Cambridgeshire camels.

The meaning of this proverb is very obscure. Fuller says a camel is used proverbially, to signify an aukward, ungain animal: scholars, long resident in college, are not famous for the gracefulness of their address; probably it was from this the gownsmen of Cambridge might be called camels, a term by no means dishonorable, as proving they have attended to Euclid more than to their dancing-masters. Some have supposed this term to have originated from the Fen-men, stalking through the marshes on their stilts, who then, by the apparent length of their legs, somewhat resemble the camel. Ray’s supposition, that “this nick-name was groundlessly fastened on his countrymen, because the first three letters are the same in Cambridge and camel,” seems to have very little reason to support it.