Day in Salisbury

Had a busy day in Salisbury and could happily have stayed on for another day or so. It has been patchy rain (yet again) but still warm. We managed to do a guided tour of Salisbury Cathedral (which is one of my favourites - G), and it has beautiful stained glass windows throughout the building. In the Chapter House attached to the Cathedral we got to view an original of the Magna Carta and hard to believe that such an important document was written on a single piece of paper (actually leather).

We then had a look around Mompesson House (a Queen Ann town house in Cathedral Close) - where they filmed part of Sense and Sensibility - atlhough it may seem otherwise, this is not a "movie themed" holiday but we keep finding out that they used these homes as backdrops for period productions.

We then went to Wilton House (450 year old home of the Earl of Pembroke - who from the painting on the wall was quite a good looking man!) where they filmed part of Jane Austen (I think). It had huge paintings throughout and even with my limited art knowledge I recognised some of the names (Van Dyck, Rembrandt, etc). The grounds were also quite impressive. David says that everytime he looked around I was taking another photo of a swan so have included one of the Wilton House swans this time!

We then went slightly further back in time and visited Old Sarum (the site of the original castle and Cathedral of Salisbury)

and finished the day with Stonehenge.

Although kind of interesting Stonehenge was somewhat underwhelming and I am glad that we got in for free with our Heritage Pass or I probably wouldn't have bothered. We have used our Heritage Pass a lot and it has more than paid for itself already.

Tomorrow is back on the move again and we are off to visit cousin John in Torquay before we cross the country to Tintagel in Cornwall.