I do not perceyve that there are any mo gates in
Old-Saresbyri than 2; one by est and another by west. Without eche of
these gates was a fair suburbe. On the est suburbe was a paroche
church of S. John; and ther yet is a chapel standing. The river is a
good quarter of a myle from Old-Saresbyri and more, where it is nerest
on to it, and that is at Stratford village south from it. Ther hath
bene houses in tyme of mind inhabited in the est suburbe of
Old-Saresbyri; but now there is not one house neither within
Old-Saresbyri nor without it inhabited."
It will be seen that in comparison with other English towns Salisbury
is not old. Like several others its foundations were entirely
ecclesiastical, for as soon as the builders of the new Cathedral
started upon their work the civil population of Old Sarum migrated to
the water meadows with as little delay as possible, and the Bishop's
architects planned for them a town with regular streets and square
blocks of dwellings all much of a size, a characteristic that will
strike the most unobservant traveller and which differentiates this
from most other English towns in a marked degree.
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