Heading north from Portsmouth Mark and I stopped off in Salisbury, which is home to a giant cathedral. It also has the tallest tower of any cathedral in England. It was undergoing cleaning on the outside in honor of its 750th anniversary. They were also conducting an archaeological excavation inside the main portion of the cathedral so that they could install a new font. I got to talking to the head archaeologist and I was surprised to learn that they had not found anything. When I asked why, he calmly replied: "Oh, it is because this is the new church. The old ones are over on the other side of town." 750 years! The NEW one!?
Another amazing thing about the cathedral is that it houses one of the four copies of the original Magna Carta. Yes, the 1215 version. Needless to say, they wouldn't let me take a picture of it.
2 comments:
Did you visit the National Archives while you were in DC? I know they have a copy of the Magna Carta there, although I don't know if it's one of the original four. Of course they also have a few other documents of moderate importance on display.
Greg
I did not make it to the National Archives. It was on the list of things I wanted to see, but I was busy with the conference most days. There were actually a lot of things that I was interested in that are going to simply have to wait until I make it back to DC.
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