Of the few unimportant relics of the past may be mentioned the old Town Cross that stands against the churchyard wall, and the chapel of St. John in Ditchampton, part of a hospital founded in 1189 by Bishop Hurbert of Sarum.  St. Giles’ Hospital, originally for lepers, was founded by Adeliza, consort of Henry I, and rebuilt in 1624.  Wilton church is as unusual as it is imposing.  It was built by Lord Herbert of Lea while still the Hon. Sidney Herbert.  Though the style seems out of keeping with an ordinary English countryside there is something about the high banks of foliage surrounding the town that gives the Italian campanile an almost natural air.  The church is in the Lombardic style and the grand flight of steps, the triple porches and beautiful cloisters connecting the tower with the main building, are exceedingly fine.  No less imposing is the ornate and costly interior.  In its wealth of marbles and mosaics it is almost without parallel in England.  The two handsome tombs of alabaster in the chancel are those of Lord Herbert of Lea and his mother.  Not the least interesting feature of this unique church is the fine stained glass in the windows of the apse, dating from the thirteenth century.

Wilton House stands in a beautiful park that comes almost up to the doors of the town.  The waters of the Nadder as they flow through the glades have been broadened into a long lake-like expanse spanned by a very beautiful Palladian bridge.  This is the home of the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery.  Their ancestors were an ancient Welsh family and great friends of their compatriots, the Tudor sovereigns.  Here, as constant and welcome guests, came Ben Jonson, Edmund Spencer and Philip Massinger, who was a son of one of the Earl’s servants.  Here As You Like It is said to have been played before James I, with Shakespeare himself as one of the company.  Gloriana was a visitor in 1573 and attempted to flirt with Sir Philip Sidney, brother-in-law of the host, presenting him with one of her auburn locks.  Here Sir Philip wrote a good part of the Arcadia.  It will be seen that Wilton was a home for all who had the divine fire within them.  Gentle George Herbert, a relative and esteemed friend, could often come from near-by Bemerton, and Izaak Walton, who was here collecting material for the “Life” of his hero, no doubt spent some happy days in contemplation of the clear waters of the Nadder.  Charles I was another visitor, and by him certain suggestions are said to have been made for some of the alterations and additions of the seventeenth century.  The original building which followed the dismantled Abbey was designed by Holbein, but this has almost disappeared except for the central portion over the gateway.  Wyatt was allowed to stick some of his sham Gothic enormities over the older work about the time he was designing Fonthill, but an era of better taste soon got rid of these and the present fronts are Italian in style and very lordly and imposing.  The great hall contains the Vandyck portraits for which Wilton is preeminently famous, but there are other great masters, including Rubens, Titian and del Sarto to be seen by those interested, besides a collection of armour hardly to be surpassed in the country.  These treasures are shown at certain times.