Quite a number of ancient inns in Salisbury were connected with the old
city life, Buckingham being beheaded in the yard of the "Blue Boar Inn"
in the market-place, where a new scaffold was provided for the occasion.
In 1838 a headless skeleton, believed to be that of Buckingham, was dug
out from below the kitchen floor of the inn.
The "King's Arms" was another of the old posting-houses where, when King
Charles was hiding on Salisbury Plain in the time of the Civil War,
after the Battle of Worcester, a meeting was held under the guidance of
Lord Wilmot, at which plans were made to charter a vessel for the
conveyance of the King from Southampton to some place on the Continent.
Here we saw a curiosity in the shape of a large window on the first
floor, from which travellers formerly stepped on and off the top of the
stage-coaches, probably because the archway into the yard was too low
for the outside passengers to pass under safely. There was also the
"Queen's Arms," with its quaint porch in the shape of a shell over the
doorway, and the "Haunch of Venison," and others; but in the time of the
Commonwealth we might have indulged in the luxury of staying at the
Bishop's Palace, for it was sold at that time, and used as an inn.
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