ENGLISH WHITE HORSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 October 1939, Page 8

ENGLISH WHITE HORSES

CARVED IN CHALK ON DOWNS. Most of the White Horses were cut in the chalk of the English downs bj r large-hearted eighteenth century landowners, who wanted to improve the landscape for posterity, says the “Sunday Times.” They also planted many of those clumps of splendid beeches which weld together downland scenery. Of the two White Horses in England known to be ancient, only that in Berkshire retains its original form. The other, at Westbury, Wiltshire, was remodelled to look more like a horse. The Berkshire horse has a willowy back, detached legs, and a bird-like head on whose eye people stand and wish. The impressionist effect of its body becomes more equine when it is seen from a few miles away, or from an aeroplane. The custom of scouring the White Horse of weeds was known to have existed before 1677. At irregular intervals, 'every five years or so, the whole neighbourhood would resort to the hill. When the horse was cleaned, people made merry at a fair held in the fort. Backsword and wrestling contests were held. A cheese was rolled down “the manger,” the bowl of land below the horse, and pursued. A Whit-Monday cheese-chasing custom survives at Cooper’s Hill, outside Cheltenham.

The last public scouring was .in 1857, and there are no local people alive with a clear recollection of it. Opinions vary as to whether it was stopped by Lady Craven, the largest landowner in the district and owner of the site, because it became too unlicensed, or whether the- custom died from local apathy. At any rate, the horse was weeded by employees of the Craven estate till recently, when it was presented to the nation. It is now looked after bv the Office of Works.