The hill-figures of southern England are among the most enigmatic monuments which remain from past ages. Of the oldest of them, little is known. Their age, the reasons for their cutting, and the people who cut them, all are a mystery and arc likely to remain so. The figures are formed by cutting off the top turf and revealing the white chalk below, d'he Uffington White Horse (Oxfordshire) is certainly the oldest and most enigmatic of these figures. Cut into the northern slope of the downs near Swindon, it faces north-west and under favourable conditions can be seen from 15 to 20 miles away across the Vale of the White Horse, but due to the slope of the hillside it cannot be clearly seen from below, and the best view of it is from the air. 'The figure does not trace the conventional outlines of a horse, but what at first might be thought to be a crude and unskilled attempt can on closer study be seen as an imaginative free-flowing interpretation, embodying the feeling of speed and movement of a horse and more akin to twentieth-century artistry than the prosaic delineations of other much more recent hill-horses. Similar stylised animals appear on coins and buckets of the Iron Age and the Uffington horse is provisionally dated at 100 BC. But is it really a horse? 'I'he ‘beaked’ shape of the jaw has caused much speculation, and suggestions that we should really be talking about the Uffington Dragon. Just below in the valley is a flat-topped mound called Dragon Hill. Legend says that here St George killed a dragon and where its blood spilt the grass has never grown since. Perhaps the ‘horse’ figure was cut as visual confirmation of this legend.
An aerial rietc of I he Uffington White I torse: note Dragon Hill belotc left, and the hank and ditch of the Iron Age hillfort abm e right.
'The Westbury White Horse about 2 miles from Bratton in Wiltshire is also a figure of mystery. The horse you can see today was cut in 1778 by. Mr Gee, who was Lord. Abingdon’s steward. It is a handsome and conventional animal, the sort of beast an estate steward would approve of. But what was posterity losing when. Mr Gee set his men to work on the slope of Bratton Down? d'here was alreadv an older horse there, which
Dragon Hill, Vfftngton.
Had been surveyed and drawn in 1772, and which was an odd-looking beast with a long, thin body, a long, thin tail with a creseent-shaped end, and one large ‘goggle’ eye on its forehead. Some researchers said that it was no older than the early years of that century, but others, excited by its odd appearance and the connection of a crescent moon shape to Celtic symbolism, believe that the original horse could be as old as that at Uffington. In both cases there is an Iron Age hillfort on the hilltop above, but we shall never know when the white horse of W’estbury first appeared.
Two other hill figures of great antiquity depict not horses but men. Said to be the largest human figure in the world, the Long .Man of Wilmington at 231 feet 6 inches tall stands on the edge of the downs near Eastbourne (East Sussex), holding a staff in each of his raised hands. The figure is of unknown origin and little attention was paid to it until 1874 when the outline was marked by bricks. How accurate this was and what details were lost are open questions, as a drawing made in 1779 show's the figure with a rakehead and scythe blade on top of the left and right staffs respectively, d'he Long Man has at various times been identified as depicting Woden, d'hor, or other Norse gods.
One of the Greco-Roman gods, Mohammed, or St Paul. Others have seen him as a Stone Age surveyor with measuring rods. But his true identity will probably always remain a secret.
The second ancient hill figure in human form is the Cerne Abbas Giant (Dorset) who at first glance appears to be keeping no secrets from us. This muscular male figure brandishing his huge club and striding across the hillside has long been known as a promoter of fertility, as suggested by his large phallus and testicles, and by the long-held belief that a woman who sleeps for a night on the giant will bear many children. Just above him on the hillside is a small square earthwork where for centuries the maypole was erected and May Day festivities were enjoyed. The figure is thought possibly to be Hercules and has been tentatively dated to Romano-British times, due to the similarity to other carved Hercules figures. The fact that this virile fertility symbol has survived through the ages points to the awe in which the local population held him.
D'he Whiteleaf Cross in Buckinghamshire is another hill figure of unknown age. On a slope of the Chiltern Hills, it faces over the Vale of. Aylesbury, close to the Icknield Way. During the past 200 years its size has gradually increased as successive scourings (i. e. cleaning and tidying the edges) have enlarged the outline and it can be seen from 15 or more miles distant. Various suggestions as to its origin have been made, including a landmark for travellers using the Icknield trackway, an ancient fertility sign that was changed into a cross by early Christians, or a cross originally cut by the monks from nearby Missenden .Abbey.
'Phere are other hill figures in England, nearly fifty in all, but few of these are of any great age. Of the many white horses in \ iltshire, most are of recent centuries though some may have been recut on top of older figures now lost. .Also lost are the Gogmagog Giants on the ramparts of Wandlebury Camp in Cambridgeshire, possibly dating from AD 300, and the Plymouth Giants who were cut on the Hoe, one being in existence in 1486, the second added some centuries later. There was a red horse (red because of the soil colour) at Tysoe (Warwickshire) until 1798 and some early reports suggest that it may have had similarities to both the Uffington horse and the original Westbury horse, and could have been of ancient origin. Phese figures are soon overgrown if not regularly scoured clean, and they and possibly many others have disappeared over the centuries, taking with them their now-hidden meanings.
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