The White Horse, Cherhill

Another day of visitors to meet Hamish. ( Not sure we had as many when we had either child!) I took some friends of O home after they had been to see him. One of her friends lives in Calne- so an ideal opportunity to photograph the White Horse.

A little bit more about the White Horse:

The figure at Cherhill was first cut in 1780 by a Dr Christopher Alsop, of Calne, and was created by stripping away the turf to expose the chalk hillside beneath. Its original size was 165 feet (50 m) by 220 feet (67 m).

Dr Alsop, who was Guild Steward of the Borough of Calne, has been called "the mad doctor", and is reported to have directed the making of the horse from a distance, shouting through a megaphone from below Labour-in-Vain Hill.

His design may have been influenced by the work of his friend George Stubbs, notable for his paintings of horses.