12 On the White Horses of Wiltshire. 



The will was executed in two parts indented : the one to be proved 

 in due form of law, the other to be retained in the custody of | P 

 executors. Witnesses, Richard Weeksey, clerk, Robert Davis, 

 Daniel Holborow, Jo. Long, Thomas Osbourne, and Isaac Osborne. 



The daughter's apprehended union with Mr. John Probin the son 

 of the Hereford ironmonger did not take place, but she became the 

 wife of Thomas Poulden, Esq., of Imber, Co. Wilts, and died in 

 1690. 



J. E. Jackson. 



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201 



By the Rev. W. C. Plendeeleath. 



Read before the Society, at Trowbridge, August, 1872 . 



; )OUTHEY remarks in his " Doctor " (§ 34, part 1.) that 

 " whatever strengthens our local attachments is favourable "i 

 both to the individual and national character. Our home, our 

 birth-place, our native land — think for awhile what the virtues are 

 which arise out of the feelings connected with these words ; and if 

 thou hast any intellectual eyes, thou wilt perceive the connection 

 between topography and patriotism. - " 



And if this estimate of his be in any way correct, I do not think 

 that I need seek any further justification for my attempt to put 

 before the Members of this Society, many of whom have lived all 

 their lives in close proximity to one or other of these singular 

 memorials of antiquity, the White Horses of Wiltshire and its 

 neighbourhood, such details as I have been able to collect — some 

 historical, and some only traditional or probable — of their origin. 



And first of all I will remark upon the employment of animal 

 forms from the very earliest periods as the badge or symbol of 

 nations. The Thocm, or Seals, of the Phoeaeans ; the Clielonce, or 

 Tortoises, of the iEginetans ; and the Scaraboei, or Beetles, of the 

 Egyptians, all date from several centuries before the Christian era, 



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