Morning journal and courier., 1892-06-11
wAKEMAN,S WANDERINGs.

! Some old Cathedral Towns-Salis bury, England, the Sarum of Ro man Britain-Pen Pictures of tn City. Hts Interesting Surrounding Its Noble Cathedral and the Mos Beautiful Cathedral Close fin Eng land.
 SALISBURY, England, May 2S. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER. One cannot help really admiring Eng 1ishmen all the more because they lov, their "tight little island" with an arrant
 defiant and uncompromising unreasonable ness.
 The admiration is not for their ofter
 mulish and sodden defense of some flea
 lures of English government, nor for al English institutions, nor for some very unpleasant English things and people. Ii is because every square acre of England is so endearing in it's age, association and beauty, and those who possess it will just. ly brook no belittlement of it all; any more than you would let some smart stran, ger come into your home and sheer at your sweetest and most cherished, if simple, be longings-beautifed by effort, hallowed by time and use. even more tenderly loved for your own errors and shortcomings without pitching both him and his airs in continently into the highway.
 It is such beautiful country; such a well-kept and delicious old garden; such a smiling land in sunshine and snug and comfortable one in storm; and withal gives to the stranger within it such sense of constant interest, coupled with close human companionship and sympsthies; that cynic and prig and incapable of in- terest in any land but his own, though he be, he cannot now and then repress a kindling enthusiasm, be here and there pricked into secret admiration, in this place and that find tender and associative interest; and, however disloyal it may be to his determined "Americanism," in spite of himself melt under its innumersble ap- peals to his heart and intellect, until its good and sunny face cozens his frigidity into bright, responsive look, and unwit- tingly his tongue pays tribute with:
 "Desr old Englandl most venerable and mellot in all things, most cantankerous and obstinate in many, thy face has kin ship and kingship in it, and thou art brightest and loveliest of all strange lands!"
 And never will this be truer than when. after tidy breakfast at some quiet old city inn, at peace with all the world-or all that can get at you-you are whirled away, from the grime and slime of Lon don, over the London and Southwestern railway, across the shires of Surrey and Haunts, to ancient Salisbury town.
 In that less than two hours journey, on an English day in May-time, what innu-. merable scenes of interest, of stirring quality and of restfulness and repose flash upon you from your carriage window! Passing from Waterloo station, or from any other railway station in the heart of London. through the lessening densities of the wonderful city to the first reaches of grassy fields, is in itself @ tremendous so- cial object lesson and historic panorama.
 But here to the left is gray old Epson. Over wonder, to the right, is brilliant As cot, with the vast and turreted home of Englsnd's queen, at Windsor, a leaden gray silhouette piercing the sky beyond. To the south sweeps
 ''-the downs of Bansted, edged with woods, And tow'ry villas"
 while at Woking glimpse is caught of a great English gipsy encampment.
 Whisking into Hants, or Hampshire, you pass Oldham, birthplace of the grammari- an, William Lilly; and to the north lie Ba- sing, site of one of the lordliest castles of early England, and Slichester, to this day an exhaustless mine of Roman remains. Within its walls the Usurper Constantine was invested with the purple; and legend has it that King Arthur here received his crown Further towards the saa near Alresford, are the great Tichborne estates; the sleepy hamlet of King Sambourn, where John of Gauut had his old-t time palace; Danebury Hill, with it's frowning head and Roman encampment; and be- yond, the low, square tower of Winches- ter, behind which the purple fringe of woods hints of New Forest depths, where the arrow from Tyrrers bow pierced the heart of ruffian Rufus, England's second Norman king.
 These are few of the things one will know about from the books. Still more gratefully feastful are the things one will see and feel, as innumerable hamlets, houses and halls are passed. Glorious old manor houses flash from parks and de- mesne forests Thatched roofs of village homes, yellow with lichen, are varied here and there by red tiling. Avenues of an- cient elms, beech and Times give tempting vistas above broad roads, tesselsted with lights and shades, and as gray and smooth as some old cathedral floor. Cropped hedges with trim, tiny fields give place here and there to downs rollings away in billowy hills of heather, spsngled with the golden asphodel, or wide meadows and tiny marshes where flames the yellow mar igold, or where the forget.me nots are so dense and blue that their surface seems like & breeze-rippled- pool. Hawthorn lanes are white above and beneath as banks of driven snow. Great masses of honeysuckle trail from copse and hedge; and in, around and above all this May time nature-heaven. thrushes and black birds, high above the roaring of your train, flood all the morn with song.
 Almost enrsptured one descends into the valleys of the downs of South Wilt shire. Here, where the tiny Bourne, the southern Avon, the Nadder and the Wiley songfully meet in a rich and beautiful val ley, are seen the gray masses of the old cathedral town.
 Old as it is it was originally built piece by piece out of the "Sarum, "the dry place." of the Romans Old and New Sa- rum, the site of the old city and the new city itself are called. As you approach Salisbury down the winding course of the Bourne you will see the old Roman station to your right, about two miles north of the city. It stands upon 8 chslky eminence, the headlsnd of a ridge of downs domina- ting all the beautiful valley below.
 N, one knows how long before its occu- patton by the Romans it had been @ forti- fled British camp. Six great roads, still tracesble, led up to it. and when Rome conquered Britain, Vespasisn's legions gave it still more imposing Notifications. A town was built about it. It was in turn a bishopric of the West Saxons, a great Norman garrison, an English cathedral city from the time of King Alfred, and now, though for centuries in ruins, it Is still to the antiquary and archeologist one of the many marvels of Englsnd's early days.
 Serene and reposeful is all the valley scene-the gray old city with its masses of stone, red roofs and splendid foliage, with its marvellous cathedral spire piercing a cloudless sky; the messy bridges with par spet loiterers, the outlying farms and sleepy hsmlets, and the silvery rivers threading through and among odorous hedges and fiowery mesds. But awful slaughter has reddened and enriched the valley; Britons and Romans in mortal strife for kingdom, Britons against their final Saxon conquerers, Saxons, in turn, against the murderous Danes, and the flame and sword and inconceivable butch cries and rspine of Cromwell, who re- spected neither life nor shrine in the name of our dear Lord.
 Then what a little world of interest in this and that of historic moment sntiqua- rian marvel and literary charm are found immediately roundabout. The famous British king Aurelius Ambroeius lies bui- fed at Amesbury, an hours journey dis tant, though closer to the heart is Ames-