26 



On the White Horses of Wiltshire. 



later than the re-modelling of the Westbury Horse, which very- 

 likely suggested it. The maker was one Dr. Christopher Allsop, 

 who was then living at Calne, and the horse is so cut as to be seen 

 in best proportions from that portion of the high road which is 

 known as " The Quarry.-'-' 



Dr. Allsop is reported to have first marked out the horse with 

 small stakes bearing white flags, then to have taken up his position 

 at a spot about 200 yards above the top of Labour-in- Vain Hill, where 

 there exists a pretty strong echo against the down-side, and from 

 thence, by means of a speaking trumpet, to have directed the re- 

 moval of the stakes one way or the other until he was satisfied with 

 the outline. The turf was then cut out, and the hollow filled with 

 chalk, very nearly, if not quite, to a level, the result of which is a 

 constant white stream after every shower, which sometimes makes 

 the horse look as if, instead of four legs of normal length, he had 

 five or six, each about 800 feet long. The inner circle of the eye, 

 which is four feet in diameter, was filled with glass bottles, furnished 

 by Mr. Angell, of Studley, but of these no trace now remains. 



The point at which Dr. Allsop stood to direct the work was pointed 

 out to me by a very intelligent old man who was born in the year 

 1786, only six years after it was done, and he tells me that he has 

 often heard the circumstances of the cutting spoken of by men who 

 had taken part in it. 



The principal dimensions of the horse are as follows : extreme 

 length, 129 feet; extreme height, 142 feet; length of barrel, 78 

 feet; depth of ditto, 41 feet. To which I may perhaps add, height 

 according to stable measurement, 285 hands. 



The sketch, I should observe, gives the horse in its actual plane 

 projection. The fore-shortening arising from the slope of the hill, 

 which is 31 degrees, reduces the height as compared with the length 

 to the true proportion when viewed from below. 



The scouring of this horse, which takes place at no fixed interval, 

 but whenever it appears to want it, is done by the Lord of the 

 Manor. Chalk is procured from a quarry just above the crest of 

 the hill, and spread over the surface, and the washings of the previous 

 coat are at the same time raked away and allowed to fall to the 



