Cambridgeshire, an inland eastern county of England, 48 miles long, 11½ to 33 miles broad, and 821 sq. m. or 525,182 acres in area. As much as 92 per cent. of that area consists of arable land, meadow, and pasture, the rest being fens. The surface, except in the south, which is somewhat elevated and on the chalk formations, is flat and thinly wooded, with villages and churches here and there on slight elevations called 'eyes' or islands. In a country less level the much-vaulted Gog-Magog Hills, 4 miles SE. of Cambridge, would escape observation. At Upware are beds of the phosphatic nodules called Coprolites (q.v.), which are of great value as an artificial manure. The northern portion of Cambridgeshire forms part of the Bedford Level (q.v.). The chief of the sluggish rivers are the Ouse, which crosses the middle of the county from west to east, with its tributary the Cam; the Nene, which borders the county on the north; and the Lark. These are all navigable to a certain extent. Cambridge is an agricultural county. In the higher parts the land produces fine crops of beans and wheat. Many cattle and sheep are now supported on the thin chalky soils. The black spongy soil of the fens consists of mud mixed with decayed vegetable matter, and when drained and burned, pro-
Copyright 1888 in U.S.
by J. B. Lippincott
Company. duces, in dry years, heavy crops of cole-seed, wheat, oats, barley, hay, potatoes, hemp, and flax. Horses, cattle, and sheep are also reared in the fens. The Isle of Ely, part of the fen-tract, and within the Bedford Level, is famed for garden vegetables, and the meadows of the Cam yield fine butter and cream-cheese. The chief towns of Cambridgeshire are Cambridge (the county town), Ely, Wisbeach, March, Thorney, Linton, Soham, Newmarket, and Royston. The manufactures of Cambridgeshire are mostly such as belong to an agricultural county. Cambridgeshire returns three members to parliament, one for each of the Chesterton, Newmarket, and Wisbeach divisions. Pop. (1801) 89,346; (1871) 186,906; (1881) 185,594; (1891) 188,961. This county was anciently the seat of a powerful tribe—the Iceni. It was crossed by several British and Roman roads, in some parts now covered by several feet of peat-soil. Remains of Roman camps, sea embankments, and villas occur, and Roman antiquities, as coins and urns, have been found. Of four great dykes or earthworks the chief is the Devil's Ditch, extending 7 miles south-eastward from Reach to Wood-Ditton. It is 18 feet high on the east side, and was certainly of pre-Roman workmanship, as it is cut through by Roman roads. In the 9th and 10th centuries Cambridgeshire was the scene of severe contests between the Danes and Saxons. The Isle of Ely and its monks withstood William the Conqueror for three years (see HEREWARD). Cambridgeshire, and especially the Isle of Ely, suffered much in the civil wars of Stephen, John, Henry III., and Charles I. There formerly existed thirty-six religious houses in Cambridgeshire. See Arthur G. Holl's Cambridgeshire (1882), and Babington's Ancient Cambridgeshire (1883).