Life and letters of John Constable, RA . dal system, and enjoined the allegiance ofthe nobles. Several succeeding monarchs held their courts here,and it too often screened them after their depredations on thepeople. In the days of chivalry it poured forth its Longspees andother valiant knights over Palestine. It was the seat of theecclesiastical government, when the pious Osmond and thesucceeding bishops diffused the blessings of religion over thewestern kingdom; thus it became the chief resort of ecclesiasticsand warriors, till their feuds and mutual animosities, caused bythe insults of the s
Life and letters of John Constable, RA . dal system, and enjoined the allegiance ofthe nobles. Several succeeding monarchs held their courts here,and it too often screened them after their depredations on thepeople. In the days of chivalry it poured forth its Longspees andother valiant knights over Palestine. It was the seat of theecclesiastical government, when the pious Osmond and thesucceeding bishops diffused the blessings of religion over thewestern kingdom; thus it became the chief resort of ecclesiasticsand warriors, till their feuds and mutual animosities, caused bythe insults of the soldiery, at length occasioned the separation ofthe clergy and the removal of the cathedral from within its walls,which took place in 1227. Many of the most pious and peaceableof the inhabitants followed it, and in less than half-a-centuryafter the completion of the new church the building of the bridgeover the river at Harnham diverted the great western road, andturned it through the new city. This last step was the cause of the ^f- ^^i. 1831.] OLD SARUM.—THE REFORM BILL. 245 desertion and gradual decay of Old Sarum. The site now onlyremains of this castle, with its lofty and embattled towers, whosechurches, with every vestige of human habitation, have long sincepassed away. The beautiful imagination of the poet Thomson,when he makes a spot like this the haunt of a shepherd with hisflock, happily contrasts the playfulness of peaceful innocence withthe horrors of war and bloodshed, of which it was so often thescene: Lead me to the mountains brow,Where sits the shepherd on the grassy healthful the descending him feeds his many bleating flockOf various cadence ; and his sportive lambs,This way and that convolved, in friskful gleeTheir frolics play. And now the sprightly raceInvites them forth ; when swift the signal givnThey start away, and sweep the massy moundThat runs around the hill, the rampart onceOf iron war. In a note to Mr. Benjamin Dawson, of H
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