Highways and Byways in Cambridge and ElyConybeare, John William Edward
History
Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely
Conybeare, John William Edward
Cambridgeshire (England) -- Description and travel; Isle of Ely (England) -- Description and travel
The other lane, to the right, which leads to Madingley, is also worth
traversing. From its hedgeless "switch-back" terraces we look
northwards across the valley, not of the Cam but of the Ouse, bounded
by the uplands of the island of Ely, ten miles away at the nearest
point, and nearly twice as far where the ridge is crowned by the dim
and distant towers of the cathedral. Conspicuous in the nearer
distance is the red-brick mass of the Ladies' College at Girton, some
three miles away from us. Madingley, to which half a mile or so of
this prospect leads us, is a little place of steep pitches and
tree-shaded lanes, very different from the usual Cambridgeshire
village, but with a special charm of its own. It has a pretty little
church nestling beneath a fine Elizabethan hall of red-brick. Both
church and hall contain portions of the spoil of the church of St.
Etheldreda, which once stood at Histon and was pulled down by Mr.
Justice Hinde, the first builder of Madingley Hall, to whom the sacred
edifice was given by Henry the Eighth. Its Norman font is now in
Madingley Church, while part of its roof is still to be seen in the
Hall.
At Madingley Hall King Edward the Seventh was quartered while an
undergraduate of Trinity College. Tradition asserts that it once
sheltered another monarch, the ill-fated Charles the First, in a
momentary attempt to escape from the clutches of the rebel army during
his enforced residence at the neighbouring Hall of Childerley, as will
be narrated in connection with that place. The Hall has, since that
date, passed from one family to another, and is now the seat of
Colonel Harding, D.C.L.
[Illustration: _Coton._]
Madingley is a centre of pretty lanes. Besides that already spoken
of, another, an avenue of greenery, leads northwards to the Via
Devana, another westwards to the village of Dry Drayton, and another
up the hill southwards, to rejoin our St. Neots road on the summit of
the ridge. Here we are 220 feet above the sea, overlooking the valley
of the Ouse to the north and to the south that of the Cam, or, rather,
of its tributary the Bourn Brook. The road keeps the highest ground,
almost on the level, while a succession of lanes to the right and left
lead down to the villages on either slope.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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