I much doubted I
should never have heard of it again.
[Soon after writing this passage Aubrey probably obtained a copy of
Sir Christopher Wren's report, which he has inserted in his original
manuscript. It is dated in 1669, and occupies eleven folio pages. In
The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral of Salisbury, &c. (1723,
8vo.), it is printed, and described as "An Architectonical Account of
this Cathedral", by "an eminent gentleman". Part of the same report
was printed in Wren's Parentalia (1750); and a short abstract of it
will also be found in Dodsworth's Salisbury Cathedral (written by the
late Mr. Hatcher), p. 172. In a communication from the last named
gentleman in 1841, when he was engaged upon his History of Salisbury,
he wrote to me as follows: "I have lately fallen upon what appears to
have been Sir C. Wren's original report relative to the cathedral; a
very elaborate report on the state of the building in 1691, by a
person named Naish; some good observations on the bending of the piers
(anonymous); and several estimates and observations made by Price.
What I shall do with them I have not yet determined." - J. B.]
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Wardour Castle was very strongly built of freestone. I never saw it
but when I was a youth; the day after part of it was blown up: and the
mortar was so good that one of the little towers reclining on one
side did hang together and not fall in peeces.
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