1 June - Salisbury

After another great breakfast at Qudos, Bruce set off on the tour to Stonehenge and Old Sarum. I chose to stay in Salisbury. As I was walking to the tourist office to join a walking tour I passed the town square which was filled with tents and booths: it was market day.

Vendors were selling everything: fish, vegetables and fruit, pastries, handbags, socks and underwear, paté, toys, you name it. Add to that, the guild hall was open and there was a craft fair in progress. I walked all around and bought a wonderful lemon custard lobster tail pastry. Delicious! I arrived at the tourist office in time for the start of the once daily tour, one of 10 participants. Our guide was Carolyn. We started just down the street from the Visitor Center at a Tudor house that was once the home of John Aporte, a prosperous Salisbury wool merchant.

Salisbury was famous for its high quality wool, which was shipped all over Europe, especially Italy. When a ship would go out filled with wool, it would come back filled with items from Europe: olive oil, exotic fruits and especially wine. The expression of the day was "Wool out, wine in." Notice how the eaves stick out above the bottom floor. This feature gives us the term "eavesdropping" because when someone was walking below the eaves, their voices could be heard by the people above.

Our guide asked us which building we thought was older, the Tudor one or this one:

Clearly a trick question. Although the facade is modern, the interior is not. (This is true of many buildings in Salisbury. Carolyn led us across the street to the first floor (second floor in America) to see the evidence. The wall, left open for tourists to see and dating to 1306, is made by the wattle and daub method wherein twigs and branches would be "cemented" into place using mud, clay and dung. The beams are actually timbers from decommissioned ships. Nothing went to waste.

Next, we walked to the Plume of Feathers Yard.

The alley is illustrative of the size of the streets in early Salisbury. The eaves that hang over the street allowed easier passage below. You see, in the old days, there would be a shallow canal running down the middle of the street where people would empty their chamber pots and dirty water. Maids at the inn would toss the contents of guests' pots out of the window, so you had to be careful as you walked down the lane. In 1849 there was an outbreak of cholera and a local man, Andrew Bogle Middleton, believed strongly that it was due to the canals, and therefore undertook to introduce a new system of water-supply and drainage. His proposal was opposed by the mayor, but such was the respect in which he was held, he ultimately prevailed, a sewage system was installed and the epidemic ceased.

We then headed to the Guild Hall, the third to be built near this site. (Photo from Guildhall website)

The first one, the Bishop's Guildhall was built in 1314. A second Guildhall, known as the Council House, was built by the Merchants Guild to the north of the original building in 1585. That hall burned down in a fire at a banquet being held there but was rebuilt in 1780. In 1785 the bishop gave up his rights as clerk of the market and in return was released from his obligations to maintain the guildhall. Since it had become dilapidated, it was torn down and the current building was built on the site, completed in 1795.

We crossed the market square to the statue of a great man from Salisbury, Henry Fawcett.

Fawcett was educated at King's College, Cambridge but before he could finish his studies he was injured in a hunting accident. He was out shooting with his father, a man notorious for his poor eyesight. His father shot him in the head, blinding him. Fawcett continued his studies, however and became a noted economist, an MP for Brighton and later MP for Hackney. He met and proposed to Elizabeth Garrett, but she turned him down saying that she would be too busy studying. It turned out to be true because she became one of the first female doctors in the UK. Undeterred, Fawcett proposed to Elizabeth's younger sister Millicent, who accepted. But the best part of the story is the reason for the statue. Queen Victoria was to visit Salisbury, so a statue of her was commissioned. When she arrived, she refused to get out of her carriage. This so infuriated the locals that after her departure, they melted down the statue and used the bronze for a statue of Fawcett.

Across the street from Fawcett's statue is Bradbeers department store. It was once The Blue Boar Inn and was the site of a private beheading. Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham had been a supporter of Richard III. He is even suspected of taking part in the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower, but that's another story. Stafford switched sides during the War of the Roses, backing Henry Tudor instead of Richard. He was captured by Richard who ordered him to be beheaded. Because he had formerly been a good friend, though, he was allowed a private beheading as opposed to one in the market square. The restaurant at Bradbeers (on the first (second) floor is where it was said to have taken place. It must be true. There's a plaque.

We crossed town passing the town's smallest pub (sorry, no picture, that's Bruce's realm) and came to St. Thomas church. The first church built on this site is thought to have been a small wooden chapel built in 1219 as a place of worship for those building the cathedral. A stone building replaced it which in 1238 was dedicated to St. Thomas Becket. It is known as the church of the Angels because there are said to be 250 carvings of angels in its interior. It is best known for its Doom painting from 1470.

In the center of the painting, you see Jesus and his disciples in heaven. On the left side you can see angels guiding good people from their graves to heaven. On the right side, you can see bad people being dragged to hell. There are two crowns and a bishop's mitre pictured on the right which is meant to show that no one is above judgement.

During Henry VIII's reformation, this painting was painted over with white paint. It was uncovered in 1881 and subsequently retouched. Interestingly, painting in the lady chapel was left alone, possibly because so much attention was being paid to the Doom painting.

Near St. Thomas church are the pudding steps next to the Avon River.

It's not the Avon as in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Apparently there are 9 Avon Rivers in England. Most likely that's because Avon is the Celt word for River and when conquerors would ask the locals the name of the river, they'd say, "Avon." Anyway, this Avon is a chalk river, meaning it comes up from chalk fields. This makes the water very pure and full of minerals. Anyway, the pudding steps are where butchers would come to rinse out the entrails of slaughtered animals for use in black pudding. Umm...yum?

We made our way toward Salisbury Cathedral and passed Old George Hall along the way.

It's a restaurant now, but used to be an inn. Amongst its most illustrious guests were William Shakespeare and Oliver Cromwell. It is said to be haunted (as are most of the old buildings in Salisbury.) Just before you reach the city gate, if you look up, you'll see a painting of a bishop's mitre on the first (second) floor of a building.

This indicates a stop on the bishop's route to the cathedral. When a new bishop was appointed for Salisbury, he would start on the route to his investiture on horseback from Old Sarum. He would ride to Bishopsdown where he would dismount (bishop's down) and proceed on foot to the Mitre house. Here he would change into his vestments of investiture and walk to Salisbury Cathedral. The last bishop to be appointed, veered from the customary procedure. He walked from Old Sarum to Bishopsdown. By the time he got there, he was hungry so he and his retinue stopped at McDonald's. (I'm not sure how that's going to figure into the liturgy going forward.) From there he walked to the Mitre House. He was so excited about his investiture, that he stood in the window waving at the people below (who allegedly thought he was mad.)

We made our way to Salisbury Cathedral where Carolyn bade us farewell. She was an excellent tour guide. Every guide should be as well-informed and enthusiastic as she is.

I then headed across the cathedral lawn to the Salisbury Museum.

In terms of famous buildings, I seem to have a knack for arriving when they're either closed or partially closed. Last year's trip I called "the closed cathedral tour." Leister cathedral where Richard III is buried was closed for renovations, Ely cathedral was closed for the day because a Christmas show was being filmed, King's College Chapel in Cambridge was closed for an event. This year it's museums. Salisbury Museum was open, but only partially. They are said to have a wonderful collection of clothing and accessories dating back 300 years, an extensive collection of ceramics and glass, paintings by J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, and a gallery devoted to the social history of Salisbury and its guilds. Yeah, all of those are closed while the museum is being renovated. The only parts of the museum currently open are those devoted to archeology and the works of Rex Whistler.

The archeology collection is quite extensive and pretty interesting but after a while, at least for me, a bone is a bone is a bone. Ditto a pottery fragment and an old coin. I did take in every display and, yes, there were some interesting bits.

I liked the 15th century roof tiles with the dog's paw print. He ran over the tile while it was drying, then the firing process preserved it.

This meteorite originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and is more than 4.5 billion years old.

British post-Roman hanging bowl, 5th century AD

Jewelry from the grave of a woman, 4th century AD

Gold rings from the Bowerchalke Hoard, 4th century AD

Roman saucepans and strainers from the 1st century AD

I moved on to the Rex Whistler exhibition. Whistler painted murals and society portraits and designed theatrical costumes. It was nice, but tame and probably designed to be so. One of his murals was so controversial that the Tate museum blocked it from public view for years. It was called "Hunting Rare Meat" and featured imagery of black slaves on a leash and caricatures of Chinese figures. The Salisbury collection would certainly inspire no controversy.

The Honorable Robert Gascoyne-Cecil:

Self portrait in uniform:

Tracking of the Quarry:

The wonderful woman for whom we're cat sitting left a wealth of information for us and a map highlighting things to see. I made my way past the cathedral again and started down the road to the Water Meadows which she had recommended. It's just so lovely and calm and was full of families enjoying themselves, including this special family.

You couldn't ask for a lovelier day or a lovelier city.