Quite a number of ancient inns in Salisbury were connected with the old city life, Buckingham being beheaded in the yard of the “Blue Boar Inn” in the market-place, where a new scaffold was provided for the occasion.  In 1838 a headless skeleton, believed to be that of Buckingham, was dug out from below the kitchen floor of the inn.

The “King’s Arms” was another of the old posting-houses where, when King Charles was hiding on Salisbury Plain in the time of the Civil War, after the Battle of Worcester, a meeting was held under the guidance of Lord Wilmot, at which plans were made to charter a vessel for the conveyance of the King from Southampton to some place on the Continent.  Here we saw a curiosity in the shape of a large window on the first floor, from which travellers formerly stepped on and off the top of the stage-coaches, probably because the archway into the yard was too low for the outside passengers to pass under safely.  There was also the “Queen’s Arms,” with its quaint porch in the shape of a shell over the doorway, and the “Haunch of Venison,” and others; but in the time of the Commonwealth we might have indulged in the luxury of staying at the Bishop’s Palace, for it was sold at that time, and used as an inn.  It must have had rough visitors, for when the ecclesiastical authorities regained possession it was in a very dilapidated condition.

One of the oldest coaching-houses in Salisbury in former years was the “George Inn,” mentioned in the city records as far back as the year 1406; but the licence had lapsed, and the building was now being used for other purposes.  Its quaint elevation, with its old-fashioned bow-windows, was delightful to see, and in the year 1623 it was declared that “all Players from henceforth shall make their plays at the George Inn.”  This inn seemed to have been a grand place, for Pepys, who stayed there in 1668, wrote in his Diary in his quaint, abrupt, and abbreviated way:  “Came to the George Inne, where lay in a silk bed and very good diet”; but when the bill was handed to him for payment, he was “mad” at the charges.

We left Salisbury with regret, and with the thought that we had not seen all that we ought to have seen, but with an inward resolve to pay the ancient city another visit in the future.  Walking briskly along the valley of the river Nadder, and taking advantage of a field road, we reached the village of Bemerton.  Here George Herbert, “the most devotional of the English poets,” was rector from 1630 to 1632, having been presented to the living by Charles I. Herbert was born at Montgomery Castle, near the Shropshire border, and came of a noble family, being a brother of the statesman and writer Lord Herbert of Chirbury, one of the Shropshire Herberts.  He restored the parsonage at Bemerton, but did not live long to enjoy it.  He seems to have had a presentiment that some one else would have the benefit of it, as he caused the following lines to be engraved above the chimneypiece in the hall, giving good advice to the rector who was to follow him: