1 70 The Growth of Cambridge 



sign of growth to the north of the river, later to assume such astonishing 

 proportions. 



The growth of the University during this period can best be seen from 

 the Matriculation figures (Fig. 40).^ These figures fluctuate considerably, 

 but between 1600 and 1675 average 307 per annum; numbers decline 

 during the last quarter of the century, and remain below 200 per annum 

 (average 161) throughout the eighteenth century. This suggests a resident 



1550 



1600 



1650 



1800 



1850 



1900 1935 



1700 1750 



Fig. 40. 



Matriculations in the University of Cambridge, 1550-1935. 



I am indebted to Dr J. A. Venn for permission to reproduce this graph. 



University population of about 1220 in the seventeenth century* and 650 

 in the eighteenth. The curve of Matriculation shows an upward trend in 

 the second half of the eighteenth century and the Census Returns for 

 1 801 record 811 resident members of the University. 



The- increase of population within the Borough between 1 500-1 800, 

 without a corresponding increase in the built-up area, indicates therefore 

 a steadily increasing density of population,^ and the lack of territorial 

 expansion reflects strongly the building restriction caused by the marshes 

 and by the open-fields around the town. The enclosure of the open-fields 

 between 1801 and 1807 was followed at once by a great increase in the 

 built-up area, which represented, in part, the relief from cramped and 



' C. H. Cooper, op. cit. iii, 553, quotes an estimate made by John Ivory in 1672 

 which gives 2522 as the number resident in the Colleges, including Fellows, Scholars 

 and Servants. 



^ J. A. Venn, " iVlatriculations at Oxford and Cambridge, 1 544-1906", The Oxford 

 and Cambridge Review, No. 3, p. 48 (1908). 



3 F. W. Maitland, Township and Borough (1898), pp. 101-5. 



