THE CAMBRIDGE, ELY, AND KING'S LYNN ROAD WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. =The Brighton Road=: Old Times and New on a Classic Highway. =The Portsmouth Road=, and its Tributaries: To-day and in Days of Old. =The Dover Road=: Annals of an Ancient Turnpike. =The Bath Road=: History, Fashion, and Frivolity on an Old Highway. =The Exeter Road=: The Story of the West of England Highway. =The Great North Road=: The Old Mail Road to Scotland. Two Vols. =The Norwich Road=: An East Anglian Highway. =The Holyhead Road=: The Mail-Coach Road to Dublin. Two Vols. =Cycle Rides Round London.= =The Oxford, Gloucester, and Milford Haven Road.= [_In the Press._ [Illustration: THE "CAMBRIDGE TELEGRAPH" STARTING FROM THE WHITE HORSE, FETTER LANE. [_From a Print after J. Pollard._]] =THE CAMBRIDGE ELY AND KING'S LYNN ROAD= THE GREAT FENLAND HIGHWAY BY CHARLES G. HARPER AUTHOR OF "THE BRIGHTON ROAD" "THE PORTSMOUTH ROAD" "THE DOVER ROAD" "THE BATH ROAD" "THE EXETER ROAD" "THE GREAT NORTH ROAD" "THE NORWICH ROAD" "THE HOLYHEAD ROAD" AND "CYCLE RIDES ROUND LONDON" [Illustration] _ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR, AND FROM OLD-TIME PRINTS AND PICTURES_ LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL LTD. 1902. (_All Rights Reserved_) [Illustration: Preface] _IN the course of an eloquent passage in an eulogy of the old posting and coaching days, as opposed to railway times, Ruskin regretfully looks back upon "the happiness of the evening hours when, from the top of the last hill he had surmounted, the traveller beheld the quiet village where he was to rest, scattered among the meadows, beside its valley stream." It is a pretty, backward picture, viewed through the diminishing-glass of time, and possesses a certain specious attractiveness that cloaks much of the very real discomfort attending the old road-faring era. For not always did the traveller behold the quiet village under conditions so ideal. There were such things as tempests, keen frosts, and bitter winds to make his faring highly uncomfortable; to say little of the snowstorms that half smothered him and prevented his reaching his destination until his very vitals were almost frozen. Then there were_ MESSIEURS _the highwaymen, always to be reckoned with, and it cannot too strongly be insisted upon that until the nineteenth century had well dawned they were always to be confidently expected at the next lonely bend of the road. But, assuming good weather and a complete absence of those old pests of society, there can be no doubt that a journey down one of the old coaching highways must have been altogether delightful._