The Uffington Horse, Oxfordshire
In Wiltshire there are several realistic White Horses ...
When I was tiny, I had an old maiden aunt, who lived in an ancient cottage with metre-thick walls deep in the Wiltshire countryside.
The house was near The Westbury White Horse
Trotting White Horse, Wiltshire Hills
Baby White Horse, Devizes, Wiltshire.
The newest chalk horse, produced in 1999
(To make these, you just excavate the grass and the chalk's right there; they only need filling in with fresh chalk when they get really old)
The leaping Folkestone White Horse in Kent
The Long Man of Wilmington is a 70 metre tall giant on a cliff south of the village of Wilmington in the South Downs, between Eastbourne and Brighton in the county of East Sussex
But the most famous figure stands "only" 55 metres high in Cern Abbas in Dorset. He is best known for being "excited" ...
The "excitement" stands 3-4 metres high ...
(Visitors to the site keep making it bigger~!)
The figure is generally believed to be an ancient fertility god
But the historian Aubrey Manning posited that he is in fact a caricature of the only president (1649-1658) England has ever had, Oliver Cromwell!
He kind of looks surprised to be stark naked ...
In 2007, Homer Simpson appeared next to the giant
Executed in white paint, the figure was a publicity stunt promoting the latest Simpsons movie
Ah Gledwood you have given me an appetite tovisit these sites again. I love the idea that the Cerne Abbas giant was a caricature of Cromwell as Hercules. The land was owned by Denzil Holles, a parliamentarian (and one of the five Charles tried to arrest in Parliament in 1642) who beamce a vocal opponent of Cromwell
ReplyDeleteO! I didn't know that!
ReplyDeleteFascinating sites aren't they?
ReplyDeleteSorry I've not been around this weekend, family crisis.
Ooer. I thought you were in America already!
ReplyDeleteHope all's well again. All's well that ends well, as they say ...
As for the chalk figures: v much so.
Apparently they're v uncommon abroad. Though I saw one (online) in Mexico. (Never been to Mexico.)
I wasn't sure whether or not to explain that the chalk's under the soil and you just dig to reveal the white... but surely everyone knew or guessed that..? I don't know
I hadn't heard of all of these - just one or two and not your most famous one! haha. Pretty interesting. Britain has so much history and it's everywhere. I'm sure Canada does too it's just that our First Nations didn't seem to do a lot that held up over time.
ReplyDeleteYeah but the first people over there were probably building log cabins and shack-type houses that kept them nice and warm but don't last. The Canadian landscape is spectacular. I have a real yearning to go somewhere with lakes and pine forests. Doesn't have to be Canada. Sweden, Norway, Finland would do... Switzerland , Austria and the German Alps also appeal to me bc I'd finally get the chance to gabble in German to someone!
ReplyDeleteThe excitement made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteHope all is well with you.
Love,
SB
Cool drawrings.
ReplyDeleteNothing compares to Canada's landscape, then again, I am a bit partial ;)
The most popular cabins that were built in the days of yore were called 'long houses'...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_long_house
Giants with big sticks. Now that's the stuff of hammy nightmares.
ReplyDeleteElaine: nobody reading my German blog seemed to have heard of them, but it takes a rare type of chalk hillside to be able to do those giants and horses
ReplyDeleteI noticed Toronto looks really old, quite a lot like London; I was really surprised by that
Yeah I would really like to come live in Canada for a time. I'm fed up of the UK. It reminds me of being a drug addict
Molson: first the goblin, now this - yeah the poor Hammy is running in terror!
Alberta is fishing for disinfranchised Englishmen to become cops over here.....lol. It's true.
ReplyDeleteI would beg to differ with your opinion of Toronto, its more modern than not. There are old areas ie; Jamestown and Corktown etc but by and large we are pretty new.
I like this city, but then again I am from here so I am a bit partial.
Thanks for reminding me of the White Horses of Wiltshire, Gleds. Love Homer!
ReplyDeleteElainereeny: where is Alberta?
ReplyDeleteWelshcakespat: aye!
Elaine: OK I have heard of Alberta, I just couldn't place it on a map. Most places I can place on a map, albeit vaguely. Alberta I cannot.
Would they really take someone like me to be a copper? I'd be very good at disposing of drugs seizures...
Toronto being old... I'm only talking about certain blog photos I've seen that really surprised me. Also that the housing looks so English. I never expected that. Not at all...
Ooer, must run - that naughty goblin's coming!
Interesting that there are so many others, I have seen Long Man of Wilmington last year, it's a very nice place ! In fact the whole coast here and the little cities are so beautiful and cute. I have seen quiet a lot and will report once I am back. Tomorrow I go home. Only the weather could have been a little better ! But you had probably the same London is not so far from here.
ReplyDeleteAnd all we have is Mt. Rushmore and crop circles. These are really neat. The fertility God is unique.
ReplyDeleteHe could play hoopla with that doughnut!
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ReplyDeleteGattina: I'm sincerely flattered and glad you like England; so many of us slag it off. I hope I don't slag it off too much, though I DO want to leave, for a time at least.
ReplyDeleteI heard the chalky soil of Southern England is actually better for champagne production (nowadays) than Northern France!
+ as you can see, it also makes for some pretty amazing artwork...
Syd: what's the significance of Mt Rushmore?
All I know about it is it features in films etc... never quite sure why. Is it mystical or something?
I saw Mt St Helens ~ trees knocked flat for miles around, a multi-H-bomb rated blast now there's a lady with a bad temper!
Liz: You mean 1970s-style hoolahooping? I never got the hang of wobbling one of those round my waist...
I wasn't sure whether or not you meant the giant might do something even ruder with that donut ~
No wonder poor Hammy is running away!
PS talking of wearing donuts around body parts, I once saw a pigeon with one round its neck! No word of a lie! The bagel shop had chucked out the rotten ones for the birds (ie most of their stock, haha!) and a pigeon somehow too greedily pecked and ended up like the Lady Mayoress of Camden, with a bagel round its neck. There is was, flying from rooftop to ground with this ridiculous bagel. None of the other pigeons were starving enough to approach it for a discreet peck...
I so wanna go there now! Been since my childhood! :3 Still the Remember the chalk long man !
ReplyDeleteI so wanna go there now! Went there in my childhood still remember The Chalk Long Man :). I'm from belgium btw.
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