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410 Cantabrigiana. 
fe the readers of the Monthly Maga- 
“gine. 
NO. IDR. CAIUS. 
Dr. John Cains was phylician to Queen 
Mary. Inthe year 1557, having in- 
creafed the college where he enh been 
educated, then called Gonville’s, by large 
endowmen's, and having procured a char- 
ter of incorporation, he got the name 
changed to Gonville’s and Caius College. 
There mention Dr. Caius as being the au- 
thor of a book, rather fcarce than valu- 
able, ‘ De Antiquitate Cantabrigia” Itis 
fume years fince I read this little volume, 
and not having it at hand, I cannct pre- 
fent the reader with a tranflation of a few 
fingular paflages, as I intended ; I fhall 
therefore take another oppor tunity of feos 
“ing fuch tranflation. 
One thing related of Dr. Caius, (ie 
the extreme vanity and mortification to 
which authorfhip expofes fome people.— 
Dr. Kay, of Oxford, had previoufly writ- 
ten a Defence of the higher Antiquity of 
that Univerfity, and left a new edition of 
it to be publifhed after his death. In this 
new edition were fome remarks that Dr. 
Caius thought would bear hard on his ar- 
gument, and he died a year after the death 
of his opponent, it was fuppofed, literally 
mortified. Hearne, the Oxfurd antiquary, 
who edited the ae treatifes in one work, 
relates the circumftance. ‘This, perhaps, 
gave occafion of triumph to fome perfons, 
who might reafon like a certain country- 
man: after having heard two difputants in 
the public fchools, one of whom was in a 
violent paffion during oe debate, the 
honeft man obferved, that though Ae did 
not underftand a word ‘hate had been, faid, 
he underitcod who had.the worft of the 
argument. The Cantabs, however, fill 
thought otherwife, and their caufe was 
fupported in the Houle of Commons by 
Sir Simon D'Ewes, a learned ae, 
If——-SiR Si} MON D’EWES, aad bis Speech 
it the Houfe of Commons, on the Anti- 
guity of the Univerfity of Cambridge, 
Ayna 1640. 
Ab Foue principium. On (peaking con- 
cerning Cambridge, it is natural, fome- 
where about the beginning of my dif- 
eur fons, to fay a word of its antiquity. 
Here foilows a paflage from Sir Simon 
DEwes” {peech, containing the Cambridge 
fide of the queftion. — 
<< There are two principal refpects, be- 
‘fides others, in which thefe famous uni- 
Este may claim precedence each of 
es 
« Fir, in refpect of their being, as 
they. were places of note in the elder ages, 
[Dec T, 
“Secondly, as they we *.antient nur- 
feries and feed-plots of lea wing. 
“If I do not, therefore, prove, that 
Cambridge was a renowned city at leaft five- 
hundred years before there was a houfe of 
Oxford ftanding, and whilft brete beafts 
fed and corn was fown in that place, 
where that city is now feated ; and that 
Cambridge was a nurfery of learning be- 
fore Oxford was known to have a gram- 
matr-{chool in it, I will yield up the buck- 
lers. IfI fhould lofe time to reckon up 
the vain allegations produced for the an- 
tiquity of Oxiord by Twyne, and of Cam-_ 
bridge by Caius, I fhould but repeat ae- 
lir ia fenum, for l account the moft of that 
they have publifhed in print to be no bet- 
ter ; but I find by authorities, without 
exception, that in the ancient catalogues 
of the cities of Britain, Cambridge is the 
ninth of number, where London itfelf is 
but the eleventh; and who fhould have 
thought, that ever Oxford fhould have 
contended for precedence with Cambridge, 
which London gave it above twelve hun- . 
dred years fiace? ‘This I find in Gildas 
Albanius’s Britifh Hiftory, who died 
about the year 520, being the ancienteft 
domeftic monument we have, p. 60.— 
And ina Saxon anonymous ftory, written 
in Latin, touching the Britons and Sax- 
Ons, Pp. 395 who faid of himfelf, that he 
lived in the days. of Penda, King of the 
Meicians, in the tenth year of his reign, 
and that h e knew him well, which falls 
out to be near upon the year 620. And 
laftly, I find the catalogue of the faid Bri- 
tifh cities, with feme Jittle variation, to 
be fet age in Nennius’s Latin ftory of 
Britain, p.38 ; and he wrote the fame, as 
he fays ot him(elf, in the year880. They 
all call it Cai irgrant, the word cair, in the 
old Celtic tongue, fignifying a city. 
<* Thefe three ftorles are exotie and rare 
monuments remaining, yet only in ancient 
MSS. not known to many ; but the au- 
thority of them is irrefragable, and with- 
out exception. The beft and moft ancient 
copies that I have feen of Gildas Alba- 
nius and Nennius, remain in the univer- 
fity-library of Cambridge, being thofe I 
haye vouched, and the Saxon anonymous 
in alibrary here nearus. ‘This Cairgrant 
is not only expounded by Alfred of Be- 
verley to fionify Cambridge, but alfo by 
William de Ramfey, abbot of Croyland, 
ina MS. ftory of the Life of Guthlanus, 
ienorantly in thofe days reputed a faint. 
The faid Williem goes further, and fays 
it was fo called a Granta flumine. This 
place remained {till a city of fame and re- 
pute a long time, under thereign of the 
_ Englith 
