egiment, the town of Cambridge, as the newer
workmanship,[234] exceeds that of Oxford (which otherwise is, and hath
been, the greater of the two) by many a fold (as I guess), although I know
divers that are of the contrary opinion. This also is certain, that
whatsoever the difference be in building of the town streets, the townsmen
of both are glad when they may match and annoy the students, by
encroaching upon their liberties, and keep them bare by extreme sale of
their wares, whereby many of them become rich for a time, but afterward
fall again into poverty, because that goods evil gotten do seldom long
endure.[235]

* * * * *

In each of these universities also is likewise a church dedicated to the
Virgin Mary, wherein once in the year--to wit, in July--the scholars are
holden, and in which such as have been called to any degree in the year
precedent do there receive the accomplishment of the same, in solemn and
sumptuous manner. In Oxford this solemnity is called an Act, but in
Cambridge they use the French word _Commencement_; and such resort is made
yearly unto the same from all parts of the land by the friends of those
who do proceed that all the town is hardly able to receive and lodge those
guests. When and by whom the churches aforesaid were built I have
elsewhere made relation. That of Oxford also was repaired in the time of
Edward the Fourth and Henry the Seventh, when Doctor Fitz James, a great
helper in that work, was warden of Merton College; but ere long, after it
was finished, one tempest in a night so defaced the same that it left few
pinnacles standing about the church and steeple, which since that time
have never been repaired. There were sometime four and twenty parish
churches in the town and suburbs; but now there are scarcely sixteen.
There have been also 1200 burgesses, of which 400 dwelt in the suburbs;
and so many students were there in the time of Henry the Third that he
allowed them twenty miles compass about the town for their provision of
victuals.

The common schools of Cambridge also are far more beautiful than those of
Oxford, only the Divinity School at Oxford excepted, which for fine and
excellent workmanship cometh next the mould of the King's Chapel in
Cambridge, than the which two, with the Chapel that King Henry the Seventh
did build at Westminster, there are not (in my opinion) made of lime and
stone three more notable piles within the compass of