410 PROFESSOR HUGHES 



water usually passes underground in the gravel, but where, in 

 wet weather, when the gravel is saturated, the water shows at 

 the surface, at different places according to the level to which 

 the underground water has risen. It must have had originally 

 an overflow channel to the north somewhere near Sidney 

 Sussex College, and this waterway determined the course of 

 the King's Ditch from Downing Street to beyond Christ's 

 College. Between the east bank of this intermittently wet 

 ground and the alluvium of the Cam on the west of the town, 

 there extended the spur of gravel on which ancient Cambridge 

 was built. It ran by Peas Hill and Market Hill, to the church 

 of St Sepulchre. 



Along either side of this area, including Downing Grounds 

 on the western boundary, there ran two principal streets ; on 

 the east the High Street (Trinity Street and King's Parade), 

 and on the west Bridge Street leading to Preachers' Street 

 (St Andrew's Street). These two streets were carried along 

 the outer margin of the town, but not beyond the dry ground, 

 and, as the spurs of gravel tapered off to the north, so they con- 

 verged and met opposite to the church of St Sepulchre. It is 

 an interesting point that, although a Roman drinking vessel 

 was found in digging the foundations of Whewell's Court 

 belonging to Trinity College, and a few Roman remains on 

 the waste ground on which the Tutor's House of Trinity Hall 

 was built, this area round the Union, St Sepulchre's Church, 

 and the junction of the two main roads above described, is 

 the only place where we have evidence of Roman occupation 

 of any importance within the limits of the ancient town. 

 When the foundations for the extension of the Union were 

 being dug, I saw and collected a large quantity of Roman 

 pottery, bones, etc., and, in the refuse in one place, a number 

 of oysters with the valves adherent as if they had never been 

 opened. A quern and other objects were found under the 

 road in front of St Sepulchre's Church during the draining 

 operations of 1895. Now this area forms the end of the spur 

 of gravel, and from it the ground may still be seen to slope 

 rapidly along Park Street down to the level of the alluvium, 

 which was exposed in Bullock's Pit (fig. 9). 



