Surely there can be little doubt that the name of this street at
Cambridge is a corruption from the French "petite écurie." We knew
little enough about such matters when I was an undergraduate there; but
still, I think, we could have solved this mystery. Might I be permitted
to suggest that as the court stables at Versailles were called "les
petites écuries," to distinguish them from the king's, which were styled
"les grandes écuries," although they exactly resembled them, and
contained accommodation for five hundred horses; so the street in
question may have contained some of the fellows' stables, which were
called "les petites écuries," to distinguish them from the masters'.
Should this supposition be correct, it would seem to imply that at one
time the French language was not altogether _ignored_ at Cambridge.