[6] A-S. Chron., _Grantebrycge_. Domesday, _Grentebrige_. Henry I.'s charter (1118) _Grantebrugeshire_ and borough of _Grantebruge_. In Matilda's grant of the earldom of Cambridge (before 1146) _Cantebruggescire_. Temp. John, _Cantebrige_, _Cantebrig_. Temp. Hen. III., _Cantebr._ (1218) _Cantabr._ (1231, 1261) _Cantabrigiense_. _Cauntebrigg._ and _Cantebrigg._ in the same deed relating to the Merton scholars (1269-70) Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 5832. f. 74. Hundred Rolls (1276-9) _Cantebr._ In a document of Hugh de Balsham's, 1275, _Cantabr._ Barnwell Chartulary, circ. 1295, _Cantebrige, Cantebrigesire, burgum Cantebrigiae_. In the earliest college statutes (1324) _Cantebrigia_. In Chaucer, Cantebrigge, Cantebregge. In the first half of the next (xvth) century we have _Cambrugge_ in a petition sent by King's Hall to the Franciscans. Cf. also note _infra_ p. 7, on the name of the river.
[8] Caius, writing in 1447, says that the town is divided into two parts by the Canta and the Rhee, called earlier le Ee; and by Spenser the Cle. We have _Granta_, _Guant_, and _Cante_: the _r_ dropped out, and _G_ was replaced by _C_ in the name of both town and river (see _supra_). Cante does not seem to have been the name of a river at all. The river bank by Castle Mound is spoken of in the xiv c. as "the common bank called Cante": one arm at least of the Cambridge river was known simply as "the water" [Prof. Skeat has pointed out that Ee is the xii, xiii, and xiv c. form of the A-S. _éa_, cognate with _aqua_] and for centuries there would appear to have been no need for any other name. In Henry of Huntingdon's Chronicle (1130) the river is called the _Grenta_; but Lydgate writes
And of this noble vniuersitie Sett on this ryver which is called Cante.
In the same decade Spenser knows only the Guant (_Faery Queene, Book iv, Canto xi._ 1590) and Camden for the first time tells us that it was called both Granta and Cam (_alii Grantam_, _Camum alii._ 1586) the name used as we have seen by Milton. If there was no river Cante _à fortiori_ there was no river Cam; for the _m_ in the name of the town is only another change in the original first syllable of Cambridge. See _footnote_, p. 6.
[9] Trumpington is 2 miles S., Grantchester 2 miles S.S.W. of the town.