The bishop of Sarum in the history of his own times, says, that the stage was defiled beyond all example.

It was the ancient capital of the Wilsaetas and antedated Old Sarum as the seat of their bishop.

It only just missed being the first town of the county when Bishop Poore preferred an entirely fresh site for his new Cathedral after shaking the tainted dust of Old Sarum from off his feet.

The following extract from a letter to his wife dated 1849, June 27th, relates to this expedition: 'In the morning we started before eight in an open carriage to the Plain: looking into Old Sarum on our way.

So also appears Stratford Tony, farther up the vale, where, as its name suggests, the Roman road from Old Sarum to Blandford once cut across the valley in the usual Roman manner.

The Fosse Way was, and is, cut at Ilchester by a road coming from Dorchester and continuing to Glastonbury, and near Masbury, on the Mendips, by a second, connecting Old Sarum with Axium (Uphill, near Brean Down).