A mile to the east of Upware we can see how mighty a task those men of old undertook who cut these lodes through the primaeval jungle. For here is that Wicken Fen, which we have already spoken of,[206] where a square mile of that jungle is preserved in its primaeval condition, and where (in all but the old bird life) the fauna and flora of the old Fenland may still be studied in their old environment; where the peat is still spongy under your foot, and the tall crests of the reeds rise high above your head. To dig out masses of that spongy peat, to cut through miles of those tall reeds would be no light business even with our own modern means of excavation. What must it have been to the rude implements of the ancients? [Footnote 206: See p. 180.] [Illustration: _The Quay, Ely._] Some two miles beyond Upware the Cam falls into the Ouse, and the united stream sweeps past Thetford and round the corner of the island to Ely, where the Cutter Inn (near the railway station) makes a good landing-place. CHAPTER XIV Ely.--Island and Isle.--St. Augustine.--St. Etheldreda, Life, Death, Burial, St. Audrey's Fair.--Danish Sack of Ely.--Alfred's College.--Abbey restored.--Brithnoth, Song of Maldon.--Battle of Assandun.--Canute at Ely.--Edward the Confessor.--Alfred the Etheling.--Camp of Refuge, Hereward, Norman Conquest, Tabula Eliensis, Nomenclature, Norman Minster.--Bishops of Ely, Rule over Isle.--Ely Place, Ely House. The tourist through Cambridgeshire should now turn his attention to Ely, a place second only in interest, if indeed second, to Cambridge itself. The central point of note in Ely is the Cathedral; known to us ever since our schooldays through Macaulay's picture-giving pen, which sets it before us as "Ely's stately fane." We hope soon to learn something of the history of this great church, of her growth, of her decay, of her restoration, of those men and women who have made her what she is, of the tumults and storms she has over-lived. Truly we may say, with Stirling the poet that the Minster at Ely "Still ship-like on for ages fares, And holds its course, so smooth so true, For all the madness of the crew; It must have better rule than theirs." Before we actually visit the place itself let us make ourselves familiar with the outline of its chequered history.