Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-27

noble cathedral once stood, amid many ,
noble building, and where Briton, Roman
Saxon and Dane once held sway, there nov
are wide fields of waving corn, there th'
shepherd tends his wandering flock of sheep
and the song Of the skylark is the only
sound to break the quiet Of the lovely scene
The view from the hilltop, across the wide
valley wstered by the Avon, is striking and
peauti ul, and the silver winding of the
river may be traced for many mile through
the bare. open downs which seem to undu.
late in large waves as far as the eye can
reach on all sides. Looking eastward, one
may make out, far away amid clump oi
thick trees, some of the scattered houses oi
New Sarum, above which towers the grand,
gray spire of the Cathedral-as ii to pierce
the bank OF sunset cloud that hangs over the
quiet city. A brisk walk of 40 minutes, all
the way by the river side, brings US at last
in full view OF the venerable pile. in which
the first service was held in 1925, under good
old Bishop Egidius, "after spending on it
both toll and time, and gold and many
prayers" and adorning it with many a win
dow of glowing color, and many shaft of
dark, Purbeck marble.
AWE INSPIRING IN IT'S MAssIvENEss
1t is built in the form of double cross,
in the purest and highest style of early
English, the nave alone being 300 feet In
length, supported, as are the choir and
transepts, by clustered columns, with double
pillars and shafts of green and gray shining
marble. Beyond the nave, under roof of
carved and delicate lace-work in stone,
stretches the choir to a further length of $50
feet, glance into which, with its mighty
East Window of radiant jewels, is like q
glimpse of fairyland. The side aisles,
transepts and lady chapel are of equal and
simple beauty, and as the visitor passes down
the long nave with lingering steps the
solemn stiffness and peace of the vast pile
may well fill him with sense of his own
insignifcance.
Beneath his feet and all along the sides
of the sculptured walls are the tombs and
monuments OF noble and fair women, of
great and mighty men of the past; bishops
and warriors, statesmen, martyrs, saints
captains and court beauties, kings and
beggars, once famous or infamous in their
day, through all the long centuries; the
wise and the ignorant, the mean and the
mighty-now all alike at last,
Each in his narrow cell forever laid.
Meanwhile, overhead, far away up in the
cloudy sunset sky, towers the silent shaft Of
gray stone, as simple and perfect in its
changeless beauty after these 700 years as
when Egidius gave it his final benedic-
tion. AS we step out into the grassy sward,
with its clustered groups Of noble elm trees,
in the midst of which the cathedral stands,
and gaze up at the tiny cross of shining
metal that crowns its supreme point, now
touched with sudden fire by che last ray of
sunset, we at once admit the proud boast of
Salisbury spire to claim height of 400
feet aud overlook by some yards the mighty
dome and cross of St. Paul's that look down
upon the crowded streets of modern Baby
Ion by the Thames.
TOWN OF HISTORIC MEMORIES.
As for the town of Salisbury itself, little
is to be said for it or of it, but that it is as
unlike the capital city of great and -four
ishing county (Wiltshire) as may we'll be-
The quiet, winding streets are mostly of
small houses and shops, with here and there
an old-fashioned dormer window or gabled
roof or, still rarer, solid, square mansion.
built by some rich citizen OF good Queen
Bess' days, and behind it, stretching down
to the river, cozy garden, where gay flow
ers abound and fruit of all kinds ripens to
perfection In the many ana sheltered glades.
1t possesses still tine Royal charter granted
by Henry III. in 1927, and enjovs all its
old rights and privileges; but, though not
of so deadly-lively a cast as her rival and
sister city of Winchester, Sarum has in her
but little life. Like Winton, Salisbury is
the stronghold OF the clerical order. From
the fuIl-blown dignity of my Lord the
Bishop OF the Diocese, serene in his palace
by the river, one or two Colonial bishops at
home for health (returned empties, the pro-
fame call them), down by fine graduation
through deans, canons, archdeacons, pre-
bends, minor canons, to plain Wears, cur
ates and the inferior order of clergy, the
whole place swarms with them. The city
is ecclesiastical throughout. There is
score or more of almshouses, chorities and
most Of them founded by the NUM-
fcence of former bishops, and many o; them
for the benefit of decayed clerics, their
widows and children; all offering quiet rest
ing places and comfort for honest old age
until, one by one, the pensioners drop
quietly into the grave, and find rest at last
in Gods acre under the shadow of the great
spire.
GOOD SERVICE BUT EXPENSIVE.
The inns where the casual traveller may
find all he needs are not Numerous, but all
of a more or less sober tone, where good
bottle of old port may always be had and
sayory dish of silver cells tom the river,
such as reverend canon might partake of
without risk and worthy OF an episcopal
But il all are cozy and comfort
able, ali are costly. 1t has been so ever
since the days of Pepys' Diary, wherein
that honest gentleman writes that in 1868:
"Csme to the George lime, where lay in