70 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



We have seen that appeal had been made 

 to Sir John before this, by the author of Tom 

 Brown's School Days, to try to arrange for a more 

 effective " scouring of the White Horse." Now 

 we find the appeal repeated from a very different 

 source, from Mr. Herbert Spencer, who had 

 happened to be in the neighbourhood of the horse 

 and found him in sad need of grooming. 



Dear Lubbock — The celebrated Berkshire White 

 Horse is within a mile or two of the place I am staying 

 at for the present, and yesterday I drove near to it. 

 Up to about thirty years since there was an occasional 

 expedition made by the local people for the purpose of 

 cleaning the horse, but the practice has since that time 

 dropped out. The result is that now large parts are 

 obliterated by vegetation, the hind legs being no longer 

 visible. 



Is not the maintenance of this ancient work, whatever 

 may have been its origin, within the functions of the 

 Society for the Preservation of National Monuments 

 which you established ? It seems a great pity that 

 the thing having been maintained for so many centuries 

 should now, in our days, when the attention to such 

 remains has become greater, be allowed to fall into 

 decay, if not into oblivion. It is the more remarkable 

 that this result should be taking place since I have 

 myself seen three other such figures which are kept in 

 good order — one near Marlbro', one near Alton, not far 

 from Devizes, and one, if I remember rightly, in Somerset- 

 shire which I saw when a boy. Surely some local 

 Archaeological Association or some local authority, 

 under stimulus from your Society, might prevent this 

 mischief. 



The air is very good, and I am hoping to profit by 

 my stay if other things prove favourable. — Truly yours, 



Herbert Spencer. 



The following petition, formally addressed to 

 Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff, was sent to Sir John 

 Lubbock on behalf of the Kammalahs who are 



