Historiae Cantebrigiensis Academiae ab urbe condita, liber primus [-secundus]

fortress. I do not read, however, of a Cambridge castle before the year of our Lord 876, at which time the Danes wintered in the castle and city of Cambridge for one year, as Fabius Quaestor is the author in his history of the deeds of the English, and Gervase of Tilbury. Nor is there mention of it afterwards, so far as I know, before William, Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror, who, when he had besieged the Isle of Ely, having achieved little of what he had desired, withdrew into the Castle of Cambridge, where he stayed for a few days, and later, having left a guard in the fortress, he returned to the siege from whence he had come. At which time the castle seems to have been intact, as it sufficed to receive such a great leader and so many soldiers. That place Gervase of Tilbury calls Cantabrica, and Felix, a writer of ancient memory, calls it Granta.

Fabius Quaestor.

Ger. of Tilbury.

The next is the market cross, built of firm stone at the northern part of the castle, called the market cross, because it is a constant rumor that the market of the old city was once celebrated around it. The river, by the name of Cante or Granta, first washed the city at the roots of the castle hill, much closer to the castle than it is now. One may know this for a twofold reason: first, that the channel of the old Cante is still seen by the name of ancient Cambridge, like the trace of a torrent; second, that Henry of Huntingdon, in the life of King Edgar, writes that the temple of Saint Giles was built upon the river Granta at Cambridge. It rises from the south, and through a circuit towards the north, it ends at the east.

River.

H. Huntingdon.

In that city there were once many streets, among which one was called in Latin Cattoni vicus Catton Street, and is called by the ancient and common name Catton Rewe, as ancient monuments teach, extending from the south to the north, opposed to the castle on the west, and running along its length on the western...

Streets.