Coveney.--Manea.--Doddington.--March, Angel
Roof.--Whittlesea.--Old Course of Ouse, Well Stream.--Upwell,
Outwell.--Emneth.--Elm.--The Marshland.--West
Walton.--Walsoken.--Walpole.--Cross
Keys.--Leverington.--Tydd.--Wisbech, Church, Trade, Castle,
Catholic Prisoners, Clarkson.--The Wash.--King John.
In close contiguity to the Island of Ely, on the west, is a tiny
satellite, which supports the little village of Coveney. Here the
church has some remarkable modern woodwork from Oberammergau, the gift
of Mr. Athelstan Riley. The pulpit is also remarkable, dating from
1703 and being of Danish work. More remote are Manea and Stonea, both,
happily for themselves, now on a railway line, but otherwise
unspeakably inaccessible. It is strange at Manea to see the towers of
Ely a short five miles away, and to know that twenty miles of bad road
will scarcely get you there. Both names seem to have the same
signification, Stone Island; which (as they are eminently unstony,
being merely low elevations of gravel) may perhaps refer to the
selenite crystals with which the ground here teems. Manea Station is
one of the few inland places where the curvature of the earth can be
clearly seen. The line (towards March) is perfectly straight and
perfectly level, and along it you may observe the trains rising into
sight over the horizon like ships at sea.
March stands on a much larger island, seven miles in length. At its
southern extremity is Doddington, where the fine Early English church
was once the richest in England. It was the Mother Church of a wide
district, including its whole island and the fens for miles around. As
these were drained so did the value of the benefice increase, till it
became worth over L7,000 per annum. Parliament then stepped in, and
divided the parish (and income) into seven Rectories, three of these
being in the town of March, a modern growth around its important
railway junction at the furthest northern point of the island. A
fourth is Old March, a quiet "village-hamlet" (as Cardinal Wolsey
calls it) two miles south of its larger offspring. The church here is
most exceptionally beautiful. It is a Perpendicular structure, with a
fine crocketed spire and flint patterns in the outer walls of the
clerestory. The roof is beyond all magnificent, with "an innumerable
company of Angels" along its vista of double hammer-beams. A brass
commemorates William Dredeman, the donor of this crowning glory, who
died in 1503; and there is another to Catharine Hansard, 1517, on
which the Annunciation is depicted. The church is dedicated to St.
Wendreda, a purely local saint.[246] The Parish account-books here
give a striking picture of the mutations of the Reformation period.
There are payments "for pluckynge doun emags [images] in ye Chyrch and
for drynkynge thereat" (1547); "for breckyng down the Altar and
carrying forth ye stons" (1550); "for makyng the Hy Alter" (1553);
"for pulling doun ye hy alter" (1558); and "for a comunion tabull"
(1559).
[Footnote 246: See p. 275.]
March is the half-way house between Ely and Peterborough, and between
it and the last-named lies Whittlesea, also on a good-sized island of
its own, which extends nearly to the Northamptonshire mainland. It is
a pleasant little town, with a picturesque market place, where the
ancient Market House still rises in the centre. And its church almost
rivals that of March, with a still more glorious spire. In 1335
Whittlesea was the scene of a most unedifying conflict between the
Abbeys of Ramsey and Ely. To begin with, the Abbot of Ramsey and his
monks raided the lands at Whittlesea belonging to Ely, drove away
sixteen horses, and (by firing the sedge) burned twenty others,
besides ten oxen, eighty cows, and one hundred swine, along with much
grass, reeds, and other property. In retaliation for this outrage the
Prior of Ely (and he, too, the saintly Prior Crauden) organised a
regular military expedition, and came, at the head of the whole Abbey
musters, "with banners flying as in war," to Ramsey itself, where, as
that House complains, he "hewed down our woods, depastured our grass,
and drove off our cattle." Both parties appealed to the King; but the
discreditable transaction seems to have ended in a compromise. That
such wild work should be possible at all in England reminds us that at
this date the country had not yet recovered from the confusions
attendant on the fall and murder of Edward the Second eight years
before.
Till the latter part of the nineteenth century Whittlesea gave its
name to a famous mere, lying to the south of the town, and on the very
border of the fens. It was a sheet of shallow water a couple of miles
in length and breadth, and furnished a splendid field for angling,
skating, and boat-sailing. Its shallowness made it none the less
dangerous; for the bottom was fathomless ooze, so soft that the
punting poles used here had to be furnished with a round board at
their extremities, and demanded special skill, for if you once let
this board get underneath the mud, it was much more likely to pull you
in than you to pull it out.
Other islets of the fen archipelago are Murrow, between Thorney and
Wisbech, Westry near March, and Welney, on the Old Bedford river to
the north of Manea. The name of the last reminds us that by it ran the
old Well Stream, long robbed of its waters by their diversion to Lynn
in the thirteenth century. To this day, however, its course may be
traced on the map by the meandering boundary between Cambridgeshire
and Norfolk across the fen. Following this line northwards we shortly
come to the outskirts of the firm ground on which Wisbech stands, an
_artificial_ island dating from Roman times and owing its existence to
the great Roman sea wall around the Wash.
Through this island ran the great Well Stream, giving their names to
the villages (or rather the village, for they form a continuous row of
houses) of Upwell and Outwell. This is the longest village in England,
stretching on either side of the road for nearly five unbroken miles.
It contains over 5,000 inhabitants, and lies partly in Cambridgeshire
partly in Norfolk. The churches are in the latter county, and are
grand specimens of the splendid series of churches which glorify the
Marshland, as this district by the Wash has for ages been named. Both
are of Perpendicular date, with a tower somewhat older. That of Upwell
has an elaborate turret for the Sanctus bell. The canopy over the
pulpit is still more elaborate. The roof has a series of angels, but
far less numerous and effective than those at March. At Outwell there
is a fine Decorated door, like that of Barrington.
[Illustration: _Elm Church._]
Emneth, on the further road to Wisbech, also has an angel roof, of
specially interesting character. Each figure is holding some symbol of
the Faith; one the Host, another a candlestick, another a Gospel-book.
At Elm, hard by, may be seen a still more interesting development of
church architecture. The tower is Early English, enriched on its
internal face with exquisite shafting, and opening into the nave by an
Early English arch. But both shafting and arch must have been
insertions in much older work, for between the two may be seen the
high-pitched string-course and the rude little window of the original
Saxon church. The nave is also Early English (clerestory and all,
which is rare hereabouts), while the chancel is Decorated, with its
roof higher than that of the nave.
Here at a farm house called Needham Hall (from a famous historic
mansion formerly on the site) is shown an old table formed of one
solid piece of oak, on which Oliver Cromwell is said to have once
slept. When he arrived here at the head of his command during the
Civil War, he chose this rude couch in preference to the best bed in
the house, that he might fare no better than his men, who were
bivouacking in the yard and outhouses.
The churches along the Roman sea-wall on either side of the old Well
Stream estuary are also of rare magnificence. To the east, in Norfolk,
we find a series of villages deriving their names from the wall
itself,--Walsoken, West Walton, Walpole St. Peter, and Walpole St.
Andrew. In every one of these the church is a joy; above all at West
Walton, with its bell-tower (fifty yards to the south of the main
building) uplifted on four graceful arches enriched with dog-tooth
moulding. Octangular buttresses support the angles, which are
ornamented with blank lancet arches. The next floor has on each side
an arcade of three lancets, and the storey above a window of two
lights beneath an arch of two mouldings, forming a splay of four
banded pillars. No more perfect gem of composition exists; and the
Perpendicular parapet which now crowns it very inadequately takes the
place of the spire which seems to have been purposed by the original
builder. The church itself displays similar features of Early English
grace. The nave pillars have Purbeck marble shafts, with beautifully
foliated capitals, and the clerestory is pierced with seventeen small
archlets, alternately blind and light.
Walsoken, now practically a suburb of Wisbech, has a Perpendicular
shell around a Norman nave, which is (next to Norwich Cathedral) the
best example of the style in all Norfolk. The chancel arch is a
deservedly famous specimen of Transition work. It springs from six
banded pillars, and has a soffit exquisitely worked with zig-zags and
cusps. The screens of the chapels which formerly occupied the east end
of either aisle are rich Perpendicular woodwork. The roof is also
Perpendicular, with angels on the transome beams.
Walpole St. Peter's is even more remarkable; for there is actually an
ancient right of way through it, _underneath the Altar_. The
thirteenth century chancel, with its five large Decorated windows on
either side, ascends by no fewer than eleven steps from the nave to
make room for this unique passage way. The five windows of the nave
are of the earliest and best Perpendicular, and its eastern gable is
crowned with three beautifully proportioned pinnacles. In this parish
is the hamlet of Cross Keys, the name of which is sometimes supposed
to be connected with St. Peter. But it is much more probably the
_quay_ at the starting point of the ancient low-tide passage across
the sands of the estuary which led to Sutton Crosses on the
Lincolnshire side, five miles away, and which played, as we shall
shortly tell, so notable a part in English history. From Walpole the
sea-wall sweeps round by Terrington to Lynn. But here we are far in
Norfolk. We must not, however, forget that we owe one of our Cambridge
Colleges to Terrington, for Dr. Gonville, while Vicar here, founded in
1347 his "College of the Annunciation," the embryo of Caius College.
[Illustration: _Walpole St. Peter._]
On the Cambridgeshire side of the Well Stream we also find churches
fully equal to those on the Norfolk bank. Leverington is one specially
to be noted, with its beautiful steeple, an Early English tower
surmounted by a Decorated spire so exquisitely proportioned that it
seems absolutely to melt away into the sky. There is also a fine
Decorated porch with a stone-roofed parvis chamber of original and
singular beauty. The chancel is also Decorated, while the grand nave
is Perpendicular. The font, too, is Perpendicular, an octagonal
structure of oolite, with richly ornamented niches on every face, each
containing the head of a saint in high relief. The east window of the
north aisle retains much of its ancient glass, proving it to be a
"Jesse" window, tracing the descent of Christ from that patriarch
through David.
* * * * *
Tydd St. Giles lies at the northernmost extremity of the Isle of Ely,
where the "Shire Drain" divides the village from its sister parish of
Tydd St. Mary in Lincolnshire. Here, too, the church is remarkable,
having its tower fifty feet beyond the East End, a unique position. Like
Leverington, it has a specially fine octagonal font, richly traceried,
and carved with emblems of the Passion and with the arms of the See of
Ely. In the floor of the nave is a thirteenth century gravestone,
bearing a floriated cross, and the legend (in Old English characters):
"Orate.pro.anima.dni John.Fysner, cujus.aie.deus.ppiciet.Amen." (Pray
for the soul of Mr. John Fysner, on whose soul may God be merciful.)
On one of the pillars is a more interesting inscription in rude
capital letters, much worn. It is in French, and would seem to be of
the early fourteenth century, when that language was becoming very
fashionable in England, as our current legal phraseology still shows.
It runs thus:--
CEST . PILER . CVME
NCAT . RICARD . LE . PRE
STRE . PRIMER . PRE
YEZ . PVR . LVI
_i.e._ in modern French: "Ce pilier commenca Ricard le Pretre
premierement. Priez pour lui"; and in English "This pillar Richard the
Priest first began. Pray for him."
After having told of so much loveliness all around, it is
disappointing to be obliged to confess that at Wisbech itself, the
metropolis of the northern Fenland, the church is comparatively
commonplace. Not that it is otherwise than a fine structure, and, like
Great Yarmouth, splendidly wide, having a double nave and a double
chancel; but it is hopelessly outclassed by those in the neighbouring
villages. The best feature is the tower, which is richly ornamented
with sacred and heraldic devices of the later Perpendicular period.
And in the nave is a fine fifteenth century brass. Otherwise there is
little to say about it; and, indeed, little to say about Wisbech at
all. It is a picturesque old place, with that somewhat pathetic
picturesqueness of an ancient seaport town which the sea has deserted.
Wisbech, however, is not by any means a "dead city." It has 10,000
inhabitants, and keen local ambitions, which have developed an
excellent museum and other up-to-date municipal equipment. Modern
energy and science have, moreover, made so effective a waterway
through the ten miles of silted-up estuary that vessels of 3,000 tons
can now, at high tide, reach the wharf. Such, however, are almost
unknown visitants. Last year (1909) the vessels clearing from the port
numbered 209, of 36,000 tons in all. Two of these are registered at
Wisbech itself, as are also twelve sea-fishing boats. A characteristic
photograph of Wisbech's shipping is given by Mrs. Hughes in the
"Geography of Cambridgeshire" (p. 118). Other photographs (pp. 47, 48)
show the great height to which the tide rises in the river, there
being a difference of over twenty feet between high and low water
mark. The Nene still has its outfall here, and flows through the town
in a fine sweep locally called the Brink.
It is hard to believe that this Brink is not the Beach whence the name
of the town is vulgarly supposed to be derived. But you must not
suggest this to a Wisbech man. The single vowel is an integral part of
local faith and local pride, and to insert the "a" is to show yourself
a hopeless outsider. With it the name would come from _Ouse-beach_
(like Land-beach and Water-beach near Cambridge). Without it the
derivation is _Ouse-beck_. This last syllable is a Scandinavian word,
well known throughout the north of England, and there signifying a
running brook. Throughout the Fenland it is frequently used for a
drain. But can the mighty Well Stream of the Ouse, at its tidal
outfall here, have ever suggested either drain or brook to the men of
old who named the place? And can these have been Scandinavians?
[Illustration: _Leverington._]
The chief oversea trade of Wisbech is in timber from Norway; and it
also does a large traffic in fruit, flowers, and vegetables, which are
extensively grown hereabouts. In this neighbourhood, moreover, may be
seen a much rarer cultivated crop, nothing less primitive than the
woad with which the ancient Britons dyed their bodies; though it is a
mistake to suppose that this dye took the place of clothing, for as
far back as history traces them they were quite fairly civilised, and
used woad only for tattooing, like sailors.[247] It is now used for
dyeing cloth. "An old woad mill, built of turf blocks arranged in the
ancient herring-bone pattern, with a timber and reed-thatched roof,
can still be seen at the village of Parson's Drove, about six miles
from Wisbech. The plant (_Isatis tinctoria_) grows about six feet
high, and has a blue-green leaf and bright yellow flower; the people
still call it by its old name, _w[-a]d_. The young plants are
delicate, and the crop requires much care. It is weeded by men and
women clad in hardened skirts and leathern knee-caps, who creep along
the ground and take out the weeds with a curious little handspade
which fits into the palm. The plant is picked by hand. The leaves are
crushed to a pulp in the mill by rude conical crushing wheels dragged
round by horses, and are then worked by hand into large balls and laid
on "fleaks" of twined hazel, or on planks, in special sheds, for three
months to dry. After this, the balls are thrown together, mixed with
water and allowed to ferment in a dark house for five or six weeks.
The woad is then rammed into casks and is ready to be sold to cloth
manufacturers."[248]
[Footnote 247: See my _Roman Britain_, p. 47.]
[Footnote 248: Hughes' _Geography of Cambs._, p. 97, where there is an
interesting photograph of this Woad Mill.]
Wisbech plays but little part in history. Its position at the
convergence of the two great Roman sea-walls, east and west of the
estuary, makes it pretty certain that they must have had a station
here; but, if so, it has wholly passed out of memory. Wisbech Castle
is said to have been built by William the Conqueror, and certainly
existed in the time of King John. It passed into the possession of the
Bishops of Ely, and was rebuilt by two famous holders of the See,
Bishop Morton, the designer and excavator of Morton's Leam,[249] and
Bishop Alcock, the Founder of Jesus College, Cambridge.[250] Both
these prelates were singularly thoroughgoing reformers. The former
went into minute details about the dress of his clergy, forbidding
them to wear gaudy attire (such as "lirripoops" or gowns open in front
like a present-day M.A. gown), and charging them straitly to cut their
hair "so that all men may see their ears." And the latter was an
indefatigable pulpiteer; one of his University sermons is recorded to
have lasted three mortal hours on end.
[Footnote 249: See p. 398.]
[Footnote 250: See p. 146.]
[Illustration: _Bell Tower, Tydd St. Giles._]
This episcopal connection of Wisbech Castle led to its becoming, in
the reign of Elizabeth, the final scene of that pathetic and lingering
tragedy, the fate of the old Catholic Hierarchy of England. Such of
that hierarchy as were alive at Elizabeth's succession were, with one
exception, deposed for refusing the Oath of Supremacy, to the number
of fifteen. Shortly afterwards they were imprisoned, not by any
process of law but by the Royal fiat, and continued under more or less
severe restraint for the rest of their lives. This was wholly on
account of their religion. Lord Burghley, a hostile witness (in his
_Execution of Justice in England_[251]), testifies to their blameless
characters, describing them as "faithful and quiet subjects," "persons
of courteous natures," "of great modesty, learning and knowledge,"
"secluded only for their contrary opinions in religion, that savour
not (like those of the seminary priests) of treason."
[Footnote 251: This work was published in 1583, to justify the
execution of the seminary priests in England. Burghley's point is that
quiet Papists were not put to death.]
Yet, though thus inoffensive, their doom was grievously heavy.
Committed, to begin with, to solitary confinement, in what Froude
calls "the living death of the Tower" and other London prisons, for
three or four years, they were afterwards quartered (singly) on the
Protestant prelates, who were stringently ordered by the Council to
prevent them from communication, either by word or letter, with
anyone, and to see that they had neither paper to write withal, nor
books to read (except Protestant ones). Thus deprived of every
intellectual, social, and religious solace, "pining away in miserable
desolation, tossing and shifting from one keeper to another," they one
by one drooped and died. But all remained steadfast to their Faith;
and finally the "obstinate" survivors were, in 1580, closely
imprisoned, along with others in like case, in Wisbech Castle.
Here they were under the charge of Cox, the new Protestant Bishop of
Ely, who writes of them as "sworn against Christ," and boasts that "if
walls, locks, and doors can separate them from out-practice they shall
not want a sufficient provision of each." "Nor let it be thought, as
some bishops have reported, that I mind to make trade by over-ruling
such wretches." The "trade" was handed over to a favourite servant, to
make what he could out of the unhappy prisoners (who, like all
prisoners in those days, had to be supported by their friends),
subject only to providing out of his takings L80 per annum for the
upkeep of two Protestant preachers, "who are well able to set down
God's anger" against Popery. These preachers (amongst whom one
regrets to find "Lancelot Andrewes of Pembroke Hall") were ever and
anon to pester the "recusants" with denunciatory discourses in the
castle hall. "And the recusants shall be conveyed thither by a secret
way, without seeing any; and they shall have a secret place for
themselves to be in, to hear and not be seen.... This is the holy
ordinance of God."[252]
[Footnote 252: See Bridgett and Knox, _Queen Elizabeth and the
Catholic Hierarchy_, p. 197 _et seq._ It may have been these highly
specialised discourses which put so fine an edge on Wisbech
Protestantism that, in the Civil War, the Parson here was ejected for
no more heinous offence than that "he called a Godly Minister (Mr.
Allison) _Brother Redface_."]
Kept with this rigour the Confessors lingered on, year after year,
till death set them free. The latest to be released were Thomas
Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, who died in 1584, and Feckenham, the last
Abbot of Westminster, who died in 1585. Both are buried (as the Parish
Registers testify) in Wisbech churchyard.
The castle was sold by the See of Ely in 1783, and has since been
almost wholly pulled down. Nearly at the same date a young man, born
at Wisbech, was beginning those efforts which have reflected glory on
his native town, and have revolutionised public opinion throughout the
civilised world. The man was Thomas Clarkson, and the cause to which
he devoted his life was the abolition of slavery. That institution, up
to his time, was regarded as a very foundation of the earth. Rooted in
the furthest past of man's history, and as world-wide as it was
ancient, the idea of questioning its place in the eternal fitness of
things never occurred even to philanthropists. A virtuous man would
treat his slaves kindly; but as for not having such, he would as soon
have scrupled at having sheep and oxen, or at employing hired
servants.
It was left for young Clarkson, while a student at Cambridge, to
realise that the time was come when, if the human conscience was to
make any further progress in enlightenment, this hoary iniquity must,
root and branch, be abolished. On a steep hillside above Wade Mill, in
the road between Cambridge and London, a monument by the wayside still
marks the spot where he dismounted from his horse, and, kneeling on
the ground in the fervour of youthful enthusiasm, solemnly vowed to
God that for this holy object he would live and, if need be, die.
At once he set to work. Gathering a band of like-minded friends round
him (mostly belonging to the so-called Clapham Sect, who were then
inaugurating the great Evangelical Revival)--Wilberforce, Zachary
Macaulay, Babington, Thornton, Buxton, Cropper, and the rest--he
started an agitation in and out of Parliament, which carried all
before it. The Slave Trade was abolished in 1807; on August 1st, 1834,
slavery itself ceased throughout the British Empire; the example of
Britain was followed by other European Powers; and finally, in 1864,
after a last desperate struggle for existence in the American Civil
War, it was cast forth from its last stronghold in the United States.
If practised at all now, it is practised under some feigned name and
elusive system. No civilised man dare any longer proclaim himself an
avowed slave-driver. Well indeed does Clarkson deserve the monument
which Wisbech has erected to her glorious son.
At Wisbech, till the reclamation of the neighbouring Washes,
Cambridgeshire (or rather the Isle of Ely) possessed an actual strip
of seaboard extending from Wisbech town northward to the county
boundary between Tydd St. Mary and Tydd St. Giles. This strip was
itself reclaimed ground, but of far earlier date, due to the era of
Roman civilisation in Britain. The old coast-line, as has been said,
is still marked for us by a massive embankment extending from Sutton,
in Lincolnshire, to Wisbech, and thence to King's Lynn, in Norfolk--an
embankment sufficiently old to have given its name to the ancient
villages along its course. The designations of Walsoken, West Walton,
Walpole St. Peter, and Walpole St. Andrew, all testify to this sea
wall having been already in existence when the East Anglians, in the
fifth century, first took possession of the land.
[Illustration: _Wisbech Church._]
This embankment kept back, to the west and to the east, the tide-water
of the Well Stream (see p. 399), a wide inlet of the sea, narrowing
southward till it reached its extremity at Wisbech, and forming the
estuary for the united outfall of all the Fenland waterways. In later
days operations connected with the draining of the fens have diverted
nearly the whole volume of the Great Ouse and its tributary streams
to fall into the sea at King's Lynn, and have led the Nene straight to
Wisbech. But till the thirteenth century was well advanced the Ouse
and the Nene joined each other near Outwell, the united river being
called the "Well" or "Well Stream." The names of Upwell, Outwell,
Welney, &c., still preserve the memory of this old waterway.
The estuary was, of course, tidal, leaving at low water a broad
expanse of sands, amidst which the shifting channel of the river was
so far broadened out as to be fordable at certain points; thus
admitting of passage across the whole breadth of the inlet, even where
it became five miles wide. The regular track for this passage was from
the little hamlet of Cross Keys, on the Norfolk coast (the name of
which is derived from this circumstance) to Sutton Crosses, near the
village of Long Sutton, on the Lincolnshire side, and is approximately
marked for us to-day by the line of the Great Northern Railway between
these spots, traversing the level fields and meadows which have (since
the year 1830) finally replaced the sands of old.
The conditions of the passage were identical with those to be found
now at Morecambe Bay. That estuary can also be crossed at low tide;
but to do so in safety a good deal of local knowledge is essential.
The right points for fording the river channels must be found, the
numerous quicksands must be avoided, while the localities of both
fords and quicksands are constantly changing. It is therefore
exceedingly rash to make the attempt without guides; for across the
level sands of every estuary the tide makes with extreme rapidity,
sometimes coming in before the wind faster than any man can hope to
outrun it. These guides are professionals, who await on either bank
the demand for their services.
All this is exactly what is said of the Well Stream "Washes" in
authorities of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As late as
1775, though successive reclamations had by that time reduced the
breadth of the passage by more than half, we hear of the guide "always
attending at Cross Keys to conduct passengers over, bearing a wand or
rod in his hand, probably in imitation of Moses, who held a rod when
he conducted the Israelites through the Red Sea." The rod was really
used for probing the sand in front, lest it should prove "quick," and
also for taking the bearings on the opposite shore by which the course
was steered.
It was through neglect of such expert advice that the Well Stream
estuary became the scene of that dramatic episode in English history,
which, on the 13th of October in the year 1216, cost King John his
treasures and his life. The story is narrated by the contemporary
historian Roger of Wendover, and the Barnwell and Coggeshall
chroniclers. The whole circumstances have been most carefully and
minutely elaborated by Mr. St. John Hope, through whose kindness I am
enabled to use his materials. His able monograph on the subject is to
be found in Vol. LX. of "Archaeologia."
John was, in 1216, at death-grips with the Barons, who, in the
previous year, had wrung from him the signature of Magna Charta. The
rights and wrongs of the quarrel were not so wholly one-sided as is
popularly supposed, and the appeal of both parties to the Pope had not
sufficed to clear them up. The offer of the Crown by the Barons to
Louis, Dauphin of France, was for the moment more successful. Most of
England acknowledged him as King, and even the King of Scots came to
do homage for his sub-kingdom (as Scotland then was); only a few
strongholds, notably Windsor Castle, holding out for John and being
besieged by the Barons.
John himself, however, was still at large, and at the head of a small,
but very effective, mercenary army of filibusters from all the
countries of Europe. He met the situation by a campaign of
extraordinary energy; his object being to relieve his invested
fortresses by drawing off their assailants to the defence of their own
lands. Incidentally, desire of revenge, and the need of paying his
troops by plunder, operated as a further motive for the merciless
destruction which, in a series of brilliant and ferocious raids, he
meted out to the districts owned by his opponents. The speed of his
movements is almost incredible, considering the conditions of travel
in the thirteenth century; but they can be traced with accuracy by the
still existing entries in the Patent and Close Rolls; for day by day
John did not cease to do royal business and to sign the documents
submitted to him, however far he might have marched since morning. In
the eyes of his Continental contemporaries this consuming energy came
to be held his chief characteristic. In the "Dittamondo" of the
Italian poet, Fazio degli Uberti, written early in the fourteenth
century, which gives a brief notice of the successive Kings of England
from the Norman Conquest onwards, the one thing mentioned about John
is the "hot haste" of his riding.
Hot haste it was, indeed! Week after week the King made his army
(which, though small, cannot have numbered fewer than two or three
thousand men) cover distances that would be creditable to a solitary
bicycle tourist on the macadamised roads of to-day. From Corfe Castle,
in Dorsetshire, whither he had retreated on the landing of Louis, he
dashed across England (_via_ Bristol) to Cheshire, ravaged that
district for over a fortnight, and was back at Corfe within six weeks
of setting out. The very next day he was off again, and by a
circuitous route of 155 miles (for his enemies' forces barred the
direct way) reached Oxford within a week. A few days later another yet
more wonderful week of 225 miles carried him from Reading to Lincoln;
his daily stages being Bedford (45 miles), Cambridge (30), Castle
Hedingham, in Essex (25), Stamford (70), Rockingham (10), and Lincoln
(50). Here he remained ten days, during which he raised the siege of
the castle; having also succeeded in relieving Windsor, for the Barons
who were attacking it hastily broke up, and marched to Cambridge in
hopes of cutting him off at this strategic point--the only place, as
we have said,[253] where the Cam was passable for an army. It was
doubtless to escape this danger that John undertook, on September
19th, the forced march of 70 miles from Hedingham to Stamford, which
had perforce to be made _via_ "the Great Bridge" of Cambridge.
[Footnote 253: P. 6.]
Yet another week of marches up and down Lincolnshire, 115 miles in
all, brought him round the Wash to Lynn (by way of Wisbech); and then
came the great catastrophe.
It was on Wednesday the 12th of October, 1215, that King John, after
three days' stay at Lynn, retraced his steps, with his wonted
celerity, by way of Wisbech, to Swineshead Abbey near Boston, a
distance of over forty miles. Documents signed by him on this day at
all three places are to be found in the Patent and Close Rolls. His
baggage train, which obviously could not have kept up with this pace,
he ordered to follow by the direct route across the sands. We read
with some surprise that his flying column was accompanied by such a
train at all; but the contemporary historians agree in telling us of
"carts, waggons, and sumpter horses," loaded with the King's treasures
and properties (including even a portable chapel), and with the spoil
amassed during this long raid.
Such a train would cover at least a mile on any road, and could only
move quite slowly, three miles an hour at the very outside. How it
kept touch with the column at all is a wonder, and we may be sure that
it could never have done so during the forced march from Hedingham on
the 19th of September. After that date the occupation of Cambridge by
the Baronial forces would effectually bar the way against any attempt
to follow in the King's track; and it is highly probable that he,
knowing that this would be so, had ordered the train and its escort to
make their way instead from Hedingham to Lynn, and that he paid his
hurried visit to that place with the sole object of once more getting
into touch with them.
However that may be, there is no doubt that the train did set out from
Lynn, along the road to Cross Keys, after the King and his troops had
ridden off towards Wisbech. It was impossible, however, to attempt the
passage that same day, for the channel of the Well Stream could only
be forded during the hour or so on either side of low-water, which, as
calculations show, was on this day about noon. The long line of
vehicles had, accordingly, to halt for the night at Cross Keys, for to
have attempted the passage in the dark (the moon was nearly at the
new), would have been simply suicidal.
Next morning, Thursday, October 13th, they woke to find the tide
lapping against the old Roman embankment behind which they lay, for it
was a spring tide, and at its highest about 6.30 a.m. Rapidly it
receded, and by 9 a.m. the wide expanse of the sands would lie bare
before them. The moment these were dry enough for the passage of carts
they would start, for their leaders knew well the urgent necessity for
speed. To get such a train across the Well Stream channel in the short
space of two hours they must be at the ford the very moment it was
practicable. Every instant was precious, and every driver did his
utmost to press on, regardless of the warnings of the guides (if they
had any).
But to drive a loaded cart over wet sand is at the best a slow job.
Readers of Sir Walter Scott will remember his vivid description, in
_Redgauntlet_, of the difficulties attending such attempts:
"The vehicle, sinking now on one side, now on the other,
sometimes sticking absolutely fast and requiring the utmost
exertions of the animal which drew it to put it once more in
motion, was subjected to jolts in all directions.... There seemed
at least five or six people around the cart, some on foot, others
on horseback. The former lent assistance whenever it was in
danger of upsetting or sticking fast in the quicksands: the
others rode before and acted as guides, often changing the
direction of the vehicle as the precarious state of the passage
required.... Thus the cart was dragged heavily and wearily on,
until the nearer roar of the advancing tide excited apprehension
of another danger.... A rider hastily fastened his own horse to
the shafts of the cart, in order to assist the exhausted animal
which drew it, ... but at length, when, after repeated and
hair-breadth escapes, it actually stuck fast in a quicksand, the
driver, with an oath, cut the harness, and departed with the
horses, splashing over the wet sand and through the shallows as
he galloped off."
Multiply all this at least a hundred-fold, throwing in the added
turmoil caused by the multitude of carts jamming and impeding one
another, and we can picture something of the scene as that fatal
morning advanced and the doomed cavalcade ploughed its way on to
destruction. For there was no margin of time; and though the leading
vehicles seem to have reached the Well Stream channel, they reached it
too late. Already it was unfordable, for such traffic at least as
theirs. Some of the carts doubtless tried to make a dash across; but
their horses, exhausted by the strenuous effort of the last two hours,
were unequal to the tremendous strain of negotiating the soft bottom
of the stream. A very few such failures would entirely bar the way to
those who were eagerly pressing on behind, and almost in a moment the
whole column would be in irremediable confusion. In the struggling
press, to turn would be as impossible as to proceed, while momentarily
the laden carts, for which the only hope was to be kept going, would,
at a standstill, sink deeper, inch by inch, into the ever quickening
sand. And then in the midst of the welter, up came the tide, sweeping
over the level sands, as spring tides in the Wash do sweep;--and, when
the waters once more went down, of all that mass of treasure and
plunder, of all those horses and drivers and carts and waggons not a
trace was to be seen. The sands had swallowed all; and to this day
they retain their prey. As Shakespeare makes King John say:
"These Lincoln Washes have devoured them."
The expanse of sands is now an expanse of fields and meadows, through
which the River Nene is led by a straight cut from Wisbech to the sea.
Where that cut is crossed by the Great Northern Railway (which, as has
been said, runs almost along the line of the old crossing-track) is
the traditional spot of the disaster, and Mr. St. John Hope believes
that excavation might there bring to light some of its relics, even
after the lapse of so many years.
Matthew Paris (in his _Historia Anglorum_), writing in the generation
following the catastrophe, tells us that John himself was on the scene
and barely escaped from the rising waters. But he, as we have seen,
was the previous night (and the next) at Swineshead Abbey. It is just
possible that, with his astounding energy, he may have ridden in the
morning with a few attendants to Long Sutton (a distance of twenty
miles, as before the reclamation of the fens travellers from Boston
thither would have to go round by Spalding), and thence across the
sands, to overlook in person the passage of the Well Stream. If so, he
may well, in the confusion, have been surprised by the tide and have
barely escaped by hard riding. Anyhow the catastrophe cost him his
life; for this heart-breaking blow, coming on top of his three months'
herculean exertions, brought on a feverish attack that very night. Ill
as he was, he was on horseback again by dawn, and rode fifteen miles
to Sleaford. Next day he struggled on twenty miles to Newark, where
"the disease increasing, he received the counsel of Confession and the
Eucharist from the Abbot of Croxton," and died that same evening
(October 18th), fairly burnt out by his own consuming and tireless
energy. If ever King did, he "died standing."
"Foul as Hell is, it is defiled by the fouler presence of John." Such
is the uncompromising verdict of the inimical chronicler; and such
(in less trenchant phraseology) has been very much the verdict of
popular historians even to our own day. But it was a verdict by no
means universally accepted by contemporaries. John did not, like
William Rufus, receive what Professor Freeman calls "the distinction
of a popular excommunication." For Rufus no prayer was said, no psalm
was sung, no Mass was offered. All men felt that prayer was hopeless.
But John was buried in peace; and it speedily appeared that the cause
for which he stood was the cause which (more especially when the
weight of his own personal unpopularity was removed) most commended
itself to the heart of England. Men had no desire to see the English
Crown become an appanage for the heir to the French monarchy. And so
Louis rapidly found. Within nine days of his father's death the infant
Henry the Third was crowned at Gloucester,--with his mother's
bracelet, in default of the proper crown (which, however, is not
likely to be amongst the treasures lost in the Wash, as many histories
assume); and within six months men were flocking "as to a Holy War,"
from all parts of the country, to take part in that decisive battle
known as "the Fair of Lincoln," which crushed, once and for all, the
foreign intrusion, and established irrevocably the claim of the
native-born ruler to succeed his father on the throne of England.
And with this stirring story we take our leave of the Highways and
Byways of Cambridgeshire, the stage of so many a story, the home of so
many a memory; the scene--to those who have eyes to see--of so much
quiet loveliness; where the Present is ever brooded over by the Past,
and where on the anvils of Thought and Science the Future is ever
being shaped. We have explored the County from end to end, we have
mounted her uplands, we have traversed her fens, we have clambered her
earthworks, we have entered her churches. Her Manor-houses have told
us their tale of struggle, her Colleges have borne their witness to
the growth of knowledge. We have been able to
"Watch Time's full river as it flows";
and the pathos of all that has come and gone stands out before us, as
a record more thrilling than the most daring romance, as a theme more
inspiring than the noblest poem. We bid good-bye to the County of
Cambridge and the Isle of Ely feeling that no hue of dulness attaches
to them, as is commonly supposed by the unappreciative crowd, but that
rather the footprints of the past which abound within their borders
give promise of a future that shall not be unworthy of what has gone
before.
[Illustration: _The Old Court of Corpus._]
ADDENDA.
Attention should have been called to two remarkable ecclesiastical
inscriptions, on the Eastern and Western borders of our district
respectively.
In the upland churchyard of Castle Camps (p. 206), hard by the
Priest's Door into the Chancel, a tombstone has the following epitaph:
Mors Mortis Morti mortem nisi morte dedisset
AEternae Vitae janua clausa foret.
["Except the Death of Death Death's death by death had been
Ne'er would Eternal Life with door unshut be seen."]
And in the church of Fen Stanton, low down amid the Ouse meadows near
St. Ives, is the following ancient rebus (also hard by the Priest's
Door):
QV A D T M P
OS NGVIS IRVS RISTI VLCEDINE AVIT
H SA M X D L
_I.e._--Quos Anguis dirus tristi mulcedine pavit
Hos Sanguis mirus Christi dulcedine lavit.
["Whom the dire Serpent fouls with poisonous food
Christ washeth in His sweet and wondrous Blood."]
A variant of these lines is to be seen in the Alpine sanctuary of
Champery near the Lake of Geneva.
INDEX
A
Abbeys:
Barnwell, 10, 160
Chatteris, 390
Crowland, 137, 393
Denny, 30, 298
Ely, 302-341, 345-376
Peterborough, 373, 390, 394
Ramsey, 75, 198, 279, 310, 392, 410
Soham, 178
Thorney, 392, 396
Abbey Barn, 161
Abington, 203
Adams, Prof., 266
"Ad eundem," 265
Adventurers, 403
Adwulf, 304
Agincourt, 184
Aidan, St., 175
Akeman Street, 252, 258, 295
Alan of Walsingham, 329, 345, 356, 360, 362, 366, 373
Alcock, Bp., 146, 283, 332, 376, 418
Aldreth, 283, 295, 316
Alfred the Etheling, 314
Alfred the Great, 11, 38, 169, 183, 213
Alum, 92
Ambulatory, 366
Ancarig, 392
Andrewes, Bp., 342
Andrew, St., Oratory of, 161
Anna, King, 303
Archdeacon of Ely, 282
Armeswerke, 306
Arnold, Matthew, 268
Arrington, 258
Artesian, 260
Ashwell, 248
Ashwell Bush, 236
Assandun, 205, 313
Assize of Barnwell, 161
Athelney, 308
Audley End, 234
Audrey's Fair, St., 307
Augustine, St., 38, 303
Augustinians, 11, 158
B
B.A., 16
Babraham, 202
Backs, 2, 41, 85
Bacon, 90, 102
Baitsbite, 296
Balsham, 171, 216
Balsham, Bp., 12, 25, 112, 325
Baptistery (Ely), 352
Barham Hall, 205
Barnack, 329
Barnett, Bp., 366
Barnwell, 10, 160
Barnwell Gate, 35, 152
Barnwell Priory, 16, 160, 370
Barrington, 238, 289
Barrow, 102
Bartlow, 205
Barton, 254
Barton Road, 252
Basevi, 371
Basket-making, 384
Bassingbourn, 247
Bateman, Bp., 82
Bath, 252
Becket, Thomas a, 235, 246
Bedford, Earl of, 406
Bedford Rivers, 280, 389
Bedmakers, 16
Belsars Hill, 283, 292
Benedictine Rule, 339
Benson, A. C., 138
Bentham, 345
Bentley, 40, 101, 105, 109
Bible (St. John's Coll.), 117
Bidding Prayer, 128
Biggin "Abbey," 295
Bishop's Delph, 178
Bishopsgate, 222
Black Death, 248, 340
Blaise, St., 284
Blazer, 119
Bluntisham, 280
Boadicea, 172
Boat Houses, 146
Boat Races, 88, 146, 296
Boat Show, 43
Bonfire, 85
Borough, 7, 8
Borough Green, 188
Botolph, St., 32, 34, 304
Bottisham, 189
Bourn, 273
Bourn Brook, 270
Bourne R., 202
Brazier, 97
Brandon, 185
Bretwalda, 178
Bridges:
Clare, 42, 84, 93
Great, 46, 136
Hauxton, 235
Hostel, 43
Huntingdon, 278
King's, 42
Magdalene, 136
Newnham, 41, 222
Queens', 41
St. John's, 118
Trinity, 43
Bucer, 23, 131
Buckingham College, 137
Bulldogs, 132
Burgesses, 12
Burgraed (King), 309
Burnt Mill, 236
Burwell, 195, 198
Bury St. Edmunds, 320, 370
Butcher's Broom, 227
Butterflies, 182, 211
Butter Measure, 12
Buttery, 95
Butts, 254
Byron, 90, 94
Byron's Pool, 220
C
Caldecote, 271
Cam, 7, 8, 40, 222, 295
Cambridge and Oxford, 2, 11, 17
Camden Society, 134
Camp of Refuge, 10, 316
Canute, 8, 205, 313
Car Dyke, 297
Carmelites, 11
Castle, 4, 138
Castle Camps, 206
Cavendish Laboratory, 159, 267
Caxton, 273
Ceilings, 100
Chad, St., 176, 355
Chained books, 83
Chancellor, 125
Chantries, 239
Chapel, Bush, 238
Chapel lists, 104
Chapels (College):
Christ's, 153
Clare, 84
Corpus, 35
Emmanuel, 158
Girton, 144
Jesus, 147, 148
King's, 52-77, 290
Pembroke, 30, 342
Peterhouse, 26, 342
Queens', 48
St. John's, 113
Trinity, 102
Chapels (at Ely):
Bishop Alcock's, 332, 369
Bishop West's, 332, 367
Crauden's, 330, 346
Lady, 330, 372
St. Catherine's, 352
St. Edmund's, 360
Charles the First, 101, 138, 182, 190, 268, 406
Charles the Second, 173
Cherry Hill, 345
Cherryhinton, 208
Chester, 221
Chesterford, 232
Chesterton, 295
Chevely, 185
Childerley, 271
Chimes, 101, 129
Choirs, 114
Choir School (Ely), 314
Christopher, St., 205
Chum, 288
Church ales, 247
Churches (Cambridge):
Abbey, 161
All Saints', 108
Christ Church, 162
Holy Sepulchre, 133
Holy Trinity, 152
Our Lady's, 21
St. Andrew's the Great, 155
St. Andrew's the Less, 161
St. Benet's, 36
St. Botolph's, 32
St. Clement's, 136
St. Giles', 140
St. Mary's the Great, 127
St. Mary's the Less, 25
St. Michael's, 13, 86
St. Paul's, 162
St. Peter's, 140
Churches (Ely):
Holy Trinity, 372
St. Cross, 379
St. Mary's, 378
Clapham Sect, 422
Clapper Stile, 204
Clarence, Duke of, 94
Clarkson, 421
Clayhithe, 296
Clergy Training School, 148
Clerks, 11
Clerk-Maxwell, 97
Cloisters, 92, 353
Clough, 142
Clunch, 198, 236
Codex Bezae, 82
Coe Fen, 159
Coleridge, 150
"College" (Ely), 376
Colleges:
Christ's, 152-155
Clare, 83-85, 342
Corpus Christi, 35-38
Downing, 159
Ely Theological, 382
Emmanuel, 156-158
Girton, 144
Gonville and Caius, 120-124
Jesus, 146-150, 369
King's, 50-79
Magdalene, 137
Newnham, 142
Pembroke, 28-34, 298
Peterhouse, 25-28, 369
Queens', 47-50
Ridley Hall, 142
St. Catherine's, 39-40
St. John's, 109-119
Selwyn, 144
Sidney Sussex, 151-152
Trinity, 86-107, 242
Trinity Hall, 82-83
Westminster, 142
Comacine Guild, 353
Comberton, 254
Combination Rooms, 26, 97
Commons, 1
"Commons," 95
Common Fields, 3
Conduit, 23, 130, 158
Confessionals, 263
Conington, 292
Conqueror, William the, 187, 283, 315, 359
Coprolites, 240
Corporation, 12, 185
Coton, 89
Cottenham, 298
Courts (College), 2
Courts, Christian, 11
Covenant, 91
Coveney, 409
Cox, Bishop, 289
Cratendune, 179, 303
Cranmer, Abp., 150
Crauden, Prior, 330, 346, 359, 410
Cromwell, Oliver, 32, 128, 151, 272, 278, 367, 381, 406, 412
Cross Keys, 413, 424, 427
Crusades, 328
Cycloid, 89
Cyclone, 276
Cymbeline, 172
D
Darwin, 155
Deanery (Ely), 348, 353
Decorated, 334
Degrees, 16
Denver, 387
Denver Sluice, 280, 389, 407
Devil's Dyke, 171, 187, 194, 212, 300
"Disinherited," 325
Divinity schools, 109
Doddington, 409
Dominicans, 11, 155
Dowsing, 56, 187, 189, 205, 222, 270
Dry Drayton, 270
Dullingham, 188
Dunstan, Abp., 309
Dunwich, 180
"Duties," 377
Duxford, 228
Dykes, 170-173
E
Earith, 298, 389
Early English, 334
Eastern Counties Association, 380
Edgar the Peacemaker, 309, 373, 192
Edmund the Ironside, 206, 313
Edmund, St., 175, 180, 262
Edmundhouse, 142
Edward the Confessor, 314
Edward the Elder, 6, 8, 169, 212, 278
Edward the First, 328
Edward the Second, 86, 359, 411
Edward the Third, 86, 101, 330, 348, 359
Edward the Seventh, 94, 268
Egbert, 7, 169
Eleanor, Queen, 324
Electoral roll, 125
Elizabeth, Queen, 126, 290, 419
Elm, 412
Elsworth, 292
Eltisley, 274
Ely, 7, 11, 140, 188, 236, 302-385, 409
Ely House, 290, 333
Ely Place, 322
Emma, Queen, 314
Emneth, 412
Enclosure Acts, 387
Epigrams, 80
Erasmus, 47
Erconwald, St., 176, 262
Ermine Street, 244, 258, 273
Ermenilda, 176, 307
Esquire, Bedell, 128
Ethandune, 308
Etheldreda, St., 7, 169, 175, 179, 283, 303, 358
Ethelred, the Unready, 310
Eton, 51
Eustace, Bp., 349, 367
Eversden, 289
Examination Hall, 15
Examinations, 14, 98
Exeat, 17
Exning, 173, 175
F
Fagius, 23, 131
Fairy-cart, 260
Falcon Cup, 84
Felix, St., 178
Fellow Commoners, 151
Fellows, 2, 89
Fen Ditton, 171, 295
Fields, 3
Firehooks, 38, 204
First Trinity, 88, 148
Fisher, Bishop, 110, 152
Fisher, Osmund, 149
Fitzwilliam, 23, 371
Fleam Dyke, 170, 210
Fordham, 176
Fowlmere, 230
Foxton, 242
Franchise of Ely, 321
Franciscans, 11, 100, 152
Free School Lane, 36
Freshman's Pillar, 92
Friars, 11
Fulbourn, 209
Fuller, 344, 357, 384
G
Galilee, 324, 349
Garret Hostel, 43
Gating, 16
Geoffry de Magnaville, 34, 200
George the First, 80
George the Third, 90
Gibbet, 273
Gibbons, 90
Girton, 268
Girvii, 169
Godmanchester, 278
Godolphin, 202
God's House, 153
Gogmagogs, 201
Gonville, 14, 120
Goodhart, 95
Goodrich, Bp., 332, 341, 376
Granby, Marquis of, 98
Granta, 7, 202, 222
Grantabridge, 7
Grantabrigshire, 8
Granta-ceaster, 7
Grantchester, 7, 221
Grantset, 7
Gray, 28
Great Ouse, 399
Greek, 47
Greensand, 240
Guild Hall, 130
Guilden Morden, 262
Gunning, Bp., 342, 367
Guyhirn, 289
H
Haddenham, 282, 356
Halls, 15
Hardwick, 270
Harlton, 255
Harvard, 156
Haslingfield, 236
Hauxton, 235
Hemingford, 279
Henrietta Maria, Queen, 116
Henry the First, 359
Henry the Third, 324, 359
Henry the Sixth, 41, 51, 54
Henry the Eighth, 87, 97, 118, 152, 283, 372
Hereward, 10, 283, 315
Hermits, 41, 222
Hervey, Bp., 180, 321, 359
Hervey de Stanton, 86, 242
Hiding-hole, 225
High-table, 15, 96
Hilda, St., 303
Hildersham, 203
Hinxton, 230
Histon, 268, 287
Hithes, 44, 194
Hobson, 21, 158
Holcroft, 288
Holme, 400
Holywell, 279
Honours, 14, 98
Horningsea, 295
Horseheath, 209
Hospital of St. John, 25, 112
Hospitallers, 258
Hostels, 12, 43
Hotham, Bp., 330, 335, 359, 363, 366
Hubert, St., 270
Huddleston, 225
Hundreds, 10
Huntingdon, 138, 278
I
Iceni, 168, 211
Ickleton, 231
Icknield Way, 171, 203, 234, 244
Indulgence, 91, 235
Ink, 336
Ireton, 272
Ireton's Way, 390
Isle of Ely, 8, 168, 282
Isleham, 183
Ivo, St., 279
J
Jacutus, St., 205
James the First, 154, 173, 403
Jesus Lane Sunday School, 162
Jewry, 10, 108
Job, 248
John, King, 12, 136, 425-430
Jowett, 129
Julitta, St., 191
Jurats, 400
K
Kendal, 166
King's Ditch, 3, 34
King's Hall, 14, 86, 101
King's Mill, 34
Kingsley, 138
Kingston, 271
Kirtling, 186
Kitchen (Trinity), 96
Kitchener, Lord, 131
Knapwell, 273
Knee-holm, 227
L
Landbeach, 296
Landwade, 176
Lantern (Ely), 356
Lantern (Trinity), 97
Lectures, 16
Lepers' Chapel, 162
Leverington, 414
Leverrier, 266
Leys School, 160
"Libellers," 403
Liber Eliensis, 303, 337
Libraries:
Corpus, 38
King's, 52
Pepys, 137
Peterhouse, 26
St. John's, 44, 116
Trinity, 43, 80
Trinity Hall, 82
University, 79-82, 100
Lincoln, 298
Lingay Fen, 222
Linton, 204
Littlego, 155
"Little John," 226
Little Ouse, 399
Littleport, 387, 400
Littlington, 264, 288
Lock-up, 264
Lode, 191, 194, 300
Logan, 2, 95, 100
London Stone, 160
Long Stanton, 289
Long Vacation, 17
Lycidas, 154
Lynn, 326, 390, 399, 400, 426
M
Macaulay, 14, 107, 136
Madingley, 268
Maitland, 3, 185
"Majestas," 287, 339
Maldon, 310
Manea, 409
March, 410
Margaret, Lady, 110, 152
Margaret, Queen, 41
Mark, 318
Market Hill, 130
Marshland, 399, 411
Martial, 384
Martin V., Pope, 161, 238
Mary Stuart, 278
Mary Tudor, 97, 225
Maur, St., 252
Mayor of Cambridge, 12
May pole, 255
Mazes, 254, 352
Medhampsted, 308, 394, 396
Melbourn, 242
Meldreth, 242
Mepal, 390
Merton, 25, 142
Michael House, 14, 86
Midsummer Common, 146
Mildenhall, 185
Mildmay, 156
Milestone, 82, 160
Mill Hill, 345
Mill, St., 50
Milton, 295
Milton, John, 56, 58, 91, 154
Miserere seats, 363
Monks' Door, 356
Monks' garments, 338
Morning Talks, 36
Morton, Bp., 336, 398, 418
N
Needham Hall, 412
Needingworth, 279
Nene, 398
Neotus, St., 276
Neptune, 266
Nevile, 92, 100
Nevile's Court, 92, 94, 95
Newcastle, 390
New College, 51
Newmarket, 173, 174, 389
Newton, Isaac, 41, 91, 92, 103, 107, 265
Non-Collegiate Students, 15
Northwold, Bp. Hugh de, 307, 324, 329, 335, 359, 363, 365, 369, 371
O
Oakington, 288
Oasland, 288
Oath of Supremacy, 419
Observatory, 221, 265
Octagon, 356
Oddy, 288
Old North Road, 244
Opponencies, 14
Organs, 105
Orwell, 256
Ostorius, 172, 211
Ouse R., 277-280, 301
Outwell, 398, 411
Over, 286, 294
Overcote, 280, 295
Owen, 283, 355
P
Paley, 155
Pandiana, St., 275
Parallax, 280
Parchment, 224
Paris, Matthew, 325, 328
Park (Ely), 345
Parker, Abp., 39
Paxton, 278
Peacock, Dean, 384
Peas Hill, 130
Pembroke, 28
Penda, 175, 303
Pensioners, 15
Pepys, 137
Perne, 23
Perpendicular Architecture, 334
Perry, Bp., 105, 155, 162
Peterborough, 298, 308, 315, 373, 400
Peter Pence, 203
Peters, Hugh, 183
Philippa, Queen, 330, 348, 359
Picot, 10, 160
Pilgrim's Progress, 166
Pitt Press, 40
Pitt, William, 32
Plate, College, 31, 84, 95
Poison Cup, 84
Population, 4, 10
Posidonius, 384
Preachers' Street, 155
Premier College, 50
President, 48
Prior's Door, 353
Priory Chapel, 161
Probus, 201
Proctors, 12, 16, 125
Provost, 12, 48
Q
Quarles, 155
Queen's Lane, 50
Querela Cantabrigiensis, 31, 129
Quy, 169
R
Radegund, St., 10, 144
Railroads, 20, 203
Rampton, 298
Reach, 171, 187, 194, 196, 300
Regent Street, 159
Residence, 17
Richard the Third, 322
Ridley, Bp., 31
Ringmere, 8, 214
Roger of Wendover, 309, 324
Rolls, C. S., 91
Romney Marsh, 400
Romsey Town, 208
Roentgen, 267
Roof Climbing, 91
Rooms, 15
Roubillac, 102
Round Churches, 133
Royston, 244
Rufus, William, 336, 430
Rustication, 16
Rutherford, Professor, 267
S
Sacring Bell, 231, 294
Saffron, 209
St. Ives, 279
St. John's Farm, 382
St. Neots, 276
Sancroft, Abp., 156
Sarcophagus, 307
Sawston, 222
Scholars, 14
Schools, 14
Screens, 95, 98
Seals, 393
Sea Wall, 399, 411, 422
Sedgwick, Adam, 267
Selenite, 292, 409
Selwyn, Bp., 367
Senate House, 15, 125
Sexburga, 176, 306
Sexwulf, 392
"Shammy" Leather, 222
Sharpinhoe, 236
Shelford, 222
Shepreth, 242
Shingay, 258
Ship Money, 244
Shudy Camps, 206
Sibyl, 149
Simeon, Abbot, 319, 335, 359, 360
Simeon, Charles, 152
Simon de Montfort, 325
Slavery, 421
Snailwell, 176
Soham, 178, 180
Sophs, 96
Sound, 92
Southey, 114
Spark, Bp., 321
Spenser, 32
Spikes, 78
Stanground, 387
Stapleford, 222
Steeple Morden, 263
Stocks, 242
Stokes, Sir George, 32, 267
Stonea, 409
Stone altar, 134
Stourbridge Fair, 163-167
Stretham, 283, 298
Stuntney, 180
Suffolk, 175
Sutton, 286
Sutton Crosses, 424
Swaffham, 236
Swaffham Bulbeck, 189
Swaffham Prior, 191
Swavesey, 292
Syndicates, 125
T
Tabula Eliensis, 319
Taxers, 12
"T.B.C.," 88
Tennyson, 55, 91, 97, 102, 104
Terms, 17
Terrington, 120, 414
Teversham, 209
Thackeray, 91, 97, 107
Theodore of Tarsus, 306
Thetford, 180
Third Trinity, 88
Thirlby, Bp., 341
Thompson, 104
Thomson, Sir J. J., 267
Tillotson, Abp., 288
Tithe Barn, 381
Toft, 270
Tonbert, 169, 283
Triplow Heath, 228
Tripos, 14, 127
Trumpington, 219, 310
Trumpington Gate, 35
Turf-cutting, 196
Turner, Bp., 274, 343
Tydd, 415
U
Ulfcytel, 8, 214
"Undertakers," 403
Union, 134
University, Origin of, 11
Upper River, 220
Upware, 194, 300
Upwell, 411
V
Vacations, 17
Valence, Marie de, 30
Vandlebury, 201
Vanity Fair, 166
Vermuyden, 406
Via Devana, 21, 159, 206
Vicars Brook, 23
Vice-Chancellor, 125
Victoria, Queen, 257
Vigor, St., 210
W
Walden, 137
Wall-rue, 295
Walpole, 413, 422
Walpole Gate, 345
Walsoken, 413, 422
War Ditches, 208
Warstead Street, 209
Washington Arms, 26
Waterbeach, 289, 296
Wat Tyler, 131, 248
Waynflete, Bp., 52
Wedmore, Peace of, 8, 308
Well Stream, 399, 411, 416, 422
Welney, 411
Wendred, St., 176, 275
Wendy, 260
Wentworth, 286
West, Bp., 332, 335, 367
Westcott House, 148
Westley Waterless, 188
Westminster College, 142
Westmorland, 166
Weston Colville, 188
Westry, 411
West Walton, 413, 422
Whalley, 272
Whewell, 104, 108
White Hill, 236
Whitgift, Abp., 124
Whittlesea, 410
Whittlesford, 227
Wicken Fen, 180, 300
Wilbraham, 210
Wilburton, 283
Wilfrid, St., 303, 393
Will of Henry the Sixth, 52
Williams, Bp., 116
Willingham, 286, 290
Wimpole, 256
Wireless Telegraphy, 267
Wisbech, 399, 403, 415, 426
Wisbech, John of, 331
Witchford, 286, 318
Woad, 417
Wood Ditton, 171, 187
Wordsworth, 55, 101, 102, 113, 118
Wranglers, 14
Wren, Bp., 25, 189, 209, 342
Wren, Christopher, 30, 43, 360
Y
Yaxley, 400
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[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all
other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
has been maintained.
Text enclosed in = is printed in bold in the book.
Letters preceded by a ^ are superscribt.
Page 117: "Last year (1809)" has been corrected to "Last year (1909)".
Page 343: The footnote 223 present there has no anchor in the text.]