It may be observed, with respect to the outer defences which have been attributed to Alfred, that they have the peculiarity of a high bank outside the ditch, very unusual in Celtic camps. Probably all Alfred did was to deepen this ditch, and throw up the outer bank; and probably also all the ditches were again scarped and deepened when the Norman city wall was built.
During the long drought of 1834 a very interesting discovery was here made. The outer ward was at that time laid down in turf, and upon this was seen in brown outline the plan of the old cathedral. It was placed in the north-west quarter between the secret passage and the west gate. The plan was a plain cross, 270 feet long by 150 feet broad, with a flat east end; and the chapter-house was formed by an additional bay at the north end of the north transept. There were double aisles to nave, choir, and transepts. On removing the soil the foundations were seen, and in them a cavity, probably the grave of Bishop Osmund, the founder. On the north side of the choir was a square of 140 feet, the site of the cloisters. Here were found also burial-grounds for clergy and laity.
It is certain that the greater part of these earthworks are of pre-Roman origin, and that Sorbiodunum is the Latinised form of the British name,—“dun,” or “dunum,” denoting an eminence; the figure, which, like Badbury, has been called a regular circle, scarcely deserves that name, the regularity, such as it is, being evidently caused by the natural outline of the hill; nor are the banks and ditches in either work laid down according to any rules of castrametation. The district is crowded with works, many of which are certainly pre-Roman, and of the places around a few, such as Wilton, Durrington, Verwood, Amesbury, and the Avon, retain a British element in their names. Most of these being constructed upon hills of irregular outline are themselves very irregular, so that, by comparison, Old Sarum and Badbury appear as regular circles. The fact is, that all follow the contour of the ground.
That the fortress on this spot was held by the Romans, and is the Sorbiodunum of Antoninus, is very probable indeed. It has been described as the centre of six Roman roads, radiating towards Dorchester, Ilchester, Silchester, Winchester, Cunetio by Marlborough, and Aquæ Solis or Bath. Of these the two from Winchester and Silchester have been traced up to the east gate of the fortress; and as much may perhaps be said for that from Cunetio. Dr. Guest, however, lays down but four roads—to Winchester, to Silchester, a western road to the Severn traversing the great ridge wood, and that called Achling Ditch, which leads direct to Badbury rings near Wimborne. Even this restricted view shows Sorbiodunum to have been an important Roman station, and there are not wanting in its neighbourhood earthworks, such as Rollestone and Bury Hill, of a rectangular plan, although, being on low ground and but slight, they are not all shown in the Ordnance Survey of 1817 as they would be in a map of the present day. The Romans trusted rather to discipline and palisades than to heavy earthworks: hence their traces are but slight, and are often overlooked, and disappear before the plough. It is, however, very curious that, notwithstanding all these indications of Roman sway, there should be so very few remains of Roman habitation. Nothing whatever has been found within the fortress, and but very little in its suburbs.
What the Belgæ did with Sorbiodunum, during the century and a half of their occupation, is unknown. This period of the history of our island is obscure, and yet to it has been attributed by Mr. Fergusson the adjacent monument of Stonehenge; the work, at least in its present form, of a people accustomed to the use of tools of metal, and with some notion of construction and of architectural effect.
Sorbiodunum, recorded as Seoresbyrig, or Searbyrig, which Sir R. Hoare rather happily suggests may mean “the dry,” or “waterless city,” played a part in the Belgic and Saxon struggles. In 552 Cynric, King of Wessex, no inconsiderable leader of the “aspera gens Saxo,” here conquered the Britons and probably established himself on their territory. Ine A.D. 688–725, gave certain lands to the church of St. James in Salisbury, as did Æthelburh, his queen, to that of St. Mary. According to a statement in “Ancient Wilts,” Alfred directed Leofric, Earl of Wilts, to add to the fortress a ditch to be defended with palisades, at which all who lived within the castle, and those outside, were to give aid. In 960 Ædgar held a Council here to devise means for keeping off the Danes: a not uncalled-for step, since in 1003 Swein, after burning and plundering Wilton, committed like ravages at Seoresbyrig in his way thence to his ships. Finally, the place seems to have become a royal demesne of the Confessor, being so recorded in Domesday. Sir R. Hoare also cites a coin of that king, claiming to have been struck by Godred at Sarum.
The Norman history of Old Sarum is an occupation of the older fortress, and the foundation of the early city. The invaders disturbed as little as possible the existing tenures and boundaries; they placed themselves in the English seats of property, and from them administered the old estates. The defences alone were changed. To walls of wattle or rude masonry and stockades of timber succeeded works in substantial masonry, and all the newly-invented appliances of a Norman fortress. At the time of Domesday the Conqueror held some rents here; but the manor, a large one, was in the bishop, a very important person. To the five sees created in the West Saxon kingdom, A.D. 905–9, a sixth, that of Wilton or Wiltshire, was shortly afterwards added, the episcopal seat of which was at Ramsbury. After an ineffectual attempt in 1055 to remove this to Malmsbury, Bishop Herman, the Lotharingian, in 1075–8, with the consent of the king, combined Ramsbury with Sherborne, and translated the seat to Sarum. Here, in the outer ward, Herman in 1078 laid the foundation of the cathedral, which was completed or nearly so by his successor, Osmund de Seez, Earl of Dorset and Lord Chancellor, who being a wealthy baron in England and Normandy, endowed it richly by charter in 1091, the year before its consecration. Part of the land is described as “ante portam castelli seriberiensis terram ex utraque parte viæ in ortorum domorumque canonicorum necessitate.” The gate referred to is of the inner ward, the canons’ houses having been on the outer. There was thus a castle twenty-five years after the Conquest; but whether it was a Norman structure or that left by the English is uncertain, probably something of both. Here also Bishop Osmund arranged the celebrated ordinary for “the use” of Sarum. Roger, his successor, Justiciary of England and Treasurer, is said to have walled in the outer enclosure between 1102 and 1139.
Concurrently with the cathedral, and probably by the Bishop, was constructed the Norman castle. William was here in 1086 in person, and at Lammastide met his Witan in the celebrated gemote which has been described in glowing terms by the great master of topographical history. Here in the vast open plain about the fortress assembled a host reputed at 60,000 men, composed of “all the landowners who were of account over all England, be they the men of what man they might, and they all submitted to him, and were his men, and swore to him oaths of fealty, that they would be faithful to him against all other men”; an oath by which the great king broke down the intermediate power of the nobles, and with that sagacity which in him was intuitive avoided the rock on which the two great monarchies of the Continent were destined to make shipwreck.
We may suppose that during this meeting William dwelt on the central mound, where no doubt the walls of the castle within rose at an equal rate with those of the cathedral without. But whether he was harboured in the unaltered English residence or in the rising Norman fortress, whether the host was Edward de Sarisburie, the Sheriff of Wilts and a great man in that county, and ancestor of the Earls of Salisbury, or whether Bishop Osmund acted as the castellan, here William was present, and here he transacted his first and most important business, face to face with his new subjects.
William Rufus was here in 1096 to meet his Council, and decide upon the celebrated wager of battle in which William, Earl of Eu, was worsted and tortured to death. Henry I. was here in 1106 and 1116, when his nobles swore to recognise Prince William as his successor. The Pipe-roll of this reign, 1130–1, records a charge of 20s. “in ostio faciendo ad cellarium turris Sarum,” so that the place was then in the king’s hands.