White Horses are figures of horses that have been cut into the slopes of chalk hills in various regions of Britain. The White Horse on the Downs above Uffington, in Oxfordshire, is the oldest of the 17 White Horses in Britain. According to tradition, the Uffington White Horse commemorates King Alfred’s defeat of the Danes in A.D. 878. But it probably dates from pre-Roman times. The Horse on Bratton Hill, at Westbury, in Wiltshire, is also said to commemorate King Alfred’s victory.
The Uffington White Horse was the model for many others cut in the 1700’s and 1800’s. White Horses dating from this period include the Cherhill Horse on Marlborough Down, in Wiltshire; horses at Wootton Bassett and Broad Hinton, in Wiltshire; and two in Yorkshire–on Hambledon Hill, near Thirsk, and on Roulston Hill, near Northwaite. A horse with its rider, King George III, is cut into a hill at Osmington, near Weymouth, in Dorset.
