PREFACE. 



Rich, as many of our counties are, in topographical 

 and historical literature, Cambridgeshire has been so 

 neglected in this respect that she may be termed the 

 Cinderella of the Shires. Need we wonder, then, 

 when this important county — whose metropolis is the 

 seat of one of our most renowned and ancient Univer- 

 sities — has hitherto found no scribe to worthily 

 chronicle her rural records, that an obscure hamlet 

 within her confines should be unnoticed by writers 

 upon ancient topographical subjects ? Nevertheless, 

 this erst obscure hamlet (to use a racing phrase) is, 

 on " book form," four times as wicked as the infamous 

 towns mentioned in Genesis (which were only once 

 destroyed by fire), because after Newmarket became the 

 Metropolis of the Turf, on three several times, it was 

 almost reduced to ashes, and once nearly destroyed by 

 water, by way of a change. Surely a place enjoying such 

 a reputation to start with, does not deserve to languish 

 any longer in obscurity ; and being actuated with a 

 desire to lift the veil which so long hid her blushes, 



