The Newtown bee., 1905-02-10


 SOME CATHEDRAL TOWNS OF
 EN0L AND. I. SALISBURY AND VICINITY - WRIT TEN FOR THE BEE BY ROSS JEWELL. Tourists landing at Southampton find an express train in waiting to take them to London, but many prefer to spend two or three days in salisbury aud vicinity, all hours ride to the northwest, and day or twI ;n Win chester, half hours ride towa4 d Lon- don, before visiting the metropolis.
 Nearly two thousand years ago the Romans fortified Old 'Sarum hill, in Wiltshire, which later became an im- portant Saxon town with cathedral. In 1920 the episcopal see was removed from Old Sarum to the foot of the hill where, during the next forty years, beautiful cathedral was erected. A considerable town grew up about the cathedral bearing the name of Sails bury. A few years after the trans ference of the see the House of Con- mons was established, being made up of two citizens from each town and two country gentlemen from each county. It was fortunate for Old Sarum that the M. P.'s did not have to reside in the precincts which they represented, for there came time when the old il2.top had not single inhabitant
 two members were named by
 Y of the hill!
 6ther hand, the new town of
 Try, growing up after the Parlia-
 I8ry towns had been designated, Lad no representation in Parliament until some years after the American revolution. A number of the old Par liamentary towns are only less notable examples than Old Sarum of the "rotten borough system" Land many new towns besides Salisbury returned no members to Parliament until the passage of the Great Reform Bill in 1882. Among these latter were the flourishlng- cities of Birmingham, Man. chester, Leeds, and Sheffield. Fair minded students of our Revolutionary period will allow that the English view of representation modified to the Eng fish mind our ringing cry: Taxation without representation is tyranny"
 Salisbury cathedral is almost unique among the great churches of the Mid dle Ages in that it was not the growth of centuries but built in the lifetime of a generation. Hence, it is remark able for the harmony of it's parts and splendid example Of pure early English architecture. It's crowning glory is it's graceful spire, 4O6 feet, the loftlest in England. Seen in the stiffness of night from the upper windows of the Crown Hotel and with the moon rising behind it, it is indeed most persua- sive finger pointing heavenward.
 The length of the ancient pile is 473 feet. The close is spacious and the lawn perfect. Of the monuments in the nave two of the most interesting are that of the first Earl of Salisbury, son of Henry II and fair Rosamond and one of the founders of the cathe- dral, and that of the standard bearer of Henry VII at Bosworth Field
 The city has population t., bout 15,OOO. It is wool market and the annual wool sale in July is the event of the year. The buyers are a jolly lot and courtesy to strangers seems to be characteristic of their class. As they pass from bale to bale through the great wool shed and along the scaffold- ings, they explain how the entries they are making in their many columned lists are going to enable them to bid on the various lots when the sale opens at later hour in the day. The one thing that remains mystery is the delicate skill of their finger.ends, which enables them by mere grab into bale of wool to write down string of figures and upon those data to expend vast sums of money to the satisfaction of the houses which they represent.
 MoooAuScl, Uuc uIdLldUlSU, AuulSOU, and Fielding, the novelist, resided in Salisbury, and Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" issued from the press here.
 A sixteen-mile tramp over Salisbury Plain is strenuous but enjoyable. The first mile brings us to the top of Old Sarum hill. Hedge roses bloom upon the ruins of the ancient town and flock of sheep, in care of shepherd and dog, nibbles in the great ditch outside the walls. In a neighboring hamlet is a house once occupied by the elder Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, who was first returned to Parliament from the rotten borough of Old Sarum, in 1735.
 By observing the shepherds injunc- tion, ito follow the telegram wires, D. the quaint hamlet of Amesbury is reached in couple of hours. The George Hotel may we'll have been one of those described by Fielding a cen- tury and half ago, and the entrance of Tom Jones or Squire Western, into