[5] The easiest way for those who are not much acquainted with phonetic laws to understand this rather difficult point is to observe the chronology of this place-name. It is thus condensed by Mr. T. D. Atkinson ("Cambridge Described and Illustrated," p. 4) from Professor Skeat's "Place-Names of Cambridgeshire," 29-30:--"The name of the town was _Grantebrycge_ in A.D. 875, and in Doomsday Book it is _Grentebrige_. About 1142 we first meet with the violent change _Cantebrieggescir_ (for the county), the change from _Gr_ to _C_ being due to the Normans. This form lasted, with slight changes, down to the fifteenth century. _Grauntbrigge_ (also spelt _Cauntbrigge_ in the name of the same person) survived as a surname till 1401. After 1142 the form _Cantebrigge_ is common; it occurs in Chaucer as a word of four syllables, and was Latinised as _Cantabrigia_ in the thirteenth century. Then the former _e_ dropped out; and we come to such forms as _Cantbrigge_ and _Cauntbrigge_ (fourteenth century); then _C[=a]nbrigge_ (1436) and _Cawnbrege_ (1461) with _n_. Then the _b_ turned the _n_ into _m_, giving _Cambrigge_ (after 1400) and _Caumbrege_ (1458). The long _a_, formerly _aa_ in _baa_, but now _ei_ in _vein_, was never shortened. The old name of the river, _Granta_, still survives. _Cant_ occurs in 1372, and _le Ee_ and _le Ree_ in the fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century the river is spoken of as the _Canta_, now called the _Rhee_; and later we find both _Granta_ and the Latinised form of _Camus_. _Cam_, which appears in Speed's map of 1610, was suggested by the written form _Cam-bridge_, and is a product of the sixteenth century, having no connection with the Welsh _Cam_, or the British _Cambos_, "crooked." [6] "The old spelling is Bernewell, in the time of Henry III. and later. Somewhat earlier is Beornewelle, in a late copy of a charter dated 1060 (Thorpe, _Diplom._, p. 383). So also in the Ramsey Cartulary. The prefix has nothing to do with the Anglo-Saxon _bearn_, 'a child,' as has often, I believe, been suggested; but represents _Beornan_, gen. of _Beorna_, a pet name for a name beginning with Beorn-.... The difference between the words, which are quite distinct, is admirably illustrated in the New Eng. Dict. under the words _berne_ and _bairn_."--SKEAT'S _Place-Names of Cambridgeshire_, p. 35. [7] "The Borough Boys" is a nickname still remembered as being applied to the men of the castle end by the dwellers in the east side of the river. A public-house, with the sign of "The Borough Boy," still stands in Northampton Street. [8] "Cambridge, Described and Illustrated," by T. D. Atkinson, p. 133. [9] _Cf._ "Customs of Augustinian Canons," by J. Willis Clark, p. xi.