THE KING'S DITCH, CAMBRIDGE 411 



It is probable that the spur of gravel on which the ancient 

 town was built was not quite continuous at the same level but 

 that there was lower ground between the churches of St' Peter 

 (now St Mary the Less) and St Bene't, along which the King's 

 Ditch was taken without the necessity of making any consider- 

 able excavation except close to St Peter's. So also the end of 

 the spur was cut off by a depression running across from 

 St John's College to somewhere near Jesus Lane. There was 

 a deep ditch through here which was exposed when the 

 foundations for the Divinity Schools were dug. This ditch 

 seems to have formed the northern boundary of All Saints' 

 Church-yard, and was full of human bones, probably thrown in 

 from time to time as new interments in that crowded church- 

 yard necessitated the disturbance of ancient graves. The 

 ditch crossed the street and passed away under St John's 

 College. St John's College stands partly on the low western 

 margin of the end of the gravel spur, as seen in all excavations 

 in or near the First Court. The College extends over the 

 alluvium as was seen in digging the foundations for the new 

 buildings by the Master's Lodge. The ground here, both over 

 the alluvium and the gravel slope, has been raised artificially. 



St John's College represents the ancient Hospital of St John, 

 which had been founded by a burgess of Cambridge " on a piece 

 of waste land" arid had long been affiliated to the University. 

 It was dissolved by competent authority, and a new charter 

 given to constitute an exclusively academic body in its place 1 . 



The Kings Ditch. 



We must not assume that what is called the King's Ditch 

 was dug by the order of Henry III or King John, any more 

 than that there never was any road or track in ancient times 

 along what was afterwards called the King's High Way. Nor 

 does it much matter for our present purpose whether the 

 ditch of the time of Henry III coincided exactly with that of 

 King John, or whether there was a fosse round the town in 



1 Babington, History of the Infirmary and Chapel of the Hospital and Col- 

 lege of St John the Evangelist at Cambridge (1874), p. 2. 



