By-Ways of Cambridge History

As an early student at Newnham College and subsequently as the wife of John Neville Keynes, Florence Ada Keynes (ne Brown), (1861-1958) spent her entire adult life living in Cambridge. A prominent public figure, active in charity work and public service, she became the first female councillor of the city and served as its Mayor in 1932. This charming little book was published when she was 86 years old. It displays her wide knowledge and love of the city of Cambridge, with engaging essays on Barnwell Priory, the history of the old Market Cross and Conduit and of town planning and social housing in Cambridge. Keynes tells of famous personalities from the city's past, such as the seventeenth-century philosopher Damaris Cudworth and the composer Orlando Gibbons, and recounts more personal memories of the changes her generation lived through, making this a valuable record of her own life.