Decided to do something a little special for my minor milestone of 2100 and as I was in the area, White Horse View seemed a good one. Many times have I been through Westbury on the train to or from Wales and seen the massive horse out the window, but at last I have been able to get right up close to it, so close in fact that I sat on its ear. The are some good views from below but you can get right to the top and see across Westbury and beyond. The history of the horse is uncertain but it's thought to date back to the eighteenth century. Why it's there no one really knows either, although other white horses were made to celebrate victories. Originally the horse was purely the chalk in the hillside but it's been painted and preserved now so that it doesn't have to be scrubbed clean all the time!
The horse is one of several in the Wiltshire area, but probably the most anatomically accurate (which is saying something, really). Other chalk figures tend to be outlines like the Long Man of Wilmington or the Cerne Abbas Giant. I find them a little eerie, to be honest, but also fascinating, perhaps like my love/hate relationship with huge chimneys, cooling towers and other industrial superstructures.
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