More than one fell
fighting and one, Bishop Ealhstan, totally defeated the invaders and
did much to keep Wessex for the English. A successor of
his--Asser--reverted to the tradition of learning established by the
first of the Saxon prelates; he was the contemporary of Alfred, and to
him we owe a great deal of our knowledge of the King. During this
period the trade and industry of the city (it had an important
manufactory of cloth) had grown steadily with its rise as a military
and ecclesiastical centre, but when the see was removed to Old Sarum
in 1075, Sherborne received a blow from which it never recovered.
In some respects there is a similarity between the Abbey of Sherborne
and the Cathedral at Winchester. In certain portions of each building
the same extraordinary transformation has taken place in the same
interesting way. The original heavy Norman piers of the nave have been
pared and carved into the soaring lines and panel work of the
Perpendicular period. This alteration was carried out here by Abbot
Ramsam about the year 1500. In the north transept is the organ, a fine
and famous instrument.
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