Another day to venture outside of London to see some historic sights. An 80 minute train ride brought me to Salisbury, a medieval cathedral village at the confluence of 5 rivers, and the county seat of Wiltshire in the SW of England. There are a couple good reasons to visit — one is the Cathedral and the other is the proximity to Stonehenge.
A local tour bus company will take you from the train station out to Stonehenge, and provide a ticket, which saves the time of waiting in line to purchase one. And with a headset, it’s possible to learn a bit about the famous rocks as the coach travels the 9 miles from town to the Salisbury plains on which they sit. There’s an excellent visitor center that explains that the “monument” was altered several times over hundreds of years, demonstrating that there were different peoples engaged in the creation. Dating at least to 3,000 BC, and with some changes dated to 2,500 BC, there’s much that isn’t known about why they are there and what purpose they served. There have been many graves found nearby, in barrows, and evidence of postholes from what might have been wooden posts surrounding the current site. The outer stones with the horizontal stones across are a type of sandstone called sarsen and they were lower than some the horseshoe of sarsen trilithons inside, with shorter blue stones in a circle. The stones were placed very specifically, to align with the summer and mid-winter solstices when the sun pours through the entrance to the space. Some stones have fallen, and some were likely taken for building material over the centuries. The land and stones were in private hands until the 20th C, when given to the country to be managed and cared for in a trust. While people are unable to walk in and among the stones, the roped off area isn’t too far back to get a sense of the awesome-ness of the creation.
Then I visited the Cathedral, consecrated in 1258, and home to Britain’s tallest spire. It also houses the world’s oldest working mechanical clock, and in the Chapter House, the best surviving copy of the Magna Carta is kept under glass. (I was particularly interested in this document from 1215 as parts of it were the basis for the US Constitution. Especially relevant today is the point that stressed that everyone, event the King, had to treat people fairly and that no one was above the law. Maybe we should send a copy to #notmypresident). Also in the Chapter House is an impressive stone frieze running around the interior of the room that dates from the latter half of the 13th C. The scenes depict well known Bible stories from Genesis and Exodus. It was quite a lovely Cathedral, still very much a working church.
And to cap off the day, a night in the West End where this American in London saw “An American in Paris” and loved every delightful minute of it — incredibly dancing and lovely Gershwin and beautiful sets. Just perfect.
