A Day In the Country
I must say, my longer-than-planned stay in London has really started to give me the feeling of living here—right down to the sort of abject exhaustion and exasperation that rush hour on the Circle Line can give you. Like good Londoners, DeLynn and I decided that the only thing for it was a weekend away from the rat race, so we resolved to head down to Waterloo Station Saturday morning to take a train out to Salisbury.
Much of the impetus for this decision came from Bill Bryson’s excellent book Notes From A Small Island, in which he writes:
There is no doubt in my mind that Salisbury Cathedral is the
single most beautiful structure in England and the close around it the most beautiful space. Every stone, every wall, every shrub is just right. It is as if every person who has touched it for the last 700 years has only improved it.
This raving endorsement, combined with Salisbury’s proximity to two major National Trust sites (Stonehenge and Old Sarum) and the fact that the town is a mere hour and a half from London by train, made it pretty attractive for a casual daytrip.
And the trip was indeed worth it! The Cathedral is lovely, with with exactly the kind of quiet elegance and warmth I have always loved about the English countryside. Its Chapter House happens to contain the best preserved copy of the Magna Carta, which was very exciting to me (I love that sort of thing). Best of all, the weather was sunny (if a bit chilly) and we arrived at the Cathedral (after paying visits to Stonehenge and Old Sarum) just in time for the “magic hour.” After a whole trip spent bemoaning the flat, gray, late winter weather the sudden opportunity to blow through four rolls of film was welcome indeed!
