The White Horse

An occasional, if rather peculiar, sight in the English shires is the hill figure. These large-scale visual representations are cut into hillsides to reveal contrasting bedrock, usually chalk, which is visible from above or far away. The preponderance of such geoglyphs – some ancient, others less so – are in the area formerly known as Wessex and take the form of either human or horse figures. This photograph was shot in a late spring afterglow and shows the Cherhill White Horse, first cut in 1780 and in need of some grooming.