Day 38. Old Sarum. Sept 13 2001.

Kerry came early this morning and we climbed into the car for a day trip out to the ancient town of old Sarum. It was a nice, relatively tranquil, drive up through the gray mists of a south England day and it was nice to be able to talk to Kerry.

The day dawned bleak and gray and it remained that way throughout. At times the wind and rain was so powerful it seemed to push us along the drenched grass.

 

Old Sarum rose like a great grassy donut out of the northern side of Salisbury. A steep hill rising in a circle to a great flat plateau that had once housed the entire town and now had only a lawn in the center.

  Rising from an excavated moat was a great grassy wall that protected the ancient seat of royal power for Britain.
Inside, the ruin had been so long abandoned and quarried for the nearby city that the walls of the ancient building seemed to have melted under the weight of ages. The shape and power of what must have been an amazingly powerful place was almost impossible to see from the remains.

 
From the walls we could see a panoramic view of the entire Salisbury area. The cathedral rose like a threatening needle that captured the grey clouds as they went racing by.


We both felt nostalgic looking at it, remembering our last trip and our climb inside the tower. The cathedral at old Sarum was little more than rocky paths in the outline of the ancient walls. It was hard to believe that something so large, so grand, had stood for only a few years before being demolished and then rebuilt and then completely moved.


As we walked around Sarum’s walls we wondered if we could see Stonehenge in the distance. We could not, but it graphically illustrates the tourist dilemma. We wouldn’t mind going to the monument but neither of us really wants to fight the crowds of other tourists.

After touring Old Sarum we were picked up by Kerry and returned home.
The return trip was less tranquil than the one going out. Imogene was rather bored with the car and determined to stand up and walk around with Heather frantically trying to convince her to sit down.

Our day ended, I’m afraid, on a very sad note. After eating dinner with Kerry and Simon we walked home only to find our way blocked by police tape. A local man had backed out of his driveway without realize that his daughter was behind him. She did not survive.

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