Old Sarum

“ Old Sarum, though certainly of British origin, is the centre of several great roads, which radiated from it towards the Roman settlements at Bath, Marlborough, Winchester, Silchester, Ilchester, and Dorchester, and upon these and between them are various works of the same people, though their camps, being rarely defended by formidable works in earth, and being usually on low and accessible ground, have very frequently disappeared before the ploughshare. ”

“ You can see Old Sarum looming ahead immediately after passing the outlying houses of Salisbury, and if you come upon it when a storm is impending, as in Constable’s picture, the impression of size and strength created is one not soon to be forgotten. ”

“ Hereupon the people missing their belly-chere, for they were wont to have banketing at every station, a thing practised by the religious in old tyme, they conceived forthwith a deadly hatred against the Castellans." The quarrel ended in the removal of the cathedral to the plain below, where Salisbury now stands, and the glory of Old Sarum departed. As far back as the time of Henry VIII the place became utterly desolate, and it was interesting to read what visitors in after times had written about it. ”

“ Dr. Adam Clark visited Old Sarum in 1806, and wrote: "We found here the remains of a very ancient city and fortress, surrounded by a deep trench, which still bears a most noble appearance. On the top of the hill the castle or citadel stood, and several remains of a very thick wall built all of flint stone, cemented together with a kind of everlasting mortar. What is remarkable is that these ruins are still considered in the British constitution as an inhabited city, and send two members to Parliament. ”

“ We had a lonely walk, and about two miles from Salisbury saw to the right the outline of a small hill which turned out to be Old Sarum, a name that figured on the mileposts for many miles round Salisbury, being the ancient and Roman name for that city. Old cities tend to be on hills, for defence, but modern equivalents occur in the valley below, representative of peace conditions and easy travelling for commercial purposes. ”

“ Herbert, a subsequent bishop of the see, attempted to remove the establishment, but its execution was reserved for his brother and successor, Richard Poor, whose monument is in the south chancel of the present cathedral at Salisbury. This was about the year 1217, from which time the inhabitants of Old Sarum removed their residence, and pulled down their dwellings, with the materials of which they constructed their new habitations: and as one city increased in population and extent, so the other almost as rapidly decayed. Hence the establishment of New Sarum, or Salisbury. ”

“ But all these have passed away, and nought is left to tell the tale of their greatness, but a few crumbling wrecks of massy walls; whilst vast fosses and elevated ramparts remain to mark it as the site of desolating war. The contrast of time-worn ruins with their surounding scenes of luxuriant nature is affecting even to melancholy. A recent visiter to the area of Old Sarum describes "a field of oats flourishing on the very spot where the crowded street had formerly extended itself; and a barrier existing to the further progress of agriculture, by the remains of the cathedral, castle, &c. ”

“ He was a militant bishop, and in 1355 instituted a suit against William de Montacute, and sent his champion clothed in white to try wager of battle with him. He recovered for his see 2,500 marks and the ancient castle of Old Sarum, also that of Sherborne. He obtained permission to fortify his manors of Sarum, Sherborne, Woodford, Chardstock, Potterne, Canning, Sunning, and his mansion in Fleet Street (now Salisbury Court) , "in the suburbs of London." His brass is in the Morning Chapel. ”

“ Scarcely second to Winchester in strength, and its equal in undefined antiquity, is Old Sarum, a hold of mixed but uncertain origin, where the concentric lines of masonry, girdling and crowning the central mound, included the cathedral of the diocese, and to which, according to the historians of Wiltshire, King Alfred caused an exterior bank and palisade to be added. In Wilts was also the Devizes, reputed the finest castle on this side the Alps. ”

“ The Norman remains in and about the valley of the Avon differ in no material respect from those in other parts of England, being grafted, where circumstances admitted of it, upon the existing works. Thus the grand earthworks at the Devizes, at Marlborough, at Ludgershal, at Twynham, all probably of English origin, were crowned with keeps of masonry, as was the central mound at Old Sarum, and on the borders of the district the very curious work at Wareham, and the natural, but early occupied hill, at Corfe.
Old Sarum is a very noteworthy place; in some respects the most noteworthy in Britain. ”

“ Now and then, as at Old Sarum, there is an additional but slighter bank placed outside the outer ditch, that is, upon the crest of the counterscarp. This was evidently intended to carry a palisade, and to fulfil the conditions of the covered-way along the crest of one of Vauban’s counterscarps. Where the enclosure is circular, the mound is either central, as at Pickering, or Mileham, or at Old Sarum, where it is possibly an addition to an older work, such as Badbury, or it stands on one side, as at Tutbury. Where the area is oblong or oval, the mound may be placed near one end, as at Bramber. ”

“ In 1734 there had been a fiercely contested General Election, and Thomas Pitt had been returned for both Okehampton and Old Sarum. He elected to sit for Okehampton, and nominated his brother, William, together with his brother-in-law, Nedham, for the other borough. So, on February 18, 1735, William was returned Member for the notorious borough of Old Sarum; an area of about sixty acres of ploughed land, on which had once stood the old city of Salisbury, but which no longer contained a single house or a single resident. The electorate consisted of seven votes. ”

“ WSW. of London; the cathedral, founded in 1225, and frequently added to and restored, is one of the finest specimens of Early English architecture; has a number of other interesting old buildings—churches, almshouses, inns, an endowed school, &c.; agriculture is the staple industry; also called New Sarum, and a mile to the N. is the half-obliterated site of Old Sarum, with many interesting historical associations; while round the neighbourhood sweeps the wide, undulating, pastoral Salisbury Plain, with its Druidical circle of Stonehenge (q. v.) ”

“ Over one end of the course, oaks, centuries old, have grown. Not far away, about a mile and half east of Stonehenge, there is the huge earthwork walls of Vespasians' Camp. From here it is said the Great Roman General marched to the conquest of Palestine. About four miles south, crowning a high hill, there are the ruins of Old Sarum, at one time a Roman City. From the ramparts of Sarum, each of them a day's march away, can be seen the ruins of seven great Roman Camps. ”

“ This is usually assigned to Bishop Herman, whose tomb it is supposed to have covered in Old Sarum; but no evidence exists to support this theory. In the first place his original burial-place is entirely unknown, and William de Wanda, who chronicles minutely the removal of the bodies of other bishops from the old cathedral, does not even mention Herman's name.
The next (3) is an effigy of a bishop in full pontificals, also believed to have been originally at Old Sarum. The carving is rich, and the design a fine example of the early Norman style. ”

“ The fourth was laid by the Earl of Salisbury, the fifth by the Countess Ela, “a truly praise-worthy woman,” as wrote William de Wanda, afterwards Dean of Sarum, “because she was filled with the fear of the Lord.” Other stones were added by a few noblemen, archdeacons, and canons of the church of Sarum, amidst the acclamations of the assembled multitude, many of whom wept for joy, and gladly contributed according to their ability. ”

“ When the high walles were standing, flanked at due distances with towers, about seven in all, and the vast keep (arx) in the middle crowned with another high fortification, it must needs afford a most noble view over the plaines.
(The following account I had from the right reverend, learned, and industrious Seth Ward, Lord Bishop of Sarum, who had taken the paines to peruse all the old records of the church, that had been clung together and untoucht for perhaps two hundred yeares.) Within this castle of Old Sarum, on the east side, stood the Cathedrall church ”

“ Wearing their famous scarlet uniforms, and swinging down Chestnut Street, their favorite parade-ground, with handkerchiefs waving from the classic porches on either side, the Salem Cadets lend a touch of color and life which is most attractive against the Colonial background.
Famous Names in Salem
The house is nothing without its inhabitant; and thus Salem architecture, however beautiful, would lack in significance if dissociated from the persons, men and women, who have passed in and out of these hospitable doors, or spent years of life beneath the sheltering roofs. ”

“ Yet, two hundred years is a very brief time in which to complete a process of evolution such as this—comparing the rude aperture closed by its swinging shield of slabs, which formed the doorway of the earliest Salem dwelling, with the ornate, dignified, and beautiful entrance to a typical Salem home at the expiration of the period, with classic columns, fluted pilasters, carved rosettes and festoons, spreading fanlight with its spider-web tracery of leading, and paneled door set off by latch and knocker of shining brass. ”

“ With but a single exception here and there, Derby Street presents a squalid and forlorn succession of shabby frame houses, occupied mostly by foreigners. Commerce consists in such humble trade as goes on in Greek restaurants and Polish markets. The splendid homes of merchants and ship-owners no longer gratify the eye; and what is of note to-day in architectural beauty and taste in Salem must be sought elsewhere than in its original location. ”

“ Salem architecture will never fade—it will grow more valuable as time passes on; therefore, [Pg 64] it behooves us to cherish not only her porches and her houses, but her wall-papers, her hand-tooling, and the treasures brought over by merchantmen and clipper ships just after the Revolutionary War.
The Home for Aged Women
THE HOME FOR AGED WOMEN
Many buildings in Salem which now house various charities and organizations were originally private houses, with which is associated much interesting history.
One such instance is found in the Home for Aged Women at 180 Derby Street. ”

“ Other rooms both upstairs and down are furnished in Colonial style and contain interesting relics. The house is innocent of paint, inside and out, and takes its only color from the mellowing touch of weather without and of time within.
Altogether, with its gables, its lean-to, its batten door and lozenge casements, its overhang and its silvery weathered walls, the John Ward house presents a most interesting example of the Old Salem dwelling of the second period. ”

“ By a thorough history of Salem Village from its origin to the period of our story, by calling its founders and their children and successors into life before you by personal, private, domestic, and local details, gleaned from old records and documents, I have tried to place you at the standpoint from which the entire occurrence can be intelligibly contemplated. We can in no other [i.321] way get a true view of a passage of history than by looking at the men who acted in it, as they really were. ”

“ Would that these old porches could relate the many romances and tragedies they have witnessed since coming into being—to tell us of the days when Salem was a social center, composed of the ship-owners and their families, of which there were a sufficient number to make a story which links itself with her wealth and ventures. It is interesting to trace as far as possible the incentive which they had in designing their homes, with their wide hallways and large, square, white paneled rooms opening on either side, often ending with the old-fashioned garden, laid out at the rear of the houses. ”

“ English cottages were commonly thatched, and a very steep pitch of the roof was necessary to carry off the water. For a considerable time after the founding of Salem, many houses were thatched; and even when the roofs began to be covered with shingles or tiles, habit still retained the steep slope from ridge to eaves. As to the overhang, tradition persists in declaring that the purpose of this was to provide floor loopholes through which a musket might be fired at Indians who had come [Pg 18] too close to the building to be reached from openings in shutter or wall. ”

“ She had brought down a wrap and hood. Cynthia was glad of something new, though she liked Miss Eunice.
They turned a rather rounding corner and went on to a sort of market-place, where sweepers were gathering up the débris after the day's sales. They glanced about the city. Salem had made rapid strides since the grand declaration of peace, but at the end of the century it was far from the grandeur the next twenty years would give it.
"There are no palaces and no temples," said Cynthia, rather complainingly. "And how white all the people are. Do you suppose they have been ill?" ”

“ Along one side of the street were the counting-houses of the merchant princes, around which hung the atmosphere and flavor of thrilling maritime romance. Practically the entire male population, young and old, was engaged directly or indirectly in the business of such as go down to the sea in ships. Ship-builders and sailors, craftsmen and navigators—Derby Street hummed with their activities. Before the ports of New York and Boston had acquired touch with Oriental trade, Salem had already dipped deep into the coffers of the East ”