James II passed through the town in 1688 to oppose the landing of
William of Orange, but, hearing he had already landed at Torbay, he
returned to London, and William arrived here ten days later, occupying
the same apartments at the palace.
But the chief object of interest in Salisbury was the fine cathedral,
with its magnificent Decorated Spire, the highest and finest in England,
and perhaps one of the finest in Europe, for it is 404 feet high, forty
feet higher, we were informed, than the cross on the top of St. Paul's
Cathedral in London. This information rather staggered my brother, for
he had an exalted opinion of the height of St. Paul's, which he had
visited when he went to the Great Exhibition in London in 1862.
On that occasion he had ascended the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral from
the inside by means of the rickety stairs and ladders provided for that
purpose, and had reached the golden ball which supported the cross on
the top, when he found it already occupied by two gentlemen smoking
cigars, who had arrived there before him, and who kindly assisted him
into the ball, which, although it only appeared about the size of a
football when seen from the city below, was big enough to hold four men.
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