22 



On the White Horses of Wiltshire. 



this coin and endeavours to prove that the horse thereon depicted is 

 no other than Ceridwen herself, and the name Boduo the same as 

 Budd, equivalent to the Latin Ceres, and one of the titles under 

 which she was worshipped. I may add that I have gone through the 

 whole series of British coins given by Speed, and in all of them in 

 which the horse appears, viz. : those of Cominus, Cassibelaunus, 

 Cingetorix, Cunobeline, Caractacus, and Arviragus, I find the 

 position of the horse the same as in the Uffington example, viz., 

 facing to sinister, with the near fore leg the higher. In a coin on 

 the contrary of Galgacus, king of the Caledonians, the horse faces 

 to dexter, with the off fore leg the higher. 



The Uffington Horse is 325 feet long, occupies more than an acre 

 of ground and faces the N.W. 



I will conclude my notice of him by quoting an impromptu poem 

 given by the Philalethes Rusticus, as having been presented to him 

 by " An Oxford Scholar, whom the same curiosity led to the spot." 



" See here the Pad of Good King Alfry, 

 Sure never was so rare a Palfrey ! 

 Tho' Earth his Dam, his Sire a Spade, 

 No Painter e'er a finer made. 

 Not Wotton on his hunting Pieces 

 Can shew one such a Tit as this is." 



Thus much for the Uffington Horse. We now return to our own 

 county, and here the first Horse which challenges our attention is 

 that on Bratton Hill, near Westbury. And here we again meet 

 with King Alfred and his exploits. " In the same year (viz. : A.D. 

 878, — 7 years subsequently to the battle of Reading, and traditional 

 cutting of the Uffington Horse), after Easter, King Alfred, with a 

 few of his partisans, found a stronghold in a place which is called 

 iEthelingey, and from that stronghold continued indefatigably to 

 wage war against the Pagans, at the head of the noblemen his 

 vassals of Somersetshire. And again the 7th week after Easter, he 

 rode to the stone iEgbryhta, which is in the eastern part of the 

 forest, which is called Selwood, but in Latin Silva magna, in 

 British Coitmaur ; and there met him all the inhabitants of Somerset 

 and "Wiltshire, and all such inhabitants [of Hampshire as had not 

 sailed beyond sea for fear of the Pagans, and upon seeing the King 



