popularity.  Chesterfield writes in 1764, “The number of people in this place is infinite,” and at the present time the annual influx of visitors is said to vary from ten to fourteen thousand.  Many of its public buildings are fine, and the abbey church, dating from 1499, is an object of much curiosity, especially on account of the sculptures on its western facade.  These represent two ladders, with angels going up and down upon them,—­suggested by a dream of the founder of the church, repeating that of Jacob.

On the 14th of July we left Bath for Salisbury.  While passing Westbury, one of our fellow-passengers exclaimed, “Look out!  Look out!” “What is it?” “The horse! the horse!” All our heads turned to the window, and all our eyes fastened on the figure of a white horse, upon a hillside some miles distant.  This was not the white horse which Mr. Thomas Hughes has made famous, but one of much less archaic aspect and more questionable history.  A little book which we bought tells us all we care to know about it.  “It is formed by excoriating the turf over the steep slope of the northern escarpment of Salisbury Plain.”  It was “remodelled” in 1778, and “restored” in 1873 at a cost of between sixty and seventy pounds.  It is said that a smaller and ruder horse stood here from time immemorial, and was made to commemorate a victory of Alfred over the Danes.  However that may be, the horse we now see on the hillside is a very modern-looking and well-shaped animal, and is of the following dimensions:  length, 170 feet; height from highest part of back, 128 feet; thickness of body, 55 feet; length of head, 50 feet; eye, 6 by 8 feet.  It is a very pretty little object as we see it in the distance.

Salisbury Cathedral was my first love among all the wonderful ecclesiastical buildings which I saw during my earlier journey.  I looked forward to seeing it again with great anticipations of pleasure, which were more than realized.

Our travelling host had taken a whole house in the Close,—­a privileged enclosure, containing the cathedral, the bishop’s palace, houses of the clergy, and a limited number of private residences, one of the very best of which was given over entirely into the hands of our party during our visit.  The house was about as near the cathedral as Mr. Flower’s house, where we stayed at Stratford-on-Avon, was to the Church of the Holy Trinity.  It was very completely furnished, and in the room assigned to me as my library I found books in various languages, showing that the residence was that of a scholarly person.

If one had to name the apple of the eye of England, I think he would be likely to say that Salisbury Cathedral was as near as he could come to it, and that the white of the eye was Salisbury Close.  The cathedral is surrounded by a high wall, the gates of which,—­its eyelids,—­are closed every night at a seasonable hour, at which the virtuous inhabitants are expected to be in their safe and sacred quarters.  Houses