plain as Salisbury

English

Etymology

Presumably a pun on Salisbury Plain, or perhaps in reference to the spire of Salisbury Cathedral, which can be seen at a distance.

Adjective

plain as Salisbury (not comparable)

1. (UK, simile, informal, dated) Synonym of plain as day.
   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

     ‘Your chummage ticket,’ replied Mr. Roker; ‘you’re up to that?’
     ‘Not quite,’ replied Mr. Pickwick, with a smile.
     ‘Why,’ said Mr. Roker, ‘it’s as plain as Salisbury. You’ll have a chummage ticket upon twenty-seven in the third, and them as is in the room will be your chums.’

   • 1893, Egerton Castle, Consequences, page 248:

     If I can't show you I've come by them honestly, perhaps you'd rather not have them, though, if nicely cooked and dished up, I'll be bound they can be made to prove, as plain as Salisbury, that you've no more right to the estate — nor to the name of Kerr, for all that — than that gentleman yonder.