Portrait of Cambridge

The story of Cambridge is one of curious conflict: an unrelenting struggle for independence by a squalid fenland settlement, which entirely changed its purpose as, down the centuries, a great University grew in its midst. Yet it was this unwelcome intruder, seen today as an island of ancient glory in a surge of modern expansion, that makes the City of Cambridge known to the world.

The coming of the "clerks"; the early hostels and colleges; the problem of the King's Ditch; the limitations o...