THE WHITE HORSES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 268, 26 August 1930, Page 2

THE WHITE HORSES.

RELICS OF OLD ENGLAND.

Because boys are displacing the white edging stones, the historic white horse at Westbury is disappearing This is a white stone liorse which is believed to have been cut centuries a« r o to commemorate a battle anu treaty with the Danes, and every wear the grass which is likely to grow over the white stones is removed, it is amusing to recollect that in olden daj s the shape was very crude but that in the eighteenth century a man with the appropriate name of Gee altered tlie character of the cart breed to one of the blood kind.” . . England is very rich in these white horses, some of them new and some old. Among the new ones is the Uslhington liorse near Weymouth. it was cut about a century and a quarter a<m to commemorate King George lii., although in 180 S it was stated to be a perfect likeness to His Alajesty, it is rather strange that the horse and rider have their backs to the town and show every desire to put distance between them and it. , Not far from Osmington is the Cerne Abbey Giant, a white figure without the horse, but dating back to the time when the Phoenicians worshipped Baal, the figure probably representing the pagan god. . One of the best of the \v lltshire horses is that at Clienvell. It was cut in 1780, and seems to have been designed to attract the eyes of travellers on the great Bath road. When the liorse was cut a bottle was used as the eye, but this was stolen by a souvenir hunter. Some years later "when Brunei was planning a railway the people in tlie neighbourhood opposed' the plans, and to be revenged Brunei hired a gang of workmen to cut up the horse. The project fell through, for which we can be truly thankful. But the white liorse is in Berkshire, in. the vale of tlie same name. This liorse is 374 ft long, and was cut either, by early Britons of byi King Alfred. The animal is rather curiously shaped for a horse, so that there may be something in the theory that is is not meant to be a liorse at all, but a dragon, a dragon having been the symbol of the Celts. A Dragon Hill nearby tends to support this theory. At one time there was an annual ceremony of scouring this liorse in order to keep its shape.