MS 



CAMBRIDGE. 



CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 



Sidney Sussex College was founded iu 159S by Lady Frances 

 Sidney, countess of Sussex. The present society consists of a master, 

 12 fellows, and 26 scholars. There are several exhibitions. Oliver 

 Cromwell was a student of Sidney Sussex College. 



Downing College, the most recent in the University, was founded 

 by Sir George Downing, who bequeathed funds for its endowment iu 

 1717 : but it was not till 1800 that the University obtained an order 

 from the privy council empowering the establishment of the college. 

 Kveutually the college is to consist of a master, two professors (one 

 of the laws of England, and one of medicine), 16 fellows, and C scholars. 

 At present only the master, professors, and three fellows are appointed. 

 The appointment of the remaining fellows and the scholars is reserved 

 until the completion of the buildings. The college was opened iu 

 1821. The buildings are to consist of a spacious quadrangle. Two 

 sides only of this quadrangle are completed ; the cost was upwards of 

 60,000/. They were designed by Wilkins and are in a so-called Greek 

 style, but are by no means a favourable example of architectural taste. 



(Camden, lii'Uunnia, edited by Gough ; Lysons, Mofjua, Britannia ; 

 Fuller, fliitory of the Ifniversity of Cambridge ; Dyer, llit. of 1'nirer- 

 tity and Coltcijet of Cambridge ; Carter, Cambridge ; Memorial* of 

 Cambridge, by T. Wright, and H. L. Jones ; Deighton, Cambridge 

 Guide; Cambfitl'jc University Calendar, Jtc.) 



CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, United States, a city and the capital 

 of Middlesex County, is situated iu 42 23' N. lat., 71 8' W. long., 

 distant 3 miles X.N.W. from Boston, with which it is connected by 

 bridges and by railway across Charles River : the population in 1850 

 was 15,215. When founded by the New Eugland settlers this place 

 was called New Town ; but after the founding of Harvard college 

 the town received its present name, iu compliment to the English 

 University of Cambridge. For particulars in reference to Harvard 

 college, now university, we refer to the article BOSTON. Mount 

 Auburn cemetery, which ia situated at Cambridge, is also noticed 

 under Boston. The city possesses an observatory and several fine 

 public buildings. A weekly newspaper with several monthly and 

 quarterly literary journals are published in Cambridge. The first 

 printing executed in British America was performed at Cambridge in 

 1 639, with an apparatus sent from England in the preceding year by 

 the Uev. J. Glover, a Dissenting minister. The first thing printed was 

 ' The Freeman's Oath ;' the second was an almanac. The first book 

 that issued from the Cambridge press was a version of the Psalms iu 

 metre, printed in 1640. In 1663 an edition of the Bible, translated 

 into the Indian language, was printed. Cambridge was for thirty- 

 five years the only place in New England in which printing was 

 carried on. 



CAMBRIDGESHIRE, an inland county of Eugland, lying between 

 52 1' and 52 45' N. lat, 31' E. and 16' W. long. It is of an 

 irregular oblong form, having its greatest length about 51 miles, and 

 its greatest breadth 32 miles ; and ia bounded N. by Lincolnshire ; 

 E. by Norfolk and Suffolk ; S. by Hertfordshire and Essex ; and W. 

 by Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire. Cam- 

 bridge, the county town, is 48 or 49 miles in a direct line N. by E. 

 from London. The area of the county is 893 square miles, and the 

 population in 1841 was 164,459 ; in 1851 it was 185,405. 



1,-a^ki/, anil Communications. The whole northern 

 part of the county and a considerable part of the centre are com- 

 prehended in the vast tract of fen-land known aa the Bedford Level. 

 The inclosures in this part are chiefly formed by ditches, and th 

 country preaenta few trees except pollard willows. The towns and 

 villages are on spots which risa above the general level of the fens, 

 and the churches crowning these slight elevations may be distinguished 

 at a considerable distance. To these in tul.ited eminences the desig- 

 nation of ' ey ' (island) appears to have been applied ; and hence 

 Thoni-ey, Whittles-ey, Rams-ey (Huntingdonshire), and other places, 

 derive part of their name. The designation of ' the Isle of Ely' was 

 at first restricted to the insulated eminence on which Ely stands, 

 though it has now a much more extended signification. The southern 

 part of the county bos gently-rising hills, with some wood in the parts 

 bordering on Suffolk. The Gogmagog hills, south-east of Cambridge, 

 are the highest in the county. Coach and Horses hill, or Orwel 

 hill, south-west of Cambridge, is about 302 feot above the level of 

 the sea; and Madiugley Uill, west of Cambridge, 238 feet. 



The chu-f rivers of the county are the Neue and the Ouse, with its 

 tributaries the Cam, Lark, &c. The Nene has only the lower part of 

 its course in this county, the border of which it touches just below 

 Peterborough, where it is divided, and flows in three channels. One 

 arm, under the name of Catswater and the Shire Drain, winds to the 

 north-east and forms the boundary between Cambridgeshire on the 

 one hand and Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire on the other. 

 Another arm, under the names of Whittlesey Dyke and the Well 

 Creek (or the Old Nene River) passes to the east by Whittlesey and 

 March, and joins the Ouse at Sailer's Lode Sluice. The third arm 

 (Morton's Learn) proceeds in a tolerably direct line east-north-east to 

 Wisbeacb, and from thence north into the Wash. The Shire Drain 

 joins this just at its outfaL The natural channel of the river can 

 now hardly be distinguished, so much has the river become connected 

 with the immense system of artificial drainage and navigation curried 

 on in this part of the country. The Oue first joins this county below 

 St. Ires, and winds north-east to the Hermitage Sluice, dividing 



Huntingdonshire from Cambridgeshire. At Hermitage Sluice the 

 river in its natural course turns to the south-east, and again gradually 

 to the north-east, receiving the river Cam. It then passes the city of 

 Ely, below which it is joined by the Lark. From the junction of the 

 Lark it flows north-east for a few miles, receiving the Little Ouse from 

 Thetford and Brandon ; at this point it leaves Cambridgeshire and 

 enters Norfolk, through which county it flows northward till it enters 

 the ^ash below Lynn. From Hermitage Sluice a navigable cut, called 

 the New Bedford River, runs north-cast in a direct line across Cam- 

 bridgeshire into Norfolk, after entering which it joins the Ouse at 

 Denver Sluice, where the Old jNene Hiver also joins the Ouse. The 

 natural channel between Hermitage and Denver Sluice is now only 

 uavigable, or at least is only used for navigation, so far as is requisite 

 for the navigation of its tributary streams, the Cam and the Lark. 

 A canal from Wisbeaeh to the Old Neuc River connects the naviga- 

 tion of the Nene and the Ouse. 



The Cam, or Granta, is formed by the junction of several small 

 streams which rise in Essex, the principal one of them rising between 

 Saffron Waldou and Dunmow. From Cambridge, where the naviga- 

 tion commences, the Cam runs north-north-east and falls into the 

 Ouse about three miles above Ely. The Lark, navigable as far as 

 Bury St. Edmunds, properly belongs to Suffolk. It separates that 

 county from Cambridgeshire for about seven miles from its junction 

 with the Ouse ; aud the Keunet brook, a feeder of the Lark, forms 

 the boundary between these two counties about seven miles before it 

 falls into the Lark. 



The canals of these counties are not numerous, except those con- 

 nected with the fen district, the principal of which have been already 

 noticed. [BEDFORD LEVKL.] There is a canal from the neighbour- 

 hood of Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, called the Forty Foot, or Ver- 

 muiden's Drain, to the Old Bedford River, which is a cut now scarcely 

 used for navigation, parallel to the New Bedford River. There are 

 navigable cuts from the Ouse to Soham and Reche, and a canal run- 

 ning nearly north and south (the London and Cambridge Junction 

 Canal) connecting the Cam below Cambridge with the Stort (at 

 Bishop Stortford) aud the Lea, and ultimately with the Thames. 

 There is a branch from this canal at Great Shelford to Whaddon, 

 between Royston and Huntingdon. 



The chief coach roads are those from London to York and Edin- 

 burgh (the Great North Road), to Norwich by Newmarket, aud to 

 Cambridge ; from Cambridge to Huntingdon, Newmarket, and Lynn ; 

 and from the Great North Road by St. Ives to Wisbeaeh. The Great 

 North Road enters the county at Royston, 38 miles from London, and 

 traverses it in a direction about north by west through Huntingdon- 

 shire. The road from London to Cambridge through Royston turns 

 off from the Great North Road at Royston and runs north-east to 

 Cambridge, about 13 miles. Another road to Cambridge, branching 

 off from the Great North Road at Puckoridge in Herts, enters Cam- 

 bridgeshire near Fulmere or Foulmire, aud unites with the road 

 through Royston at Hawkstou, about five miles short of Cambridge. 

 The Norwich and Newmarket road enters the county just beyond the 

 village of Great Chesterford, about 46 miles from London, aud runs 

 north-east to Newmarket, and finally quits the county to enter Suffolk 

 about five miles beyond Newmarket and 66 miles from London. The 

 north part of the county is traversed by a road which branches off 

 from the high North Road just where this leaves Cambridgeshire to 

 eater Huntingdonshire, and runniug north-north-east through St. 

 Ives, re-enters Cambridgeshire at Chatteris' Ferry, runs through 

 March to Wisbeaeh, and to Holbeach, Spalding, and Boston in Lin- 

 colnshire. There are several other roads in the county. 



The Yarmouth branch of the Eastern Counties railway enters the 

 southern border of Cambridgeshire near Great Chesterford, runs past 

 Cambridge to Ely, where it turns eastward and soon after quits the 

 county. But the East Anglian line continues the railway communi- 

 cation northward to King's Lymi. From the Eastern Counties line a 

 brauch belonging to a separate company diverges at Chesterford to 

 Newmarket. But the Newmarket line, although completed, is at 

 present closed : the receipts not having been found sufficient to meet 

 the working expenses, and the affairs of the company being in confu- 

 sion. From Cambridge there are branch lines eastward to Newmar- 

 ket, and north- west to St. Ives and Huntingdon : from St. Ives the 

 line is continued northward to March, re-entering Cambridgeshire 

 near Chatteris. From Ely a line which is wholly in this county is 

 open to March ; from March it is continued westward to Peterborough, 

 aud northward to Wisbeach. A branch of the Great Northern rail- 

 way leaves the main line at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, and proceeding 

 north-east passes Royston and joins the Eastern Counties line at 

 Cambridge. 



Geological Character. The south and south-eastern parts of the 

 county are occupied by part of the great chalk formation which 

 extends, within the limits of Cambridgeshire, from Newmarket heath 

 to Royston : it forms the mass of the Gogmagog hills, south-east of 

 Cambridge, and of the Royston downs, which are connected with the 

 Luton and Dunstable downs (Bedfordshire), and by them with the 

 Chiltern hills (Bucks). There are also in Cambridgeshire two masses 

 of this chalk detached from the principal mass the Coach and 

 Horses hill, near Orwel, south-west of Cambridge, and Madiugley 

 hill, west of Cambridge. The chalk of Cambridgeshire consists of 



