Beheaded by Edward VI., and who was the great patron of the
Reformation.
Among other monuments of noble men in this cathedral they show you
one that is very extraordinary, and to which there hangs a tale.
There was in the reign of Philip and Mary a very unhappy murder
committed by the then Lord Sturton, or Stourton, a family since
extinct, but well known till within a few years in that country.
This Lord Stourton being guilty of the said murder, which also was
aggravated with very bad circumstances, could not obtain the usual
grace of the Crown (viz., to be beheaded), but Queen Mary
positively ordered that, like a common malefactor, he should die at
the gallows. After he was hanged, his friends desiring to have him
buried at Salisbury, the bishop would not consent that he should be
buried in the cathedral unless, as a farther mark of infamy, his
friends would submit to this condition--viz., that the silken
halter in which he was hanged should be hanged up over his grave in
the church as a monument of his crime; which was accordingly done,
and there it is to be seen to this day.
The putting this halter up here was not so wonderful to me as it
was that the posterity of that lord, who remained in good rank some
time after, should never prevail to have that mark of infamy taken
off from the memory of their ancestor.
