BIRD BOLT HOTEL, CAMBRIDGE 425 



Of the history of this house I know little, except that it 

 was held from St John's College by John Pink, fragments of 

 ware with his name and date having been found in the debris. 

 It has been recently pulled down, and deep foundations have 

 been dug for the offices of the Norwich Union Insurance Office 

 and the Liberal Club. 



It is interesting to note that on Braunius' plan, 1575, the 

 house is represented as standing further back than the site of 

 the house as we knew it, and from under which many of the 

 fragments now described were obtained. 



The section, fig. 16, represents what was exposed along the 

 edge of Downing Street in fact the cesspools full of rubbish 



Fig. 16. Diagram Section along north side of Downing Street on site of old 

 Bird Bolt Hotel, 1905. Scale 20 feet to 1 inch. 



A. Made ground. 



B. Rubbish levelled, and at east end especially, consisting of chalk in large 

 lumps. 



C. Old surface soil. D. Gravel. 

 x and z. Black mud full of household rubbish. 

 y. Natural pipe in the gravel. 



passed under the pavement of the street. There was no 

 road in the 17th century at the level of the present street, 

 which had evidently been raised quite recently some 5 or 

 6 feet. The top four feet was made earth, which must have 

 been carried from some adjoining area, and contained scattered 

 fragments of various ages mixed up in the soil. Then came a 

 layer of coarse rubbish, chiefly large lumps of chalk, as if 

 intended for the bottom of a road, but it did not appear to 

 have been ever covered with gravel or other road metal. Per- 

 haps it may have been the marginal unconsolidated portion of 

 a road which ran a little further to the west, but, as seen in 

 this section, it looked like rubbish thrown out and spread over 



