" In course of time the population
increased to such an extent round the old mound that they were short of
room, and the soldiers and the priests began to quarrel, or, as an old
writer described it, "the souldiers of the Castell and chanons of Old
Sarum fell at odds, inasmuch that often after brawles they fell at last
to sadde blowes and the Cleargie feared any more to gang their boundes.
Hereupon the people missing their belly-chere, for they were wont to
have banketing at every station, a thing practised by the religious in
old tyme, they conceived forthwith a deadly hatred against the
Castellans." The quarrel ended in the removal of the cathedral to the
plain below, where Salisbury now stands, and the glory of Old Sarum
departed. As far back as the time of Henry VIII the place became utterly
desolate, and it was interesting to read what visitors in after times
had written about it.
[Illustration: OLD SARUM: BASE OF THE LOOK-OUT TOWER.]
John Leland, who was born in 1506 and was chaplain to Henry VIII, made a
tour of the kingdom, and wrote in his well-known _Itinerary_, "Their is
not one house, neither within or without Old Saresbyri inhabited. Much
notable minus building of the Castell yet remayneth.
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