“The history of no English cathedral is so clear and so readily traceable as that of Salisbury. It was the first great church built in England in what was then the new or pointed style (Early English); of which it still remains, as a whole, one of the finest and most complete examples. The Abbey Church of Westminster, commenced in 1245, and completed to the east end of the choir in 1269, is the only great building of this age in England which can be considered finer than Salisbury; and it is probable that Henry III. was induced to undertake the rebuilding of Westminster from admiration of the rising glories of the new Wiltshire cathedral, which he had several times visited. On the Continent, the great rival of Salisbury is Amiens; commenced in the same year (1220) and completed, nearly as at present, in 1272.
“The usual alterations took place in Salisbury Cathedral at the Reformation, when much of the painted glass is said to have been removed by Bishop Jewell. Although desolate and abandoned, it escaped material profanation during the Civil War, and workmen were even employed to keep it in repair. On the Restoration, a report of the general condition of the cathedral was supplied by Sir Christopher Wren, and certain additions for the strengthening of the spire were made at his recommendation. The great work of destruction was reserved for a later period and more competent hands. Under Bishop Barrington (1782-1791) the architect Wyatt was, unhappily, let loose upon Salisbury; and his untiring use of axe and hammer will stand a very fair comparison with the labours of an iconoclast emperor, or with the burning zeal of an early Mohammedan caliph. He swept away screens, chapels and porches; desecrated and destroyed the tombs of warriors and prelates; obliterated ancient paintings; flung stained glass by cartloads into the city ditch; and levelled with the ground the Campanile—of the same date as the Cathedral itself—which stood on the north side of the churchyard. His operations at the time were pronounced ‘tasteful, effective and judicious.’ The best point of view is from the north-east, which Rickman has pronounced ‘the best general view of a cathedral to be had in England, displaying the various portions of this interesting building to the greatest advantage.’ The Cathedral is built (and roofed) throughout with freestone obtained from the Chilmark quarries, situated about twelve miles from Salisbury towards Hendon, and still worked. The stone belongs to the Portland beds of the oölite. The pillars and pilasters of the interior are of Purbeck marble. The local rhyme in which the cathedral is celebrated may here be quoted; it is attributed by Godwin, who gives a Latin version of it, to a certain Daniel Rogers:
“‘As many days as in one year there be,
So many windows in this church you see.
As many marble pillars here appear
As there are hours through the fleeting year.
As many gates as moons one here does view,
Strange tale to tell, yet not more strange than true.’
The great point to which the attention of the stranger is at once drawn is, of course, the grand peculiarity of Salisbury, the ‘silent finger’ of its spire. This is the loftiest in England, rising 400 feet above the pavement (Chichester said, but very doubtfully, to have been built in imitation of it, is 271 feet in height; Norwich 313 feet) and its summit is 30 feet above the top of St. Paul’s.”—(R. J. K.)
Dean Stanley said that Westminster is all-glorious within and Salisbury, all-glorious without.
“Much has been written on the beauty of the Cathedral church of Salisbury, the chastity of its style and the purity of its detail. The east end may be said to display the utmost refinement of the Early English era. Every subordinate feature is so perfectly disposed, so admirably carried out and adapted to its purpose, so necessary to the full effect of the whole, so simple and yet so rich, that nothing, even by the most critical, can be found wanting there or considered de trop. The northern side is scarcely less perfect; the simple lancet openings of its eastern transept, the more fully developed quatrefoils of the central gable and the still more advanced northern porch beyond these, all mark the progress of construction. At the intersection rises the still later tower and spire, the final limb of the whole, on an embattled lower stage of earlier date. It is rich to the utmost limit. Every ballflower, every projecting shaft and moulding sparkles for itself and casts its own diminutive shadow upon its fellow, entirely relieving the wall-surface of that flatness which is and must be the fault in every view purporting to suggest its elegance. The church stands alone; like a model of itself; in its entirety perhaps the most stately of which we can boast.”—(A. A.)
In the close, which is about half a square mile, there are three gates: the South, or Harnham; the East, or St. Anne’s; and the North, or Close Gate, built about 1327.
“The first thing to be noticed in Salisbury is the ample breadth of the space in which its cathedral stands, the beauty of which space is enhanced by rows and avenues of magnificent trees; so that it is difficult to conceive a more appropriate enclosure in which to find ‘the most chaste of English’ churches. Salisbury covers no less than eight acres of ground.
“Entering from the High Street, the visitor finds himself almost in another township. A street lined with houses conducts to the Cathedral lawn, where from the north-eastern extremity the full proportions of the church may be comprehended. The whole north side of the close is thus open. On the east we find another gateway and the entrance to the Palace; on the other side the Choristers’ Green, in itself another little close. The west is occupied by a group of interesting and extremely handsome houses of various dates. Here are the Deanery, standing in its own grounds opposite the Cathedral façade; the King’s House, a long, many-gabled mansion of the early Fifteenth Century, with mullioned windows and a vaulted porch, the occasional resting-place of the English monarchs on their passage through Salisbury; and the Wardrobe, distinguished by its heavy roof, its projecting double gables, and the immense square windows, back and front, through which the evening sun penetrates with a curious half-ghostly gleam. These form the most effective line of buildings of the enclosure, which at this least trim but not the less picturesque side, terminates at the Harnham Gate.”—(A. A.)
Raising our eyes to the Tower and Spire, we note: