tharn.
There'll be backsword play, and climmin the powl, and a race for a peg,
and a cheese.
And us thenks as hisn's a dummell[D] zowl as dwont care for zich spwoorts
as theze."

Leaving London by the Great Western Railway, and passing beyond
Berkshire, we cross the boundary into Wiltshire, and go through the
longest railway-tunnel in England, the noted Box Tunnel, which is a
mile and three-quarters in length and cost over $2,500,000 to construct.
It goes through a ridge of great-oolite, from which the valuable
bath-stone is quarried, and the railway ultimately brings us to the
cathedral city that boasts the tallest church-spire in
England--Salisbury, the county-town of Wiltshire, standing in the valley
formed by the confluence of three rivers, the Avon, Bourne, and Wiley.

[Footnote B: caddled, worried.]

[Footnote C: wosbirds, birds of evil omen.]

[Footnote D: dummell, stupid.]

SALISBURY.

[Illustration: SALISBURY CATHEDRAL.]

The celebrated cathedral, which in some respects may be considered the
earliest in England, is the chief object at Salisbury, and was founded
by Bishop Poore in 1220. It was the first great church built in the
Early English style, and its spire is among the most imposing Gothic
constructions in existence. The city of Salisbury is unique in having
nothing Roman, Saxon, or Norman in its origin, and in being even without
the remains of a baronial fortress. It is a purely English city, and,
though it was surrounded by walls, they were merely boundaries of the
dominions of the ecclesiastics. The see of Salisbury in 1215 was removed
from Old Sarum to its present location in consequence of the frequent
contests between the clergy and the castellans, and soon afterwards the
construction of the cathedral began. King Henry III. granted the church
a weekly market and an annual fair lasting eight days, and the
symmetrical arrangement of the streets is said to have been caused by
the original laying out of the city in spaces "seven perches each in
length and three in breadth," as the historian tells us. The cathedral
close, which is surrounded by a wall, has four gateways, and the best
view of the cathedral is from the north-eastern side of the close, but a
more distant view--say from a mile away--brings out the proportions of
the universally admired spire to much greater advantage. The chief
cathedral entrance is by the north porch, which is a fine and lofty
structure, lined