1662, to the Duke of Monmouth, on his visit to the University : "Magne Dux, qui titulum Sumis tibi ex Wallia, "Cum omni supellectile, "Videbis Academiam nostram Ita pace plenam, Nam adeo fimo oblita est Ut nemo potest provocare in animum. "Doctores tibi dabunt anseres, Et multos, Dux, anates. Nam habebis omnia gratis. "Damus tibi duas damas (Sylvæ carent cervis), Sed ut servi tui habeant madamas "Flocci æstimamus oves, Et loquimur Bulls' de vitalibus,' Et ita Celsitutidini Tuæ "Hic possis videre literas, Sed nullas hic lituras. Auriga, hæ sunt Scholæ nostræ, Be pleased to hold still your horses. 1 I.e., caps and gowns, the use of which had just been brought back by the Restoration. 2 The word "Bulls" at this time was used for English as well as Irish jokes. 3 Probably a mistake for vitellabus. 66 'Sorores novem suos hic Semper exercent lusus, Sed ita stabulis sunt similes Ut sint aptiores Pegaso quam Musis.1 "In Collegio hoc Emmanuel, Sunt omnes sub securi.2 Ffor that your Grace may understand me well, "Si licuit Prometheo artem Hic exercere tutam Nullibi gentium melius poterit Invenire lutum. "Non opus sit ut ignem peteret "Tanto zelo ardebat domus Ut negligerent omnes jocos, Et pro duas horas pugnarent acriter 1 It does not appear on what this felicitous conceit was founded. Logan's contemporary print does not justify the comparison. 2 The Puritan College having a specially strict discipline at this time, as existing records testify. 3 This last reference is to the fire on Advent Sunday, November 30, 1662, when the Trinity Chapel clerk put the extinguished candles, as usual, under the altar, while one wick was still smouldering. The altar was thus destroyed, which was the more regretted as it was the only one in Cambridge to survive the Puritan cataclysm, having been hidden for nearly twenty years by a devout lady. CHAPTER X. MODERN PERIOD. § 1-5. Modern England begun at Restoration-Political conditions— Ecclesiastical-Social-Coinage-First coppers-Earlier tokens. § 6-8. First public vehicles-First postal deliveries-First newspapers. § 9-24. Newmarket Races-Stourbridge Fair. § 25-28. University progress in eighteenth century-The TriposGeorge I. enlarges the Library-Epigrams. § 29-43. Draining of Fens-Early objections-Attempt by Charles I. - Bedford Level - Cromwell-Conservators-Wicken FenDecoys. § 44-51. Enclosure of wastes-Effect on peasantry-Agrarian discontent-Rising at Ely-Rick-burning-Victorian prosperity. § 52-58. Church restoration-Earlier decay-Visitation of 1685— State of fabrics-Services-Education-Nonconformity—Briefs— The great storm. $59-61. University changes in nineteenth century. § 62-65. Elementary education-First (Sunday) schools-Local Government-Water-supply-Hobson's conduit-Present agri SI. cultural depression. WITH ITH the reign of Charles II., as Lord Macaulay has pointed out, we enter the region of modern English history. The series of transmutations through which the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the realm had been so long passing then issued in that resultant equilibrium between the various conflicting influences which has ever since been practically main tained. With the statesmen of earlier ages the British politician of to-day would find himself at issue in regard to the most fundamental principles of government. But these principles so far developed themselves, after the Restoration, on still existing lines, that he would be able at least to discuss them with the diplomatists of that reign on a common platform. From this reign dates the conception of a Ministry as part of our Constitution, and those great party names of Whig and Tory, which have divided the Ministerial Government between them even to our own day. § 2. In Cambridgeshire, no less than elsewhere, social and political life now assume their existing complexion. In every village the Prayer-Book was restored, never to be again disused; the dispossessed Church of England minister, if he survived the hardships consequent on his ejection,1 returned to his cure; while his Puritan supplanter was (on "Black Bartholomew," 1662) in turn ejected, and, very probably, found a new vocation in ministering to those Nonconformist congregations which now sprang up everywhere, and have continued to this day. The squires, the farmers, the labourers, all now found their respective levels, ever since maintained, and scarcely yet shifted, even by the rapid changes which have marked the last quarter of the nineteenth century. $3. An outward and visible token of the introduction, at this period, of modern conditions is to be found in the fact that our coinage now took its permanent form, the only subsequent change worthy of notice being that from the guinea to the sovereign in the present century. While older English money is entirely different in appearance to any now in use, coins of Charles II. (the best in design ever issued from a British mint) are still not infrequently found in circulation. This is especially 1 See above, p. 218. the case with those of the lesser denominations, the fourpenny, threepenny, and twopenny bits, now first struck; and above all with the copper, never before used by the State for money. The great significance of this last fact is commonly forgotten by historians; but few political developments have ever had more practical effect on the popular life of our country. § 4. When the lowest coin issued by Government was the silver penny, the purchasing power of which varied, between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries, from that of a florin to that of a sixpence, it was obviously necessary that some less valuable medium of exchange should be provided for use amongst the masses. This medium was found in a system of "tokens," thin, broad coins of bronze, often stamped with designs of the highest artistic merit. These were partly issued by the abbeys, for the convenience of their dependents, and partly imported from the prolific mint of Nuremberg, where the manufacture of the like cheap mintage is a speciality even to this day. The earliest of these Nuremberg tokens (which are found by hundreds in Cambridgeshire) are imitations of the Venetian "bezant," and bear the lion of St. Mark; the latest are impressed with Renaissance designs. They are usually inscribed with some pious. German sentiment, such as: EWICK., GOTTES. SEGEN. MACHT. REICH ., and the like. These tokens passed current, for small and uncertain values, as suited the convenience of buyer and seller, till towards the end of the sixteenth century, when their place was taken by others, of much poorer workmanship, issued by local tradesmen, and current within the area of their local credit for the amount (usually a halfpenny) which they claim to represent. Of these, |