By the Rev. W. C. Plenderleath. 63 
therefore, that the artist, who has taken so great pains to represent 
this gay cavalcade, has simply failed to take the small additional 
trouble of enquiring of some practical falconer upon which wrist the 
hawk was carried; or else has considered this question entirely 
unworthy of consideration. 
Apropos of heraldry, I may give you one more instance of incuria, 
derived from this science. Not only is the right arm, with the 
above-named exception, the only one borne single in heraldry, but 
beasts are always represented as walking, and birds flying, and fish 
swimming to dexter. On a shield, however, under the roof of the 
Bayntun Chapel, in Bromham Church the roaches in the arms of 
the old Wiltshire family of Roches are represented as naiant to 
sinister—and that by a sculptor who must have been in other 
respects a remarkably careful and painstaking person. 
To return, however, to our White Horse. You will notice in my 
drawings that the new horse (Fig. 3, p. 67) is represented as very 
much taller in proportion to his length than the old one. But this 
is accounted for by the fact that my horse is drawn in plane pro- 
jection, whereas that of Gough is shewn fureshortened by perspective, 
as we gather from his letterpress, in which he says that the figure 
measures 100ft. in length by nearly as much in height. Allowing 
for these diversities in the mode of delineation, it would have been 
by no means difficult to evolve the one figure out of the other 
without any undue expenditure of trouble on the part of the ignorant 
destroyer. 
Mr Gee’s horse, I may add, was repaired, and the outlines 
practically re-cut, about the year 1853. My drawing was made 
from a survey in 1870, since which time some further re-formations 
have, I believe, taken place. I remember that before the latter 
works were begun some one was good enough to write and ask me, 
as he knew that I was interested in the horses, whether there was 
any objection to the outlining of the figure witb kerb stones—much 
in the same way as (I am informed) the long man of Wilmington 
has been with white bricks. Iam afraid that my reply was con- 
ceived in somewhat the spirit of Dr. Abernethy, who, when a 
hypochondriac patient asked him whether she “ might eat an oyster,” 
