SALISBURY, or New Sarum, a city and municipal and parliamentary borough, the county town of Wiltshire, England, is situated in a valley at the confluence of the Upper Avon, the Wily, the Bourne, and the Nadder, on the Great Western and South Western Railways, 80 miles west-southwest of London. The city at the beginning was regularly laid out by Bishop Poore and still retains substantially its original plan. In the centre is the market-place, a large and handsome square, from which the streets branch off at right angles, forming a series of quadrangles facing a thoroughfare on each side, and enclosing in the interior a space for courts and gardens. The streams flowed uncovered through the streets till the visitation of cholera in 1849 led to their being arched over. The cathedral of St Mary was originally founded on the hill fortress of Old Sarum by Bishop Herman, when he removed the see from Sherborne between 1075 and 1078. The severe drought in 1834 caused the old foundations to be discovered. Its total length was 270 feet; the nave was 150 feet by 72, the transept 150 feet by 70; and the choir was 60 feet in length. In 1218 Bishop Poore procured a papal bull for the removal of the cathedral to New Sarum. For this various reasons have been given,—the despotism of the governor, the exposure to high winds which drowned the voice of the officiating priest, the narrow space for houses, and the difficulty of procuring water. Until the Reformation service still continued to be performed in the old church. A wooden chapel of St Mary was commenced at New Sarum in the Easter-tide of 1219, and the foundations of the new cathedral were laid by Bishop Poore, 28th April 1220. It was dedicated at Michaelmas 1258, the whole cost having amounted to 40,000 marks, or £26,666. The ...cloisters, of great beauty, and the late Early English chapter-house were added by Bishop Walter de la Wyle (1263-74). The tower from near the ridge was built in the Decorated style by Bishop Wyville about 1331, and the spire was added between 1335 and 1375. It is the highest in England (404 feet), and is remarkable both for its beauty of proportion and the impression it conveys of lightness and slenderness. The chapel built by Bishop Beauchamp (1450-82), that built by Lord Hungerford in 1476, and the fine campanile were all ruthlessly demolished by the architect James Wyatt, 1782-1791. The cathedral as a whole is a unique specimen of Early English, having the advantage of being practically completed as it now stands within a remarkably short period. For lightness, simplicity, grace, and unity of design it is not surpassed in England. It is in the form of a Greek or double cross, and comprises a nave of ten bays with aisles and a lofty northern porch; two transepts, one of three and the other of two bays, while both have eastern aisles for chapels; a choir of three bays with aisles; a presbytery of three bays with aisles; and a lady-chapel of two bays. The total length of the building is 449 feet, the length of the nave being 229 feet 6 inches, of the choir 151 feet, and of the lady-chapel 68 feet 6 inches, while the principal transept has a length of 203 feet 10 inches, and the eastern transept of 143 feet. The width of the nave is 34 feet 4 inches, and of the principal transept 50 feet 4 inches. The library, built by Bishop Jewel (1560-71), contains about 5000 volumes and several MSS. of great interest. In the close, occupying an area of half a square mile, and possessing a finely-shaded mall, are the episcopal palace, an irregular structure begun by Bishop Poore but of various dates, the deanery house, and other buildings. The three parish churches are St Martin’s, with square tower and spire, and possessing a Norman font and portions of Early English in the choir; St Thomas’s (of Canterbury), founded in 1240 as a chapel to the cathedral, and rebuilt in the 15th century, a handsome building in the Perpendicular style; and St Edmund’s, founded as the collegiate church of secular canons in 1268, but subsequently rebuilt in the Perpendicular style and lately restored at a cost of £6000. The residence of the college of secular priests is now occupied by the modern ecclesiastical college of St Edmund’s, founded in 1873. St John’s chapel, founded by Bishop Bingham (1228-46), is now occupied by a dwelling-house. There is a beautiful chapel attached to the St Nicholas hospital, founded in the reign of Richard II. The poultry cross, or high cross, an open hexagon with six arches and a central pillar, was erected by Lord Montacute before 1335. In the market-place is Marochetti’s statue to Lord Herbert of Lea. The principal secular buildings are the courthouse, the market-house, the Hamilton Hall, the county jail, and the theatre. Among the specimens of ancient domestic architecture still remaining may be mentioned the banqueting hall of J. Halle, wool merchant, built in 1470, and Audley House, belonging also to the 15th century, and repaired in 1881 as a diocesan church house. There are a large number of educational and other charities, including the bishop’s grammar school, Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school, Talman’s girls’ school, the St Nicholas hospital, founded in the reign of Richard II., and Trinity hospital, founded by Agnes Bottenham in 1379. At one time the city possessed woollen and cutlery manufactures, but these have now declined; and, although the manufacture of hardware and of boots and shoes is still carried on, it is on its shops for the supply of the neighbouring villages and its agricultural trade that it now principally depends. The population of the city and municipal borough (area 616 acres) in 1871 was 12,903, and that of the parliamentary borough (area 676 acres) 13,839; in 1881 the numbers were 14,792 and 15,680.
Salisbury anil its neighbourhood are remarkably rich in relics of antiquity. To say nothing of Old Sarum and the scanty ruins of the royal palace of Clarendon, Milford Hill and Fisherton are two of the richest fields in the country for palaeolithic implements. In the Blackmore Museum Salisbury possesses one of the finest collections of prehistoric antiquities in England; its splendid gathering of objects from the mounds in the New World is probably unsurpassed. The fortress of Old Sarum (Searobyrig, i.e., Sear-borough, probably “the dry city”; Sarisberic in Domesday) is of very early date, and was undoubtedly held by the Belgae before it became an important fortress of the Romans (Sorbiodunum). It occupied a conical mound rising abruptly from the valley, and its fossae and ramparts, which still remain, are about a mile in circumference. Various Roman roads branched out from it in different directions. Near it Cynric won a great victory over the Britons in 552. It was burned and sacked by Swend in 1003. In the great plain beneath William the Conqueror in 1070 reviewed his army after his victories; and it was here that he took the oath of fealty from all English landholders on the completion of Domesday in 1086. Old Sarum continued to have the privilege of returning two members to parliament until 1832, although latterly not a single house remained within its limits. New Sarum grew up round the new cathedral founded in the 13th century. In 1227 it received from Henry III. a charter conferring on it the same freedom and liberties as Winchester. The duke of Buckingham was executed at Salisbury in 1484. During the Civil War it was held alternately by both parties. Salisbury first sent members to parliament in 1295, and various parliaments have been held there. The Redistribution Act of 1885 deprived it of one of its two representatives.
See Description of Salisbury Cathedral, 1719 and 1787; Rawlin, Salisbury, 1718; Μ. E. Walcott, Memorials of Salisbury, 1865; W. Henry Jones, Fasti Ecclesiae Sarisberiensis, 1879; W. Henry Jones, Diocesan History of Salisbury, 1880.
SALISBURY, Robert, Earl of. See Cecil.
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