Camberwell

“ Camberwell derived its name from a miraculous well discovered close by the parish church dedicated to St. Giles, the patron of cripples. Cam is Celtic for crooked. In this instance the word applies to the cripples, or rather to their patron saint. [On the other hand, the University town of Cambridge was so called from the bridge over the Cam, a river distinguished for its winding course.] Stockwell is in allusion to the well found in the stoc, or wooded place, in Anglo-Saxon times. Kennington means a settlement in the King’s meadow. One of the palaces of Henry VIII. stood here. ”

“ The train had stopped again and the car was oppressively hot. People around were looking at their watches and grumbling over the delay. The doctor bustled in with a remark about its being his busy day. The amateur detective and the porter together mounted guard over lower ten. Outside the heat rose in shimmering waves from the tracks: the very wood of the car was hot to touch. A Camberwell Beauty darted through the open door and made its way, in erratic plunges, great wings waving, down the sunny aisle. All around lay the peace of harvested fields, the quiet of the country. ”

“ Of deeds which make up life, one deed
Power shall fall short in or exceed!—Pippa Passes.
BUT I want to play with the beautiful lady! She tellth thtorieth 'bout gob-o-linth an' thea therpents!”
The voice of Lucius Merton Camberwell, junior, rose in a crescendo that threatened a climatic yell. His mother, a soft-faced, wide-figured woman, with white, helpless hands, looked at him in dismay and disapproval. ”

“ He started classes of instruction in elocution for working people in 1859, and was a strong advocate of total abstinence. In 1866 he was appointed by trustees to the incumbency of Camden church, Camberwell, formerly held by Henry Melvill [q. v.] ”

“ Cambridge would stand condemned were poets its only product. Fortunately, as some proof of the practical value of an University education, it can point to men like Cromwell, Pitt, and Macaulay, whose strenuous lives have in their several ways left a mark on the nation's history. Though one be not a champion of Cromwell's career, yet his savagery, his duplicity, his canting hypocrisy fade into the background and lose their significance beside the firmness of purpose, the iron determination and the wise policy that made England respected and feared abroad under the rule of the Protector. ”

“ Swift.
As early as 1700 he had come to the mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge (where a portrait of him by Thornhill now hangs in the Master's Lodge) , a proud position—made prouder by his large hospitalities. He had a sensible wife, courteous "for two"—as many scholars' wives have need to be—and two daughters; one of whom inheriting the father's sharp tongue, made a good many young fellows of the college sing; and made some of them sigh too—marrying at last a certain young Cumberland, who became the father of Richard Cumberland, the poet and dramatist. ”

“ Some of the most charming people in the world live in them, but their collective effect is below the quality of any individual among them. Cambridge is a world of subdued tones, of excessively subtle humours, of prim conduct and free thinking; it fears the Parent, but it has no fear of God; it offers amidst surroundings that vary between disguises and antiquarian charm the inflammation of literature's purple draught; one hears there a peculiar thin scandal like no other scandal in the world—a covetous scandal—so that I am always reminded of Ibsen in Cambridge. ”

“ To reach it we have, indeed, to cross the border and go some half mile beyond; but though politically (p. 249) in Hertfordshire, Ashwell physically belongs to Cambridgeshire. For here is the source of the Cam, and such a source as few would dream of for the sluggish unclear stream that we see at Cambridge. In the midst of the village the ground sinks into a sort of amphitheatre, some 100 yards in length by thirty in breadth and ten in depth, with abrupt sides covered with brushwood and overshadowed by ancestral ash-trees. ”

“ Since you were here, my dear and honoured guest, Cambridge is greatly changed. I am left here like a vessel on its beam ends, to mark the distance to which the current has been drifting during a good many bygone years. I have [Pg 365] outlived nearly all my early friends. Whewell, Master of Trinity, was the last of the old stock who was living here. Herschel has not been here for several years. Babbage was here for a day or two during the year before last. The Astronomer-Royal belongs to a more recent generation. ”

“ Above it rises steeply the eastern extremity of a chalk spur to the height of 220 feet. From the summit, though so low, we get one of the widest panoramic views in England, embracing the whole valley of the Cam. "Ashwell Bush," [170] which marks the source of the river, is conspicuous on a hill some ten miles to the south-westward, and Ely Cathedral, just beyond its junction with the Ouse, may be seen, twice as far away to the north; Cambridge, with its spires and pinnacles, lying between, five or six miles distant. ”

“ CAMBELL or CAMPBELL, Sir JAMES (1570–1642) , lord mayor of London, was the grandson of Robert Cambell of Foulsham, Norfolk. His father, Sir Thomas Cambell (d. 1613) , was alderman successively of Bridge Without (15 Nov. 1599) , of Broad Street (23 April 1610) , and of Coleman Street (11 Oct. 1611) ; sheriff of London (24 June 1600) ; lord mayor (29 Sept. 1609) ; governor of East India Company (1602–3) ; and twice master of the Ironmongers' Company (1604 and 1613) . ”

“ Inspired by double soul and valor Dyamond was hardly to be subdued, and for a long time the victory seemed doubtful,—till, with one gigantic blow, Cambello wielded his good sword, and struck from his body the head of his brave adversary.
Then as the united lives of his two brothers passed into the breast of Triamond, a great cry of defiance escaped his throat. Not one whit dismayed at the prowess of Cambello, he burned to engage with him hand to hand. ”

“ Cambridge made politics personal and actual. At City Merchants' we had had no sense of effective contact; we boasted, it is true, an under secretary and a colonial governor among our old boys, but they were never real to us; such distinguished sons as returned to visit the old school were allusive and pleasant in the best Pinky Dinky style, and pretended to be in earnest about nothing but our football and cricket, to mourn the abolition of “water,” and find a shuddering personal interest in the ancient swishing block. ”

“ Such were the sources from which the inhabitants of the largest provincial cities, and the great body of the gentry and clergy, learned almost all that they knew of the history of their own time. We must suppose that at Cambridge there were as many persons curious to know what was passing in the world as at almost any place in the kingdom, out of London. Yet at Cambridge, during a great part of the reign of Charles the Second, the Doctors of Laws and the Masters of Arts had no regular supply of news except through the London Gazette. ”

“ Camran. This reminded me that I had reached a fork of the road, where I must either take this whole family into my secret or explain my change of name to my companion. The latter was decided upon as the most feasible. When she emerged and drew a chair to the edge of the veranda to admire the prospect of land and sea I told her that henceforth she must call me by a new name.
She looked inquiringly into my face.
"Do you remember suggesting on the steamer," I asked, "that as we had to lie to others we ought to tell the truth among ourselves? Well, my name is Camran, not Camwell. ”

“ And on another occasion when Prothero was not with her she achieved still completer lucidity.
“I would come if I thought he wanted me to come,” she said. “But you see if I came he would not want me to come. Because then he would have me and so he wouldn't want me. He would just have the trouble. And I am not sure if I should be happy in Cambridge. I am not sure I should be happy enough to make him happy. It is a very learned and intelligent and charming society, of course; but here, THINGS HAPPEN. At Cambridge nothing happens—there is only education. There is no revolution in Cambridge ”

“ One way or other, however, the work of fortifying Cambridge was got done. [3] A regular Force lies henceforth in Cambridge: Captains Fleetwood, Desborow, Whalley, new soldiers who will become veterans and known to us, are on service here. Of course the Academic stillness is much fluttered by the war-drum, and many a confused brabble springs up between Gown and Garrison; college tippets, and on occasion still more venerable objects, getting torn by the business! The truth is, though Cambridge is not so Malignant as Oxford, the Surplices at Allhallowtide have still much sway there ”

“ The roystering old days at Upware are done. They came to an end when the railway between Cambridge, Ely, and Kings Lynn was opened, and coals and heavy goods no longer went by barge along the Ouse and Cam. In that unregenerate epoch, before modern culture had reached Cambridge, and undergrads had not begun to decorate their rooms with blue china and to attempt to live up to it, the chief delight of Cambridge men was to walk or scull down to Upware and have it out with the bargees. ”

“ Hence it came about that Exning was the birthplace of St. Etheldreda, the foundress of our great "sacred fane" at Ely, round which, almost more than Cambridge itself, the fortunes of Cambridgeshire have centred. Her father, King Anna, was called to the East Anglian throne in troublous times. Christianity and Paganism were at death-grips throughout the land. And the latter cause was championed by the monarch who was, for the moment, far the most powerful of the English sovereigns, Penda, King of Mercia. From his central position he struck out north, south, and east, at his Christian neighbours. ”

“ Though we believe that the intentions of Cromwell were at first honest, though we believe that he was driven from the noble course which he had marked out for himself by the almost irresistible course of circumstances, though we admire in common with all men of all parties the ability and energy of his splendid administration, we are not pleading for arbitrary and lawless power even in his hands.—Macaulay. ”

“ It may be I shall not return alive into England; indeed, I grow an old man and feel infirmities of age stealing upon me. And so, farewell, my lass. Truly if I love you not too well, I err not on the other hand much. Thou hast been dearer to me than any other creature: let that suffice.” And with this leave-taking he was gone.
As the door closed upon Cromwell’s burly figure, “No, be very careful not to touch me,” Kennaston implored. “The dream must last till I have found out how through your aid, Ettarre, this bull-necked country squire has come to rule England. ”

“ Yet from contemporary sources there is evidence that King George had no love for Cumberland. Lord Ellenborough, in his “Political Diary,” notes in 1829, “The King, our master, is the weakest man in England. [12] He hates the Duke of Cumberland. He wishes his death. He is relieved when he is away; but he is afraid of him, and crouches to him.” Again, when the Catholic Emancipation Bill was being fought, Cumberland insisted upon coming back to England for it. ”

“ The Marquise de Campvallon was then—as she truly said to the man she resembled—a great pagan; and, as she also said to herself in one of her serious moments when a woman's destiny is decided by the influence of those they love, Camors had sown in her heart a seed which had marvellously fructified. ”

“ The modern architectural efforts may well compete with those of any former age.
Though Cambridge is the county town, Ely is the one city of Cambridgeshire. It derived its name from the abund ance of the eels which were found there. It was situated on the largest of the islands that rose above the level of the Fens, which in winter were surrounded by water, and were only accessible by certain passes or gates. (See Ely.) The other Cambridgeshire towns are soon enumerated. Wisbeach (beach of the Ouse) is a large and prosperous town, next in size and population to Cambridge. ”

“ He reorganised a local charity school which had got into evil hands, enlarged the vicarage house, and planted a garden. Cambridge was within an easy ride, and he was thus able to maintam an intimacy there with such of his contemporaries as shared his love of natural history. These were not numerous, but included such names as Henslow, Whewell, Darwin, Adam Sedgwick, Julius Hare, and Bishop Thirlwall. ”

“ Not like Esmeer's—the Pig!”
“If once he began to think about sex, how could he be comfortable at croquet?”
“It's their Damned Modesty,” said Hatherleigh suddenly, “that's what's the matter with the Pinky Dinky. It's Mental Cowardice dressed up as a virtue and taking the poor dears in. Cambridge is soaked with it; it's some confounded local bacillus. Like the thing that gives a flavour to Havana cigars. He comes up here to be made into a man and a ruler of the people, and he thinks it shows a nice disposition not to take on the job! ”

“ We have seen that a Washington lies buried in the ancient chapel of the first Cambridge college, and we are to see further on that the impulse which set the “Mayflower” on her course proceeded from a Cantabrigian. The oldest of the ‘pilgrim fathers’ was a Peterhouse man, persecuted in England for his ‘Brownist’ opinions. There were many university men among the first settlers, but they were chiefly from the one university; and ‘Cambridge’ was the name which rose to their lips when they christened the town in the great state of Massachusetts where they first set foot. ”