By the 7?<t. Jf\ C. Pknderleath. 



25 



nothing else than the symbol of Ceridwen, whom I have before 

 mentioned as being sometimes herself represented under the form 

 of a mare, and to whom all horses were therefore probably regarded 

 as being more or less sacred. Taliesin in the poem from which I 

 have already quoted, speaks of the "strong horse of the crescent" 

 — though this is perhaps more likely Arion, the son of Ceres and 

 Neptune [i.e., Ceridwen and Neivion, or land and sea). But to 

 go at all into this question would take up much more time than any 

 for which I can venture to claim your attention. 



With regard to the modern Westbury Horse (see Fig. 2) I find that 

 in 1 778 a miserable being of the name of Gee, steward to Lord Abing- 

 don, while employed on a survey of that nobleman's estates in the 

 parish of Westbury, " new modelled " the figure,, and in so doing 

 changed its wdiole character, the old one having been, according to 

 Sir R. C. Hoare, "of the cart breed," and the new one, "of 

 the blood kind." I confess that I should not have discovered the 

 latter fact myself if I had not been told it. The horse has since 

 been repaired, and the outlines partially re-cut, about 20 years ago. 



The extreme length as at present existing is stated by a local 

 print to be, from head to tail, both included, 175 feet; height, from 

 feet to shoulder, 107 feet; circumference of eye, 25 feet. 



We next come to the Cherhill Horse (see Fig. 5), and for this, I 

 think, no possible claims to antiquity can be set up. It does indeed 

 lie, like each of the other two, in close proximity to a reputed Danish 

 camp — that of Oldborough — and near the scene of a great battle, 

 which is stated to have taken place here between Egbert, king of 

 the West Saxons, and Ceolwulph, king of the Mercians, in A.D. 821, 

 but I have never met with any mention of the horse anterior to the 

 date at which the present figure, we know, was cut out ; and as it 

 is only about a quarter of a mile from the great London high road, 

 and in full view of that road for several miles, I think that it is 

 scarcely possible that any ancient horse can have here existed, 

 without some mention of it being to be found. Moreover there is 

 no local tradition of any earlier horse — a fact which in a matter of 

 so recent date must I think be regarded as decisive. 



This horse then was cut out in the year 1780, only two years 



