The diche that
envirined the old town was a very deepe and strong thynge." Samuel
Pepys, who was born in 1632, and who was secretary to the Admiralty
during the reigns of Charles II and James II, describes in his famous
_Diary_ many interesting incidents in the life of that period. He wrote
of Old Sarum: "I saw a great fortification and there light, and to it
and in it, and find it so prodigious as to frighten one to be in it at
all alone at that time of night." It would probably be at an earlier
hour of a lighter night when Mr. Pepys visited it, than when we passed
it on this occasion, for the hill now was enveloped in black darkness
"deserted and drear," and we should scarcely have been able to find the
entrance "to it and in it," and, moreover, we might not have been able
to get out again, for since his time an underground passage had been
opened, and who knows what or who might have been lurking there! Dr.
Adam Clark visited Old Sarum in 1806, and wrote: "We found here the
remains of a very ancient city and fortress, surrounded by a deep
trench, which still bears a most noble appearance. On the top of the
hill the castle or citadel stood, and several remains of a very thick
wall built all of flint stone, cemented together with a kind of
everlasting mortar.
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