DISTRIBUTION OF HOUSES IN CAMBRIDGE 399 



gravel thinned off and passed under the margin of the alluvium, 

 the denudation of this old gravel furnishing material for the 

 newer black gravel which generally underlies the river silt, 

 and forms a very permeable stratum of which account must be 

 taken in all proposals to build over the alluvium or recent 

 river deposits. 



There were of course footpaths, roadways, and, later on, 

 lanes leading from the High Street (King's Parade, etc.) down to 

 the river with its pastures and its hythes, and along these lanes, 

 where the levelling up had rendered it possible, some houses 

 and outhouses were built. The road to the King's Mill, for 

 instance, of which two fragments remain, called respectively 

 Queens' Lane and Trinity Hall Lane, was very early a prin- 

 cipal thoroughfare ; but there do not appear to have been 

 streets, or any considerable number of town houses west of 

 High Street, except those forming the west side of High Street 

 itself. If we turn to the Architectural History (Willis and 

 Clark) we shall find in that most complete and accurate record 

 a confirmation of this view. Take for example the description 

 of the site of King's College. Here we find that the area of 

 the Old Court was acquired (1440-1441) not in many small 

 parcels but by one deed of conveyance ; and the small areas do 

 not often appear to be private property but rather excrescences 

 upon the colleges, or small bits of land belonging to the 

 University or colleges or churches. Many of these properties 

 were called Hostels, e.g. Cat Hostel, Tyled Hostel, St Giles 

 Hostel, or Crouched Hostel, which was "an open space in 

 1441." They may have been lodgings for students. We find 

 a bakehouse and other offices in School Street, ground belong- 

 ing to the University, land belonging to St Mary's Church, 

 a house belonging to a Chantry in Great St Mary's, a horse- 

 shed belonging to Corpus Christi College, a tenement belonging 

 to the Hospital of St John, and a tenement called God's House. 

 All these may well have crept over the ground after many of 

 the colleges had been founded, and certainly after great recla- 

 mation of waste land along the river side of the town had 

 taken place. 



My friend Mr J. W. Clark has urged me to draw a plan 



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