White horse adventure

Saturday, February 9th - another trip to see some English White horses. This time we took the archeaology department rover. The crew consisted of me, Ian, Emily, Justin, Cody and Grace. We visited four horses and a long Barrow. The first horse we saw was the Devizes white horse, created in celebration of the millennium. Sadly, this horse has not been well tended and the lime is now over grown with moss. From a distance the horse is a beige color and almost blends in with the surrounding field. However, I thought it was lovely and it was interesting to see it in this unusual state. The next horse was the Alton Barnes white horse which we were only able to see from a distance as there was no road access directly to the horse. This was also a beautiful horse with very long slender legs (pictured above). The third horse was in Pewsey this one we were really only able to photograph close up. This was the smallest of the horses and similar in shape to the Alton Barnes horse. On our way to the Uffington White horse we stopped in Marlborough to have lunch, Marlborough is a quaint medieval style town with a large central shopping street. We visited the street market and I bought a tea set at a charity shop. On to Uffingtion. We stopped first and Weyland Smithy which is a neolithic long barrow, it was quite lovely in the rich afternoon sun. Near by was the Uffington white horse. This is the most accuratlet neolithic of the horse, the others being carved over or originally carved in the late 1700s. The Uffington white horse is composed of brush like lines of exposed chalk. However, it is on a very curvy hill so there is no one good angle to see all of the horse, the best way to see it is from the air. It was a long day but well worth it.