Forage around the shops lining St. John's Street, Trinity Street, King's Parade, and Trumpington Street.

Check out English Teddy Bear Company, 1 King's Parade (tel. 01223/300908), which sells teddy bears handmade in cottages all over the United Kingdom -- a real British souvenir.

Primavera, 10 King's Parade (tel. 01223/357708), is a showplace of British crafts, featuring pottery, glass, ceramics, jewelry, ironwork, and fabric crafts ranging from ties to wall hangings. Be sure to explore their basement exhibition of paintings and crafts items.

Another well-defined shopping district is comprised of Bridge Street, Sidney Street, St. Andrew's Street, and Regent Street. Particularly worth noting in this area is James Pringle Weavers, 11 Bridge St. (tel. 01223/361534), a Scottish haven. You'll find a mind-boggling array of Scottish tartans, kilts, tweeds, fine knitwear, Scottish food, and of course, postcards.

A posh area of extremely chic, small, and exclusive shops runs between Market Square and Trinity Street and is called Rose Crescent. Here, you can buy leather goods, smart women's clothing, and fine hats as well as jewelry and a host of very expensive gift items.

Cambridge's pedestrian shopping district runs between Market Square and St. Andrew's Street and is known as the Lion Yard. Culpepper the Herbalists, 25 Lion Yard (tel. 01223/367370), carries a complete herbal line that includes everything from extracts of plants to jellies, honeys, teas, cosmetics, bath products, pillows, and potpourri.

For book lovers, Cambridge's bookstores will truly delight you. Heffers of Cambridge is a huge book, stationery, and music store with six branches, all of which can be contacted through their central phone number (tel. 01223/568568). The main store, at 20 Trinity St., carries academic books; Heffers's paperback and video shop is at 31 St. Andrews St.; their art-and-graphics shop has an address of 15-21 King St.; and the music store at 19 Trinity St. features classical and popular cassettes, CDs, and choral college music. Heffers also has a shop in the mall at Grafton Centre that carries new fiction and nonfiction titles.

G. David, 16 St. Edward's Passage (tel. 01223/354619), hawks secondhand books, publishers' overruns at reduced prices, and antiquarian books. Waterstone, 22 Sydney St. (tel. 01223/351688), deals exclusively in new books on a variety of subjects. The Haunted Bookshop, 9 St. Edward's Passage (tel. 01223/312913), specializes in out-of-print children's books and first editions.