d opposite them, in a straight line
with the castle, were built the principal streets, intersected in the
middle with one grand circular street, encompassing the whole city. In
the angle to the north-west stood the cathedral, and episcopal palace,
and the houses of the clergy.

The area of the city was also divided into nearly equal parts by
intrenchments and ramparts thrown up, by which means if one part was
taken, the other was still defensible; and if the whole of the out-works
were in the hands of the enemy, the besieged could retire to the castle,
whose walls were impregnable. There appears to have been but one
entrance to the castle, on the east. There were five wells, four in the
city and one in the castle, designed chiefly to support the garrison and
inhabitants in time of war, or during a siege.

The decline of Sarum, which was very rapid, has been traced to a
disagreement between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. During
the reign of Henry I. the bishop of Old Sarum, who rose to that dignity,
from being a parish priest at Caen, was entrusted with the keys of the
fortress. The bishop, however, fell into disgrace, the king resumed the
command of the castle, and the military openly insulted the disgraced
prelate and the clergy. These animosities increasing, the Empress Maude
bestowed many gifts upon the cathedral, and added much land to its grants.
Herbert, a subsequent bishop of the see, attempted to remove the
establishment, but its execution was reserved for his brother and
successor, Richard Poor, whose monument is in the south chancel of the
present cathedral at Salisbury. This was about the year 1217, from which
time the inhabitants of Old Sarum removed their residence, and pulled
down their dwellings, with the materials of which they constructed their
new habitations: and as one city increased in population and extent, so
the other almost as rapidly decayed. Hence the establishment of New
Sarum, or _Salisbury_.

In the reign of Edward II. Sarum possessed the privilege of sending two
members to parliament, a privilege which it still retains.

[1] "_Ancient Wilts_,"--Sir R.C. Hoare, speaking of _Stonehenge_,
expresses his opinion that "our earliest inhabitants were Celts,
who naturally introduced with them their own buildings customs,
rites, and religions ceremonies, and to them I attribute the
erection of Stonehenge, and the greater part of the sepulchral