Plan of the Infirmary (from Bentham) 132 Ely Porta, The Great Gate Of The Monastery, 1817 133 Ground Plan Of Ely Cathedral _At end._ [Illustration: THE NORTH SIDE OF THE CATHEDRAL. _Photochrom Co. Ltd. Photo._] [Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH. _Photochrom Co. Ltd. Photo._] ELY CATHEDRAL. CHAPTER I. THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING. No mention has been found of Ely as a town before the time of the virgin queen S. Etheldreda. The district known as the Isle of Ely--which now includes the whole of the northern part of Cambridgeshire above the River Ouse, together with a few parishes east of that river that are in the county--is spoken of at the time of the marriage of the princess as if it were a district well known and perhaps of some importance, as it was assigned to her as a dowry. Some writers have held that the expression the Isle of Ely applied only to the rising ground on which the city now stands and to its immediate neighbourhood. If this were ever the case, the name was soon used for a larger district. In the "Liber Eliensis" the limits of the isle are given as seven miles in length by four in breadth, while the extent of the two hundreds belonging to Ely reaches from Tydd to Upware and from Bishop's Delf to Peterborough. We have many examples of large inland districts where a series of rivers has happened to isolate them being known as isles. The Isles of Athelney, Axholme, Purbeck, Thanet, are familiar instances. Perhaps the town is more likely to take its name from the district than the district from the town. It will be seen that in none of the examples just given is the name derived from a town. We have the authority of Bede for the statement that Ely (_Elge_) was a region containing about six hundred families, like an island (_in similitudinem insulae_), and surrounded by marshes or waters.