VOLUME V SLICE I Calhoun to Camoens (continued 9)

Great Britain and Ireland.—The table on p. 88 contains the names that have been applied to the subdivisions of the Cambrian strata in the areas of outcrop in Wales and England; at the same time it indicates approximately their relative position in the system.

In Scotland the upper and middle series are represented by a thick mass of limestone and dolomite, the Durness limestone (1500 ft.). In the lower series are, in descending order, the “Serpulite grits” or “Salterella beds,” the “Fucoid beds” and the “Eriboll quartzite,” which is divided into an upper “Pipe rock” and lower “Basal quartzite.”

The Cambrian rocks of Ireland, a great series of purple and green shales, slates and grits with beds of quartzite, have not yet yielded sufficient fossil evidence to permit of a correlation with the Welsh rocks, and possibly some parts of the series may be transferred in the future to the overlying Ordovician.

North America.—On the North American continent, as in Europe, the Cambrian system is divisible into three series: (1) the lower or “Georgian,” with Olenellus fauna; (2) the middle or “Acadian,” with Paradoxides or Dikelocephalus fauna; (3) the upper or “Potsdam,” with Olenus fauna (with Saratogan or St Croix as synonyms for Potsdam). The lower division appears on the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts, and is traceable thence, in a great belt south-west of those points, through Maine and the Hudson-Champlain valley into Alabama, a distance of some 2000 m.; and the rocks are brought up again on the western uplift, in Nevada, Idaho, Utah, western Montana and British Columbia. The middle division covers approximately the same region as the lower one, and in addition it is found in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona, in western Montana, and possibly in western Wisconsin. The lower division, in addition to covering the areas already indicated, spreads over the interior of the United States.

Bohemia.—The Cambrian rocks of this country are now recognized by J.F. Pompesk; to comprise the Paradoxidian and Olenelledian groups. They were made famous through the researches of Barrande. The Cambrian system is covered by his stages “B” and “C”; the former a barren series of conglomerates and quartzites, the latter a series of grey and green fissile shales 1200 ft. thick with sandstones, greywackes and conglomerates.

North Wales. South Wales. Midland and West of England.

Shropshire. Malvern Hills. Nuneaton.

Upper Cambrian, Olenus fauna Tremadoc slates (Euloma-Niobe fauna) Tremadoc beds Shineton shales and shales with Dictyonema Bronsil shales, gray (Niobe fauna) Upper Stockingford shale (Merivaleshales)

Lingula flags Lingula flags Malvern black shales (White-leaved-oak shales)

(1) Dolgelly beds

(2) Ffestinieg beds Middle Stockingford shales (Oldbury shales)

(3) Maentwrog beds

Middle Cambrian Paradoxides fauna Menevian beds Menevian beds

Solva group Comley or Hollybush sandstone with upper Comley limestone Hollybush sandstone Lower Stockingford shales (Purley shales)

Lower Cambrian Olenellus fauna Harlech grits and Llanberis slates Caerfai group Lower Comley limestone Hollybush sandstone with Malvern quarzite and conglomerate at the base Upper Hartshill quarzite Hyolithes Hyolithes shales and limestone

Wrekin quartzite Middle and lower Hartshill quarzite and the quarzite of the Lickey Hills

Scandinavia.—Here the Cambrian system is only distinguished clearly on the eastern side, where the three subdivisions are found in a thin series of strata (400 ft.), in which black concretion-bearing shales play an important part. Limestones and shales with the Euloma-Niobe fauna come at the top. The upper series (Olenus) has been minutely zoned by W.C. Brögger, S.A. Tullberg and J.C. Moberg. In the middle series (Paradoxides) three thin limestone bands have been distinguished, the Fragmenten-Kalk, the Exulans-Kalk and the Andrarums-Kalk.

On the Norwegian side the Cambrian is perhaps represented by the Röros schists which lie at the base of a great series of crystalline schists, the probable equivalent of Ordovician and Silurian rocks.

Baltic Province.—The Cambrian rocks in this region are nearly all soft sediments, some 600 ft. thick; they reach from the Gulf of Finland towards Lake Ladoga. At the base is the so-called “blue clay” (really greenish) with ferruginous sandstones and with a fucoidal sandstone at its summit. This division is the equivalent of the Lower Cambrian. Above the fucoidal sandstone an important break appears in the system, for the Paradoxides and Olenus divisions are absent. The upper members are the “Ungulite grit” and about 20 ft. of Dictyonema shale. Cambrian rocks have been traced into Siberia (lat. 71°) and on the island of Vaigatch.

Central Europe.—Besides the Bohemian region previously mentioned, Cambrian rocks are present in Belgium and the north of France, in Spain and the Thüringer Wald. In the Ardennes the system is represented by grits and sandstones, shales, slates and quartz schists, and includes also whet slates and some igneous rocks. A. Dumont has arranged the whole series (Terrain ardennais) into three systems, an upper “Salmien,” a middle “Revinien” and a lower “Devillien,” but J. Gosselet has subsequently proposed to unite the two lower groups in one.

France.—-In northern France Cambrian rocks, mostly purple conglomerates and red shales, rest with apparent unconformability upon pre-Cambrian strata in Brittany, Normandy and northern Poitou. In the Rennes basin limestones—often dolomitic—are associated with quartzites and conglomerates; silicious limestones also occur in the Sarthe region. Farther south, around the old lands of Languedoc, equivalents of the two upper divisions of the Cambrian have been recorded; and the uppermost members of the system appear in Herault. Patches of Cambrian rocks are found in the Pyrenees.

In Spain slates and quartzites, the slates of Rivadeo, more than 9000 ft. thick, are followed by the middle Cambrian beds of La Vega, thick quartzites with limestone, slates and iron ores. Cambrian rocks occur also in the provinces of Seville and Ciudad-Real. Upper Cambrian strata have been found in upper Alemtejo in Portugal.

In Russian Poland is a series of conglomerates, quartzites and shales; Some of the beds yield a Paradoxides fauna.

In the Thüringer Wald are certain strata, presumably Cambrian since the uppermost beds contain the Euloma-Niobe fauna.

Sardinia contains both middle and upper Cambrian. The Cambrian system is represented in the Salt Range of India by the Neobolus or Khussack beds, which may possibly belong to the middle subdivision. The same group is probably represented in Corea and the Liao-tung by the thick “Sinisian” formation of F. von Richthofen.

In South America upper Cambrian rocks have been recorded from north Argentina.

The Lower Cambrian has been found at various places in South Australia; and in Tasmania a thick series of strata appears to be in part at least of Upper Cambrian age.

General Physical Conditions in the Cambrian Period.—The Cambrian rocks previously described are all such as would result from deposition, in comparatively shallow seas, of the products of degradation of land surfaces by the ordinary agents of denudation. Evidences of shallow water conditions are abundant; very frequently on the bedding surfaces of sandstones and other rocks we find cracks made by the sun’s heat and pittings caused by the showers that fell from the Cambrian sky, and these records of the weather of this remote period are preserved as sharply and clearly as those made only to-day on our tidal reaches. Ripple marks and current bedding further point, to the shallowness of the water at the places where the rocks were made.

No Cambrian rocks are such as would be formed in the abysses of the sea—although the absence of well-developed eyes in the trilobites has led some to assume that this condition was an indication that the creatures lived in abyssal depths.

At the close of the pre-Cambrian, many of the deposits of that period must have been elevated into regions of fairly high ground; this we may assume from the nature of the Cambrian deposits which are mainly the product of the denudation of such ground. Over the land areas thus formed, the seas in Cambrian time gradually spread, laying down first the series known as Lower Cambrian, then by further encroachment on the land the wider spread Upper Cambrian deposits—in Europe, the middle series is the most extensive. Consequently, Cambrian strata are usually unconformable on older rocks.

During the general advance of the sea, local warpings of the crust may have given rise to shallow lagoon or inland-lake conditions. The common occurrence of red strata has been cited in support of this view.

Compared with some other periods, the Cambrian was free from extensive volcanic disturbances, but in Wales and in Brittany the earlier portions of this period were marked by voluminous outpourings; a condition that was feebly reflected in central and southern Europe.

No definite conclusions can be drawn from the fossils as to the climatic peculiarities of the earth in Cambrian times. The red rocks may in some cases suggest desert conditions; and there is good reason to suppose that in what are now Norway and China a glacial cold prevailed early in the period.

Considerable variations occur in the thickness of Cambrian deposits, which may generally be explained by the greater rapidity of deposition in some areas than in others. Nothing could be more striking than the difference between the thicknesses in western and eastern Europe; in Brittany the deposits are over 24,000 ft. thick, in Wales at least 12,000 ft., in western England they are only 3000 ft., and in northern Scotland 2000 ft., while no farther east than Scandinavia the complete Cambrian succession is only about 400 ft. thick. Again, in North America, the greatest thicknesses are found along the mountainous regions on the west and on the east—reaching 12,000 ft. in the latter and probably nearly 40,000 ft. in the former (in British Columbia)—while over the interior of the continent it is seldom more than 1000 ft. thick.

Any attempt to picture the geographical conditions of the Cambrian period must of necessity be very imperfect. It was pointed out by Barrande that early in Palaeozoic Europe there appeared two marine provinces—a northern one extending from Russia to the British Isles through Scandinavia and northern Germany, and a southern one comprising France, Bohemia, the Iberian peninsula and Sardinia. It is assumed that some kind of land barrier separated these two provinces. Further, there is a marked likeness between the Cambrian of western Europe and eastern America; many fossils of this period are common to Britain, Sweden and eastern Canada; therefore it is likely that a north Atlantic basin existed. Prof. Kayser suggests that there was also a Pacific basin more extensive than at present; this is borne out by the similarity between the Cambrian faunas of China, Siberia and Argentina. The same author postulates an Arctic continent, bordering upon northern Europe, Greenland and North America; an African-Brazilian continent across the present south Atlantic, and a marine communication between Australia and India, where the faunas have much in common.

References.—The literature devoted to the Cambrian period is very voluminous, important contributions having been made by A. Sedgwick, Sir R.I. Murchison, H. Hicks, C. Lapworth, T. Groom, J.W. Salter, J.E. Marr, C.D. Walcott, G.F. Matthew, E. Emmons, E. Billings, J. Barrande, F. Schmidt, W.C. Brögger, S.A. Tullberg, S.L. Torngrist, G. Linnarsson and many others. A good general account of the period will be found in Sir A. Geikie’s Text-Book of Geology, vol. ii. 4th ed. 1903 (with references), and from an American point of view, in T.C. Chamberlin and R.D. Salisbury’s Geology, vol. ii., 1906 (references to American sources). See also J.E. Marr, The Classification of the Cambrian and Silurian Rocks, 1883 (with bibliography up to the year of publication); A. Geikie Q.J. Geol. Sac., 1891, xlvii., Ann. address, p. 90; F. Frech, “Die geographische Verbreitung und Entwickelung des Cambrium,” Compte Rendu. Congrès Géol. Internal. 1897, St-Pétersbourg (1899); Geological Literature added to the Geological Society’s Library, published annually since 1893.

(J. A. H.)

CAMBRIC, a word derived from Kameryk or Kamerijk, the Flemish name of Cambrai, a town in the department of Nord, France, where the cloth of this name is said to have been first made. It was originally made of fine linen. There is a record of a privy purse expenditure in 1530 for cambric for Henry VIII.’s shirts. Cambric has been used for many years in the manufacture of handkerchiefs, collars, cuffs, and for fine underclothing; also for the best shrouds, and for fine baby linen. The yarns for this cloth are of very fine quality, and the number of threads and picks often reaches and sometimes exceeds 120 per inch. Embroidery cambric is a fine linen used for embroidery. Batiste, said to be called after Baptiste, a linen-weaver of Cambrai, is a kind of cambric frequently dyed or printed. All these fabrics are largely copied in cheaper materials, mixtures of tow and cotton, and in many cases cotton alone, taking the place of the original flax line yarns.

CAMBRIDGE, EARLS AND DUKES OF. Under the Norman and early Plantagenet kings of England the earldom of Cambridge was united with that of Huntingdon, which was held among others by David I., king of Scotland, as the husband of earl Waltheof’s daughter, Matilda. As a separate dignity the earldom dates from about 1340, when William V., count (afterwards duke) of Juliers, was created earl of Cambridge by King Edward III.; and in 1362 (the year after William’s death) Edward created his own son, Edmund of Langley, earl of Cambridge, the title being afterwards merged in that of duke of York, which was bestowed upon Edmund in 1385. Edmund’s elder son, Edward, earl of Rutland, who succeeded his father as duke of York and earl of Cambridge in 1402, appears to have resigned the latter dignity in or before 1414, as in this year his younger brother, Richard, was made earl of Cambridge. In the following year Richard was executed for plotting against King Henry V., and his title was forfeited, but it was restored to his son, Richard, who in 1415 became duke of York in succession to his uncle Edward. Subsidiary to the dukedom of York the title was held by Richard, and after his death in 1460 by his son Edward, afterwards King Edward IV., becoming extinct on the fall of the Yorkist dynasty.

In 1619 King James I., anxious to bestow an English title upon James Hamilton, 2nd marquess of Hamilton (d. 1625), created him earl of Cambridge, a title which came to his son and successor James, 3rd marquess and first duke of Hamilton (d. 1649). In 1651 when William, 2nd duke of Hamilton, died, his English title became extinct.

Again bestowed upon a member of the royal house, the title of earl of Cambridge was granted in 1659 by Charles II. to his brother Henry, duke of Gloucester, only to become extinct on Henry’s death in the following year. In 1661 Charles, the infant son of James, duke of York, afterwards King James II., was designated as marquess and duke of Cambridge, but the child died before the necessary formalities were completed. However, two of James’s sons, James (d. 1667) and Edgar (d. 1671), were actually created in succession dukes of Cambridge, but both died in childhood. After the passing of the Act of Settlement in 1701 it was proposed to grant an English title to George Augustus, electoral prince of Hanover, who, after his grandmother, the electress Sophia, and his father, the elector George Louis, was heir to the throne of England; and to give effect to this proposal George Augustus was created marquess and duke of Cambridge in November 1706. The title lapsed when he became king of Great Britain and Ireland in 1727, but it was revived in 1801 in favour of Adolphus Frederick, the seventh son of George III. He and his son are dealt with below.

Adolphus Frederick, duke of Cambridge (1774-1850), was born in London on the 24th of February 1774. Having studied at the university of Göttingen, Adolphus Frederick served in the Hanoverian and British armies, and, in November 1801, was created earl of Tipperary and duke of Cambridge, becoming a member of the privy council in the following year. The duke is chiefly known for his connexion with Hanover. In 1815, on the conclusion of the war, the electorate of Hanover was raised to the rank of a kingdom, and in the following year the duke was appointed viceroy. He held this position until the separation of Great Britain and Hanover in 1837, and displaying tact and moderation, appears to have ruled the country with great success during a difficult period. Returning to England the duke became very popular, and was active in supporting many learned and benevolent societies. He died in London on the 8th of July 1850. In 1818 he married Augusta (1797-1889), daughter of Frederick, landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. He left three children: his successor, George; Augusta Caroline (b. 1822), who married Frederick William, grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; and Mary Adelaide (1833-1897), who married Francis, duke of Teck.

George William Frederick Charles, duke of Cambridge (1819-1904), was born at Hanover on the 26th of March 1819. He was thus about two months older than his cousin, Queen Victoria, and was for that period in the line of succession to the British throne. He was educated at Hanover by the Rev. J.R. Wood, a canon of Worcester. In November 1837, after he had served for a short time in the Hanoverian army, the rank of colonel in the British army was conferred upon him, and he was attached to the staff at Gibraltar from October 1838 to April 1839. After serving in Ireland with the 12th Royal Lancers, he was appointed in April 1842 colonel of the 17th Light Dragoons (now Lancers). From 1843 to 1845 he was colonel on the staff in the Ionian Islands, and was then promoted major-general. In October 1846 he took command of the Limerick district, and shortly afterwards of the Dublin district. In 1850 his father died, and he succeeded to the dukedom. Being appointed inspector of cavalry in 1852, he held that post until 1854, when, upon the outbreak of the Crimean War, he was placed in command of the 1st division (Guards and Highland brigades) of the British army in the East. In June of the same year he was promoted lieutenant-general. He was present at the battles of the Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman, and at the siege of Sevastopol. On the 15th of July 1856 he was appointed general commanding-in-chief, on the 9th of November 1862 field marshal, and by letters patent, 1887, commander-in-chief. The long period during which he held the command of the army was marked by many changes. The Crimean War brought to light great administrative defects, and led to a regrouping of the departments, which, with the whole personnel of the army, were brought under the authority of the secretary of state for war. The constitutional changes involved did not, however, affect seriously the organization of the military forces. Only in 1870, after the successes of Prussia had created a profound impression, were drastic changes introduced by Cardwell into the entire fabric of the army. The objects of the reformers of 1870 were undoubtedly wise; but some of the methods adopted were open to question, and were strongly resented by the duke of Cambridge, whose views were shared by the majority of officers. Further changes were inaugurated in 1880, and again the duke found much to criticize. His opinions stand recorded in the voluminous evidence taken by the numerous bodies appointed to inquire into the condition of the army. They show a sound military judgment, and, as against innovations as such, a strong attachment to the old regimental system. That this judgment and this attachment were not so rigid as was generally supposed is proved by his published correspondence. Throughout the period of change, while protesting, the duke invariably accepted and loyally endeavoured to carry out the measures on which the government decided. In a memorandum addressed to Mr Childers in 1880 he defined his attitude as follows:— “Should it appear, however, that for reasons of state policy it is necessary that the contemplated changes should be made, I am prepared to carry them out to the best of my ability.” This attitude he consistently maintained in all cases in which his training and associations led him, rightly or wrongly, to deprecate changes the need for which was not apparent to him. His judgment was especially vindicated in the case of an ill-advised reduction of the artillery carried out by Mr. Stanhope. Under the order in council of February 1888, the whole responsibility for military duties of every kind was for the first time centred upon the commander-in-chief. This, as pointed out by the Hartington commission in 1890, involved “an excessive centralization” which “must necessarily tend to weaken the sense of responsibility of the other heads of departments, and thus to diminish their efficiency.” The duke of Cambridge, whose position entailed many duties apart from those strictly appertaining to a commander-in-chief, could not give personal attention to the vast range of matters for which he was made nominally responsible. On the other hand, the adjutant-general could act in his name, and the secretary of state could obtain military advice from officials charged with no direct responsibility. The effect was to place the duke in a false position in the eyes of the army and of the country. If the administration of the army suffered after 1888, this was due to a system which violated principles. His active control of its training during the whole period of his command was less hampered, and more directly productive of good results.

Throughout his long term of office the duke of Cambridge evinced a warm interest in the welfare of the soldier, and great experience combined with a retentive memory made him a master of detail. He was famous for plain, and strong, language; but while quick to condemn deviations from the letter of regulations, and accustomed to insist upon great precision in drill, he was never a martinet, and his natural kindliness made him ready to bestow praise. Belonging to the older generation of soldiers, he could not easily adapt himself to the new conditions, and in dispensing patronage he was somewhat distrustful of originality, while his position as a member of the royal family tended to narrow his scope for selection. He was thus inclined to be influenced by considerations of pure seniority, and to underrate the claims of special ability. The army, however, always recognized that in the duke of Cambridge it had a commander-in-chief devoted to its interests, and keenly anxious amid many difficulties to promote its well-being. The duke resigned the commandership-in-chief on the 1st of November 1895, and was succeeded by Lord Wolseley, the duties of the office being considerably modified. He was at the same time gazetted honorary colonel-in-chief to the forces. He was made ranger of Hyde Park and St James’s Park in 1852, and of Richmond Park in 1857; governor of the Royal Military Academy in 1862, and its president in 1870, and personal aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria in 1882. He died on the 17th of March 1904 at Gloucester House, London. The chief honours conferred upon him were: G.C.H., 1825; K.G., 1835; G.C.M.G., 1845; G.C.B., 1855; K.P., 1861; K.T., 1881. From 1854 he was president of Christ’s hospital. The duke of Cambridge was married to Louisa Fairbrother, who took the name of FitzGeorge after her marriage. She died in 1890.

See Rev. E. Sheppard, George, Duke of Cambridge; a Memoir of his Private Life (London, 1906); and Willoughby Verner, Military Life of the Duke of Cambridge (1905).

CAMBRIDGE, RICHARD OWEN (1717-1802), English poet, was born in London on the 14th of February 1717. He was educated at Eton and at St John’s College, Oxford. Leaving the university without taking a degree, he took up residence at Lincoln’s Inn in 1737. Four years later he married, and went to live at his country seat of Whitminster, Gloucestershire. In 1751 he removed to Twickenham, where he enjoyed the society of many notable persons. Horace Walpole in his letters makes many jesting allusions to Cambridge in the character of newsmonger. He died at Twickenham on the 17th of September 1802. His chief work is the Scribleriad (1751), a mock epic poem, the hero of which is the Martinus Scriblerus of Pope, Arbuthnot and Swift. The poem is preceded by a dissertation on the mock heroic, in which he avows Cervantes as his master. The satire shows considerable learning, and was eagerly read by literary people; but it never became popular, and the allusions, always obscure, have little interest for the present-day reader. He made a valuable contribution to history in his Account of the War in India...on the Coast of Coromandel from the year 1750 to 1760... (1761). He had intended to write a history of the rise and progress of British power in India, but this enterprise went no further than the work just named, as he found that Robert Orme, who had promised him the use of his papers, contemplated the execution of a similar plan.

The Works of Richard Owen Cambridge, Esq., including several Pieces never before published, with an Account of his Life and Character by his Son, George Owen Cambridge (1803), includes, besides the Scribleriad, some narrative and satirical poems, and about twenty papers originally published in Edward Moore’s paper called The World. His poems are included in A. Chalmers’s English Poets (1816).

CAMBRIDGE, a municipal and parliamentary borough, the seat of a university, and the county town of Cambridgeshire, England, 56 m. N. by E. of London by the Great Eastern railway, served also by the Great Northern, London & North-Western and Midland lines. Pop. (1901) 38,379. It lies in a flat plain at the southern border of the low Fen country, at an elevation of only 30 to 50 ft. above sea-level. The greater part of the town is situated on the east (right) bank of the Cam, a tributary of the Ouse, but suburbs extend across the river. To the south and west the slight hills bordering the fenland rise gently. The parliamentary borough of Cambridge returns one member. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 12 aldermen, and 36 councillors. Area, 3233 acres.

Cambridge University1 shares with that of Oxford the first place among such institutions in the British empire. It is the dominating factor in the modern importance of the town, and it is therefore necessary to outline History the historical conditions which led to its establishment. The geographical situation of Cambridge, in its present appearance possessing little attraction or advantage, calls nevertheless for first consideration. Cambridge, in fact, owed its growth to its position on a natural line of communication between the east and the midlands of England, flanked on the one hand by the deep forests which covered the uplands, on the other by the unreclaimed fens, then desolate and in great part impenetrable. The importance of this highway may be judged from the number of early earthworks in the vicinity of Cambridge; and the Castle Hill, at the north side of the present town (near the west bank of the river), is perhaps a British work. Roman remains discovered in the same locality give evidence of the existence of a small town or village at the junction of roads; the name of Camboritum is usually attached to it, but without certainty. The modern name of Cambridge has no connexion with this. The present form of the name has usually been derived from a corruption of the original name Grantebrycge or Grantabridge (Skeat); but Mr Arthur Gray points out that there is no documentary evidence for this corruption in the shape of such probable intermediate forms as Grantebrig or Crantebrig. On the other hand, he brings evidence to show that the name Cantebrig, though not applied to the whole town, was very early given to that quarter of it near the Cante brig, i.e. the bridge over the Cante (the ward beyond the Great Bridge was called “Parcelle of Cambridge” as late as 1340); in this quarter, close to the bridge, Cambridge castle was built by the Conqueror, and from the castle and the castle-quarter the name spread within sixty years to the whole town, the similarity between the names Grantebrig and Cantebrig playing some part in this extension (The Dual Origin of the Town of Cambridge, p. 31). Granta is the earlier and still an alternative name of the river Cam, this more common modern form having been adopted in sympathy with the modern name of the town. Cambridge had a further importance from its position at the head of river navigation, and a charter of Henry I., in which the town is already referred to as a borough, grants it exclusive rights as a river-port, and regulates traffic and tolls. The wharves lay principally along that part of the river where are now the celebrated “backs” of some of the colleges, whose exquisite grounds slope down to the water. The great Sturbridge or Stourbridge Fair at Barnwell, formerly one of the most important in England, is a further illustration of the ancient commercial importance of Cambridge; the oldest known charter concerning it dates from the opening of the 13th century, though its initiation may perhaps be placed a century before.

Concerning the early municipal history of Cambridge little is known, but at the time of the Domesday survey its citizens felt themselves strong enough to protest against the exactions of the Norman sheriff, Roger Picot; and the town had attained a considerable degree of importance when, in 1068, William the Conqueror built a castle on the site known as Castle Hill, and used it as a base of operations against Hereward the Wake and the insurgents of the fenland. Cambridge, however, has practically no further military history. From the 14th century onward materials were taken from the castle by the builders of colleges, while the gatehouse, the last surviving portion, was removed in 1842.

The medieval spirit of emulation between the universities of Cambridge and Oxford resulted in a series of remarkable fables to account for the foundation of both. That of Cambridge was assigned to a Spanish prince, Cantaber, in the 4321st year after the Creation. A charter from King Arthur dated 531, and the transference of students from Cambridge to Oxford by King Alfred, were also claimed as historical facts. The true germ of the university is to be sought in the religious foundations in the town. The earliest to be noticed is the Augustinian house of St Giles, founded by Hugoline, wife of Roger Picot the sheriff, in 1092; this was removed in 1112 to Barnwell, where the chapel dedicated to St Andrew the Less is practically the sole remnant of its buildings. In 1224 the Franciscans came to Cambridge, and later in the same century a number of other religious orders settled here, such as the Dominicans, the Gilbertines and the Carmelites, who had before been established at Newnham. Students were gradually attracted to these several religious houses, and Cambridge was already recognized as a centre of learning when, in 1231, Henry III. issued a writ for its governance as such, among other provisions conferring certain disciplinary powers on the bishop of Ely. It soon became evident that the influence of the religious orders on those who came to them for instruction was too narrow. This was recognized elsewhere, for it was in order to counteract that influence that Walter de Merton drew up the statute of governance for his foundation of Merton College, Oxford, a statute which was soon afterwards used as a model by Hugh de Balsham, bishop of Ely, when, in 1281-1284 he founded the first Cambridge college, Peterhouse.

The friction between town and university, due in the main to the conflict of their jurisdictions, the tradition of which, as in the sister university, died hard in the annual efforts of some undergraduates to revive the “town and gown” riots, culminated during the rebellion of Wat Tyler (1381) in an episode which is alone worthy of record and may serve to illustrate the whole. This was an attack by the rabble, instigated, it is said, by the more reputable townspeople, on the colleges, several of which were sacked. The attack was ultimately defeated by the courage and resource of Henry Spenser or Le Dispencer, bishop of Norwich. The relations of the university of Cambridge with the crown were never so intimate as those of Oxford. Henry III. fortified the town with two gates, but these were burnt by the rebellious barons; and in much later times the two first of the Stuart kings, and the two first of the Georges, cultivated friendly personal relations with the university. During the civil war the colleges even melted down their plate for the war chest of King Charles; but Cambridge showed little of the stubborn royalism of Oxford, and submitted to the Commonwealth without serious resistance.

The history of collegiate foundation in Cambridge after that of Peterhouse may be followed through the ensuing description of the colleges, but for ease of reference these are dealt with in alphabetical order. The main street which Colleges. traverses the town from south to north, parallel to, and at a short distance from the river, is known successively as Trumpington Street, King’s Parade, Trinity Street, St John’s Street and Bridge Street. The majority of the colleges lie on either side of this street, and chiefly between it and the river. Those of St John’s, Trinity, Trinity Hall, Clare, King’s and Queens’ present the famous “backs” towards the river, which is crossed by a series of picturesque bridges leading to the gardens and grounds on the opposite bank.

Christ’s College is not among the group indicated above; it stands farther to the east, in St Andrew’s Street. It was founded in 1505 by the Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. It incorporated God’s House, which had been founded by William Bingham, a cleric of London, in 1439, had been removed when the site was required for part of King’s College, and had been refounded with the countenance of Henry VI. in 1448. This was a small house, but the Lady Margaret’s endowment provided for a master, twelve fellows and forty-seven scholars. Edward VI. added another fellowship and three scholarships and the present number of fellows is fifteen. There are certain exhibitions in election to which preference is given to schools in the north of England—Giggleswick, Kirkby Lonsdale, Skipton and Sedbergh. The buildings of Lady Margaret’s foundation were in great part faced in classical style in the 17th century; a building east of the old quadrangle is also of this period, and is ascribed to Inigo Jones. The rooms occupied by the foundress herself are preserved, though in an altered condition, as are those of the poet Milton, who was educated here, and with whom the college has many associations. In the fine gardens is an ancient mulberry tree believed to have been planted by him. Among illustrious names connected with this college are John Leland the antiquary, Archdeacon Paley, author of the Evidences, and Charles Darwin, while Henry More and others of the school of Cambridge Platonists in the 17th century were educated here.

Clare College lies close to the river, south of Trinity Hall. In 1326 the university erected a hall, known as University Hall, to accommodate a number of students, and in 1338 Elizabeth de Burgh, countess of Clare, re-endowed the hall, which took the name of Clare Hall, and only became known as college in 1856. There was a strong ecclesiastical tendency in this foundation; six out of the twenty fellows were to be priests when elected. The foundation now consists of a master and fifteen fellows, besides scholars, of whom three receive emoluments from the endowment of Lady Clare. The old college buildings were in great part destroyed by fire in 1521; the present buildings date from 1638 to 1715, and are admirable examples of their period. They surround a very beautiful quadrangle, and the back towards the river is also fine. Unconfirmed tradition indicates the poet Chaucer as an alumnus of this college; other famous men associated with it were Hugh Latimer the martyr, Ralph Cudworth, one of the “Platonists,” and Archbishop Tillotson.

Corpus Christi College (commonly called Corpus) stands on the east side of Trumpington Street. The influence of medieval gilds in Cambridge, the character of which was primarily religious, was exceedingly strong. About the beginning of the 14th century there is first mentioned the gild of St Mary, which was connected with Great St Mary’s church. The gild was at this time prosperous, but about 1350, when the idea of the foundation of a college by the gilds was matured, the fraternity of St Mary lacked the means to proceed save by amalgamating with another gild, that of Corpus Christi. The age of this institution, whose church was St Benedict’s or St Bene’t’s, is not known. By the two gilds, therefore, the “House of Scholars of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary” was founded in 1352, the foundation being the only instance of its kind. In early times it was commonly known as St Bene’t’s from the church connected with the Corpus gild which stands over against the college, and served as its chapel for nearly three centuries. The foundation consists of a master and twelve fellows, with scholars of the old and later foundations. The ancient small quadrangle remains, and is of historical rather than architectural interest. The great quadrangle dates from 1823-1825. The library contains the famous collection of MSS. bequeathed by Archbishop Matthew Parker, alumnus of the college, in the 16th century.

Downing College is in the southern part of the town, to the east of Trumpington Street. Sir George Downing, baronet, of Gamlingay Park, who died in 1749, left estates to various relations, who died without issue. In this event, Downing’s will provided for the foundation of a college, but the heirs contested the will with the university, and in spite of a decision against them in 1769, continued to hold the estates for many years, so that it was not until 1800 that the charter for the college was obtained. The foundation-stone was laid in 1807, and the two ranges of buildings, in classical style, represent all that was completed of an intended quadrangle. The foundation consists of a master, professors of English law and of medicine, six fellows and six scholars.

Emmanuel College overlooks St Andrew’s Street. It was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay (c. 1520-1589), chancellor of the exchequer and privy councillor under Queen Elizabeth. The foundation, considerably enlarged from the original, consists of a master, sixteen fellows and thirty scholars. There are further scholarships on other foundations which are awarded by preference to pupils of Uppingham and other schools in the midlands. Emmanuel was noted from the outset as a stronghold of Puritanism; it is indeed recorded that Elizabeth rallied the founder on his intention that this should be so. Mildmay assuredly had the welfare of the church primarily at heart, and he attempted to provide against the life residence of fellows, which he considered an unhealthy feature in some colleges. The site of Emmanuel was previously occupied by a Dominican friary, and some of its buildings were adapted to collegiate uses. There is only a little of the earliest building remaining; the greater part of the present college dates from the second half of the 18th century. The chapel, however, is by Sir Christopher Wren (1677). Richard Holdsworth, Gresham professor, and William Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, were masters of this college; Bishops Joseph Hall and Thomas Percy were among its alumni, as was John Harvard, principal founder of the great American college which bears his name.

Gonville and Caius College (commonly called Caius, pronounced Kees), stands mainly on the west side of Trinity Street. It arose out of an earlier foundation. In 1348 Edmund Gonvile or Gonevill founded the hall of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, which was commonly called Gonville Hall, for the education of twenty scholars in dialectic and other sciences, with endowment for a master and three fellows. This hall stood on part of the present site of Corpus, but on the death of its founder in 1351 it was moved to the north-west corner of the site of the present Caius, by William Bateman, bishop of Norwich and founder of Trinity Hall. The famous physician John Caius (q.v.), who was educated at this small institution, later conceived the idea of refounding and enlarging it, obtained a charter to do so in 1557, and became master of the new foundation of Gonville and Caius College. The foundation consists of a master and not less than twenty-two fellows, exclusive of the provision under the will of William Henry Drosier (d. 1889), doctor of medicine and fellow of the college, for the endowment of seven additional fellowships. Since its refoundation by Caius, the college has had a peculiar connexion with the study of medicine, while, besides many eminent physicians, Sir Thomas Gresham, Judge Jeffreys, Robert Hare, Jeremy Taylor, Henry Wharton and Lord Thurlow are among its noted names. Three sides of the main quadrangle, Tree Court, including the frontage towards Trinity Street, are modern (1870). The interior of this court is picturesque, and the design of the smaller Caius Court was inspired by Caius himself. He also designed the gates of Honour, Virtue and Humility, of which the two first stand in situ; the gate of Honour is a peculiarly good example of early Renaissance work. Caius is buried in the chapel.

Jesus College lies apart from and to the north-east of the majority of the colleges. It was founded in 1406 by John Alcock, bishop of Ely. The site was previously occupied by a Benedictine nunnery dedicated to St Radigund, which was already in existence in the first half of the 12th century and was claimed by Alcock to have been founded from Ely, to the bishops of which it certainly owed much. The name given to Alcock’s college was that of “the most Blessed Virgin Mary, St John the Evangelist, and the glorious Virgin Saint Radigund,” but it appears that the founder himself intended the name to be Jesus College. He provided for a master and six fellows, but the foundation now consists of a master and sixteen fellows, with twenty scholars or more. There are several further scholarships confined to the sons of clergymen of the Church of England. Architecturally Jesus is one of the most interesting colleges in Cambridge, for Alcock retained, and there still remains, a considerable part of the old buildings of the nunnery. The most important of these is the church, which Alcock, by removing most of the nave and other portions, converted into the usual form of a college chapel. The tower, however, is retained. The bulk of the building is an admirable example of Early English work, but there are traces of Norman; and Alcock added certain Perpendicular features. Of the rest of the college buildings, the hall is Alcock’s work, the brick gatehouse is a fine structure of the close of the 15th century, while the cloister is a little later, and stands on the site of the nuns’ cloister. Another court dates from the 17th and early 18th centuries, and there is a considerable amount of modern building. The most famous name connected with Jesus College is that of Cranmer. Among many others are Sir Thomas Elyot, John Bale, John Pearson, bishop of Chester, Hugh Peters, Gilbert Wakefield, Thomas Malthus, Laurence Sterne and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

King’s College has its fine frontage upon the western side of King’s Parade. It was founded by King Henry VI. in 1441. The first site was small and circumscribed, and in 1443 the existing site was with difficulty cleared of dwellings. The king designed a close connexion between this college and his other foundation at Eton; he provided for a provost and for seventy scholars, all of whom should be Etonians. In 1861 open scholarships were instituted, and the foundation now consists of a provost, forty-six fellows and forty-eight scholars. Half the scholarships are still appropriated to Eton. An administrative arrangement peculiar to King’s College is that by which the provost has absolute authority within its walls, to the exclusion of officers of the University. The chief architectural ornament of the college, and one of the most notable in the town, is the magnificent Perpendicular chapel, comparable with those of St George at Windsor and Henry VII. at Westminster Abbey. The building was begun in 1446, and extended (apart from the interior fittings) over nearly seventy years. Within, the most splendid features are the fan-vaulting which extends throughout the chapel, the noble range of stained-glass windows, which date for the most part from the early part of the 16th century, and the wooden organ screen, which, with part of the stalls, is of the time of Henry VIII. The college services are celebrated for the beauty of their music. The bulk of the other collegiate buildings are of the 18th century or modern. The old court of King’s College is occupied by the modern university library, north of the chapel; the gateway, a good example (1444), is preserved. John Frith the Martyr, Richard Croke, Giles Fletcher, Richard Mulcaster, Sir William Temple, William Oughtred, the poet Waller, and Horace Walpole and others of his family are among many illustrious alumni of the college.

Magdalene College (pronounced Maudlin) stands on the west bank of the Cam, near the Great Bridge. In 1428 the Benedictines of Crowland Abbey founded a home for student monks on this site, and in 1519 Edward, duke of Buckingham, partly secularized this institution by founding Buckingham College in connexion with it. After the dissolution of the monastery, Thomas, Baron Audley of Walden, erected Magdalene in place of the former house in 1542. The foundation consists of a master and seven fellows, besides scholars. There are some valuable exhibitions appropriated to Wisbech school. The appointment of the master is peculiar, the office being in the gift of the occupant of Audley End, an estate near Saffron Walden, Essex. Some parts of the original building are preserved, but the most notable portion of the college is the Pepysian library, dating c. 1700. It contains the very valuable collection of books bequeathed by Samuel Pepys to the college, at which he was a student. Buckingham College had Archbishop Cranmer as a lecturer; Charles Kingsley and Charles Stewart Parnell were educated at Magdalene.

Pembroke College stands to the east of Trumpington Street. It was founded in 1347 by Mary de St Paul, widow of Aylmer de Valence, earl of Pembroke. Henry VI. made notable benefactions to it. The foundation consists of a master and thirteen fellows, and there are six scholarships on the original foundation, besides others of later institution. The older existing buildings are mainly of the 18th century, but much of the original fabric was removed and rebuilt in 1874. The chapel is of the middle of the 17th century, and is ascribed to Sir Christopher Wren. The poets Spenser and Gray, Nicholas Ridley the martyr, Archbishop Whitgift and William Pitt were associated with this college; and from the number of bishops whose names are associated with it the college has obtained the style of collegium episcopale.

Peterhouse or St Peter’s College is on the west side of Trumpington Street, almost opposite Pembroke. It has already been indicated as the oldest Cambridge college (1284). Hugh de Balsham, the founder, had settled some secular scholars in the ancient Augustinian Hospital of St John in 1280, but the experiment was not a success. Nor did he carry out his full intentions as regards Peterhouse, the foundation of which followed on the failure of the fusion of his scholars with the hospital; but Simon Montagu, his successor in the bishopric of Ely, carried on his work, and in 1344 gave the college a code of statutes in which the influence of the Merton code is plainly visible. A master and fourteen fellows formed the original foundation, but the present consists of a master, and not less than eleven fellows and twenty-three scholars. The hall retains some original work; it was first built out of a legacy from the founder. The library building (c. 1590) is due to a legacy from Dr Andrew Perne (master 1554-1580); and Dr Matthew Wren (master 1625-1634), uncle of the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren, directed the building of the chapel and cloisters. The most famous name connected with the college is that of Cardinal Beaufort.

Queens’ College stands at the south of the riverside group, and one of its ranges of buildings rises immediately from the river. A college of St Bernard had been established in 1445 by Andrew Docket or Dokett, rector of St Botolph’s church, who had also been principal of a hostel, or students’ lodge, of St Bernard. He sought and obtained the patronage of Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI., who undertook the foundation of a new house on another site in 1448, to bear the name of Queens’. Docket became the first master. In 1465 Elizabeth Woodville, wife of Edward IV., became the college’s second foundress. The foundation consists of a president and eleven fellows. The buildings are exceedingly picturesque. The main quadrangle, of red brick, was completed very soon after the foundation. The smaller cloister court, towards the river, retains building of the same period, and the beautiful wooden gallery of the president’s lodge deserves notice. Another court is called Erasmus’s; the rooms which he is said to have occupied remain, and a walk in the college garden across the river bears his name.

St Catharine’s College, on the west side of Trumpington Street, was founded by Dr Robert Woodlark or Wodelarke, chancellor of the university and (1452) provost of King’s College. It was opened in 1473, but the charter of incorporation dates from 1475. The foundation provided for a master (Woodlark being the first) and three fellows; there are now six fellows, and twenty-six scholars. The principal buildings, surrounding a court on three sides, date mainly from a complete reconstruction of the college at the close of the 17th century.

St John’s College, at the north of the riverside group of colleges, was founded in 1511 by the Lady Margaret Beaufort, also foundress of Christ’s College. It replaced the Hospital of St John, which dated from the early years of the 13th century, and has been mentioned already in connexion with Peterhouse. The Lady Margaret died before the college was firmly established, and her designs were not carried out without many difficulties, which were overcome chiefly by the exertions of John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, one of her executors. Thirty-two fellowships were endowed, but subsequent endowments allowed extension, and the foundation now consists of a master, fifty-six fellows, sixty scholars and nine sizars. A large number of exhibitions are appropriated to special schools. Of the four courts of St John’s, the easternmost is the original, and has a very fine Tudor gateway of brick. The chapel is modern (1863-1869), an ornate example of the work of Sir Gilbert Scott. The second court, practically unaltered, dates from 1508-1602. In this there is a beautiful Masters’ gallery, panelled, with a richly-moulded ceiling; it is now used as a combination room or fellows’ common-room. The third court, which contains the library (1624), backs on to the river, and the fourth, which is on the opposite bank, was built c. 1830. A covered bridge connects the two, and is commonly called the Bridge of Sighs from a certain resemblance to the bridge of that name at Venice. Among the notable names connected with this college are Cecil, Lord Burghley, Thomas Cartwright, Wentworth, earl of Strafford, Roger Ascham, Richard Bentley, John Cleveland, the satirist, Thomas Baker, the historian, Lord Palmerston, Professor Adams, Sir John Herschel, Bishop Colenso, Dr Benjamin Kennedy, Dean Merivale, Horne Tooke, Samuel Parr and William Wilberforce, and the poets Herrick (afterwards of Trinity Hall) and Wordsworth.

Selwyn College, standing west of the river (Sidgwick Avenue), was founded in 1882 by public subscription in memory of George Augustus Selwyn, bishop of New Zealand and afterwards of Lichfield, for the purpose of giving university education with economy “combined,” according to the charter, “with Christian training, based upon the principles of the Church of England.”

Sidney Sussex College faces Sidney Street. It was founded under the will (1588) of the Lady Frances Sidney, dowager countess of Sussex (d. 1589), and received its charter in 1596. The foundress provided for a master, ten fellows and twenty scholars, but thirty-six scholarships are now provided. The original buildings were of brick, but they were plastered over and greatly altered by Wyatville about 1830. The Grey Friars had occupied the site, and part of their buildings remained in the chapel until 1777. A beautiful block of new buildings, with a cloister, was erected in 1890. The most famous name associated with the college is that of Oliver Cromwell, who was a fellow commoner, as also was Thomas Fuller, author of the Worthies of England.

Trinity College, the front of which is on Trinity Street, is the largest collegiate foundation in Cambridge, and larger than any in Oxford. It was founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII. and absorbed several earlier institutions—King’s Hall (founded by Edward III. in 1336), St Michael’s or Michaelhouse (founded by Hervey de Stanton, chancellor of the exchequer under Edward II., in 1323), Fyswick or Physick’s Hostel, belonging to Gonville Hall, and other hostels. Henry’s original foundation was for a master and sixty fellows and scholars, but Queen Mary and other later benefactors enabled extensions to be made, and the foundation now consists of a master (appointed by the crown), at least sixty fellows, seventy-four scholars and sixteen sizars, with minor scholars, chaplains librarian and the regius professors of Divinity, Hebrew and Greek. Major scholarships are open to undergraduates, not being of standing to take the degree of bachelor of arts, as well as to non-members of the university under nineteen years of age, while minor scholarships and exhibitions are open only to the latter. There are valuable exhibitions appropriated to certain schools, of which the most important are those confined to Westminster school. Trinity College is entered from Trinity Street by the King’s Gateway (1518-1535) preserved from King’s Hall, but subsequently altered. The principal or Great Court is the largest in Cambridge and very fine. Its buildings are of different dates. In the centre is a picturesque fountain, erected by Thomas Neville, master (1593-1615), under whose direction much of the building was carried out. The chapel on the north side of the court was begun in the reign of Mary. The carved oak fittings within date from the mastership of Richard Bentley (1700-1742). The organ is particularly fine. A statue of Sir Isaac Newton by Roubiliac stands in the antechapel, and Richard Porson and William Whewell are buried here. The hall on the west of the court is Neville’s work (1605), and very beautiful. The second court is also his foundation and bears his name. The library on the west side is the work of Sir Christopher Wren. Its interior is excellent, and besides busts of some of the vast number of famous men connected with Trinity, it contains a statue of Lord Byron by the Danish sculptor Thorvaldsen. The New Court, Gothic in style, was begun in 1823. The beautiful grounds and walks of the college extend down to and beyond the river. The college has extended its buildings to the opposite side of Trinity Street, where the two courts known as Whewell’s Hostel were built (c. 1860) at the charge of Dr William Whewell during his mastership. The eminent alumni of this great college are too numerous to admit of selection.

Trinity Hall, which lies near the river, south of Trinity, was founded by William Bateman, bishop of Norwich, in 1350. On the site there had been, for about twenty years before the foundation, a house of monastic students from Ely. The present college is alone in preserving the term Hall in its title. The foundation consists of a master and thirteen fellows, and the study of law, which the founder had especially in mind, is provided for by lectureships, and not less than three studentships tenable by graduates of the college. The buildings are for the most part modern or modernized, but the interior of the library well preserves its character of the early part of the 17th century.

Of the churches of Cambridge one has long been recognized as the church of the university, namely Great St Mary’s, which stands in the centre of the town, between King’s Parade and Market Hill. It is a fine Perpendicular University buildings. structure, founded in 1478; but the tower was not completed until 1608. Some Decorated details are preserved from a former building. The university preachers deliver their sermons in this church, but it was formerly the meeting-place of the university for the transaction of business, for learned disputations and for secular festivals. The “Cambridge chimes” struck by the clock are famous, and a curfew is rung each evening on the great bell. The Senate House, standing opposite Great St Mary’s, dates from 1730 and is classical in style. The buildings of the university library, in the immediate vicinity, enclose two quadrangles, and in part occupy the site of the old court of King’s College. One of the quadrangles was formerly occupied by the schools or lecture rooms, but as the library grew it usurped their place. Important modern additions date from 1842, 1864 and 1888. The facade of the old schools is an excellent work of 1758. The library is one of those which is entitled to receive, under the Copyright Act, a copy of every book published in the United Kingdom. The Fitzwilliam Museum, a massive classical building, was begun in 1837 to contain the bibliographical and art collection bequeathed by Richard, Viscount Fitzwilliam, in 1816. The museum of archaeology (classical, general and local, 1884), is connected with the Fitzwilliam Museum. The Pitt Press (1833), housing the university printing establishment, was begun out of the residue of a fund for erecting the statues of William Pitt in Hanover Square, London, and Westminster Abbey. It stands near Pembroke, Pitt’s college. The Selwyn Divinity School (1879), opposite St John’s College, was built largely at the charge of Dr William Selwyn, Lady Margaret professor of divinity. The museums and lecture rooms (begun in 1863) are extensive buildings on each side of Downing Street. Included in these are the museum of zoology, which had its origin in collections made by Sir Busick Harwood, professor of anatomy in 1785-1814, and contains the collection of fishes made by Charles Darwin in the ship “Beagle”; the medical school, botanical museum and herbarium, mineralogical museum, engineering laboratory (1894), optical and astronomical lecture room, chemical laboratory (1887), and the Cavendish laboratory for physical research (1874), the gift of William Cavendish, 7th duke of Devonshire and chancellor of the university. The Sedgwick Geological Museum, opened by King Edward VII. in 1904, commemorates Adam Sedgwick, Woodwardian professor of geology, and originated in the collections of Dr John Woodward (d. 1728). Adjoining this building, in Downing Street is the law library, founded on a bequest from Miss Rebecca Flower Squire (d. 1898) with the law school. The observatory (1824) is on the outskirts of the town in Madingley Road, and the botanic garden (founded 1762, and removed to its present site in 1831) borders Trumpington Road. The club-rooms and debating hall of the Cambridge Union Society are adjacent to the Holy Sepulchre church.

The non-collegiate students of the university (i.e. those who receive the university education and possess the same status as collegiate students without belonging to any college) have lecture and other rooms and a library in Fitzwilliam Hall. This body was created in 1869. The students reside in lodgings. There are two women’s colleges—Girton, established in 1873 on the north-western outskirts of the town, having been previously opened at Hitchin in 1869, and Newnham (1875), originally (1873) a hall of residence for students attending special lectures for women. Among other educational establishments mention must be made of the Leys school, founded in 1875 by prominent Wesleyans for non-sectarian education, and the Perse School, an ancient foundation remodelled in 1902.

Out of a number of ancient churches in Cambridge, two, besides Great St Mary’s, deserve special notice. In St Benedict’s or Benet’s, which has been already mentioned in connexion with Corpus College, the tower is of Non-university buildings. great interest, being the oldest surviving building in Cambridge, of pre-Norman workmanship, having rude ornamentation on the exterior and the tower arch within. The church of the Holy Sepulchre in Bridge Street is one of the four ancient round churches in England. Its supposed date is 1120-1140, but although it is doubtless to be associated with the Knights Templars, the circumstances of its foundation are not known. The chancel is practically a modern reconstruction, and an extensive restoration, which has been adversely criticized, was applied by the Cambridge Camden Society to the whole fabric in 1841. At several of the villages neighbouring or suburban to Cambridge there are churches of interest, as at Chesterton, Trumpington, Grantchester (where the name indicates a Roman station, borne out by the discovery of remains), Fen Ditton and Barnwell, near which is the Norman Sturbridge chapel. In Cambridge itself there is a Norman house, much altered, which by a tradition of unknown origin bears the name of the School of Pythagoras.

The university is a corporate body, including all the colleges. These, however, are also corporations in themselves, and have their own statutes, but they are further subject to the paramount laws of the university. The university University constitution and administration. statutes of Queen Elizabeth were only replaced in 1858. The statutes as revised by a commission in that year were soon found to require emendation; in 1872 another commission was appointed, and in 1882 new statutes received the approval of the queen in council. The head of the university is the chancellor. He is a member of the university, of high rank and position, elected by the senate. Being generally non-resident, he delegates his administrative duties to the vice-chancellor, who is the head of a college, and is elected for one year by the senate. The principal executive officers under the vice-chancellor are as follows. The two proctors have as their main duty that of disciplinary officers over the members of the university in statu pupillari. In each year two colleges nominate one proctor each, according to a fixed rotation which gives the larger colleges a more frequent choice than the smaller. The proctors are assisted by four pro-proctors. The public orator is the spokesman of the senate upon such public occasions as the conferring of honorary degrees. The librarian has charge of the university library. The registrary, with his assistant, records the proceedings of the senate, &c., and has charge of documents. The university returns two members to parliament, elected by the members of the senate. The chancellor and sex viri (elected by the senate) form a court for offences against the university statutes by members not in statu pupillari. The chancellor and six heads of colleges, appointed by the senate, form a court of discipline for members in statu pupillari.

The senate in congregation is the legislative body. Those who have votes in it are the chancellor, vice-chancellor, doctors of divinity, law, medicine, science, letters and music, and masters of art, law, surgery and music. The Senate. council of the senate, consisting of the chancellor, vice-chancellor, four heads of colleges, four professors and eight other members of the senate chosen by the vice-chancellor, brings all proposals (called Graces) before the senate. The revenues of the university are derived chiefly from fees at matriculation, for certain examinations, and for degrees, from a tax upon all members of the university, and from contributions by the colleges, together with the profits of the University Press. A financial board, consisting of the vice-chancellor ex officio and certain elected members, administers the finances of the university. There are boards for each of the various faculties, and a General Board of Studies, with the vice-chancellor at the head. There are university professors, readers or lecturers in a large number of subjects. The oldest professorship is the Lady Margaret professorship of divinity, instituted by the founders of Christ’s and St John’s Colleges in 1502. In 1540 Henry VIII. founded the regius professorships of divinity, civil law, physic, Hebrew and Greek.

The head of a college generally bears the title of master, as indicated above in the account of the several colleges. It has also seen that the foundation of each college includes a certain number of fellows and scholars. College organization—undergraduates. The affairs of the college are managed by the head and the fellows, or a committee of fellows. The scholars and other members in statu pupillari are generally termed collectively undergraduates. Those who receive no emoluments (and therefore pay the full fees) are technically called pensioners, and form the bulk of the undergraduates. Another group of students receiving emoluments are termed sizars; the primary object of sizarships is to open the university course to men of limited means. The title of fellow-commoners belongs to wealthy students who pay special fees and have the right of dining at the fellows’ tables. This class has virtually ceased to exist. As regards his work, the undergraduate in college is under the intimate direction of his tutor; the disciplinary officer in college is the dean. Besides the foundation scholarships in each college there are generally certain scholarships and exhibitions founded by private or special benefactions; these are frequently awarded for the encouragement of specific branches of study, or are confined wholly, or by preference, to students from certain schools.

The total number of students is about 3000. The colleges cannot accommodate this number, so that a student commonly spends some part of his residence in lodgings, which are licensed by, and under the control of, the university Residence and examinations. authorities. Such residence implies no sacrifice of membership of a college. There are three terms—Michaelmas (October), Lent and Easter (summer). They include together not less than 227 days, though the actual period of residence for undergraduates is about 24 weeks annually. Undergraduates usually begin residence in Michaelmas term. An elementary examination or other evidence of qualification is required for admission to a college. After nine terms’ (three years’) residence an undergraduate can take the first degree, that of bachelor of arts (B.A.). The examinations required for the ordinary B.A. degree are—(1) Previous examination or Little-go (usually taken in the first term of residence or at least in the first year), including classics, mathematics and a gospel in Greek and Paley’s Evidences of Christianity, or an additional Greek or Latin classic and logic. (2) General examination in classics and mathematics, with a portion of English history, &c. (3) Special examination in a subject other than classical or mathematical. Candidates for honours are required to pass the Previous examination with certain additional subjects; they then have only a “tripos” examination in one of the following subjects—mathematics, classics, moral sciences, natural sciences, theology, law, history, oriental languages, medieval and modern languages, mechanical sciences, economics. The mathematical tripos is divided into two parts, in the first of which, down to 1909, the candidates were classed in the result as Wranglers, Senior Optimes and Junior Optimes. There was also an individual order of merit, the most proficient candidate being placed at the head of the list as Senior Wrangler. But in 1906 a number of important reforms of this tripos were proposed by the Mathematical Board, and among these the abolition of the individual order of merit was recommended and passed by the senate. It is not employed in any other tripos. The classical tripos is also in two parts, to the second of which certain kindred subjects are added (ancient philosophy, history, &c.). Individual order of merit is not observed in either part, the candidates being grouped in classes. There are a large number of university prizes and scholarships on special foundations. Such are the Smith’s prizes for mathematics and natural philosophy, on the foundation (1768) of Robert Smith, master of Trinity, awarded up to 1883 after examination, but since then for an essay on some branch of each subject, and the Chancellor’s medals, of which two have been awarded annually in classics since the foundation of the prizes in 1751 by Thomas Holles, duke of Newcastle.

The university may adopt as affiliated colleges institutions in the United Kingdom or in any part of the British empire which fulfil certain conditions as to the education of adult students. Attendance at these institutions is counted as Affiliated colleges. equivalent to a certain period of residence at Cambridge University in the event of a student wishing to pursue his work here. There are over twenty such affiliated colleges. There are also, in England, certain “affiliated centres.” These are towns in which there is no affiliated college, but students who have there attended a course of education managed in connexion with the university by a committee may enter the university with privileges similar to those enjoyed by students from affiliated colleges.

The principal social function of the university is the “May Week” at the close of the Easter term. It actually takes place in June and lasts longer than a week. There is a great influx of visitors into Cambridge for this occasion. May week. The first four days are occupied by the college boat-races on the Cam, and on subsequent days there are college balls, concerts, theatrical performances and other entertainments. On the Tuesday after the races there is a Congregation, at which prize exercises are recited, and usually, but not invariably, a number of honorary degrees are conferred on eminent men by invitation. This final period of the academic year is called Commencement, or in Latin Comitia Maxim.

Authorities.—For details of the administration of the university and colleges, regulations as to studies, prizes, scholarships, &c., see the annual Cambridge University Calendar and The Students’ Handbook to the University and Colleges of Cambridge; see also R. Willis and J.W. Clark, Architectural History of the University of Cambridge (3 vols., Cambridge, 1886); J. Bass Mullinger, History of the University of Cambridge from the Earliest Times to the Accession of Charles I. (2 vols., 1873-1884; third vol., 1909); and smaller History of Cambridge, in Longman’s “Epoch” Series (1888); J.W. Clark, Cambridge, Historical and Picturesque (London, 1890); T.D. Atkinson, Cambridge Described and Illustrated, with introduction by J.W. Clark (London, 1897); F.W. Maitland, Township and Borough (Cambridge, 1898); C.W. Stubbs, Cambridge, in “Mediaeval Towns” series (London, 1905); Arthur Gray, The Dual Origin of the Town of Cambridge (publications of the Cambridge Antiquarian Soc., new ser. No. I, Cambridge, 1908); J.W. Clark, Liber memorandorum ecclesie de Bernewelle (Cambridge, 1907), with an introduction by F.W. Maitland. For the individual colleges, see the series of College Histories, by various authors (London, 1899 et seq.).

1 See also Universities.

CAMBRIDGE, a city and the county-seat of Dorchester county, Maryland, U.S.A., on the Choptank river, near Chesapeake Bay, about 60 m. S.E. of Baltimore. Pop. (1890) 4192; (1900) 5747 (1958 being negroes); (1910) 6407. It is served by the Cambridge branch of the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington railway (Pennsylvania railway), which connects with the main line at Seaford, 30 m. distant, and with the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic at Hurlock, 16 m. distant; and by steamers of the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic railway company. It is a business centre for the prosperous farming region by which it is surrounded, and is a shipping point for oysters and fish; among its manufactures are canned fruits and vegetables, flour, hominy, phosphates, underwear and lumber. Cambridge was founded in 1684, received its present name in 1686, and was chartered as a city in 1900.

CAMBRIDGE, a city and one of the county-seats of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., situated on the Charles river, in the outskirts of Boston, of which it is in effect a part, although under separate government. Pop. (1880) 52,669; (1890) 70,028; (1900) 91,886; (1910 census) 104,839. Of the total population in 1900, 30,446 were foreign-born, including 11,235 Irish, 9613 English Canadians, 1944 English, 1483 French Canadians and 1584 Swedish; and 54,200 were of foreign parentage (both parents foreign-born), including 24,961 of Irish parentage, 9829 of English-Canadian parentage, 2587 of English parentage, and 2288 of French-Canadian parentage. Cambridge is entered directly by only one railway, the Boston & Maine. The township, now practically built over by the city, contained originally several separate villages, the names of which are still used as a convenience in designating corresponding sections of the municipality: Old Cambridge, North Cambridge, Cambridgeport and East Cambridge, the last two being manufacturing and commercial districts.

Old Cambridge is noted as the seat of Harvard University (q.v.) and as a literary and scientific centre. Radcliffe College (1879), for women, practically a part of Harvard; an Episcopal Theological School (1867), and the New Church (Swedenborgian or New Jerusalem) Theological School (1866) are other educational institutions of importance. To Cambridge also, in 1908, was removed Andover Theological Seminary, a Congregational institution chartered in 1807, opened in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1808 (re-incorporated under separate trustees in 1907). This seminary is one of the oldest and most famous theological institutions in the United States; it grew out of the theological teaching previously given in Phillips Academy, and was founded by the widow of Lt.-Governor Samuel Phillips, her son John Phillips and Samuel Abbot (1732-1812). The instruction was strongly Calvinistic in the earlier period, but the seminary has always been “equally open to Protestants of every denomination.” Very liberal aid is given to students, and there is no charge for tuition. The Bibliotheca Sacra, founded in 1843 by Edward Robinson and in 1844 taken over by Professors Bela B. Edwards and Edwards A. Park, and the Andover Review (1884-1893), have been the organs of the seminary. In 1886 some of its professors published Progressive Orthodoxy, a book which made a great stir by its liberal tone, its opposition to supernaturalism and its evident trend toward the methods of German “higher criticism.” Legal proceedings for the removal of five professors, after the publication of this book, failed; and their successful defence helped to secure greater freedom in thought and in instruction in American Presbyterian and Congregational theological seminaries. The seminary is now affiliated with Harvard University, though it remains independent and autonomous.

Cambridge is a typical New England city, built up in detached residences, with irregular streets pleasantly shaded, and a considerable wealth of historic and literary associations. There are many reminders of the long history of Harvard, and of the War of Independence. Cambridge was the site of the camp of the first American army, at the outbreak of the war, and from it went the detachment which intrenched on Bunker’s Hill. Here are the Apthorp House (built in 1760), in which General Burgoyne and his officers were lodged as prisoners of war in 1777; the elm under which, according to tradition, Washington took command of the Continental Army on the 3rd of July 1775; the old Vassall or Craigie House (1759), where Washington lived in 1775-1776, and which was later the home of Edward Everett, Joseph E. Worcester, Jared Sparks and (1837-1882) Henry W. Longfellow. Elbridge Gerry lived and James Russell Lowell was born, lived and died in “Elmwood” (built in 1767); Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge also; John Fiske, the historian, lived here; and there are many other literary associations, attractive and important for those interested in American letters. In Mt Auburn Cemetery are buried many artists, poets, scholars and other men and women of fame. Cambridge is one of the few American cities possessing a crematorium (1900). The municipal water-works are excellent. A handsome bridge joining Cambridgeport to Boston (cost about $2,250,000) was opened late in 1906. Four other bridges span the Charles river between the two cities. A dam between East Cambridge and Boston, traversed by a roadway 150 ft. wide, was in the process of construction in 1907; and an extension of the Boston subway into Cambridge to the grounds of Harvard University, a distance of about 3 m., was projected. The city government is administered almost entirely under the state civil-service laws, Cambridge having been a leader in the adoption of its provisions. A non-partisan association for political reform did excellent work from 1890 to 1900, when it was superseded by a non-partisan party. Since 1887 the city has declared yearly by increasing majorities for prohibition of the liquor traffic. The high schools enjoy a notable reputation. A handsome city hall (cost $235,000) and public library (as well as a manual training school) were given to the city by Frederick H. Rindge, a one-time resident, whose benefactions to Cambridge aggregated in value $650,000. Cambridge has many manufacturing establishments, and in 1905 the city’s factory products were valued at $42,407,064, an increase of 45.8% over their value in 1900. The principal manufactures are slaughtering and meat-packing products, foundry and machine-shop products, rubber boots and shoes, rubber belting and hose, printing and publishing products, carpentering, pianos and organs, confectionery and furniture. Cambridge is one of the chief publishing centres of the country. The tax valuation of property in 1906 ($105,153,235) was more than $1000 per inhabitant.

Cambridge is “one of the few American towns that may be said to have owed their very name and existence to the pursuit of letters” (T.W. Higginson). Its site was selected in 1630 by Governor Winthrop and others as suitable for fortifications and defence, and it was intended to make it the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; but as Boston’s peninsular position gave it the advantage in commerce and in defence against the Indians, the plan fell through, although up to 1638 various sessions of the general court and particular courts were held here. The township records (published) are continuous since 1632. A direct tax for the wooden “pallysadoe” about Cambridge led the township of Watertown in 1632 to make the first protest in America against taxation without representation. The settlement was first known as the “New Towne,” but in 1638 was named Cambridge in honour of the English Cambridge, where several score of the first immigrants to the colony were educated. The oldest college in America (Harvard) was founded here in 1636. In 1639 there was set up in Cambridge the first printing press of British North America (Boston having none until 1676). Other notable dates in history are 1637 and 1647, when general synods of New England churches met at Cambridge to settle disputed doctrine and define orthodoxy; the departure for Connecticut of Thomas Hooker’s congregation in 1636; the meeting of the convention that framed the present constitution of the commonwealth, 1779-1780; the separation of the Congregationalists and Unitarians of the first parish church, in 1829; and the grant of a city charter in 1846. The original township of Cambridge was very large, and there have been successively detached from it, Newton (1691), Lexington (1713), Brighton (1837) and Arlington (1867).

See Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877 (Boston, Mass., 1877); T.W. Higginson, Old Cambridge (New York, 1899); Arthur Gilman (ed.), The Cambridge of Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Six (Cambridge, 1896); and Historic Guide to Cambridge (Cambridge, 1907.)

CAMBRIDGE, a city and the county-seat of Guernsey county, Ohio, U.S.A., on Wills Creek, about 75 m. E. by N. of Columbus. Pop. (1890) 4361; (1900) 8241, of whom 407 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 11,327. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the Pennsylvania railways, and is connected by an electric line with Byesville (pop. in 1910, 3156), about 7 m. S. Cambridge is built on a hill about 800 ft. above sea-level. There is a public library. Coal, oil, natural gas, clay and iron are found in the vicinity, and among the city’s manufactures are iron, steel, glass, furniture and pottery. The value of its factory products in 1905 was $2,440,917. The municipality owns and operates the water-works. Cambridge was first settled in 1798 by emigrants from the island of Guernsey (whence the name of the county); was laid out as a town in 1806; was incorporated as a village in 1837; and was chartered as a city in 1893.

CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS, a school of philosophico-religious thinkers which flourished mainly at Cambridge University in the second half of the 17th century. The founder was Benjamin Whichcote and the chief members were Ralph Cudworth, Richard Cumberland, Joseph Glanvill, Henry More and John Norris (see separate articles). Other less important members were Nathanael Culverwel (d. 1651?), Theophilus Gale (1628-1678), John Pordage (1607-1681), George Rust (d. 1670), John Smith (1618-1652) and John Worthington (1618-1671). They represented liberal thought at the time and were generally known as Latitudinarians. Their views were due to a reaction against three main tendencies in contemporary English thought: the sacerdotalism of Laud and his followers, the obscurantist sectaries and, most important of all, the doctrines of Hobbes. They consist chiefly of a reconciliation between reason and religion, resulting in a generally tolerant spirit. They tend always to mysticism and the contemplation of things transcendental. In spite of inaccuracy and the lack of critical capacity in dealing with their authorities both ancient and modern, the Cambridge Platonists exercised a valuable influence on English theology and thought in general. Their chief contributions to thought were Cudworth’s theory of the “plastic nature” of God, More’s elaborate mysticism, Norris’s appreciation of Malebranche, Glanvill’s conception of scepticism as an aid to Faith, and, in a less degree, the harmony of Faith and Reason elaborated by Culverwel. The one doctrine on which they all combined to lay especial emphasis was the absolute existence of right and wrong quite apart from the theory of divine authority. Their chief authorities were Plato and the Neo-platonists (between whom they made no adequate distinction), and among modern philosophers, Descartes, Malebranche and Boehme. From these sources they attempted to evolve a philosophy of religion, which would not only refute the views of Hobbes, but would also free theology finally from the errors of scholasticism, without plunging it in the newer dangers of unfettered rationalism (see Ethics).

See Tulloch, Rational Theology in England in the 17th Century; Hallam, Literature of Europe (chap, on Philosophy from 1650 to 1700); Hunt, Religious Thought in England; von Stein, Sieben Bucher zur Geschichte des Platonismus (1862), and works on individual philosophers appended to biographies.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE, an eastern county of England, bounded N. by Lincolnshire, E. by Norfolk and Suffolk, S. by Essex and Hertfordshire, and W. by Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire. The area is 858.9 sq. m. The greater part of the county falls within the district of the Fens, and is flat, elevated only a few feet above sea-level, and intersected with innumerable drainage channels. The physical characteristics of this district, and the history of its reclamation from a marshy and in great part uninhabitable condition, fall for consideration under the heading FENS. Except in the south of the county the scenery of the flat land is hardly ever varied by rising ground or wood, and owes the attraction it possesses rather to individuality than to beauty. At the south-eastern and southern boundaries, and to the west of Cambridge, bordering the valley of the Cam on the north, the land rises in gentle undulations; but for the rest, such elevations as the Gog Magog Hills, S.E. of Cambridge, and the gentle hillock on which the city of Ely stands, are isolated and conspicuous from afar. The principal rivers are the Ouse and its tributaries in the south and centre, and the Nene in the north; the greater part of the waters of both these rivers within Cambridgeshire flow in artificial channels, of which those for the Ouse, two great parallel cuts between Earith and Denver Sluice, in Norfolk, called the Bedford Rivers, form the most remarkable feature in the drainage of the county. The old main channel of the Ouse, from Ely downward to Denver (below which are tidal waters), is filled chiefly by the waters of the Cam or Granta, which joins the Ouse 3 m. above Ely, the Lark (which with its feeder, the Kennett, forms the boundary of the county with Suffolk for a considerable distance) and the Little Ouse, forming part of the boundary with Norfolk.

Geology.—By its geological features, Cambridgeshire is divisible into three well-marked regions; in the south and south-east are the low uplands formed by the Chalk; north of this, but best developed in the south-west, is a clay and greensand area; all the remaining portion is alluvial Fenland. The general strike of the rocks is along a south-west and north-east line, the dip is south-easterly. The oldest rock is the Jurassic Oxford Clay, which appears as an irregular strip of elevated flat ground reaching from Croxton by Conington and Fenny Drayton to Willingham and Rampton. Eastward and northward it no doubt forms the floor of the Fen country, and at Thorney and Whittlesea small patches rise like islands, through the level fen alluvium. The Coralline Oolite, with the Els worth or St Ives rock at the base, occurs as a small patch, covered by Greensand, at Upware, whence many fossils have been obtained; elsewhere its place is taken by the Ampthill Clays, which are passage beds between the Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays. The latter clay lies in a narrow strip by Papworth St Agnes, Oakington and Cottenham; a large irregular outcrop surrounds Haddenham and Ely, and similar occurrences are at March, Chatteris and Manea. Above the Kimmeridge Clay comes the Lower Greensand, sandy for the greater part, but here and there hardened into the condition known as “Carstone,” which has been used as an inferior building-stone. This formation is thickest in the south-west; it extends from the border by Gamlingay, Cuxton and Cottenham, and appears again in outliers at Upware, Ely and Haddenham. The Gault forms a strip of flat ground, 4 to 6 m. wide, running roughly parallel with the course of the river Cam, from Guilden Morden through Cambridge to Soham; it is a stiff blue clay 200 ft. thick in the south-west, but is thinner eastward. At the bottom of the chalk is the Chalk Marl, 10 to 20 ft. thick, with a glauconitic and phosphatic nodule-bearing layer at its base, known as the Cambridge Greensand. This bed has been largely worked for the nodules and for cement; it contains many fossils derived from the Gault below. Several outliers of Chalk Marl lie upon the Gault west of the Cam. The Chalk comprises all the main divisions of the formation, including the Totternhoe stone, Melbourn rock and Chalk rock. Much glacial boulder clay covers all the higher ground of the county; it is a stiff brownish clay with many chalk fragments of travelled rocks. Near Ely there is a remarkable mass of chalk, evidently transported by ice, resting on and surrounded by boulder clay. Plateau gravel caps some of the chalk hills, and old river gravels occur at lower levels with the bones of mammoth, rhinoceros and other extinct mammals. The low-lying Fen beds are marly silt with abundant peat beds and buried forests; at the bottom is a gravel layer of marine origin.

Industries.—The climate is as a whole healthy, the fens being so carefully drained that diseases to which dwellers in marshy districts are commonly liable are practically eliminated. The land is very fertile, and although some decrease is generally apparent in the acreage under grain crops, Cambridgeshire is one of the principal grain-producing counties in England. Nearly nine-tenths of the total area is under cultivation, and an unusually small proportion is under permanent pasture. Wheat is the chief grain crop, but large quantities of barley and oats are also grown. Among green crops potatoes occupy a large and increasing area. Dairy-farming is especially practised in the south-west, where the district of the Cam valley has long been known as the Dairies; and much butter and cheese are sent to the London markets. Sheep are pastured extensively on the higher ground, but the number of these and of cattle for the county as a whole is not large. Beans occupy a considerable acreage, and fruit-growing and market-gardening are important in many parts. There is no large manufacturing industry common to the county in general; among minor trades brewing is carried on at several places, and brick-making and lime-burning may also be mentioned.

Communications.—The principal railway serving the county is the Great Eastern, of which system numerous branch lines centre chiefly upon Cambridge, Ely and March. Cambridge is also served by branches of the Great Northern line from Hitchin, of the London & North-Western from Bletchley and Bedford, and of the Midland from Kettering. A trunk line connecting the eastern counties with the north and north-west of England runs northward from March under the joint working of the Great Northern and Great Eastern companies. The artificial waterways provide the county with an extensive system of inland navigation; and a considerable proportion of the industrial population is employed on these. In this connexion the building of boats and barges is carried on at several towns.

Population and Administration.—The area of the ancient county is 549,723 acres, with a population in 1891 of 188,961, and in 1901 of 190,682. The ancient county includes the two administrative counties of Cambridge in the south and the Isle of Ely in the north. The liberty of the Isle of Ely was formerly of the independent nature of a county palatine, but ceased to be so under acts of 1836 and 1837. Its area is 238,048 acres, and that of the administrative county of Cambridge 315,171 acres. Cambridgeshire contains seventeen hundreds. The municipal boroughs are Cambridge, the county town (pop. 38,379), in the administrative county of Cambridge, and Wisbech (9381) in the Isle of Ely. The other urban districts are—in the administrative county of Cambridge, Chesterton (9591), and in the Isle of Ely, Chatteris (4711), Ely (7713), March (7565) and Whittlesey (3909). Among other considerable towns Soham (4230) and Littleport (4181), both in the neighbourhood of Ely, may be mentioned. The town of Newmarket, which, although wholly within the administrative county of West Suffolk, is mainly in the ancient county of Cambridgeshire, is famous for its race-meetings. The county is in the south-eastern circuit, and assizes are held at Cambridge. Each administrative county has a court of quarter sessions, and the two are divided into ten petty sessional divisions. The borough of Cambridge has a separate court of quarter sessions, and this borough and Wisbech have separate commissions of the peace. The university of Cambridge exercises disciplinary jurisdiction over its members. There are 168 entire civil parishes in the two administrative counties. Cambridgeshire is almost wholly in the diocese of Ely and the archdeaconries of Ely and Sudbury, but small portions are within the dioceses of St Albans and Norwich. There are 194 ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or in part within the county. The parliamentary divisions are three, namely, Northern or Wisbech, Western or Chesterton, and Eastern or Newmarket, each returning one member. The county also contains the parliamentary borough of Cambridge, returning one member; and the university of Cambridge returns two members.

History.—The earliest English settlements in what is now Cambridgeshire were made about the 6th century by bands of Engles, who pushed their way up the Ouse and the Cam, and established themselves in the fen-district, where they became known as the Gyrwas, the districts corresponding to the modern counties of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire being distinguished as the lands of the North Gyrwas and the South Gyrwas respectively. At this period the fen-district stretched southward as far as Cambridge, and the essential unity which it preserved is illustrated later by its inclusion under one sheriff, chosen in successive years from Cambridgeshire proper, the Isle of Ely and Huntingdonshire. In 656 numerous lands in the neighbourhood of Wisbech were included in the endowment of the abbey of Peterborough, and in the same century religious houses were established at Ely and Thorney, both of which, however, were destroyed during the Danish invasions of the 9th century. After the treaty of Wedmore the district became part of the Danelaw. On the expulsion of the Danes by Edward in the 10th century it was included in East Anglia, but in the 11th century was again overrun by the Danes, who in the course of their devastations burnt Cambridge. The first mention of the shire in the Saxon Chronicle records the valiant resistance which it opposed to the invaders in 1010 when the rest of East Anglia had taken ignominious flight. The shire-system of East Anglia was in all probability not definitely settled before the Conquest, but during the Danish occupation of the 9th century the district possessed a certain military and political organization round Cambridge, its chief town, whence probably originated the constitution and demarcation of the later shire. At the time of the Domesday Survey the county was divided as now, except that the Isle of Ely, which then formed two hundreds having their meeting-place at Witchford, is now divided into the four hundreds of Ely, Wisbech, North Witchford and South Witchford, while Cambridge formed a hundred by itself. The hundred of Flendish was then known as Flamingdike. Cambridgeshire was formerly included in the diocese of Lincoln, until, on the erection of Ely to a bishop’s see in 1109, almost the whole county was placed in that diocese. In 1291 the whole county, with the exception of parishes in the deanery of Fordham and diocese of Norwich, constituted the archdeaconry of Ely, comprising the deaneries of Ely, Wisbech, Chesterton, Cambridge, Shingay, Bourn, Barton and Camps. The Isle of Ely formerly constituted an independent franchise in which the bishops exercised quasi-palatinate rights, and offences were held to be committed against the bishop’s peace. These privileges were considerably abridged in the reign of Henry VIII., but the Isle still had separate civil officers, appointed by the bishop, chief among whom were the chief justice, chief bailiff, deputy bailiff and two coroners. The bishop is still custos rotulorum of the Isle. Cambridgeshire has always been remarkable for its lack of county families, and for the frequent changes in the ownership of estates. No Englishmen retained lands of any importance after the Conquest, and at the time of the Domesday Survey the chief lay proprietors were Alan, earl of Brittany, whose descendants the Zouches retained estates in the county until the 15th century; Picot the sheriff, whose estates passed to the families of Peverell and Peche; Aubrey de Vere, whose descendants retained their estates till the 16th century; and Hardwinus de Scalariis, ancestor of the Scales of Whaddon.

From the time of Hereward’s famous resistance to the Conqueror in the fen-district, the Isle of Ely was intimately concerned with the great political struggles of the country. It was defended against Stephen by Bishop Nigellus of Ely, who fortified Ely and Aldreth, and the latter in 1144 was held for the empress Maud by Geoffrey de Mandeville. During the struggles between John and his barons, Faukes de Breauté was made governor of Cambridge Castle, which, however, surrendered to the barons in the same year. The Isle of Ely was seized by the followers of Simon de Montfort in 1266, but in 1267 was taken by Prince Edward. At the Reformation period the county showed much sympathy with the Reformers, and in 1642 the knights, gentry and commoners of Cambridgeshire petitioned for the removal of all unwarrantable orders and dignities, and the banishment of popish clergy. In the civil war of the 17th century Cambridgeshire was one of the associated counties in which the king had no visible party, though the university assisted him with contributions of plate and money.