Choir, were taken and + questioned under the bitterest tortures, to make them show the + treasures of the church. Dom[239] Asker, the Prior, was slain in + the vestry, and Dom Lethwyn, Sub-prior, in the refectory. Behind + him there followed close Brother Turgar, a ten year child, + shapely, and of a fair countenance; who, when he saw his superior + slain, besought earnestly that he too might be slain with him. + But Earl Sidroc the Younger, touched with pity for the lad, + stripped him of his cowl, and gave him a Danish cloak, bidding + him follow everywhere his steps.... And thus, out of all who + abode in the Monastery, old and young, he alone was saved; coming + and going amongst the Danes throughout all his sojourn amongst + them, even as one of themselves, through this Earl's favour and + protection. + + [Footnote 239: _Dominus_ is thus abbreviated amongst + Benedictines.] + + "Now when all the monks had been done to death by the torturers, + and no whit of the Abbey treasures shown thereby, the Danes, with + spades and ploughshares, brake open right and left all the + sepulchres of the Saints round about that of St. Guthlac. On the + right was that of St. Cissa, priest and anchorite, and of St. + Bettelin, a man of God, erst an attendant on St. Guthlac, and of + Dom Siward (the Abbot) of blessed memory. And on the left was + that of St. Egbert, St. Guthlac's scribe and confessor, and of + St. Tatwin, the pilot who guided St. Guthlac to Crowland.... All + these did the savages burst open, looking to find treasure + therein. And finding none, they were filled with indignation; and + piling up all these holy bodies on a heap, in piteous wise, they + set fire to them, and, on the third day after their coming, that + is to say, on the 7th of the Kalends of October (September 25), + they utterly consumed them, church and monastery and all. + + "But on the fourth day off they went, with countless droves of + beasts and pack-horses, to Medehampstead (Peterborough). And + there, dashing at the outer precinct of the Monastery, with its + barred gates, they assailed the walls on every side with arrows + and machines. At the second assault the Heathen brake in, and, in + the very breach, Tubba, the brother of Earl Hubba, fell + grievously wounded by a stone cast. By the hands of his guards he + was borne into the tent of Hubba his brother, and despaired even + of life. Then did Hubba's rage boil over, and he was altogether + wild against the monks, so that he slew with his own hand every + soul clad in the religious habit; the rest sprang upon the rest; + not one in the whole Monastery was saved; both the venerable + Abbot Hedda, and all his monks, and all the lay-brethren were + massacred; and Brother Turgar was warned by his master, Earl + Sidroc, never anywhere to cross the path of Earl Hubba. Every + altar was uprooted, every monument broken in pieces, the great + library of holy books burnt, the plenteous store of monastic + papers scattered to the winds; the precious relics of the holy + virgins Kineburgh, Kinswith, and Tibba,[240] trodden under foot; + the walls utterly overthrown; the buildings burnt up, church and + all, blazing with a bright flame for five whole days after. + + [Footnote 240: Kineburgh and Kinswith were sisters of Wulfhere, + the first Christian King of Mercia. Tibba is usually identified + with St. Ebba of Coldingham.] + + "Then on the fourth day the Host drew together, with spoil beyond + tale from all the country round, and set off towards Huntingdon. + The two Sidroc Earls, at the crossing of the rivers, ever came + last, to guard the rear of the whole army. Now all their host had + passed over the river Nene safely; but, as they were themselves + crossing, they had the bad luck to lose two carts, laden with + untold wealth and plenishing, which sank in a deep eddy of the + stream to the left of the stone bridge, so that horses and all + were drowned before they could be got out. And while the whole + household of Earl Sidroc the younger was busied in drawing out + these same carts, and in transferring the spoil to other waggons + and carriages, Brother Turgar slipped away and fled to the + neighbouring forest. All night did he walk, and with the earliest + dawn came into Crowland. There he found his fellow monks, who had + got back from Thorney the day before, and were hard at work + putting out the fires, which still had the mastery in many of the + ruins of the Monastery. + + "And when they saw him safe and sound they were somewhat + comforted; but on hearing from him where their Abbot and the + other Superiors and Brethren lay slain, and how all the + sepulchres of the Saints were broken down, and all the monuments, + and all the holy books and all the sacred bodies burnt up, all + were stricken with grief unspeakable; and long was the + lamentation and mourning that was made. Satiated at length with + weeping, they turned again to putting out the conflagration. And + when they raised the ruins of the church roof about the High + Altar, they found the body of their venerable father and abbot, + Theodore, beheaded, stripped, half burnt, and bruised, and + crushed into the earth by the fallen timbers. This was on the + eighth day after his murder, and a little away from the spot + where he was slaughtered. And the other ministers, who fell with + him, found they in like manner crushed into the ground by the + weight of the beams--all save Wulfric the taper-bearer. + + "But not all at once. For the bodies of some of the Brethren were + not found till half a year after their martyrdom, and not in the + places where they were slain. For Dom Paulinus and Dom Herbert, + very old men, and decrepit, whose hands were cut off and + themselves tortured to death in the Choir, were found, after a + diligent search, not there but in the Chapterhouse. In like + manner Dom Grimketyl and Dom Egmund, both some hundred years old, + who had been thrust through with swords in the Cloister, were + found in the Parlour. And the rest too, both children and old + men, were sought for in divers places, even as Brother Turgar + told just how each had been slain; and at last were all found, + with many a doleful plaint and many a tear, save Wulfric only. + And Dom Brickstan, once the Precentor of the monastery, a most + skilful musician and poet, who was amongst the survivors, wrote + on the ashes of Crowland that Lament which is so well known and + begins thus: + + 'Desolate how dost thou sit, who late wast Queen among Houses + Church so noble of old; erst so beloved of God.' + + (Quomodo sola sedes, dudum regina domorum, + Nobilis ecclesia, et nuper amica Dei). + + "Now when the Monastery, after long and hard work, was cleared, + so far as was then possible, from filth and ashes, they took + counsel on choosing them a Pastor; and when the election was + held, the venerable Father Godric, though much against his will, + was made Abbot. To him came that venerable old man Toretus, the + Prior of Thorney, and his Sub-prior, Dom Tissa, both anchorites + of the utmost sanctity. And devoutly they prayed him that he + would deign to take with him certain Brethren and come to + Peterborough, and give, of his charity, Christian burial to the + bodies of their Abbot and the other Brethren, which yet remained + unburied and exposed to beasts and birds. The Abbot gave heed + unto their prayer, and with many of the brethren (amongst them + Brother Turgar) came unto Peterborough, where all the Brethren of + Thorney met him. And with much labour the bodies of all the monks + of that Monastery were got together, 84 by tale, and buried in + one wide grave in the midst of the Abbey cemetery, over against + what was once the East End of the Church. This was on St. + Cecilia's day (November 22). + + "And over the body of the Abbot, as he lay amid his children, he + placed a three-sided stone, three feet high and three long and + one broad, bearing carved likenesses of the Abbot, and his monks + standing around him. And this stone, in memory of the ruined + Abbey, bade he thenceforward to be called Medehampstead. And once + in every year, while he lived, did he visit it; and, pitching his + tent above the stone, said Mass for two days with instant + devotion for the souls of those there buried. + + "Through the midst of that cemetery there ran the King's highway + (_Via Regia_); and this stone was on the right thereof, as one + comes up from the aforesaid stone bridge towards Holland (S.E. + Lincolnshire); and on the left stood a stone cross bearing a + carven image of the Saviour; which our Abbot Godric then set + there, to the intent that travellers who passed by might be + mindful of that holy Abbey, and pray to the Lord for the souls of + the Faithful who lay in that cemetery." + +The Abbot of Thorney was also "mitred," and the House ranked as second +only to Ely in the county. William of Malmesbury (A.D. 1135) describes +it as "a little paradise, delightsome as heaven itself may be deemed, +fen-circled, yet rich in loftiest trees, where water-meadows delight +the eye with rich green, where streamlets glide unchecked through each +field. Scarce a spot of ground lies there waste; here are orchards, +there vineyards. Nature vies with culture, and what is unknown to the +one is produced by the other. And what of the glorious buildings, +whose very size it is a wonder that the ground can support amid such +marshes? A vast solitude is here the monks' lot, that they may the +more closely cling to things above. If a woman is there seen, she is +counted a monster, but strangers, if men, are greeted as angels +unawares. Yet there none speaketh, save for the moment; all is holy +silence.... Truly I may call that island a hostel of chastity, a +tavern of honesty, a gymnasium of divine philosophy. From its dense +thickets it is called Thorney." + +At the draining of the Fens, in the seventeenth century, Thorney was +assigned to the Earls (now Dukes) of Bedford, who, during the +nineteenth century alone, have expended on their Thorney estates +nearly £2,000,000. Yet the Thorney property does not even pay its way. +The noble owners have, however, their reward in the genuine success +which has crowned the experiment from a philanthropic point of view. +Thanks to their efforts, Thorney is again, as in the old days of the +Benedictines, a smiling, well-wooded oasis amid the dreary Fenland; +where the welfare of the tenantry is, as of old, the chief object of +the landlord, and where, in consequence, pauperism, drunkenness, and +crime are alike practically unknown. The remains of the Abbey Church +are still used for parochial worship, but only 117 of its original 290 +feet of length have survived Henry the Eighth's demolitions. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + Draining of Fens.--Monastic Works, Morton's Leam.--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. + + +The thought of the Fenland Abbeys leads on to the fascinating story of +the draining of the fens. For the monks were the first to reclaim from +the morass such little patches of ground as each Abbey could bank in, +and to discover how very fertile such reclaimed soil is. Their early +chronicles speak with rapture of the hay that could be mown three +times a year, and the amazing fecundity of the corn-land. Thus it was +their interest constantly to be enclosing fresh acres. They +discovered, too, that by judiciously letting in the flood water on to +a field they could get a fresh deposit of silt, and gradually raise +the level of the soil. And the first attempt at drainage work on a +large scale was also due to a monk, Bishop Morton, Abbot of Ely, who +in 1480 cut the twelve mile long "Leam," or channel, which still bears +his name, to divert the River Nene from its long meandering course +through Whittlesea Mere and Outwell, and to bring it straight to +Wisbech. + +Thus it came about that the reclamation of the fens went hand in hand +with the prosperity of the Abbeys around them. When these were +prosperous, the whole district prospered; when misfortune befell them, +the fens likewise suffered; and it often took many years for the marks +of the ruin to be effaced. After the wholesale destruction wrought by +the great Danish raid of 870, centuries did not suffice for this. The +story we have just told of the sack of Crowland clearly shows that +the place was then accessible by land. But in the hundred and fifty +years of desolation that followed, such works as the brethren had +effected fell into decay, and the land once more became waterlogged. +Even when William of Malmesbury wrote, in the twelfth century, he +tells us that Crowland could still only be reached by boat. And the +yet more wholesale destruction wrought by Henry the Eighth was +followed by a like period of reversion to waste. + +The zeal, however, of these early civilisers was not always according +to knowledge; and at quite an early date a grievous mistake was made, +which caused endless difficulties ever after, and still affects the +whole drainage system of the district. This was the cutting, at some +date between 1215 and 1270, of a leam, not two miles long, from the +Great Ouse at Littleport to the Little Ouse,[241] thereby diverting +the waters of the former into the channel of the latter, and bringing +their united volume into the sea at Lynn. Before that date the Great +Ouse ran from Littleport to Outwell, where it was met by the Nene, and +by a branch of the Little Ouse. The joint river was called the Well +Stream, and poured into the sea at Wisbech. + +[Footnote 241: The Little Ouse drains the south-western districts of +Norfolk.] + +That this had been the age-long course of the Fenland waters is shown +by the existence of a huge Roman sea wall running round the old coast +line from Lynn to Wisbech, and from Wisbech to Sutton in Lincolnshire. +This wall traces for us the outline of a great tidal estuary running +up to Wisbech, which continued an estuary even to the eighteenth +century. But the diversion of the greater part of its river water to +Lynn proved fatal to it. Such stream as was left, scarcely more than +that of the Nene, could not, at the ebb, scour out the channel through +the sands which the flood-tide continually tended to silt up. Wisbech +became more and more shut off from the sea, and is now ten miles away +from it. And further, the inability to escape quickly enough through +these choking sands drove the river water at Wisbech back upon itself +and forced it to "drown" the neighbouring fens; while at Lynn the same +disastrous effect was produced by the new volume of water being too +great for the narrow bed of the Little Ouse and flooding over the +banks all round. The Marshland, as the Norfolk district protected by +the Roman wall was called, suffered especially from this result of +interfering with Nature. + +Nor did it prove possible to undo the mischief. When once a short cut +has been made for a great river, it is no easy matter to turn the +stream back into its old tortuous course; and, when once an estuary +has got thoroughly silted up, it is yet more difficult to restore it +to its old condition. Throughout the Middle Ages constant complaints +were made, and occasional attempts; but these were always brought to +nought by some conflicting interest or other which got the ear of the +Government. The fen problem was early recognised as a matter of +national concern, and, from the time of Edward the First onwards, the +Crown tried to grapple with it, but by hopelessly futile methods. + +To begin with, the system of Local Government already established for +the regulation of Romney Marsh in Kent was extended to the Fenland. +The Sheriff was bound to summon twenty-four "jurats" from the +inhabitants of the neighbourhood, to deal with each difficulty as it +arose. But a plan which worked well enough for a district only some +ten miles by fifteen, and with no river to speak of, was wholly +inadequate to deal with the huge area and mighty forces of the +Fenland, even when this was divided (as it still is for drainage +purposes) into three "Levels," "North," "Middle," and "South." The +jurats hated their invidious office, and were themselves hated by the +inhabitants; each man always declaring that they had saddled him with +repairs which ought to have been laid upon some neighbour, and each +man ready to see his own land "drown" rather than put in a single +spadeful of work which, in his view, should have been someone else's +job. + +Besides, the drain or the dam or the embankment which was good for one +set of interests was bad for another. We have seen how Cambridge +complained of the erection of Denver Sluice; and like grievances fill +page after page of the Plantagenet Rolls. The men of Lynn complain +that whereas they were of old able to sail straight to Peterborough, +only thirty miles, they now have to go round by Littleport, over fifty +miles, owing to the erection of a dam by the jurats. And, again, that +a new cut has so diverted the waters that they can no longer take +"navigable" (_i.e._ sea-going) vessels to Yaxley and Holme in +Huntingdonshire, "whereby our trade is greatly decayed." Loud and +incessant are the cries from all quarters (except Lynn alone) to +"bring back the waters into their natural outfall" at Wisbech. But +this, as we have said, had become beyond the power of man; and, +despite the well-meant efforts of the unhappy jurats, and of such +philanthropists as Bishop Morton, things kept getting worse decade by +decade; till the suppression of the Abbeys completed the ruin, and the +fens became the dismal tangle of decayed waterways, small and great, +new and old, artificial and natural, usable and unusable, the +unravelling of which occupied the next three centuries. + +Feeble efforts were locally made here and there to control the waters; +but, as the historian Carter puts it, the next wet and windy winter +"down comes the bailiff of Bedford (for so the country people call the +overflowing of the river Ouse), attended, like a person of quality, +with many servants (the accession of tributary brooks), and breaks +down all their paper banks as not waterproof, reducing all to their +former condition." He goes on to give a vivid description of the +puzzle-headed conservatism with which the reformers had to contend: + + "This accident put the wits of that and succeeding ages upon the + dispute of the feasibility of the design; and let us sum up the + arguments for and against this great undertaking. + + "Argument 1. Some objected that God said to the water, 'Hitherto + shalt thou come, and no further.' It is therefore a trespass on + the Divine prerogative, for man to presume to give other bounds + to the water than what God hath appointed. + + "Answer 1. The argument holdeth in application to the Ocean, + which is a wild horse, only to be broke, backed, and bridled by + Him who is the Maker thereof; but it is a false and lazy + principle if applied to fresh waters, from which human industry + may and hath rescued many considerable parcels of ground. + + "Argument 2. Many have attempted but not effected it. None ever + wrestled with it, but it gave them a foil, if not a fall, to the + bruising, if not breaking, of their backs. Many have burnt their + fingers in these waters, and instead of draining the Fens have + emptied their own pockets. + + "Answer 2. Many men's undertaking thereof implies the possibility + of the project; for it is not likely so many wise men should seek + for what is not to be found; the failing is not in the + improbability of the design, but in the undertakers either + wanting heads or hearts to pursue, or pay the people employed + therein. + + * * * * * + + "Argument 4. An alderman of Cambridge affirmed the Fens to be + like a crust of bread swimming in a dish of water. So that under + eight or ten feet earth it is nothing but mere water. Impossible + therefore the draining thereof, if surrounded by that liquid + element both above and below. + + "Answer 4. Interest betrayed his judgment to an evident error, + and his brains seemed rather to swim than the floating earth; for + such as have sounded the depth of that ground find it to be Terra + Firma, and no doubt so solid to the centre as any other earth in + England. + + "Argument 5. The river Grant or Cam (call it what you will), + running by Cambridge, will have its stream dried up by the + draining of the Fens. Now, as Cambridge is concerned in its + river, so that whole County, yea, this whole Kingdom, is + concerned in Cambridge. No reason, therefore, that private men's + particular profit should be preferred before an universal good, + or good of an University. + + "Answer 5. It is granted the water by Cambridge kindles and keeps + in the fire therein; no hope of sufficient fuel on reasonable + rates, except care be taken for preserving the River navigable; + which may be done and the Fens drained nevertheless. To take away + the thief is no wasting or weakening of the wick of the candle. + Assurances may be given that no damage shall rebound to the + stream of Grant by stopping other superfluous waters. + + "Argument 6. The Fens preserved in their present property afford + great plenty and variety of fish and fowl, which have therein + their seminaries and nurseries; the which will be destroyed on + the draining thereof, so that none will be had but at excessive + prices. + + "Answer 6. A large first makes recompense for the shorter second + course of any man's table. And who will not prefer a tame sheep + before a wild duck? a good fat ox before a well-grown eel? + + "Argument 7. The Fens afford plenty of sedge, turf, and reed; the + want whereof will be found if their nature be altered. + + "Answer 7. These commodities are inconsiderable to balance the + profit of good grass and grain, which those grounds, if drained, + will produce. He cannot complain of wrong, who hath a suit of + buckram taken from him, and one of velvet given instead thereof. + Besides, provision may be made that a sufficiency of such + ware-trash may still be preserved. + + "Argument 8. Many thousands of poor people are maintained by + fishing and fowling in the Fens, which will all be at a loss for + a livelihood if their farms be burnt; that is, if the Fens be + drained. + + "Answer 8. It is confessed that many who love idleness live (and + only live) by that employment. But such, if the Fens were + drained, would quit their idleness, and betake themselves to more + lucrative manufactures. + + "Argument 9. Grant that the Fens be drained with great + difficulty, they will quickly revert to their old condition, like + to the Pontine Marshes in Italy. + + "Answer 9. If a patient, perfectly cured, will be careless of his + healthe, none will pity his relapse. Moderate cost, with constant + care, will easily preserve what is drained; the Low Countries + affording many proofs thereof. + + "Argument 10. Grant them drained and so continuing; as now the + great fishes prey upon the less, so then wealthy men would devour + the poorer sort of people; injurious partage would follow upon + the inclosures, and rich men (to make room for themselves) would + jostle the poor people out of their Commons. + + "Answer 10. Oppression is not essential either to draining or + enclosing, though too often a concomitant of both. Order may be + taken by Commissioners of quality, impowered for that purpose, + that such a proportion of Commons may be allotted to the poor + that all private persons may be pleased and advance accrue hereby + to the Commonwealth." + +The outcome of these vigorous polemics was that King James the First +threw himself whole-heartedly into the idea of a general drainage +scheme; and under his auspices a Company of "Adventurers" or +"Undertakers" was formed to carry out the business. This, however, was +regarded by the Fen-men as an unmitigated piece of tyranny; the +Opposition in Parliament made violent protests; "Libellers" wrote +inflammatory broadsides inciting the Fen-men to rise;[242] and the +Fen-men, who wanted little inciting, did rise in no small numbers. +Nocturnal raids destroyed every work begun by the Company's labourers; +the labourers themselves were intimidated; and before long progress +became impossible. The Company became bankrupt, and the thousands of +reclaimed acres which were to have been divided amongst the +"Adventurers" never actualised. + +[Footnote 242: A specimen of one of the "libels" is given by Dugdale: + + "Come brethren of the water, and let us all assemble + To treat upon this matter, which makes us quake and tremble; + For we shall rue, if it be true the Fens be undertaken, + And where we feed in rush and reed, _they_ feed both beet and bacon. + + "Away with boats and rudders, away with boots and scatches [skates], + No need of one nor t'other; men now make better matches. + Stilt-makers all and tanners complain of this disaster; + For they would make each muddy lake for Essex calves a pasture. + + "Wherefore let us intreat our ancient Winter Nurses + To show their power so great, and help to drain _their purses_, + And send us good old Captain Flood to lead us out to battle, + Then Twopenny Jack, with scales on back, shall drive out all their cattle." + +["Jack" here simply means a pike, the average price of which at this +time would seem to have been twopence. The "Winter Nurses" are the +rivers feeding the Fen.]] + +[Illustration: THE OLD FENLAND + +(Northern District)] + +[Illustration: THE OLD FENLAND + +(Southern District)] + +The Crown, however, did not lose sight of the scheme. A special +Commission of enquiry was formed, which sent in a most pessimistic +Report, representing Wisbech as demanding that the "upland men" should +contribute to the scouring of the outfall there, inasmuch as it +drained their lands, to which the upland men retorted that Wisbech +might mind its own business and bear its own burdens. "Hence the +country about Crowland and Thorney, formerly good ground, hath become +mere Lerna,[243]--which doth not only cause overflowing in the upland +country, to their infinite loss, but the Islanders themselves are in +like danger, as for their cattle and their own safety; out of fear +whereof they oftentimes, upon the swelling of the waters, ring their +bells backward, as in other places when the town is on fire." + +[Footnote 243: The Lernaean swamp was the legendary home of the famous +Hydra overcome by Hercules.] + +So things dragged on till 1620, when another Company was formed by the +King, again doomed to speedy failure.[244] Ten years later again, +Charles the First took up his father's idea, and formed a third +Company, placing at its head the powerful Earl of Bedford. His first +act was to call in a Dutch engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden, acquainted +with the drainage methods so successful in Holland, whose fee was an +award of no less than 95,000 acres in the lands he might reclaim. +Under the auspices of this expert was dug from Earith to Denver the +Old Bedford River already spoken of.[245] But the local opposition was +still too strong, fostered as it now was by the powerful influence of +Oliver Cromwell; and it was not lessened when the King himself bought +up the Company. His action was represented as one more encroachment +upon the liberties of England, and a regular part of the Puritan +programme was "to break the King's dykes, to drown his lands, and to +destroy his tenants." These drastic measures proved only too +effective; and, with the outbreak of the Civil War, this third +attempt, like those before it, came to nought. + +[Footnote 244: The head of this company was Lord Popham, one of whose +cuts is still called Popham's Eau. The last word reminds us that many +of his settlers were exiled French Huguenots.] + +[Footnote 245: See p. 280.] + +When, however, that war was over, and Charles beheaded, Cromwell +himself, now Lord Protector of the Realm, came forward as an advocate +of the scheme, and formed yet a fourth Company, again under the Earl +of Bedford, who had followed his fortunes, and again with Vermuyden +for engineer. This time the result was permanent. Cromwell was, as the +Fen-men speedily discovered, a far more dangerous personage to bully +than they had found his predecessors at the head of the State. +Troopers were quartered upon the malcontents, and a plentiful supply +of extra cheap labour was furnished by the penal servitude of Scotch +prisoners taken at Dunbar and Dutch sailors captured by Blake in the +Channel. This method of making war pay its own expenses was familiar +to Cromwell, who had already sold many shiploads of these gallant +enemies as slaves, some to toil under the lash for the West Indian +planters, some to tug at the oars of Venetian galleys. Happily, as he +was the first Christian commander to adopt this all too thrifty +procedure, so he was the last, and such atrocious exploitation of +fellow Christians and fellow soldiers died with him. + +Thus was dug, in 1651, the New Bedford River, and thus was built, +somewhat later, Denver Sluice. Vermuyden's plan, which continued for +two centuries to be gradually developed on the lines he originally +laid down, was to cut a few main water-courses through the district, +running at a higher level than the swamps around, with Lynn for their +chief outfall, and an infinite number of short straight cuts at right +angles to these, whence the water draining from the morass should be +pumped into them. This pumping was originally done by windmills, and a +picturesque sight it was to see their white sails dotting the wide +expanse. But all are now superseded by the less poetical but more +dependable steam pumping stations, whose tall chimneys form a notable +object in the Fenland landscape. + +The work was very gradual, with many drawbacks. The Denver Sluice, on +which the whole plan depended, was, as has been said, destroyed in +1713, and not rebuilt till 1750, when the very towns which had most +rejoiced in its fall were the loudest in demanding its replacement. +Other calamities also affected the work, which was not finally +completed till towards the end of the nineteenth century. The +opposition, too, was unceasing, though it took the form of lawsuits +rather than violence. But this, too, died out. The very last of them +was an attempt by Wisbech, in 1844, to force the hand of the Bedford +Level Corporation (as the old Company of Adventurers is now called) by +proposing a rival scheme in Parliament. + +Now, however, all is victory. For many years past the reclaimed fen +has borne excellent crops; and if, since the agricultural depression +of the later nineteenth century decades set in, it can no longer +merit so fully as it did the title of "the Golden Plain of England," +yet the widespread cultivation of fruit and flowers (mostly narcissus) +has furnished no small compensation, and the district as a whole +enjoys a very large share of prosperity. At this moment the vast areas +allotted to the great Adventurers are being largely broken up into +small holdings, with the happiest results. + +Sentimentally, and even to a certain extent economically, we may +regret the Fenland of old, with its vanished wealth of picturesque +life; its reeds which made such splendid thatch, its marsh flowers, +its butterflies, its shoals of fish, its endless skeins of wild-fowl, +its clever "decoys" where these were taken in such exhaustless numbers +that a single one (in 1750) sent up to London 3000 couples a week and +let for £500 a year. But with these have also vanished the incessant +fever and ague and rheumatism which were an ever-present torment in +the old Fen life, and the incessant opium-eating in which the Fen-Folk +were fain to find relief. Taking things altogether, the gain has +outweighed the loss in the draining of the Fens. + + + + +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. + + +In close contiguity to the Island of Ely, on the west, is a tiny +satellite, which supports the little village of Coveney. Here the +church has some remarkable modern woodwork from Oberammergau, the gift +of Mr. Athelstan Riley. The pulpit is also remarkable, dating from +1703 and being of Danish work. More remote are Manea and Stonea, both, +happily for themselves, now on a railway line, but otherwise +unspeakably inaccessible. It is strange at Manea to see the towers of +Ely a short five miles away, and to know that twenty miles of bad road +will scarcely get you there. Both names seem to have the same +signification, Stone Island; which (as they are eminently unstony, +being merely low elevations of gravel) may perhaps refer to the +selenite crystals with which the ground here teems. Manea Station is +one of the few inland places where the curvature of the earth can be +clearly seen. The line (towards March) is perfectly straight and +perfectly level, and along it you may observe the trains rising into +sight over the horizon like ships at sea. + +March stands on a much larger island, seven miles in length. At its +southern extremity is Doddington, where the fine Early English church +was once the richest in England. It was the Mother Church of a wide +district, including its whole island and the fens for miles around. As +these were drained so did the value of the benefice increase, till it +became worth over £7,000 per annum. Parliament then stepped in, and +divided the parish (and income) into seven Rectories, three of these +being in the town of March, a modern growth around its important +railway junction at the furthest northern point of the island. A +fourth is Old March, a quiet "village-hamlet" (as Cardinal Wolsey +calls it) two miles south of its larger offspring. The church here is +most exceptionally beautiful. It is a Perpendicular structure, with a +fine crocketed spire and flint patterns in the outer walls of the +clerestory. The roof is beyond all magnificent, with "an innumerable +company of Angels" along its vista of double hammer-beams. A brass +commemorates William Dredeman, the donor of this crowning glory, who +died in 1503; and there is another to Catharine Hansard, 1517, on +which the Annunciation is depicted. The church is dedicated to St. +Wendreda, a purely local saint.[246] The Parish account-books here +give a striking picture of the mutations of the Reformation period. +There are payments "for pluckynge doun emags [images] in ye Chyrch and +for drynkynge thereat" (1547); "for breckyng down the Altar and +carrying forth ye stons" (1550); "for makyng the Hy Alter" (1553); +"for pulling doun ye hy alter" (1558); and "for a comunion tabull" +(1559). + +[Footnote 246: See p. 275.] + +March is the half-way house between Ely and Peterborough, and between +it and the last-named lies Whittlesea, also on a good-sized island of +its own, which extends nearly to the Northamptonshire mainland. It is +a pleasant little town, with a picturesque market place, where the +ancient Market House still rises in the centre. And its church almost +rivals that of March, with a still more glorious spire. In 1335 +Whittlesea was the scene of a most unedifying conflict between the +Abbeys of Ramsey and Ely. To begin with, the Abbot of Ramsey and his +monks raided the lands at Whittlesea belonging to Ely, drove away +sixteen horses, and (by firing the sedge) burned twenty others, +besides ten oxen, eighty cows, and one hundred swine, along with much +grass, reeds, and other property. In retaliation for this outrage the +Prior of Ely (and he, too, the saintly Prior Crauden) organised a +regular military expedition, and came, at the head of the whole Abbey +musters, "with banners flying as in war," to Ramsey itself, where, as +that House complains, he "hewed down our woods, depastured our grass, +and drove off our cattle." Both parties appealed to the King; but the +discreditable transaction seems to have ended in a compromise. That +such wild work should be possible at all in England reminds us that at +this date the country had not yet recovered from the confusions +attendant on the fall and murder of Edward the Second eight years +before. + +Till the latter part of the nineteenth century Whittlesea gave its +name to a famous mere, lying to the south of the town, and on the very +border of the fens. It was a sheet of shallow water a couple of miles +in length and breadth, and furnished a splendid field for angling, +skating, and boat-sailing. Its shallowness made it none the less +dangerous; for the bottom was fathomless ooze, so soft that the +punting poles used here had to be furnished with a round board at +their extremities, and demanded special skill, for if you once let +this board get underneath the mud, it was much more likely to pull you +in than you to pull it out. + +Other islets of the fen archipelago are Murrow, between Thorney and +Wisbech, Westry near March, and Welney, on the Old Bedford river to +the north of Manea. The name of the last reminds us that by it ran the +old Well Stream, long robbed of its waters by their diversion to Lynn +in the thirteenth century. To this day, however, its course may be +traced on the map by the meandering boundary between Cambridgeshire +and Norfolk across the fen. Following this line northwards we shortly +come to the outskirts of the firm ground on which Wisbech stands, an +_artificial_ island dating from Roman times and owing its existence to +the great Roman sea wall around the Wash. + +Through this island ran the great Well Stream, giving their names to +the villages (or rather the village, for they form a continuous row of +houses) of Upwell and Outwell. This is the longest village in England, +stretching on either side of the road for nearly five unbroken miles. +It contains over 5,000 inhabitants, and lies partly in Cambridgeshire +partly in Norfolk. The churches are in the latter county, and are +grand specimens of the splendid series of churches which glorify the +Marshland, as this district by the Wash has for ages been named. Both +are of Perpendicular date, with a tower somewhat older. That of Upwell +has an elaborate turret for the Sanctus bell. The canopy over the +pulpit is still more elaborate. The roof has a series of angels, but +far less numerous and effective than those at March. At Outwell there +is a fine Decorated door, like that of Barrington. + +[Illustration: _Elm Church._] + +Emneth, on the further road to Wisbech, also has an angel roof, of +specially interesting character. Each figure is holding some symbol of +the Faith; one the Host, another a candlestick, another a Gospel-book. +At Elm, hard by, may be seen a still more interesting development of +church architecture. The tower is Early English, enriched on its +internal face with exquisite shafting, and opening into the nave by an +Early English arch. But both shafting and arch must have been +insertions in much older work, for between the two may be seen the +high-pitched string-course and the rude little window of the original +Saxon church. The nave is also Early English (clerestory and all, +which is rare hereabouts), while the chancel is Decorated, with its +roof higher than that of the nave. + +Here at a farm house called Needham Hall (from a famous historic +mansion formerly on the site) is shown an old table formed of one +solid piece of oak, on which Oliver Cromwell is said to have once +slept. When he arrived here at the head of his command during the +Civil War, he chose this rude couch in preference to the best bed in +the house, that he might fare no better than his men, who were +bivouacking in the yard and outhouses. + +The churches along the Roman sea-wall on either side of the old Well +Stream estuary are also of rare magnificence. To the east, in Norfolk, +we find a series of villages deriving their names from the wall +itself,--Walsoken, West Walton, Walpole St. Peter, and Walpole St. +Andrew. In every one of these the church is a joy; above all at West +Walton, with its bell-tower (fifty yards to the south of the main +building) uplifted on four graceful arches enriched with dog-tooth +moulding. Octangular buttresses support the angles, which are +ornamented with blank lancet arches. The next floor has on each side +an arcade of three lancets, and the storey above a window of two +lights beneath an arch of two mouldings, forming a splay of four +banded pillars. No more perfect gem of composition exists; and the +Perpendicular parapet which now crowns it very inadequately takes the +place of the spire which seems to have been purposed by the original +builder. The church itself displays similar features of Early English +grace. The nave pillars have Purbeck marble shafts, with beautifully +foliated capitals, and the clerestory is pierced with seventeen small +archlets, alternately blind and light. + +Walsoken, now practically a suburb of Wisbech, has a Perpendicular +shell around a Norman nave, which is (next to Norwich Cathedral) the +best example of the style in all Norfolk. The chancel arch is a +deservedly famous specimen of Transition work. It springs from six +banded pillars, and has a soffit exquisitely worked with zig-zags and +cusps. The screens of the chapels which formerly occupied the east end +of either aisle are rich Perpendicular woodwork. The roof is also +Perpendicular, with angels on the transome beams. + +Walpole St. Peter's is even more remarkable; for there is actually an +ancient right of way through it, _underneath the Altar_. The +thirteenth century chancel, with its five large Decorated windows on +either side, ascends by no fewer than eleven steps from the nave to +make room for this unique passage way. The five windows of the nave +are of the earliest and best Perpendicular, and its eastern gable is +crowned with three beautifully proportioned pinnacles. In this parish +is the hamlet of Cross Keys, the name of which is sometimes supposed +to be connected with St. Peter. But it is much more probably the +_quay_ at the starting point of the ancient low-tide passage across +the sands of the estuary which led to Sutton Crosses on the +Lincolnshire side, five miles away, and which played, as we shall +shortly tell, so notable a part in English history. From Walpole the +sea-wall sweeps round by Terrington to Lynn. But here we are far in +Norfolk. We must not, however, forget that we owe one of our Cambridge +Colleges to Terrington, for Dr. Gonville, while Vicar here, founded in +1347 his "College of the Annunciation," the embryo of Caius College. + +[Illustration: _Walpole St. Peter._] + +On the Cambridgeshire side of the Well Stream we also find churches +fully equal to those on the Norfolk bank. Leverington is one specially +to be noted, with its beautiful steeple, an Early English tower +surmounted by a Decorated spire so exquisitely proportioned that it +seems absolutely to melt away into the sky. There is also a fine +Decorated porch with a stone-roofed parvis chamber of original and +singular beauty. The chancel is also Decorated, while the grand nave +is Perpendicular. The font, too, is Perpendicular, an octagonal +structure of oolite, with richly ornamented niches on every face, each +containing the head of a saint in high relief. The east window of the +north aisle retains much of its ancient glass, proving it to be a +"Jesse" window, tracing the descent of Christ from that patriarch +through David. + + * * * * * + +Tydd St. Giles lies at the northernmost extremity of the Isle of Ely, +where the "Shire Drain" divides the village from its sister parish of +Tydd St. Mary in Lincolnshire. Here, too, the church is remarkable, +having its tower fifty feet beyond the East End, a unique position. Like +Leverington, it has a specially fine octagonal font, richly traceried, +and carved with emblems of the Passion and with the arms of the See of +Ely. In the floor of the nave is a thirteenth century gravestone, +bearing a floriated cross, and the legend (in Old English characters): +"Orate.pro.anima.dni John.Fysner, cujus.aie.deus.ppiciet.Amen." (Pray +for the soul of Mr. John Fysner, on whose soul may God be merciful.) + +On one of the pillars is a more interesting inscription in rude +capital letters, much worn. It is in French, and would seem to be of +the early fourteenth century, when that language was becoming very +fashionable in England, as our current legal phraseology still shows. +It runs thus:-- + + CEST . PILER . CVME + NCAT . RICARD . LE . PRE + STRE . PRIMER . PRE + YEZ . PVR . LVI + +_i.e._ in modern French: "Ce pilier commença Ricard le Prêtre +premièrement. Priez pour lui"; and in English "This pillar Richard the +Priest first began. Pray for him." + +After having told of so much loveliness all around, it is +disappointing to be obliged to confess that at Wisbech itself, the +metropolis of the northern Fenland, the church is comparatively +commonplace. Not that it is otherwise than a fine structure, and, like +Great Yarmouth, splendidly wide, having a double nave and a double +chancel; but it is hopelessly outclassed by those in the neighbouring +villages. The best feature is the tower, which is richly ornamented +with sacred and heraldic devices of the later Perpendicular period. +And in the nave is a fine fifteenth century brass. Otherwise there is +little to say about it; and, indeed, little to say about Wisbech at +all. It is a picturesque old place, with that somewhat pathetic +picturesqueness of an ancient seaport town which the sea has deserted. + +Wisbech, however, is not by any means a "dead city." It has 10,000 +inhabitants, and keen local ambitions, which have developed an +excellent museum and other up-to-date municipal equipment. Modern +energy and science have, moreover, made so effective a waterway +through the ten miles of silted-up estuary that vessels of 3,000 tons +can now, at high tide, reach the wharf. Such, however, are almost +unknown visitants. Last year (1909) the vessels clearing from the port +numbered 209, of 36,000 tons in all. Two of these are registered at +Wisbech itself, as are also twelve sea-fishing boats. A characteristic +photograph of Wisbech's shipping is given by Mrs. Hughes in the +"Geography of Cambridgeshire" (p. 118). Other photographs (pp. 47, 48) +show the great height to which the tide rises in the river, there +being a difference of over twenty feet between high and low water +mark. The Nene still has its outfall here, and flows through the town +in a fine sweep locally called the Brink. + +It is hard to believe that this Brink is not the Beach whence the name +of the town is vulgarly supposed to be derived. But you must not +suggest this to a Wisbech man. The single vowel is an integral part of +local faith and local pride, and to insert the "a" is to show yourself +a hopeless outsider. With it the name would come from _Ouse-beach_ +(like Land-beach and Water-beach near Cambridge). Without it the +derivation is _Ouse-beck_. This last syllable is a Scandinavian word, +well known throughout the north of England, and there signifying a +running brook. Throughout the Fenland it is frequently used for a +drain. But can the mighty Well Stream of the Ouse, at its tidal +outfall here, have ever suggested either drain or brook to the men of +old who named the place? And can these have been Scandinavians? + +[Illustration: _Leverington._] + +The chief oversea trade of Wisbech is in timber from Norway; and it +also does a large traffic in fruit, flowers, and vegetables, which are +extensively grown hereabouts. In this neighbourhood, moreover, may be +seen a much rarer cultivated crop, nothing less primitive than the +woad with which the ancient Britons dyed their bodies; though it is a +mistake to suppose that this dye took the place of clothing, for as +far back as history traces them they were quite fairly civilised, and +used woad only for tattooing, like sailors.[247] It is now used for +dyeing cloth. "An old woad mill, built of turf blocks arranged in the +ancient herring-bone pattern, with a timber and reed-thatched roof, +can still be seen at the village of Parson's Drove, about six miles +from Wisbech. The plant (_Isatis tinctoria_) grows about six feet +high, and has a blue-green leaf and bright yellow flower; the people +still call it by its old name, _w[-a]d_. The young plants are +delicate, and the crop requires much care. It is weeded by men and +women clad in hardened skirts and leathern knee-caps, who creep along +the ground and take out the weeds with a curious little handspade +which fits into the palm. The plant is picked by hand. The leaves are +crushed to a pulp in the mill by rude conical crushing wheels dragged +round by horses, and are then worked by hand into large balls and laid +on "fleaks" of twined hazel, or on planks, in special sheds, for three +months to dry. After this, the balls are thrown together, mixed with +water and allowed to ferment in a dark house for five or six weeks. +The woad is then rammed into casks and is ready to be sold to cloth +manufacturers."[248] + +[Footnote 247: See my _Roman Britain_, p. 47.] + +[Footnote 248: Hughes' _Geography of Cambs._, p. 97, where there is an +interesting photograph of this Woad Mill.] + +Wisbech plays but little part in history. Its position at the +convergence of the two great Roman sea-walls, east and west of the +estuary, makes it pretty certain that they must have had a station +here; but, if so, it has wholly passed out of memory. Wisbech Castle +is said to have been built by William the Conqueror, and certainly +existed in the time of King John. It passed into the possession of the +Bishops of Ely, and was rebuilt by two famous holders of the See, +Bishop Morton, the designer and excavator of Morton's Leam,[249] and +Bishop Alcock, the Founder of Jesus College, Cambridge.[250] Both +these prelates were singularly thoroughgoing reformers. The former +went into minute details about the dress of his clergy, forbidding +them to wear gaudy attire (such as "lirripoops" or gowns open in front +like a present-day M.A. gown), and charging them straitly to cut their +hair "so that all men may see their ears." And the latter was an +indefatigable pulpiteer; one of his University sermons is recorded to +have lasted three mortal hours on end. + +[Footnote 249: See p. 398.] + +[Footnote 250: See p. 146.] + +[Illustration: _Bell Tower, Tydd St. Giles._] + +This episcopal connection of Wisbech Castle led to its becoming, in +the reign of Elizabeth, the final scene of that pathetic and lingering +tragedy, the fate of the old Catholic Hierarchy of England. Such of +that hierarchy as were alive at Elizabeth's succession were, with one +exception, deposed for refusing the Oath of Supremacy, to the number +of fifteen. Shortly afterwards they were imprisoned, not by any +process of law but by the Royal fiat, and continued under more or less +severe restraint for the rest of their lives. This was wholly on +account of their religion. Lord Burghley, a hostile witness (in his +_Execution of Justice in England_[251]), testifies to their blameless +characters, describing them as "faithful and quiet subjects," "persons +of courteous natures," "of great modesty, learning and knowledge," +"secluded only for their contrary opinions in religion, that savour +not (like those of the seminary priests) of treason." + +[Footnote 251: This work was published in 1583, to justify the +execution of the seminary priests in England. Burghley's point is that +quiet Papists were not put to death.] + +Yet, though thus inoffensive, their doom was grievously heavy. +Committed, to begin with, to solitary confinement, in what Froude +calls "the living death of the Tower" and other London prisons, for +three or four years, they were afterwards quartered (singly) on the +Protestant prelates, who were stringently ordered by the Council to +prevent them from communication, either by word or letter, with +anyone, and to see that they had neither paper to write withal, nor +books to read (except Protestant ones). Thus deprived of every +intellectual, social, and religious solace, "pining away in miserable +desolation, tossing and shifting from one keeper to another," they one +by one drooped and died. But all remained steadfast to their Faith; +and finally the "obstinate" survivors were, in 1580, closely +imprisoned, along with others in like case, in Wisbech Castle. + +Here they were under the charge of Cox, the new Protestant Bishop of +Ely, who writes of them as "sworn against Christ," and boasts that "if +walls, locks, and doors can separate them from out-practice they shall +not want a sufficient provision of each." "Nor let it be thought, as +some bishops have reported, that I mind to make trade by over-ruling +such wretches." The "trade" was handed over to a favourite servant, to +make what he could out of the unhappy prisoners (who, like all +prisoners in those days, had to be supported by their friends), +subject only to providing out of his takings £80 per annum for the +upkeep of two Protestant preachers, "who are well able to set down +God's anger" against Popery. These preachers (amongst whom one +regrets to find "Lancelot Andrewes of Pembroke Hall") were ever and +anon to pester the "recusants" with denunciatory discourses in the +castle hall. "And the recusants shall be conveyed thither by a secret +way, without seeing any; and they shall have a secret place for +themselves to be in, to hear and not be seen.... This is the holy +ordinance of God."[252] + +[Footnote 252: See Bridgett and Knox, _Queen Elizabeth and the +Catholic Hierarchy_, p. 197 _et seq._ It may have been these highly +specialised discourses which put so fine an edge on Wisbech +Protestantism that, in the Civil War, the Parson here was ejected for +no more heinous offence than that "he called a Godly Minister (Mr. +Allison) _Brother Redface_."] + +Kept with this rigour the Confessors lingered on, year after year, +till death set them free. The latest to be released were Thomas +Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, who died in 1584, and Feckenham, the last +Abbot of Westminster, who died in 1585. Both are buried (as the Parish +Registers testify) in Wisbech churchyard. + +The castle was sold by the See of Ely in 1783, and has since been +almost wholly pulled down. Nearly at the same date a young man, born +at Wisbech, was beginning those efforts which have reflected glory on +his native town, and have revolutionised public opinion throughout the +civilised world. The man was Thomas Clarkson, and the cause to which +he devoted his life was the abolition of slavery. That institution, up +to his time, was regarded as a very foundation of the earth. Rooted in +the furthest past of man's history, and as world-wide as it was +ancient, the idea of questioning its place in the eternal fitness of +things never occurred even to philanthropists. A virtuous man would +treat his slaves kindly; but as for not having such, he would as soon +have scrupled at having sheep and oxen, or at employing hired +servants. + +It was left for young Clarkson, while a student at Cambridge, to +realise that the time was come when, if the human conscience was to +make any further progress in enlightenment, this hoary iniquity must, +root and branch, be abolished. On a steep hillside above Wade Mill, in +the road between Cambridge and London, a monument by the wayside still +marks the spot where he dismounted from his horse, and, kneeling on +the ground in the fervour of youthful enthusiasm, solemnly vowed to +God that for this holy object he would live and, if need be, die. + +At once he set to work. Gathering a band of like-minded friends round +him (mostly belonging to the so-called Clapham Sect, who were then +inaugurating the great Evangelical Revival)--Wilberforce, Zachary +Macaulay, Babington, Thornton, Buxton, Cropper, and the rest--he +started an agitation in and out of Parliament, which carried all +before it. The Slave Trade was abolished in 1807; on August 1st, 1834, +slavery itself ceased throughout the British Empire; the example of +Britain was followed by other European Powers; and finally, in 1864, +after a last desperate struggle for existence in the American Civil +War, it was cast forth from its last stronghold in the United States. +If practised at all now, it is practised under some feigned name and +elusive system. No civilised man dare any longer proclaim himself an +avowed slave-driver. Well indeed does Clarkson deserve the monument +which Wisbech has erected to her glorious son. + +At Wisbech, till the reclamation of the neighbouring Washes, +Cambridgeshire (or rather the Isle of Ely) possessed an actual strip +of seaboard extending from Wisbech town northward to the county +boundary between Tydd St. Mary and Tydd St. Giles. This strip was +itself reclaimed ground, but of far earlier date, due to the era of +Roman civilisation in Britain. The old coast-line, as has been said, +is still marked for us by a massive embankment extending from Sutton, +in Lincolnshire, to Wisbech, and thence to King's Lynn, in Norfolk--an +embankment sufficiently old to have given its name to the ancient +villages along its course. The designations of Walsoken, West Walton, +Walpole St. Peter, and Walpole St. Andrew, all testify to this sea +wall having been already in existence when the East Anglians, in the +fifth century, first took possession of the land. + +[Illustration: _Wisbech Church._] + +This embankment kept back, to the west and to the east, the tide-water +of the Well Stream (see p. 399), a wide inlet of the sea, narrowing +southward till it reached its extremity at Wisbech, and forming the +estuary for the united outfall of all the Fenland waterways. In later +days operations connected with the draining of the fens have diverted +nearly the whole volume of the Great Ouse and its tributary streams +to fall into the sea at King's Lynn, and have led the Nene straight to +Wisbech. But till the thirteenth century was well advanced the Ouse +and the Nene joined each other near Outwell, the united river being +called the "Well" or "Well Stream." The names of Upwell, Outwell, +Welney, &c., still preserve the memory of this old waterway. + +The estuary was, of course, tidal, leaving at low water a broad +expanse of sands, amidst which the shifting channel of the river was +so far broadened out as to be fordable at certain points; thus +admitting of passage across the whole breadth of the inlet, even where +it became five miles wide. The regular track for this passage was from +the little hamlet of Cross Keys, on the Norfolk coast (the name of +which is derived from this circumstance) to Sutton Crosses, near the +village of Long Sutton, on the Lincolnshire side, and is approximately +marked for us to-day by the line of the Great Northern Railway between +these spots, traversing the level fields and meadows which have (since +the year 1830) finally replaced the sands of old. + +The conditions of the passage were identical with those to be found +now at Morecambe Bay. That estuary can also be crossed at low tide; +but to do so in safety a good deal of local knowledge is essential. +The right points for fording the river channels must be found, the +numerous quicksands must be avoided, while the localities of both +fords and quicksands are constantly changing. It is therefore +exceedingly rash to make the attempt without guides; for across the +level sands of every estuary the tide makes with extreme rapidity, +sometimes coming in before the wind faster than any man can hope to +outrun it. These guides are professionals, who await on either bank +the demand for their services. + +All this is exactly what is said of the Well Stream "Washes" in +authorities of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As late as +1775, though successive reclamations had by that time reduced the +breadth of the passage by more than half, we hear of the guide "always +attending at Cross Keys to conduct passengers over, bearing a wand or +rod in his hand, probably in imitation of Moses, who held a rod when +he conducted the Israelites through the Red Sea." The rod was really +used for probing the sand in front, lest it should prove "quick," and +also for taking the bearings on the opposite shore by which the course +was steered. + +It was through neglect of such expert advice that the Well Stream +estuary became the scene of that dramatic episode in English history, +which, on the 13th of October in the year 1216, cost King John his +treasures and his life. The story is narrated by the contemporary +historian Roger of Wendover, and the Barnwell and Coggeshall +chroniclers. The whole circumstances have been most carefully and +minutely elaborated by Mr. St. John Hope, through whose kindness I am +enabled to use his materials. His able monograph on the subject is to +be found in Vol. LX. of "Archæologia." + +John was, in 1216, at death-grips with the Barons, who, in the +previous year, had wrung from him the signature of Magna Charta. The +rights and wrongs of the quarrel were not so wholly one-sided as is +popularly supposed, and the appeal of both parties to the Pope had not +sufficed to clear them up. The offer of the Crown by the Barons to +Louis, Dauphin of France, was for the moment more successful. Most of +England acknowledged him as King, and even the King of Scots came to +do homage for his sub-kingdom (as Scotland then was); only a few +strongholds, notably Windsor Castle, holding out for John and being +besieged by the Barons. + +John himself, however, was still at large, and at the head of a small, +but very effective, mercenary army of filibusters from all the +countries of Europe. He met the situation by a campaign of +extraordinary energy; his object being to relieve his invested +fortresses by drawing off their assailants to the defence of their own +lands. Incidentally, desire of revenge, and the need of paying his +troops by plunder, operated as a further motive for the merciless +destruction which, in a series of brilliant and ferocious raids, he +meted out to the districts owned by his opponents. The speed of his +movements is almost incredible, considering the conditions of travel +in the thirteenth century; but they can be traced with accuracy by the +still existing entries in the Patent and Close Rolls; for day by day +John did not cease to do royal business and to sign the documents +submitted to him, however far he might have marched since morning. In +the eyes of his Continental contemporaries this consuming energy came +to be held his chief characteristic. In the "Dittamondo" of the +Italian poet, Fazio degli Uberti, written early in the fourteenth +century, which gives a brief notice of the successive Kings of England +from the Norman Conquest onwards, the one thing mentioned about John +is the "hot haste" of his riding. + +Hot haste it was, indeed! Week after week the King made his army +(which, though small, cannot have numbered fewer than two or three +thousand men) cover distances that would be creditable to a solitary +bicycle tourist on the macadamised roads of to-day. From Corfe Castle, +in Dorsetshire, whither he had retreated on the landing of Louis, he +dashed across England (_via_ Bristol) to Cheshire, ravaged that +district for over a fortnight, and was back at Corfe within six weeks +of setting out. The very next day he was off again, and by a +circuitous route of 155 miles (for his enemies' forces barred the +direct way) reached Oxford within a week. A few days later another yet +more wonderful week of 225 miles carried him from Reading to Lincoln; +his daily stages being Bedford (45 miles), Cambridge (30), Castle +Hedingham, in Essex (25), Stamford (70), Rockingham (10), and Lincoln +(50). Here he remained ten days, during which he raised the siege of +the castle; having also succeeded in relieving Windsor, for the Barons +who were attacking it hastily broke up, and marched to Cambridge in +hopes of cutting him off at this strategic point--the only place, as +we have said,[253] where the Cam was passable for an army. It was +doubtless to escape this danger that John undertook, on September +19th, the forced march of 70 miles from Hedingham to Stamford, which +had perforce to be made _via_ "the Great Bridge" of Cambridge. + +[Footnote 253: P. 6.] + +Yet another week of marches up and down Lincolnshire, 115 miles in +all, brought him round the Wash to Lynn (by way of Wisbech); and then +came the great catastrophe. + +It was on Wednesday the 12th of October, 1215, that King John, after +three days' stay at Lynn, retraced his steps, with his wonted +celerity, by way of Wisbech, to Swineshead Abbey near Boston, a +distance of over forty miles. Documents signed by him on this day at +all three places are to be found in the Patent and Close Rolls. His +baggage train, which obviously could not have kept up with this pace, +he ordered to follow by the direct route across the sands. We read +with some surprise that his flying column was accompanied by such a +train at all; but the contemporary historians agree in telling us of +"carts, waggons, and sumpter horses," loaded with the King's treasures +and properties (including even a portable chapel), and with the spoil +amassed during this long raid. + +Such a train would cover at least a mile on any road, and could only +move quite slowly, three miles an hour at the very outside. How it +kept touch with the column at all is a wonder, and we may be sure that +it could never have done so during the forced march from Hedingham on +the 19th of September. After that date the occupation of Cambridge by +the Baronial forces would effectually bar the way against any attempt +to follow in the King's track; and it is highly probable that he, +knowing that this would be so, had ordered the train and its escort to +make their way instead from Hedingham to Lynn, and that he paid his +hurried visit to that place with the sole object of once more getting +into touch with them. + +However that may be, there is no doubt that the train did set out from +Lynn, along the road to Cross Keys, after the King and his troops had +ridden off towards Wisbech. It was impossible, however, to attempt the +passage that same day, for the channel of the Well Stream could only +be forded during the hour or so on either side of low-water, which, as +calculations show, was on this day about noon. The long line of +vehicles had, accordingly, to halt for the night at Cross Keys, for to +have attempted the passage in the dark (the moon was nearly at the +new), would have been simply suicidal. + +Next morning, Thursday, October 13th, they woke to find the tide +lapping against the old Roman embankment behind which they lay, for it +was a spring tide, and at its highest about 6.30 a.m. Rapidly it +receded, and by 9 a.m. the wide expanse of the sands would lie bare +before them. The moment these were dry enough for the passage of carts +they would start, for their leaders knew well the urgent necessity for +speed. To get such a train across the Well Stream channel in the short +space of two hours they must be at the ford the very moment it was +practicable. Every instant was precious, and every driver did his +utmost to press on, regardless of the warnings of the guides (if they +had any). + +But to drive a loaded cart over wet sand is at the best a slow job. +Readers of Sir Walter Scott will remember his vivid description, in +_Redgauntlet_, of the difficulties attending such attempts: + + "The vehicle, sinking now on one side, now on the other, + sometimes sticking absolutely fast and requiring the utmost + exertions of the animal which drew it to put it once more in + motion, was subjected to jolts in all directions.... There seemed + at least five or six people around the cart, some on foot, others + on horseback. The former lent assistance whenever it was in + danger of upsetting or sticking fast in the quicksands: the + others rode before and acted as guides, often changing the + direction of the vehicle as the precarious state of the passage + required.... Thus the cart was dragged heavily and wearily on, + until the nearer roar of the advancing tide excited apprehension + of another danger.... A rider hastily fastened his own horse to + the shafts of the cart, in order to assist the exhausted animal + which drew it, ... but at length, when, after repeated and + hair-breadth escapes, it actually stuck fast in a quicksand, the + driver, with an oath, cut the harness, and departed with the + horses, splashing over the wet sand and through the shallows as + he galloped off." + +Multiply all this at least a hundred-fold, throwing in the added +turmoil caused by the multitude of carts jamming and impeding one +another, and we can picture something of the scene as that fatal +morning advanced and the doomed cavalcade ploughed its way on to +destruction. For there was no margin of time; and though the leading +vehicles seem to have reached the Well Stream channel, they reached it +too late. Already it was unfordable, for such traffic at least as +theirs. Some of the carts doubtless tried to make a dash across; but +their horses, exhausted by the strenuous effort of the last two hours, +were unequal to the tremendous strain of negotiating the soft bottom +of the stream. A very few such failures would entirely bar the way to +those who were eagerly pressing on behind, and almost in a moment the +whole column would be in irremediable confusion. In the struggling +press, to turn would be as impossible as to proceed, while momentarily +the laden carts, for which the only hope was to be kept going, would, +at a standstill, sink deeper, inch by inch, into the ever quickening +sand. And then in the midst of the welter, up came the tide, sweeping +over the level sands, as spring tides in the Wash do sweep;--and, when +the waters once more went down, of all that mass of treasure and +plunder, of all those horses and drivers and carts and waggons not a +trace was to be seen. The sands had swallowed all; and to this day +they retain their prey. As Shakespeare makes King John say: + + "These Lincoln Washes have devoured them." + +The expanse of sands is now an expanse of fields and meadows, through +which the River Nene is led by a straight cut from Wisbech to the sea. +Where that cut is crossed by the Great Northern Railway (which, as has +been said, runs almost along the line of the old crossing-track) is +the traditional spot of the disaster, and Mr. St. John Hope believes +that excavation might there bring to light some of its relics, even +after the lapse of so many years. + +Matthew Paris (in his _Historia Anglorum_), writing in the generation +following the catastrophe, tells us that John himself was on the scene +and barely escaped from the rising waters. But he, as we have seen, +was the previous night (and the next) at Swineshead Abbey. It is just +possible that, with his astounding energy, he may have ridden in the +morning with a few attendants to Long Sutton (a distance of twenty +miles, as before the reclamation of the fens travellers from Boston +thither would have to go round by Spalding), and thence across the +sands, to overlook in person the passage of the Well Stream. If so, he +may well, in the confusion, have been surprised by the tide and have +barely escaped by hard riding. Anyhow the catastrophe cost him his +life; for this heart-breaking blow, coming on top of his three months' +herculean exertions, brought on a feverish attack that very night. Ill +as he was, he was on horseback again by dawn, and rode fifteen miles +to Sleaford. Next day he struggled on twenty miles to Newark, where +"the disease increasing, he received the counsel of Confession and the +Eucharist from the Abbot of Croxton," and died that same evening +(October 18th), fairly burnt out by his own consuming and tireless +energy. If ever King did, he "died standing." + +"Foul as Hell is, it is defiled by the fouler presence of John." Such +is the uncompromising verdict of the inimical chronicler; and such +(in less trenchant phraseology) has been very much the verdict of +popular historians even to our own day. But it was a verdict by no +means universally accepted by contemporaries. John did not, like +William Rufus, receive what Professor Freeman calls "the distinction +of a popular excommunication." For Rufus no prayer was said, no psalm +was sung, no Mass was offered. All men felt that prayer was hopeless. +But John was buried in peace; and it speedily appeared that the cause +for which he stood was the cause which (more especially when the +weight of his own personal unpopularity was removed) most commended +itself to the heart of England. Men had no desire to see the English +Crown become an appanage for the heir to the French monarchy. And so +Louis rapidly found. Within nine days of his father's death the infant +Henry the Third was crowned at Gloucester,--with his mother's +bracelet, in default of the proper crown (which, however, is not +likely to be amongst the treasures lost in the Wash, as many histories +assume); and within six months men were flocking "as to a Holy War," +from all parts of the country, to take part in that decisive battle +known as "the Fair of Lincoln," which crushed, once and for all, the +foreign intrusion, and established irrevocably the claim of the +native-born ruler to succeed his father on the throne of England. + +And with this stirring story we take our leave of the Highways and +Byways of Cambridgeshire, the stage of so many a story, the home of so +many a memory; the scene--to those who have eyes to see--of so much +quiet loveliness; where the Present is ever brooded over by the Past, +and where on the anvils of Thought and Science the Future is ever +being shaped. We have explored the County from end to end, we have +mounted her uplands, we have traversed her fens, we have clambered her +earthworks, we have entered her churches. Her Manor-houses have told +us their tale of struggle, her Colleges have borne their witness to +the growth of knowledge. We have been able to + + "Watch Time's full river as it flows"; + +and the pathos of all that has come and gone stands out before us, as +a record more thrilling than the most daring romance, as a theme more +inspiring than the noblest poem. We bid good-bye to the County of +Cambridge and the Isle of Ely feeling that no hue of dulness attaches +to them, as is commonly supposed by the unappreciative crowd, but that +rather the footprints of the past which abound within their borders +give promise of a future that shall not be unworthy of what has gone +before. + +[Illustration: _The Old Court of Corpus._] + + + + +ADDENDA. + + +Attention should have been called to two remarkable ecclesiastical +inscriptions, on the Eastern and Western borders of our district +respectively. + +In the upland churchyard of Castle Camps (p. 206), hard by the +Priest's Door into the Chancel, a tombstone has the following epitaph: + + Mors Mortis Morti mortem nisi morte dedisset + Æternæ Vitæ janua clausa foret. + + ["Except the Death of Death Death's death by death had been + Ne'er would Eternal Life with door unshut be seen."] + +And in the church of Fen Stanton, low down amid the Ouse meadows near +St. Ives, is the following ancient rebus (also hard by the Priest's +Door): + + QV A D T M P + OS NGVIS IRVS RISTI VLCEDINE AVIT + H SA M X D L + + _I.e._--Quos Anguis dirus tristi mulcedine pavit + Hos Sanguis mirus Christi dulcedine lavit. + + ["Whom the dire Serpent fouls with poisonous food + Christ washeth in His sweet and wondrous Blood."] + +A variant of these lines is to be seen in the Alpine sanctuary of +Champéry near the Lake of Geneva. + + + + +INDEX + + + A + + Abbeys: + Barnwell, 10, 160 + Chatteris, 390 + Crowland, 137, 393 + Denny, 30, 298 + Ely, 302-341, 345-376 + Peterborough, 373, 390, 394 + Ramsey, 75, 198, 279, 310, 392, 410 + Soham, 178 + Thorney, 392, 396 + + Abbey Barn, 161 + + Abington, 203 + + Adams, Prof., 266 + + "Ad eundem," 265 + + Adventurers, 403 + + Adwulf, 304 + + Agincourt, 184 + + Aidan, St., 175 + + Akeman Street, 252, 258, 295 + + Alan of Walsingham, 329, 345, 356, 360, 362, 366, 373 + + Alcock, Bp., 146, 283, 332, 376, 418 + + Aldreth, 283, 295, 316 + + Alfred the Etheling, 314 + + Alfred the Great, 11, 38, 169, 183, 213 + + Alum, 92 + + Ambulatory, 366 + + Ancarig, 392 + + Andrewes, Bp., 342 + + Andrew, St., Oratory of, 161 + + Anna, King, 303 + + Archdeacon of Ely, 282 + + Armeswerke, 306 + + Arnold, Matthew, 268 + + Arrington, 258 + + Artesian, 260 + + Ashwell, 248 + + Ashwell Bush, 236 + + Assandun, 205, 313 + + Assize of Barnwell, 161 + + Athelney, 308 + + Audley End, 234 + + Audrey's Fair, St., 307 + + Augustine, St., 38, 303 + + Augustinians, 11, 158 + + + B + + B.A., 16 + + Babraham, 202 + + Backs, 2, 41, 85 + + Bacon, 90, 102 + + Baitsbite, 296 + + Balsham, 171, 216 + + Balsham, Bp., 12, 25, 112, 325 + + Baptistery (Ely), 352 + + Barham Hall, 205 + + Barnack, 329 + + Barnett, Bp., 366 + + Barnwell, 10, 160 + + Barnwell Gate, 35, 152 + + Barnwell Priory, 16, 160, 370 + + Barrington, 238, 289 + + Barrow, 102 + + Bartlow, 205 + + Barton, 254 + + Barton Road, 252 + + Basevi, 371 + + Basket-making, 384 + + Bassingbourn, 247 + + Bateman, Bp., 82 + + Bath, 252 + + Becket, Thomas à, 235, 246 + + Bedford, Earl of, 406 + + Bedford Rivers, 280, 389 + + Bedmakers, 16 + + Belsars Hill, 283, 292 + + Benedictine Rule, 339 + + Benson, A. C., 138 + + Bentham, 345 + + Bentley, 40, 101, 105, 109 + + Bible (St. John's Coll.), 117 + + Bidding Prayer, 128 + + Biggin "Abbey," 295 + + Bishop's Delph, 178 + + Bishopsgate, 222 + + Black Death, 248, 340 + + Blaise, St., 284 + + Blazer, 119 + + Bluntisham, 280 + + Boadicea, 172 + + Boat Houses, 146 + + Boat Races, 88, 146, 296 + + Boat Show, 43 + + Bonfire, 85 + + Borough, 7, 8 + + Borough Green, 188 + + Botolph, St., 32, 34, 304 + + Bottisham, 189 + + Bourn, 273 + + Bourn Brook, 270 + + Bourne R., 202 + + Brazier, 97 + + Brandon, 185 + + Bretwalda, 178 + + Bridges: + Clare, 42, 84, 93 + Great, 46, 136 + Hauxton, 235 + Hostel, 43 + Huntingdon, 278 + King's, 42 + Magdalene, 136 + Newnham, 41, 222 + Queens', 41 + St. John's, 118 + Trinity, 43 + + Bucer, 23, 131 + + Buckingham College, 137 + + Bulldogs, 132 + + Burgesses, 12 + + Burgraed (King), 309 + + Burnt Mill, 236 + + Burwell, 195, 198 + + Bury St. Edmunds, 320, 370 + + Butcher's Broom, 227 + + Butterflies, 182, 211 + + Butter Measure, 12 + + Buttery, 95 + + Butts, 254 + + Byron, 90, 94 + + Byron's Pool, 220 + + + C + + Caldecote, 271 + + Cam, 7, 8, 40, 222, 295 + + Cambridge and Oxford, 2, 11, 17 + + Camden Society, 134 + + Camp of Refuge, 10, 316 + + Canute, 8, 205, 313 + + Car Dyke, 297 + + Carmelites, 11 + + Castle, 4, 138 + + Castle Camps, 206 + + Cavendish Laboratory, 159, 267 + + Caxton, 273 + + Ceilings, 100 + + Chad, St., 176, 355 + + Chained books, 83 + + Chancellor, 125 + + Chantries, 239 + + Chapel, Bush, 238 + + Chapel lists, 104 + + Chapels (College): + Christ's, 153 + Clare, 84 + Corpus, 35 + Emmanuel, 158 + Girton, 144 + Jesus, 147, 148 + King's, 52-77, 290 + Pembroke, 30, 342 + Peterhouse, 26, 342 + Queens', 48 + St. John's, 113 + Trinity, 102 + + Chapels (at Ely): + Bishop Alcock's, 332, 369 + Bishop West's, 332, 367 + Crauden's, 330, 346 + Lady, 330, 372 + St. Catherine's, 352 + St. Edmund's, 360 + + Charles the First, 101, 138, 182, 190, 268, 406 + + Charles the Second, 173 + + Cherry Hill, 345 + + Cherryhinton, 208 + + Chester, 221 + + Chesterford, 232 + + Chesterton, 295 + + Chevely, 185 + + Childerley, 271 + + Chimes, 101, 129 + + Choirs, 114 + + Choir School (Ely), 314 + + Christopher, St., 205 + + Chum, 288 + + Church ales, 247 + + Churches (Cambridge): + Abbey, 161 + All Saints', 108 + Christ Church, 162 + Holy Sepulchre, 133 + Holy Trinity, 152 + Our Lady's, 21 + St. Andrew's the Great, 155 + St. Andrew's the Less, 161 + St. Benet's, 36 + St. Botolph's, 32 + St. Clement's, 136 + St. Giles', 140 + St. Mary's the Great, 127 + St. Mary's the Less, 25 + St. Michael's, 13, 86 + St. Paul's, 162 + St. Peter's, 140 + + Churches (Ely): + Holy Trinity, 372 + St. Cross, 379 + St. Mary's, 378 + + Clapham Sect, 422 + + Clapper Stile, 204 + + Clarence, Duke of, 94 + + Clarkson, 421 + + Clayhithe, 296 + + Clergy Training School, 148 + + Clerks, 11 + + Clerk-Maxwell, 97 + + Cloisters, 92, 353 + + Clough, 142 + + Clunch, 198, 236 + + Codex Bezæ, 82 + + Coe Fen, 159 + + Coleridge, 150 + + "College" (Ely), 376 + + Colleges: + Christ's, 152-155 + Clare, 83-85, 342 + Corpus Christi, 35-38 + Downing, 159 + Ely Theological, 382 + Emmanuel, 156-158 + Girton, 144 + Gonville and Caius, 120-124 + Jesus, 146-150, 369 + King's, 50-79 + Magdalene, 137 + Newnham, 142 + Pembroke, 28-34, 298 + Peterhouse, 25-28, 369 + Queens', 47-50 + Ridley Hall, 142 + St. Catherine's, 39-40 + St. John's, 109-119 + Selwyn, 144 + Sidney Sussex, 151-152 + Trinity, 86-107, 242 + Trinity Hall, 82-83 + Westminster, 142 + + Comacine Guild, 353 + + Comberton, 254 + + Combination Rooms, 26, 97 + + Commons, 1 + + "Commons," 95 + + Common Fields, 3 + + Conduit, 23, 130, 158 + + Confessionals, 263 + + Conington, 292 + + Conqueror, William the, 187, 283, 315, 359 + + Coprolites, 240 + + Corporation, 12, 185 + + Coton, 89 + + Cottenham, 298 + + Courts (College), 2 + + Courts, Christian, 11 + + Covenant, 91 + + Coveney, 409 + + Cox, Bishop, 289 + + Cratendune, 179, 303 + + Cranmer, Abp., 150 + + Crauden, Prior, 330, 346, 359, 410 + + Cromwell, Oliver, 32, 128, 151, 272, 278, 367, 381, 406, 412 + + Cross Keys, 413, 424, 427 + + Crusades, 328 + + Cycloid, 89 + + Cyclone, 276 + + Cymbeline, 172 + + + D + + Darwin, 155 + + Deanery (Ely), 348, 353 + + Decorated, 334 + + Degrees, 16 + + Denver, 387 + + Denver Sluice, 280, 389, 407 + + Devil's Dyke, 171, 187, 194, 212, 300 + + "Disinherited," 325 + + Divinity schools, 109 + + Doddington, 409 + + Dominicans, 11, 155 + + Dowsing, 56, 187, 189, 205, 222, 270 + + Dry Drayton, 270 + + Dullingham, 188 + + Dunstan, Abp., 309 + + Dunwich, 180 + + "Duties," 377 + + Duxford, 228 + + Dykes, 170-173 + + + E + + Earith, 298, 389 + + Early English, 334 + + Eastern Counties Association, 380 + + Edgar the Peacemaker, 309, 373, 192 + + Edmund the Ironside, 206, 313 + + Edmund, St., 175, 180, 262 + + Edmundhouse, 142 + + Edward the Confessor, 314 + + Edward the Elder, 6, 8, 169, 212, 278 + + Edward the First, 328 + + Edward the Second, 86, 359, 411 + + Edward the Third, 86, 101, 330, 348, 359 + + Edward the Seventh, 94, 268 + + Egbert, 7, 169 + + Eleanor, Queen, 324 + + Electoral roll, 125 + + Elizabeth, Queen, 126, 290, 419 + + Elm, 412 + + Elsworth, 292 + + Eltisley, 274 + + Ely, 7, 11, 140, 188, 236, 302-385, 409 + + Ely House, 290, 333 + + Ely Place, 322 + + Emma, Queen, 314 + + Emneth, 412 + + Enclosure Acts, 387 + + Epigrams, 80 + + Erasmus, 47 + + Erconwald, St., 176, 262 + + Ermine Street, 244, 258, 273 + + Ermenilda, 176, 307 + + Esquire, Bedell, 128 + + Ethandune, 308 + + Etheldreda, St., 7, 169, 175, 179, 283, 303, 358 + + Ethelred, the Unready, 310 + + Eton, 51 + + Eustace, Bp., 349, 367 + + Eversden, 289 + + Examination Hall, 15 + + Examinations, 14, 98 + + Exeat, 17 + + Exning, 173, 175 + + + F + + Fagius, 23, 131 + + Fairy-cart, 260 + + Falcon Cup, 84 + + Felix, St., 178 + + Fellow Commoners, 151 + + Fellows, 2, 89 + + Fen Ditton, 171, 295 + + Fields, 3 + + Firehooks, 38, 204 + + First Trinity, 88, 148 + + Fisher, Bishop, 110, 152 + + Fisher, Osmund, 149 + + Fitzwilliam, 23, 371 + + Fleam Dyke, 170, 210 + + Fordham, 176 + + Fowlmere, 230 + + Foxton, 242 + + Franchise of Ely, 321 + + Franciscans, 11, 100, 152 + + Free School Lane, 36 + + Freshman's Pillar, 92 + + Friars, 11 + + Fulbourn, 209 + + Fuller, 344, 357, 384 + + + G + + Galilee, 324, 349 + + Garret Hostel, 43 + + Gating, 16 + + Geoffry de Magnaville, 34, 200 + + George the First, 80 + + George the Third, 90 + + Gibbet, 273 + + Gibbons, 90 + + Girton, 268 + + Girvii, 169 + + Godmanchester, 278 + + Godolphin, 202 + + God's House, 153 + + Gogmagogs, 201 + + Gonville, 14, 120 + + Goodhart, 95 + + Goodrich, Bp., 332, 341, 376 + + Granby, Marquis of, 98 + + Granta, 7, 202, 222 + + Grantabridge, 7 + + Grantabrigshire, 8 + + Granta-ceaster, 7 + + Grantchester, 7, 221 + + Grantset, 7 + + Gray, 28 + + Great Ouse, 399 + + Greek, 47 + + Greensand, 240 + + Guild Hall, 130 + + Guilden Morden, 262 + + Gunning, Bp., 342, 367 + + Guyhirn, 289 + + + H + + Haddenham, 282, 356 + + Halls, 15 + + Hardwick, 270 + + Harlton, 255 + + Harvard, 156 + + Haslingfield, 236 + + Hauxton, 235 + + Hemingford, 279 + + Henrietta Maria, Queen, 116 + + Henry the First, 359 + + Henry the Third, 324, 359 + + Henry the Sixth, 41, 51, 54 + + Henry the Eighth, 87, 97, 118, 152, 283, 372 + + Hereward, 10, 283, 315 + + Hermits, 41, 222 + + Hervey, Bp., 180, 321, 359 + + Hervey de Stanton, 86, 242 + + Hiding-hole, 225 + + High-table, 15, 96 + + Hilda, St., 303 + + Hildersham, 203 + + Hinxton, 230 + + Histon, 268, 287 + + Hithes, 44, 194 + + Hobson, 21, 158 + + Holcroft, 288 + + Holme, 400 + + Holywell, 279 + + Honours, 14, 98 + + Horningsea, 295 + + Horseheath, 209 + + Hospital of St. John, 25, 112 + + Hospitallers, 258 + + Hostels, 12, 43 + + Hotham, Bp., 330, 335, 359, 363, 366 + + Hubert, St., 270 + + Huddleston, 225 + + Hundreds, 10 + + Huntingdon, 138, 278 + + + I + + Iceni, 168, 211 + + Ickleton, 231 + + Icknield Way, 171, 203, 234, 244 + + Indulgence, 91, 235 + + Ink, 336 + + Ireton, 272 + + Ireton's Way, 390 + + Isle of Ely, 8, 168, 282 + + Isleham, 183 + + Ivo, St., 279 + + + J + + Jacutus, St., 205 + + James the First, 154, 173, 403 + + Jesus Lane Sunday School, 162 + + Jewry, 10, 108 + + Job, 248 + + John, King, 12, 136, 425-430 + + Jowett, 129 + + Julitta, St., 191 + + Jurats, 400 + + + K + + Kendal, 166 + + King's Ditch, 3, 34 + + King's Hall, 14, 86, 101 + + King's Mill, 34 + + Kingsley, 138 + + Kingston, 271 + + Kirtling, 186 + + Kitchen (Trinity), 96 + + Kitchener, Lord, 131 + + Knapwell, 273 + + Knee-holm, 227 + + + L + + Landbeach, 296 + + Landwade, 176 + + Lantern (Ely), 356 + + Lantern (Trinity), 97 + + Lectures, 16 + + Lepers' Chapel, 162 + + Leverington, 414 + + Leverrier, 266 + + Leys School, 160 + + "Libellers," 403 + + Liber Eliensis, 303, 337 + + Libraries: + Corpus, 38 + King's, 52 + Pepys, 137 + Peterhouse, 26 + St. John's, 44, 116 + Trinity, 43, 80 + Trinity Hall, 82 + University, 79-82, 100 + + Lincoln, 298 + + Lingay Fen, 222 + + Linton, 204 + + Littlego, 155 + + "Little John," 226 + + Little Ouse, 399 + + Littleport, 387, 400 + + Littlington, 264, 288 + + Lock-up, 264 + + Lode, 191, 194, 300 + + Logan, 2, 95, 100 + + London Stone, 160 + + Long Stanton, 289 + + Long Vacation, 17 + + Lycidas, 154 + + Lynn, 326, 390, 399, 400, 426 + + + M + + Macaulay, 14, 107, 136 + + Madingley, 268 + + Maitland, 3, 185 + + "Majestas," 287, 339 + + Maldon, 310 + + Manea, 409 + + March, 410 + + Margaret, Lady, 110, 152 + + Margaret, Queen, 41 + + Mark, 318 + + Market Hill, 130 + + Marshland, 399, 411 + + Martial, 384 + + Martin V., Pope, 161, 238 + + Mary Stuart, 278 + + Mary Tudor, 97, 225 + + Maur, St., 252 + + Mayor of Cambridge, 12 + + May pole, 255 + + Mazes, 254, 352 + + Medhampsted, 308, 394, 396 + + Melbourn, 242 + + Meldreth, 242 + + Mepal, 390 + + Merton, 25, 142 + + Michael House, 14, 86 + + Midsummer Common, 146 + + Mildenhall, 185 + + Mildmay, 156 + + Milestone, 82, 160 + + Mill Hill, 345 + + Mill, St., 50 + + Milton, 295 + + Milton, John, 56, 58, 91, 154 + + Miserere seats, 363 + + Monks' Door, 356 + + Monks' garments, 338 + + Morning Talks, 36 + + Morton, Bp., 336, 398, 418 + + + N + + Needham Hall, 412 + + Needingworth, 279 + + Nene, 398 + + Neotus, St., 276 + + Neptune, 266 + + Nevile, 92, 100 + + Nevile's Court, 92, 94, 95 + + Newcastle, 390 + + New College, 51 + + Newmarket, 173, 174, 389 + + Newton, Isaac, 41, 91, 92, 103, 107, 265 + + Non-Collegiate Students, 15 + + Northwold, Bp. Hugh de, 307, 324, 329, 335, 359, 363, 365, 369, 371 + + + O + + Oakington, 288 + + Oasland, 288 + + Oath of Supremacy, 419 + + Observatory, 221, 265 + + Octagon, 356 + + Oddy, 288 + + Old North Road, 244 + + Opponencies, 14 + + Organs, 105 + + Orwell, 256 + + Ostorius, 172, 211 + + Ouse R., 277-280, 301 + + Outwell, 398, 411 + + Over, 286, 294 + + Overcote, 280, 295 + + Owen, 283, 355 + + + P + + Paley, 155 + + Pandiana, St., 275 + + Parallax, 280 + + Parchment, 224 + + Paris, Matthew, 325, 328 + + Park (Ely), 345 + + Parker, Abp., 39 + + Paxton, 278 + + Peacock, Dean, 384 + + Peas Hill, 130 + + Pembroke, 28 + + Penda, 175, 303 + + Pensioners, 15 + + Pepys, 137 + + Perne, 23 + + Perpendicular Architecture, 334 + + Perry, Bp., 105, 155, 162 + + Peterborough, 298, 308, 315, 373, 400 + + Peter Pence, 203 + + Peters, Hugh, 183 + + Philippa, Queen, 330, 348, 359 + + Picot, 10, 160 + + Pilgrim's Progress, 166 + + Pitt Press, 40 + + Pitt, William, 32 + + Plate, College, 31, 84, 95 + + Poison Cup, 84 + + Population, 4, 10 + + Posidonius, 384 + + Preachers' Street, 155 + + Premier College, 50 + + President, 48 + + Prior's Door, 353 + + Priory Chapel, 161 + + Probus, 201 + + Proctors, 12, 16, 125 + + Provost, 12, 48 + + + Q + + Quarles, 155 + + Queen's Lane, 50 + + Querela Cantabrigiensis, 31, 129 + + Quy, 169 + + + R + + Radegund, St., 10, 144 + + Railroads, 20, 203 + + Rampton, 298 + + Reach, 171, 187, 194, 196, 300 + + Regent Street, 159 + + Residence, 17 + + Richard the Third, 322 + + Ridley, Bp., 31 + + Ringmere, 8, 214 + + Roger of Wendover, 309, 324 + + Rolls, C. S., 91 + + Romney Marsh, 400 + + Romsey Town, 208 + + Röntgen, 267 + + Roof Climbing, 91 + + Rooms, 15 + + Roubillac, 102 + + Round Churches, 133 + + Royston, 244 + + Rufus, William, 336, 430 + + Rustication, 16 + + Rutherford, Professor, 267 + + + S + + Sacring Bell, 231, 294 + + Saffron, 209 + + St. Ives, 279 + + St. John's Farm, 382 + + St. Neots, 276 + + Sancroft, Abp., 156 + + Sarcophagus, 307 + + Sawston, 222 + + Scholars, 14 + + Schools, 14 + + Screens, 95, 98 + + Seals, 393 + + Sea Wall, 399, 411, 422 + + Sedgwick, Adam, 267 + + Selenite, 292, 409 + + Selwyn, Bp., 367 + + Senate House, 15, 125 + + Sexburga, 176, 306 + + Sexwulf, 392 + + "Shammy" Leather, 222 + + Sharpinhoe, 236 + + Shelford, 222 + + Shepreth, 242 + + Shingay, 258 + + Ship Money, 244 + + Shudy Camps, 206 + + Sibyl, 149 + + Simeon, Abbot, 319, 335, 359, 360 + + Simeon, Charles, 152 + + Simon de Montfort, 325 + + Slavery, 421 + + Snailwell, 176 + + Soham, 178, 180 + + Sophs, 96 + + Sound, 92 + + Southey, 114 + + Spark, Bp., 321 + + Spenser, 32 + + Spikes, 78 + + Stanground, 387 + + Stapleford, 222 + + Steeple Morden, 263 + + Stocks, 242 + + Stokes, Sir George, 32, 267 + + Stonea, 409 + + Stone altar, 134 + + Stourbridge Fair, 163-167 + + Stretham, 283, 298 + + Stuntney, 180 + + Suffolk, 175 + + Sutton, 286 + + Sutton Crosses, 424 + + Swaffham, 236 + + Swaffham Bulbeck, 189 + + Swaffham Prior, 191 + + Swavesey, 292 + + Syndicates, 125 + + + T + + Tabula Eliensis, 319 + + Taxers, 12 + + "T.B.C.," 88 + + Tennyson, 55, 91, 97, 102, 104 + + Terms, 17 + + Terrington, 120, 414 + + Teversham, 209 + + Thackeray, 91, 97, 107 + + Theodore of Tarsus, 306 + + Thetford, 180 + + Third Trinity, 88 + + Thirlby, Bp., 341 + + Thompson, 104 + + Thomson, Sir J. J., 267 + + Tillotson, Abp., 288 + + Tithe Barn, 381 + + Toft, 270 + + Tonbert, 169, 283 + + Triplow Heath, 228 + + Tripos, 14, 127 + + Trumpington, 219, 310 + + Trumpington Gate, 35 + + Turf-cutting, 196 + + Turner, Bp., 274, 343 + + Tydd, 415 + + + U + + Ulfcytel, 8, 214 + + "Undertakers," 403 + + Union, 134 + + University, Origin of, 11 + + Upper River, 220 + + Upware, 194, 300 + + Upwell, 411 + + + V + + Vacations, 17 + + Valence, Marie de, 30 + + Vandlebury, 201 + + Vanity Fair, 166 + + Vermuyden, 406 + + Via Devana, 21, 159, 206 + + Vicars Brook, 23 + + Vice-Chancellor, 125 + + Victoria, Queen, 257 + + Vigor, St., 210 + + + W + + Walden, 137 + + Wall-rue, 295 + + Walpole, 413, 422 + + Walpole Gate, 345 + + Walsoken, 413, 422 + + War Ditches, 208 + + Warstead Street, 209 + + Washington Arms, 26 + + Waterbeach, 289, 296 + + Wat Tyler, 131, 248 + + Waynflete, Bp., 52 + + Wedmore, Peace of, 8, 308 + + Well Stream, 399, 411, 416, 422 + + Welney, 411 + + Wendred, St., 176, 275 + + Wendy, 260 + + Wentworth, 286 + + West, Bp., 332, 335, 367 + + Westcott House, 148 + + Westley Waterless, 188 + + Westminster College, 142 + + Westmorland, 166 + + Weston Colville, 188 + + Westry, 411 + + West Walton, 413, 422 + + Whalley, 272 + + Whewell, 104, 108 + + White Hill, 236 + + Whitgift, Abp., 124 + + Whittlesea, 410 + + Whittlesford, 227 + + Wicken Fen, 180, 300 + + Wilbraham, 210 + + Wilburton, 283 + + Wilfrid, St., 303, 393 + + Will of Henry the Sixth, 52 + + Williams, Bp., 116 + + Willingham, 286, 290 + + Wimpole, 256 + + Wireless Telegraphy, 267 + + Wisbech, 399, 403, 415, 426 + + Wisbech, John of, 331 + + Witchford, 286, 318 + + Woad, 417 + + Wood Ditton, 171, 187 + + Wordsworth, 55, 101, 102, 113, 118 + + Wranglers, 14 + + Wren, Bp., 25, 189, 209, 342 + + Wren, Christopher, 30, 43, 360 + + + Y + + Yaxley, 400 + + + + + RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, Limited + BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND + BUNGAY SUFFOLK. + + + + + =Sussex.= By E. V. LUCAS. With Illustrations by FREDERICK L. + GRIGGS. + +_WESTMINSTER GAZETTE._--"A delightful addition to an excellent +series.... Mr. Lucas's knowledge of Sussex is shown in so many fields, +with so abundant and yet so natural a flow, that one is kept +entertained and charmed through every passage of his devious +progress." + + + =Berkshire.= By JAMES EDMUND VINCENT. With Illustrations by + FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. + +_DAILY CHRONICLE._--"We consider this book one of the best in an +admirable series, and one which should appeal to all who love this +kind of literature." + + + =Oxford and the Cotswolds.= By H. A. EVANS. With Illustrations by + FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. + +_DAILY TELEGRAPH._--"The author is everywhere entertaining and fresh, +never allowing his own interest to flag, and thereby retaining the +close attention of the reader." + + + =Shakespeare's Country.= By The Ven. W. H. HUTTON. With + Illustrations by EDMUND H. NEW. + +_PALL MALL GAZETTE._--"Mr. Edmund H. New has made a fine book a thing +of beauty and a joy for ever by a series of lovely drawings." + + + =Hampshire.= By D. H. MOUTRAY READ. With Illustrations by ARTHUR + B. CONNOR. + +_STANDARD._--"In our judgment, as excellent and as lively a book as +has yet appeared in the Highways and Byways Series." + + + =Dorset.= By Sir FREDERICK TREVES. With Illustrations by JOSEPH + PENNELL. + +_STANDARD._--"A breezy, delightful book, full of sidelights on men and +manners, and quick in the interpretation of all the half-inarticulate +lore of the countryside." + + + =Wiltshire.= By EDWARD HUTTON. With Illustrations by NELLY + ERICHSEN. + +_DAILY GRAPHIC._--"Replete with enjoyable and informing reading ... +Illustrated by exquisite sketches." + + + =Somerset.= By EDWARD HUTTON. With Illustrations by NELLY + ERICHSEN. + +_DAILY TELEGRAPH._--"A book which will set the heart of every +West-country-man beating with enthusiasm, and with pride for the +goodly heritage into which he has been born as a son of Somerset." + + + =Devon and Cornwall.= By ARTHUR H. NORWAY. With Illustrations by + JOSEPH PENNELL and HUGH THOMSON. + +_DAILY CHRONICLE._--"So delightful that we would gladly fill columns +with extracts were space as elastic as imagination.... The text is +excellent; the illustrations of it are even better." + + + =South Wales.= By A. G. BRADLEY. With Illustrations by FREDERICK + L. GRIGGS. + +_SPECTATOR._--"Mr. Bradley has certainly exalted the writing of a +combined archæological and descriptive guide-book into a species of +literary art. The result is fascinating." + + + =North Wales.= By A. G. BRADLEY. With Illustrations by HUGH + THOMSON and JOSEPH PENNELL. + +_PALL MALL GAZETTE._--"To read this fine book makes us eager to visit +every hill and every valley that Mr. Bradley describes with such +tantalising enthusiasm. It is a work of inspiration, vivid, sparkling, +and eloquent--a deep well of pleasure to every lover of Wales." + + + =Cambridge and Ely.= By Rev. EDWARD CONYBEARE. With Illustrations + by FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. + +_ATHENÆUM._--"A volume which, light and easily read as it is, deserves +to rank with the best literature about the county." + + + =East Anglia.= By WILLIAM A. DUTT. With Illustrations by JOSEPH + PENNELL. + +_WORLD._--"Of all the fascinating volumes in the 'Highways and Byways' +series, none is more pleasant to read.... Mr. Dutt, himself an East +Anglian, writes most sympathetically and in picturesque style of the +district." + + + =Lincolnshire.= By W. F. RAWNSLEY. With Illustrations by + FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. + +_PALL MALL GAZETTE._--"A splendid record of a storied shire." + + + =Nottinghamshire.= By J. B. FIRTH. With Illustrations by + FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. + +_DAILY TELEGRAPH._--"A book that will rank high in the series which it +augments; a book that no student of our Midland topography and of +Midland associations should miss." + + + =Northamptonshire and Rutland.= By HERBERT A. EVANS. With + Illustrations by FREDERICK L. GRIGGS. + +_TIMES._--"A pleasant, gossiping record ... Mr. Evans is a guide who +makes us want to see for ourselves the places he has seen." + + + =Derbyshire.= By J. B. FIRTH. With Illustrations by NELLY + ERICHSEN. + +_DAILY TELEGRAPH._--"The result is altogether delightful, for +'Derbyshire' is as attractive to the reader in his arm-chair as to the +tourist wandering amid the scenes Mr. Firth describes so well." + + + =Yorkshire.= By ARTHUR H. NORWAY. With Illustrations by JOSEPH + PENNELL and HUGH THOMSON. + +_PALL MALL GAZETTE._--"The wonderful story of Yorkshire's past +provides Mr. Norway with a wealth of interesting material, which he +has used judiciously and well; each grey ruin of castle and abbey he +has re-erected and re-peopled in the most delightful way. A better +guide and story-teller it would be hard to find." + + + =Lake District.= By A. G. BRADLEY. With Illustrations by JOSEPH + PENNELL. + +_ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE._--"A notable edition--an engaging volume, packed +with the best of all possible guidance for tourists. For the most part +the artist's work is as exquisite as anything of the kind he has +done." + + + =Northumbria.= By P. ANDERSON GRAHAM. With Illustrations by HUGH + THOMSON. + + + =The Border.= By ANDREW LANG and JOHN LANG. With Illustrations by + HUGH THOMSON. + +_STANDARD._--"The reader on his travels, real or imaginary, could not +have pleasanter or more profitable companionship. There are charming +sketches by Mr. Hugh Thomson to illustrate the letterpress." + + + =Galloway and Carrick.= By the Rev. C. H. DICK. With + Illustrations by HUGH THOMSON. + +_SATURDAY REVIEW._--"The very book to take with one into that romantic +angle of Scotland, which lies well aside of the beaten tourist track." + + + =Donegal and Antrim.= By STEPHEN GWYNN. With Illustrations by + HUGH THOMSON. + +_DAILY TELEGRAPH._--"A perfect book of its kind, on which author, +artist, and publisher have lavished of their best." + + + =Normandy.= By PERCY DEARMER, M.A. With Illustrations by JOSEPH + PENNELL. + +_ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE._--"A charming book ... Mr. Dearmer is as +arrestive in his way as Mr. Pennell. He has the true topographic eye. +He handles legend and history in entertaining fashion." + +MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON. + + + + +[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all +other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling +has been maintained. + +Text enclosed in = is printed in bold in the book. + +Letters preceded by a ^ are superscribt. + +Page 117: "Last year (1809)" has been corrected to "Last year (1909)". + +Page 343: The footnote 223 present there has no anchor in the text.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Highways and Byways in Cambridge and +Ely, by Edward Conybeare + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN *** + +***** This file should be named 38735-8.txt or 38735-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/3/38735/ + +Produced by Colin Bell, Christine P. 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