ENGLISH WHITE HORSES

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20954, 6 November 1939, Page 12

ENGLISH WHITE HORSES

CARVED IN CHALK Most of the white horses were cut in the chalk of the English downs by large-hearted eighteenth century land-owners 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. 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 Lord 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 until recently, when it was presented to the nation. It is now looked after by the Office of Works.