The Ouse first joins this county below St. Ives, and winds N.E. to the Hermitage Sluice, dividing Huntingdonshire from Cambridgeshire. At Hermitage Sluice the river, in its natural course, turns to the S.E., and again gradually to the N.E., receiving the river Cam. It then passes the city of Ely, below which it is joined by the Lark. From the junction of the Lark it flows N.E. for a few miles, receiving the Little Ouse from Thetford and Brandon; at this point it leaves Cambridgeshire and enters Norfolk, through which county it flows northward till it enters the Wash below Lynn. The original course of the Ouse below Littleport, near the junction of the Lark, is supposed to have been very different from the present course. From Hermitage Sluice a navigable cut, called the New Bedford River, runs N.E. in a direct line across Cambridgeshire into Norfolk, after entering which it joins the Ouse at Denver Sluice, where the Old Nene River also joins the Ouse. The natural channel between Hermitage and Denver Sluice is now only navigable, or at least is only used for navigation, so far as is requisite for the navigation of its tributary streams, the Cam and the Lark. A canal from Wisbeach to the Old Nene River connects the navigation of the Nene and the Ouse.

The measurements of these rivers are about as follows:Nene, 1st arm (Catwater and Shire Drain), to its outfall, about 28 to 30 miles; 2nd arm (Old Nene), to its junction with the Ouse, about 28 miles, of which 23 are in Cambridgeshire or on the border; 3rd arm, or Morton's Leam and Wisbeach River, from Standground Sluice to Wisbeach, 19 miles; from Wisbeach to the Wash, 6 miles; Nene Outfall, through the sands of the Wash, 8 miles (64 cut and a further channel of 14 miles worked by the river itself): total, 33 miles. Ouse, on the border of the county to Hermitage Sluice near Bluntisham, 5 miles; to junction of Cam, 12; to Ely, 3; to junction of Lark, 3; to junction of Little Ouse, along the border of the county, 7 total, in or upon the border of Cambridgeshire, 30 miles. The remainder of the course of the river is as follows:-to the junction of the New Bedford River at Denver Sluice, 6 to 7 miles; to Lynn, 15; to the outfall, 3: total, 24 or 25 miles. The length of the New Bedford River between Hermitage and Denver Sluices is 21 miles, of which about 15 are in Cambridgeshire: the length of the natural channel of the Ouse between the same points is 31 or 32 miles. The Cam, or Granta, is formed by the junction of several small streams which rise in Essex, the principal one of them between Saffron Walden and Dunmow. This flows N. to Audley End, near Saffron Walden, and thence by Great and Little Chesterford, Duxford, Whittlesford, Great and Little Shelford, and Granchester, to Cambridge, receiving the Linton, from the town of Linton, above the Shelfords, and the Rhee and Bourn from the S.W. and W., above Granchester. From Cambridge, where the navigation commences, the Cam runs N.N.E. and falls into the Ouse about 3 miles above Ely: length, above Cambridge, about 25 miles, of which half are in this county; from Cambridge to the junction with the Ouse, 15 miles.

The Lark, navigable as far as Bury St. Edmunds, properly belongs to Suffolk. It separates that county from Cambridgeshire for about 7 miles before its junction with the Ouse; and the Kennet brook, a feeder of the Lark, forms the boundary between these two counties about 7 miles before it falls into the Lark.

The canals of these counties are not numerous, except those connected with the fen district, the principal of which have been already noticed. [BEDFORD LEVEL.] There is a canal from the neighbourhood of Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, called the Forty Foot, or Vermuiden's Drain, to the Old Bedford River, which is a cut now scarcely used for navigation, parallel to the New Bedford River. There are navigable cuts from the Ouse to Soham and Reche, and a canal running nearly N. and S. (the London and Cambridge Junction Canal) connecting the Cam below Cambridge with the Stort (at Bishop Stortford) and the Lea, and ultimately with the Thames. There is a branch from this canal at Great Shelford to Whaddon, between Royston and Huntingdon.

W., without passing through any market-town, until it enters Huntingdonshire, between 52 and 53 miles from town. The road from London to Cambridge through Royston turns off from the Great North Road at Royston and runs N.E. to Cambridge about 13 miles. Another road to Cambridge, branching off from the Great North Road at Puckeridge in Herts, enters Cambridgeshire near Fulmere or Foulmire, and unites with the road through Royston at Hawkston, about 5 miles short of Cambridge.

The Norwich and Newmarket Road enters the county just beyond the village of Great Chesterford, about 46 miles from London, and runs N.E. to Newmarket, and finally quits the county to enter Suffolk about 5 miles beyond Newmarket and 66 from London. A third road to Cambridge branches off from this road just before it enters the county. and runs N. by W. about 10 miles.

The road from Cambridge to Huntingdon runs N.W. about 15 miles, of which about 10 are in Cambridgeshire, for the last mile it coincides with the Great North Road, which meets it at Godmanchester. The road from Cambridge to Newmarket runs E. by N. 13 miles, uniting with the Norwich and Newmarket Road about 2 miles from the latter town. The road from Cambridge to Lynn runs N. by E. through Ely, and quits the county at Littleport Bridge, 22 miles from Cambridge.

The N. part of the county is traversed by a road which branches off from the high North Road just where this leaves Cambridgeshire to enter Huntingdonshire, and running N.N.E. through St. Ives, re-enters Cambridgeshire at Chatteris Ferry, 70 miles from London, and runs 21 miles through March to Wisbeach, from whence it runs farther N. into Lincolnshire, to Holbeach, Spalding, and Boston.

A road runs from Cambridge over the Gogmagog Hills to Linton, and thence into Suffolk and Essex to Haverhill, Halsted, and Colchester; and there are two turnpike-roads from Ely, one to Soham in the direction of Newmarket and Bury St. Edmunds, and one to Chatteris, where it meets the road from St. Ives to Wisbeach.

Geological character.-The south and south-eastern parts of the county are occupied by part of the great chalk formation which extends, within the limits of Cambridgeshire, from Newmarket heath to Royston: it forms the mass of the Gogmagog hills, S.E. of Cambridge, and of the Royston downs, which are connected with the Luton and Dunstable downs (Bedfordshire), and by them with the Chiltern hills (Bucks.). There are also in Cambridgeshire two masses of this chalk detached from the principal mass,-the Coach and Horses hill, near Orwel, S.W. of Cambridge, and Madingley hill, W. of Cambridge. The chalk of Cambridgeshire consists of two varieties, the upper containing an abundance of the common black flint, and the lower or grey chalk, which contains little or none. The upper is found in the S.E. part of the county: the lower chalk forms the principal hills, and occupies the N.W. part of the chalk range. The chalk is furrowed transversely by the depression through which the London and Cambridge canal passes, and which separates the Gogmagog hills from the Royston downs. The district N.E. and E. of Cambridge is the most level chalk district in England; its flatness alone gives importance to the otherwise inconsiderable eminences of the Gogmagog hills. The chalk district of Cambridgeshire dips gently to the S.E.

The diluvial beds of loam, mixed with fragments of chalk, which overspread the upper part of the basin of the Stour in Essex and Suffolk, covering the chalk, extend a short distance into the adjacent parts of Cambridgeshire.

The chalk rests upon a blue clay, called in the county galt, which is considered as a variety of the chalk-marl formation that crops out from beneath the north-western boundary of the chalk. This formation occupies a greater extent of surface than it usually does, extending to the boundary of Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire; its thickness is variable, averaging perhaps 200 or 220 feet. It is nearly impervious to water.

In a few places along the irregular line which separates this county from the two just mentioned, the iron-sand which underlies the galt, rises to the surface. It forms ex

The Great North Road enters the county at Royston, 37 miles from town, and traverses it in a direction about N. by

formation many fragments of mineralized wood are found, when dry they crumble into a fine powder, but when moist and fresh from the earth are definite in form, and have the bark in the utmost state of preservation. (Conybeare and Phillips's Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales;

Geol. Transac., vol. v.; Greenough's Geological Map of England, &c.)

The whole of the northern part of the county is overspread with the fens [BEDFORD LEVEL]; the greater part of which in this county are comprehended in the Isle of Ely. At a former period this designation was confined to the higher ground round Ely, which rose out of the marshes, and was surrounded by them; but the application of the name has been much extended. The marshes S. of the Old Ouse, about Soham, Wicken, and Reche, are not included in the Isle. Agriculture, &c.-The soil of this county is extremely various, consisting of clay, loam, and chalk, both in the uplands and the fens. Although there are some poor commons and heaths, the greater part of the land is fertile. In some spots called white land, which have chalky subsoils, great crops of wheat and beans are raised. The Burwell wheat is in great request for seed in many parts of England, and the cheeses of Cottenham indicate considerable richness in the pastures. The climate in the uplands is mild and healthy, but in the fens, especially those which have not been thoroughly drained, agues and fevers prevail when the water has evaporated and left the land in a half dry state. When the land is quite flooded the air is less impregnated with unhealthy effluvia. In proportion as the fens are drained and the land is cultivated, the air becomes more healthy.

The upland district is sufficiently varied to afford good situations for residences; but until the beginning of this century a very small proportion of the land was inclosed. Above three-fourths of the surface was occupied by commons, common-fields, heaths, and fens. Of these many have been inclosed within the last thirty years; and in the course of time the whole face of the country will be much improved by the growth of trees and hedge-rows. There are few counties where so many inclosures have taken place under special acts of Parliament. The villages were mostly situated in hollows, between gentle elevations, where the soil was naturally most fertile, and being scattered through an open country, with their small inclosures and orchards, presented insulated green spots, which formed a strong contrast with the surrounding open fields entirely destitute of trees. The fen district is a dead flat intersected with ditches, canals, and sluggish streams. The soil consists of mud mixed with decayed and half-decayed vegetable matter. When the superfluous water has been removed, a soft spongy surface is left, which is much improved by burning. The ashes thus produced by being mixed with the soil greatly enrich it, and the most luxuriant crops are obtained without any other preparation. When a judicious rotation is adopted, and the ground is not too much exhausted to be restored by proper manures, this land, which is reclaimed from a state of comparative unproductiveness, becomes very valuable. But the temptation of immediate profit frequently induces the farmer to raise exhausting crops from it, as long as they will grow without fresh manuring, by which means the soil is so impoverished, and its staple so reduced, that subsequent tillage or manuring cannot recruit it for a very long time.

The first operation on a newly-inclosed fen, when it has been drained, is to pare the surface, on which 'coarse grass and sedge are growing in a matted state. The sods are cut about three inches in thickness and of various lengths and breadths, by means of a paring plough. This is a sharp instrument drawn by two horses, which cuts horizontally under the surface, and is guided by two handles like a plough. The sods being set on edge to dry partially are then arranged in the form of a small kiln with proper air-vents, and lighted by means of brush-wood or straw. As soon as they begin to flame more sods are added, and the fire is prevented from breaking out by immediately covering with a sod every place from which the smoke issues strongly. In a short time a great quantity of sods is reduced to a carbonized mass, which, when cool, is spread over the ground. This is immediately ploughed in, and the land is sown with cole-seed or rape, of which an abundant crop is invariably produced. The cole is fed off with sheep, the land ploughed once, and oats are sown, which produce astonishing crops. This is succeeded by wheat, or sometimes by another crop of oats, in which are sown clover and grass seeds, which soon cover

The staple of a soil is a peculiar quality, on which depends its power of nourishing the roots of plants and conveying to them those particles on which

their growth and health depend.

the ground with fine herbage. The land is left in grass as long as the grass is good. As soon as it begins to decline in quality or produce, it is ploughed up and sown with oats, or it is again pared and burnt as before. The most common practice however, when the soil is very rich, is to take crops of cole-seed, wheat, barley, and oats, and not to sow grass seeds till after several crops have been obtained, taking care however to keep the land clean. The soil of newly-drained fens is very loose, and requires to be compressed after the seed is sown. This is sometimes done by meu treading the ground with their feet, or by driving sheep over it; but the land-presser [ARABLE LAND, vol. ii, p. 225] is particularly adapted to this purpose. It not only consolidates the land, but forms drills for the reception of the seed. The grasses usually sown with the last crop of barley or oats are, of rye-grass two bushels and of white clover ten pounds. Where the land is cultivated with care the use of rape-cake as manure is common. It has the advantage of being readily brought from a distance: 1000 cakos weigh about a ton, and are sufficient for three acres. The rape-cake is ground to a powder, which is drilled with the seed by a machine. It ensures a crop of corn on land which has been exhausted, and in this way it is a matter of simple calculation whether it repays the expense. But the most advantageous mode of using it is to sow it with cole or turnip-seed, and to feed off the crop with sheep; permanont improvement of the soil is thus produced, and the land is recruited for several crops.

Besides corn and hay, the fens, where they have not been brought into cultivation, produce turf for fuel, and reeds and sedges for thatching and lighting fires. An acre of ground will produce 300,000 turves, 5000 of which are considered to be equal to forty bushels of coals. The price varies from 68. to 10s. per thousand, according to the situation and comparative price of coals. Osier beds are likewise formed in some places, and give a good return.

In the uplands towards Hertfordshire and Suffolk, the land was formerly cultivated on the old three-field system, and there are still farms where a summer fallow is regularly succeeded by wheat or barley, and that by oats, with the occasional introduction of clover or beans. But where a better system has been adopted after the inclosure of the common fields, turnips form the foundation of the course on all lands which are sufficiently dry to allow sheep to be penned on them. On some stiff clays, cabbages have been introduced, and cultivated to some extent. The large red cabbage is preferred by many to the drum-head, because it is not so liable to be attacked by caterpillars. They manure the land for this crop with twenty or thirty good loads of farm-yard dung per acre, and find the produce very valuable for cattle and sheep in winter. In the rich white land, wheat and beans are sown alternately, as long as the land is clean; and if the beans are drilled and well hoed, and the land moderately manured for this crop, this simple and profitable rotation may go on for a considerable time.

By the introduction of sainfoin on some of the thin chalky lands, a soil naturally very unproductive now supports a great quantity of cattle and sheep, and also bears good crops of corn after having been some years in grass.

There is a great portion of the stiff heavy lands in Cambridgeshire, independently of the fens, which would be greatly benefitted by judicious surface-draining. By this means, many soils now too wet to bear turnips, or to allow heavy cattle to be depastured upon them in spring or autumn, would become dry and sound; and the water being carried off by the drains, would not stagnate below the surface and keep the ground in a soft state, equally prejudicial to the growth of all plants not usually found in marshes, and to the cattle and sheep depastured on them. A convertible husbandry might then be introduced, the expenses of culti vation much diminished, and the produce greatly increased.

The fairs in Cambridgeshire are not so numerous as in many other counties. The principal cattle-fairs are in the Isle of Ely. Cambridge fair begins June 24th, and lasts a week. Ely; Holy Thursday, and October 29th. Linton; Holy Thursday, and September 30th. March, Isle of Ely; Monday before Whit-Sunday, and Whit-Monday. So ham; April 28th. Sturbitch fair begins September 18th, and lasts 14 days. It was once one of the greatest trading fairs in England: it is now greatly fallen off. Thorney, Ely, January 25th, June 13th, and October 26th. Wisbeach, Isle of Ely, July 1st, September 21st. Whittlesey, Isle of Isle of Ely, Wednesday before Whit-Sunday, July 25th.

styled 'The Royal Liberty or Franchise of the bishop of Ely, or popularly The Isle of Ely,' and includes the hundreds of Ely, Wisbeach, and Witchford. The bishop appoints a chief justice, who holds a session of pleas above 40s. under a commission from the bishop, and a session of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery by virtue of a commission from the king; a chief bailiff, who exercises the same functions in the Isle as the sheriff does in a county; a deputy bailiff, two coroners, and subordinate officers. The spring assizes for the Isle, and the April and October sessions are held at Ely; the summer assizes and the other sessions at Wisbeach. The inhabitants of the Isle are exempt from paying county rates and from serving on county juries.

The rest of the county is in the Norfolk circuit. The assizes and quarter-sessions are held at Cambridge. The county returns three members to parliament (one having been added by the Reform Act), the borough of Cambridge two, and the university of Cambridge two. Cambridge is the chief place of county election, and the polling stations are Cambridge, Ely, Newmarket, Royston, Wisbeach, and Whittlesey. The number of voters, by the registration of 1835, was 3683, exclusive of the Isle of Ely, which has 3027: total 6710.

History and Antiquities.—In the most remote period of British history Cambridgeshire appears to have been inhabited by the Iceni, a powerful nation, whose territory comprehended also the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, but Cambridgeshire does not appear to have been the scene of any remarkable event in their history. In the Roman division of the island this county was included in Flavia Ca

sariensis.

Several British and Roman roads crossed this county. Ikeneld and Ermine Streets are supposed to be British. Ikeneld or Icknield Street crosses the county from the neighbourhood of Newmarket to the neighbourhood of Royston. For a considerable part of this distance it runs parallel to the road from Newmarket to London and a little to the left of it. Just before it reaches the border of Essex it bends to the right and runs W., just within the boundary of the county, to Royston; from whence it gradually turns to the S.W. and runs towards Baldock (Herts). This antient road has been in some parts so far obliterated by the plough as not to be easily traceable, in other parts the marks of its course are evident. Ermine Street entered the county at Royston, and ran to the left of the present turnpike-road to Caxton and Godmanchester near Huntingdon. A Roman road in the same direction kept nearly in the line of the present turnpike-road. The great Roman road (Via Devana) which connected the colonies of Camulodunum (Colchester or Maldon) and Deva (Chester) passed through Cambridgeshire, entering the county from Withersfield, near Haverhill in Suffolk, and proceeding with little deviation from a straight line to Cambridge, where it is supposed the Romans had a bridge, and from thence nearly in the line of the present turnpike-road to Godmanchester near Huntingdon. Another road entering near Littleport crossed the county through the fens near Ely to Cambridge, and from thence towards Sandy or Salndy, in Bedfordshire, and Fenny Stratford, in Bucks. Another road may be imperfectly traced running near Newmarket and Soham through the fens to Ely; and Sir W. Dugdale mentions one across the fens from the neighbourhood of Downham (Norfolk) to Whittlesey and Peterborough (Northamptonshire); and it has been conjectured that a branch from this led by Elme and Wisbeach into Lincolnshire. Cambridge is considered to have been a Roman station, probably the Camboricum of the Itineraries, called by Richard of Cirencester a colony, though the distances given in the Itineraries of Antoninus and Richard do by no means suit, but these have been probably corrupted. Roman antiquities of various kinds have been dug up at Cambridge, Soham, Elme, near Wisbeach, and other places.

The circular camp of Vandlebury on the Gogmagog Hills, Arbury in the parish of Chesterton near Cambridge, Willingham on the edge of the fen, and the earth-works round the sites of Bourn and Camps Castles, are probably of British origin. There is a considerable round mound near Cambridge Castle, like Silbury hill, but less: the ditches round it may be Roman. Vandlebury, from Roman remains found there, appears to have been afterwards occupied by the Romans; and Willingham was occupied and strengthened with new works by William the Conqueror when he besieged the Isle of Ely. There are

the remains of a Roman camp at Great Shelford near Cambridge; and a Roman embankment, connected with the works for draining the fens, extends some miles from Elme to Tyd St. Giles near Wisbeach.

There are some very remarkable antient ditches in this county: as the Devil's Ditch near Newmarket, running N.W, and S.E. for about four or five miles, and crossing the London Road; Fleamdyke, running parallel to it, at a distance of six miles; a third near Bourn Bridge, not far from Linton; and a fourth (slighter work) near Foulmire, nearly in the same direction as the first two. The Devil's Ditch, the largest probably, and the most perfect, consists of a deep ditch and an elevated vallum, having a slope of 52 feet on the S.W. side, where the ditch is, and 26 feet on the N.E. side; the whole of the works are about 100 feet in breadth.

In the wars between the Saxons and Danes this county suffered severely. About A.D. 870 Cambridge was burnt by the Danish invaders; the monasteries of Ely, Soham, and Thorney were destroyed, and their inmates slaughtered. The first attack of the barbarians on the isle of Ely was repulsed, but the second was successful; many of the Saxon nobles who had taken refuge there with their effects became the prey of the invaders. In 875, in the reign of Alfred, the larger portion of the Danish army was posted at Cambridge, which had been rebuilt. In 921 an army formed of those Danes settled in East Anglia by Alfred, surrendered at Cambridge to Edward the Elder. In 1010 Cambridge was again burnt by the Danes, who were ravaging the country under their king Svein.

When William the Conqueror invaded England, the most obstinate resistance which he experienced was in the Isle of Ely. Hereward le Wake, son of Leofric, lord of Brunne (Bourne?) in Lincolnshire, had been banished in early life for his violent temper, and having signalized his valour in foreign parts, was in Flanders when the battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. Hearing that his paternal inheritance had been given to a Norman and his mother ill used, he returned to England, and commenced hostilities against the usurpers of his patrimony. The isle of Ely was his central station, and he built on it a wooden castle which long retained his name. William surrounded the island with his fleet and army, attempting to make a passage through the fens by solid roads in some parts and bridges in others; and either awed by the superstition of the times, or wishing to make it subservient to his interests, he got a witch to march at the head of his army and try the effect of her incantations against Hereward. The Anglo-Saxon, no way daunted, set fire to the reeds and other vegetation of the fens, and the witch and the troops who followed her perished in the flames. The actions of Hereward became the theme of popular songs, and the Conqueror's own secretary, Ingulphus, has penned his eulogium. During his warfare against the Normans his camp was the refuge of the friends of Saxon independence: Morcar earl of Northumbria, Stigand archbishop of Canterbury, Ellgwin bishop of Durham, and others, repaired to him. The defence of the Isle lasted till 1074, and the Conqueror penetrated at last only by virtue of a compact with the monks of Ely, whose lands beyond the island he had seized. Hereward, unsubdued, contrived to make his peace with the king, obtained the restoration of his inheritance, and died quietly in his bed. In the civil wars of Stephen and the Empress Maud, the bishop of Ely, who supported the latter, built a wooden castle at Ely, and fortified the castle of Aldreth (in Haddenham parish), which appears to have commanded one of the approaches to the Isle. The king attacked the Isle and took the castle of Aldreth, but it was afterwards retaken (about the year 1142) by the bishop. The Isle afterwards suffered much from the ravages of war, and from famine and pestilence, the consequence of these hostilities. In the civil war between John and his barons the isle was twice ravaged by the king's troops, first under Walter de Buuck, and afterwards under Fulk de Brent (the king's favourite, who had been appointed governor of Cambridge Castle) and his confederates. This was about the year 1216. About the same time the barons took Cambridge Castle, and the king marching into Cambridgeshire did, as Holinshed expresses it, hurt enough; but on the king's retreat the barons recovered the Isle of Ely except one castle, probably that at Ely. In the troubles which marked the close of the reign of Henry III. the Isle was again the scene of contest. It was taken and fortified by the barons who ravaged