Miles of that town, measuring
every way round and the town in the centre.
As we passed this plain country, we saw a great many old camps, as
well Roman as British, and several remains of the ancient
inhabitants of this kingdom, and of their wars, battles,
entrenchments, encampments, buildings, and other fortifications,
which are indeed very agreeable to a traveller that has read
anything of the history of the country. Old Sarum is as remarkable
as any of these, where there is a double entrenchment, with a deep
graff or ditch to either of them; the area about one hundred yards
in diameter, taking in the whole crown of the hill, and thereby
rendering the ascent very difficult. Near this there is one farm-
house, which is all the remains I could see of any town in or near
the place (for the encampment has no resemblance of a town), and
yet this is called the borough of Old Sarum, and sends two members
to Parliament. Whom those members can justly say they represent
would be hard for them to answer.
Some will have it that the old city of SORBIODUNUM or Salisbury
stood here, and was afterwards (for I know not what reasons)
removed to the low marshy grounds among the rivers, where it now
stands. But as I see no authority for it other than mere
tradition, I believe my share of it, and take it AD REFERENDUM.
Salisbury itself is indeed a large and pleasant city, though I do
not think it at all the pleasanter for that which they boast so
much of--namely, the water running through the middle of every
street--or that it adds anything to the beauty of the place, but
just the contrary; it keeps the streets always dirty, full of wet
and filth and weeds, even in the middle of summer.
The city is placed upon the confluence of two large rivers, the
Avon and the Willy, neither of them considerable rivers, but very
large when joined together, and yet larger when they receive a
third river (viz., the Naddir), which joins them near Clarendon
Park, about three miles below the city; then, with a deep channel
and a current less rapid, they run down to Christchurch, which is
their port. And where they empty themselves into the sea, from
that town upwards towards Salisbury they are made navigable to
within two miles, and might be so quite into the city, were it not
for the strength of the stream.
As the city of Winchester is a city without trade--that is to say,
without any particular manufactures--so this city of Salisbury and
all the county of Wilts, of which it is the capital, are full of a
great variety of manufactures, and those some of the most
considerable in England--namely, the clothing trade and the trade
of flannels, druggets, and several other sorts of manufactures, of
which in their order.
The city of Salisbury has two remarkable manufactures carried on in
it, and which employ the poor of great part of the country round--
namely, fine flannels, and long-cloths for the Turkey trade, called
Salisbury whites. The people of Salisbury are gay and rich, and
have a flourishing trade; and there is a great deal of good manners
and good company among them--I mean, among the citizens, besides
what is found among the gentlemen; for there are many good families
in Salisbury besides the citizens.
This society has a great addition from the Close--that is to say,
the circle of ground walled in adjacent to the cathedral; in which
the families of the prebendaries and commons, and others of the
clergy belonging to the cathedral, have their houses, as is usual
in all cities, where there are cathedral churches. These are so
considerable here, and the place so large, that it is (as it is
called in general) like another city.
The cathedral is famous for the height of its spire, which is
without exception the highest and the handsomest in England, being
from the ground 410 feet, and yet the walls so exceeding thin that
at the upper part of the spire, upon a view made by the late Sir
Christopher Wren, the wall was found to be less than five inches
thick; upon which a consultation was had whether the spire, or at
least the upper part of it, should be taken down, it being supposed
to have received some damage by the great storm in the year 1703;
but it was resolved in the negative, and Sir Christopher ordered it
to be so strengthened with bands of iron plates as has effectually
secured it; and I have heard some of the best architects say it is
stronger now than when it was first built.
They tell us here long stories of the great art used in laying the
first foundation of this church, the ground being marshy and wet,
occasioned by the channels of the rivers; that it was laid upon
piles, according to some, and upon woolpacks, according to others.
But this is not supposed by those who know that the whole country
is one rock of chalk, even from the tops of the highest hills to
the bottom of the deepest rivers.
They tell us this church was forty years a-building, and cost an
immense sum of money; but it must be acknowledged that the inside
of the work is not answerable in the decoration of things to the
workmanship without. The painting in the choir is mean, and more
like the ordinary method of common drawing-room or tavern painting
than that of a church; the carving is good, but very little of it;
and it is rather a fine church than finely set off.
