New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-02
A WILTSHIRE HOLIDAY.
4 Cruise across Salisbury Plain
among the Chalks.
East Knoyle. Willis. Aug. 2


having deep soil for oaks and heavy farming
end rising in picturesque outworks toward the
l.,ouoestershtre Cotsvolds The chalks begin
,,,, the Marlborough downs and make a bold
10, crt across the county to the White Horse;
and south of them lies Salisbury Plain. broad
exnanse OF undulating country stretching low
ard Dorchester. The Marlborough hills may
mt rival the North and South downs OF hen'
end Sussex in the sombre beauty of ragged
white edges, crowned with dark masses of FOIL
go but the plain is unique among the Enghsh
,ha1ks While the soil is thin. Il is not par
-, heath frinsed with furze but verdant
shrepvsIk with endless reaches or turf lot
,asturase. and as fine country for riding as
t.an he found in England. AS one walks or rides
across T. from Anesbury to the Deve1ill villages
ard stourton the windswept bilowJ tract
besves and rolls like a of verdure, with the
ho-izon yelled in a glory of blue mist, ana II
has the silence OF the real seattle droWsy
silence Of neglected. but ever beautiful. rural
England There can be no imagery of the mus
when there are stony uplands to block the
,-su- no escarpments OF chalk on the crests OF
the downs no narrow valleys like the pockets III
HE folds OF the Cotswolds. no willows on 'he
r1arshv borders of sparkling brooks. with trout
smashing in the sunlight. The story of the sea
g. in the chalk underneath the turf. and the
less rolling plain where the wind blows ana the
verdu-e rises and falls in billowy movement
The Illusion Of the is deepened Wheh one
enters the great plain from Amesoury anu 0oiiie0
Suddenly upon the mysterious coluTnhal SUITES
Of Stonehenge The circles and ovaIs OF sailo-
stone and bIuestone draw together unlh lheS
seen, 10 form a natural breakwater on the verge
OF vast expanse Of surging turf, and as me
last Eray sentinel block is passed one has
Loo 1N-r
for an unknown sea. Perhaps the wltcnery OF
-b,s fII,,son came more easily when the majestic
monument was unprotected and unconhned on
the edge OF Salisbury Plain. There is a wire
fence around Il now. and near the fugiuNe
Friar's Heel. or the Pointer above Whlch tiie SUI
rises az the summer solstice. shlIllhs 'oi4 Is
exacted; and among the great trilithons WITHIN
the rough hewn peristyle q blue coated guardian
OF the law is sprawling on the turf ana watch
ing with idle curiosity visitors as they gossip
pleasantly about the inscrutabIe mysteries OF
the past and reconstruct alternately shrines Of
Buddha. calendars Of the sun, temples Of the
D-liids Valhallas OF primitive heroes or hang
ing places for the vengeance of giants in an age
of stone or bronze. Safeguards against stone
chipping vandals have been considered neces-
sary. and some i'll natured comments have been
made on the uncomfortable energy Of American
tourists who are bent upon scaling the time
worn Capstcnes. cutting their initials in the
syenite obelsks and digging UP the seven bar
rows. Probably holiday trippers breaking beer
bottles on the altar stone, or soldiers noisily
carousing among the tumuli after the fatigue of
military mannuvres. have been more dangerous
and nisChievous than these foreign invaders;
but the precautions have been justified by the
courts and the property rights Of private own
ers have been recognized. Stonehenge, with its
mysterious circles ovals and professional way,
has been fenced in with wire and inquisitive
visitors must pay for the privilege of counting
the stones musing over the tragic fate Of
Tess
Beyond Stonehenge are the somhre, silent
reaches Of Salisbury Plain. AS the Avon is left
behind the trees disappear in the windswept
tract. Ali traces Of tiIlage are lost, there are
no struggling villages behind hedgerows and
there are 10 hints Of a tableland rich and
populous, but now condemned 10 dream hope
fully OF its stored greatness. The grassgrown
surges swell and fall in continuous fluctuations
until The gray sky meets the dull green in a
vapory vista of blue. One may ride or walk in
grass for hours without seeing stone cottage
with glints of peoples and uarigolds before the
doorway. hearing a child's voice or q III
rustling with the breath of the wind. It is not
easy TO believe that history has been enacted in
this silent corner of the stored motherland; and
certainly there has been less Of it than in other
shires The great chalk plain a thinly popu-
lated waste which YVES not considered worthy OF
deliberate conquest when the West Saxons were
battling with the Romanized Britons, or Mercia
and wessex were striving for supremacy, or a
common defence was made against arauding
Danes The fortified towns Of Somerset and
Cloucestershire were the prizes Of intrigue and
warfare after the Norman conquest. and it was
until the distracted period Of civil strife was
-1,Arr
edge. was taken and reca ptured and ancient
sherborne fell, and royalist generals won and
lost their battles on the chalk downs northward
The silent plain remained 81 a state of nature
century after century and sluggish has been
the advance of agriculture that even now il has
hardly undergone change Grim majestic Stone
henge in lis solitary desolaton may have its
inscrutabie mysteries which Psychologists can
not solve: bu. these bleak, rolling sheep walks
with their endless vistas OF green. can have
had little history worthy Of being recounteo
1e; they have their rich endowment OF beauty
TO less than the wild high hills Of the Cotswolds
the North and South downs around Dover
and Beachey Head.
The Winterbourne. like the Avon and the
Bourne. cuts its way transversely through the
chalk levels and finds water for d-oves or sheer
in level pastures but the main valleys are broad
creases with an eastward trend. The first OF
these to be reached over the plain from stone
henge is the wyIye. after Yarnbury Camp, VIII
its circular banks and moata, has been
passed; and II is 1anked on either side Win
lines Of sernolent villages as far as the stras
Cling town OF Warninster and the White Horse
Stockton with It's Elizabeth mansion, us
ancient Transition Norman church, its group
of alrnshouses around court. and its Ivy clad
stone cottages, is the loveliest Of them; and
srr-isf