HUNTING TOURS. 41 



extending from Wantage into Wiltshire was 

 the scene of this battle, and that the White 

 Horse, which is cut out on the slope of the 

 chalk, is a memorial of the great victory. 

 The White Horse, which gives name to the 

 hill and to the extensive valley below, is a 

 most singular device. It is a rude figure, 

 three hundred and seventy-four feet in length, 

 bearing nearly as good a representation of a 

 greyhound as of an animal of the equine 

 race. The demarcation was formed by re- 

 moving the turf, and thus laying bare the 

 substratum of chalk, on the north-west sur- 

 face of the hill, and it is said to be visible, 

 under favourable circumstances, when the 

 afternoon sun is about to descend below the 

 horizon, as far as fifteen miles. This much I 

 take from information, for my visionary 

 powers were unable to discover the por- 

 traiture while travelling within distance on 

 the Grreat Western Railway. It might have 

 been that in his winter garb this gigantic 

 emblem of the horse was more than usually 

 obscure ; perchance, too, that my optics were 

 defective. It has been supposed that lands 

 in the neighbourhood were formerly held by 

 the tenure of cleaning the White Horse, by 



