xlviii. SALISBURY AND STONEHENGE. 



The Club were taken next to ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, which 

 is said to have been rebuilt from a much earlier church which 

 stood down by Harnham Bridge. 



Even the present building is the oldest existing church in Salisbury save the 

 cathedral, since the chancel and tower are Early English. The three-light 

 i-iist window was a restoration of 1849, replacing a Perpendicular window which 

 was an undesirable anachronism. 



THE CATHEDRAL. 



Shortly after four o'clock the Mother Church of the diocese 

 was reached. The visitors were courteously received by the 

 DEAN, who had asked Canon Bourne, from his long and familiar 

 knowledge of the fabric, to act as guide on this occasion. 



As he led the party on from chapel and chantry to choir and chapter-house, 

 he dealt in detail, not only with the fabric itself, as beautiful in its symmetry 

 and grace as a perfect poem, but also with the richly-dight stained-glass win- 

 dows and monuments, the brasses and the banners, which repose under this 

 mighty and marvellous efflorescence of Early English architecture. Calling 

 attention to the pair of inconspicuous inverted arches built high up in the 

 transepts, he mentioned how the\' were inserted, by the ingenuity of the mediae- 

 val builder, as a remedy against the perilous thrust caused by the erection of 

 the tower. The spire was not begun until some 40 years after the completion 

 of the Cathedral. The architect was not known, or really anything about the 

 work. The only record preserved in the Chapter was that between the years 

 1335 and 1370 a great deal of money was spent upon building operations, and 

 this presumably was upon the spire. It was supposed that a special book of 

 account was kept, but this had been lost. The immense weight of the spiiv at 

 once began to thrust the building away, and so the north and south inverted 

 arches were built to counteract the movement, and this device had been suc- 

 cessful. The spire is now 23 inches out of the perpendicular, with a list to the 

 north-east ; but for a couple of centuries it has not given way at all. We may 

 here mention that in the cathedral the party were joined by Canon Eldoii S. 

 Bankes, for 40 years the devoted and beloved rector of Corfe Castle, and since 

 a canon residentiary in the cathedral city. In the circuit of the Cathedral 

 Canon Bourne pointed out the tomb of John Bampton, a prebendary of the 

 cathedral and founder of the Bampton lectures. He also called attention to 

 the segmental cope chest, of which, he said he believed, only four fellow chests 

 were extant in English cathedrals. Formerly every canon on attaining that 

 dignity had to present a cope, and thereby a magnificent collection of copes 

 came into being ; but copes are not worn in the cathedral now. There was 

 left only a red chasuble, probably in the reign of Queen Mary. In the retro- 

 choir, or the Chapel of the Holy Trinity and All Saints, Canon Bourne halted 



