Cambridge： the city of crocuses and daffodils on the Backs， of green open spaces and cattle grazing only 500 yards from the market square.

　　The Cambridge of Brooke， Byron， Newton and Rutherford， of the summer idyll of punts，' bumps’， cool willows and May Balls.

　　Yet Cambridge was important long before the University existed. Here， at the meeting of dense forests to the south and trackless， marshy Fens to the north， was the lowest reliable fording place of the River Cam， or Granta. In the first century BC an Iron Age Belgic tribe built a settlement on what is now Castle Hill. Around AD40 the Romans took over the site and it became the crossing point for the Via Devana which linked Colchester with the legions in Lincoln and beyond. The Saxons followed， then the Normans under William the Conqueror， who raised a castle on a steep mound as a base for fighting the Saxon rebel， Hereward the Wake， deep in the Fens at Ely. The motte of William's castle still stands and Ely Cathedral is visible from the top on a clear day.

　　The first scholars didn't arrive in Cambridge until 1209 and another 75 years passed before Hugh de Balsham， Bishop of Ely， founded Peterhouse， the first college. Clare （1326）， Pembroke （1347）， Gonville and Caius （1348）， Trinity Hall （1350） and Corpus Christi （1352） were established in the first half of the fourteenth century. Ten more colleges were founded during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries， including Christ's （1505）， King's （1441）， Queens' （1448）， Jesus （1496）， St. John's （1511）， Trinity （1546）， and Emmanuel （1584）。

　　這個城市的背后充滿了番紅花和水仙，在里市區(qū)500碼的地方有著廣闊的綠地和放牧的牧場。這個城市還擁有著Brooke，拜倫，牛頓，盧瑟福，夏日的田園詩，清爽的柳樹和一年一度的畢業(yè)舞會（May Balls）。當然，劍橋郡要比劍橋大學古老的多。直到1209年劍橋郡才出現(xiàn)第一位學者，75年以后出現(xiàn)了Hugh de Balsham， Bishop of Ely，建立了Peterhouse，第一所大學。