The Scouring of the White Horse

easant, and new places to go to, and new ways of spending their money; at least, I always pity them at the beginning of my

-pots; and I declare they looked quite beautiful. I didn’t know at all before what a fine outline they make when the rays come flat along the roofs; and mean often to get up in time to see them by sunri

e me off, and they had made it all up with my landlady. So about six o’clock they came in, and we had a capital breakfast; and then we started off to walk up to the Paddington station, carrying my bag between us. I had settled to go by the 7.30 train, because if I hadn’t they couldn’t have come with me; besides, it is the first train which stops at Farringdon-road; and I was very gl

denhead, with its splendid weeping willows, and the old Bath-road bridge, and the reach beyond with the woods coming down to the bank, and the great lords’ houses up above. And then all the corn-fields, though by this time most of them were only stubble, and Reading town, and the great lasher at Pangbourn, where the water was rushing and dancing through in the sunlight to welcome me into Berkshire; and the great stretches of

ul the coun

time of

ed they were in Chaucer; but they are just as true for all that, whether Je

inn ostler standing by the head of the horse, which was a bright chestnut, and looked v

rse couldn’t stand well, at any rate she could step out, and away we whirled down the white road; Joe red in the face with holding on, his feet well out to the splash-board, his chest thrown forward, and his elbows down at his side, hauling the chestnut’s head right back, till her nose nearly

feet, the Squir’d give me one hundred pounds for her to-morrow. And I won’t sell her under. It’s a mortal shame to drive her. Her mouth’s like a kitten’s.” How Joe could talk so, when he was pulling fit to burst himself at the reins, I don’t know; I thought once or t

g, and listen to Joe, who was going grinding on about, ‘how badly the parish roads were kept up; and that he had set his mind to have them well mended with flints instead of chalk, and to have all the thistles at the side kept down

trange old things up there on the hill, besides the White Horse; and though he didn’t know much about how they got there, he was sort of proud of them, and was glad to pay his pound or two, or double that if it was wanted, to keep them as they should be;’ “for, you see,” said Joe, “we’ve lived about here, father and son, pretty nigh ever since King Alfred’s time, which I reckon is a smartish

le to tell me about it, I should be able to carry it all away; because, besides having a very good memory, I can take down every thing that is said as fast as most people can speak it, and that’s what gives me such an

ind, which stood some way back from the road; and Joe pulled

out, and open the gate, Dick; I’d do it,

at I can’t say. The house was an old brick building, with tall chimneys and latticed windows; in front of it was a nice little flower-garden, with a tall, clipped holly hedge running round it, so thick that you couldn’t see through; and beyond that, a kitchen garden and an orchard. Outside the enclosure stood four such elms as I never saw before, and a walnut-tree nearly as big

were fluttering down amongst them, and then up again to the tops of the barns and stables, which ran[29] all round the yard. The rick-yard, full of long stacks of hay, and round stacks of corn, was beyond.

d the dinner came in. She was a good-looking old lady, dressed in black, with a very white lawn cap and collar, and was very kind and civil, but a little deaf. Joe bustled about, and got out I don’t know how many bottles of home-made wine, clary, and raisin, and ginger; all of which he made me drink, besides beer, for he

eaves, and then diving out again, and skimming away over the great pasture; and then round the kitchen-garden, and into the orchard, where the trees were all loaded with apples and pears, and so out into a stubble-field at the back, where there were a lot of young pigs feeding and playing queer tricks, and back through the farm-yard into the great pasture, where I lay down on the gr

ith their mild eyes, and smelling so sweet, that I hadn’t the heart to go on smoking, and let my pipe out. And after a bit, I followed into the line of sheds where they were being milked by the lass and a man, w

k I had ever tasted real new milk; so she got me a long straw, and while she went on milking, I went down on my knees, and began to suck away through the straw. But I had hardly begun, when I heard a noise behind,[32] and looking roun

see he did say something, and then went off into another great roar of laughter; and the lass and the man left off milking and began laughing too, till I thought they would have dropped off the stools. Then the young woman who was with Joe said something to him, and I tho

he began sucking away too; and then I recovered myself, and we all went on for a minute, when Joe took his straw out

llowed, and then she, with the clearest, brightest laugh you ever heard; and then the man and the lass, and by the time we had done, I felt as if I had known them all for years. But a

e needles; and every now and then giving a catch with her head, and making belief to go on for a stitch or two. And Miss Lucy sat stitching at a patch-work coverlet, fitting in all sorts of scraps of silk in the prettiest patterns in the world, and we on the other side of the table watching her, and talking quite low not to disturb the old lady. But what made it so pleasant was, that I had pretty near all the talking, for they seemed never tired of hearing about London, and how people lived there, and what they thought; especially Miss Lucy, who had never been out of Berkshire in her life. I

ose, some people may get tired of reading about it. So I shall only begin my story of the next day after b

ared as we tramped along it, but very soon we came to broad strips of turf on each side, and then it was pleasant enough; so we plodded up a gentle rise called Sour Hill, and crossed the Iceldon or Iggleton way,

3

the opposite side of which valley a large wood hung along the steepest part of the hill-side, which Joe informed me was Uffington wood, a well-known meet for the hounds;

a curious round mound on our right hand, up which Joe scrambled, and I after him

killed the Dragon in the old times. Leastways so they says about here, only they calls him King George instead of Sai

narrower and steeper at the sides, runs right up into the hill-side. The road we had left winds round the head of this gorge, for any one to drive along who

nd furrows, which went sweeping down into the valley one after another as far as I could see; “and this is the Manger, this great hole in

just at first, and wouldn’t have minded giving myself a help with my hands if I hadn’t been afraid of Joe’s[38] seeing me and laughing. I should think we must have gone up two hundred steps, when all of a sudden Joe stopped just above me, and called ou

ouring him up above; we’re in luck—I thought they’d have

ire when I went down into Berkshire; which was natural enough, you see, because I had never been farther from town than Twickenham (except[39] by boat to Margate), and had belonged to a debating society near Farringdon-market ever since I left school, where we take in three liberal papers, and once a week have as good speaking as they get in the House of Commons. I haven’t been to the debates much lately, myself; but when I was an active member, we

hen he talked about a fox’s[40] ears and tail, and didn’t know mangold-wurzel from swedes. And then all our fellows began to shout and hiss, and Joe began to swear, and wanted to take his coat off, and fight all who had spoken; “one down, and t’other come on,” as he said. I got him out and took him home; but his blood was up, and he would go on at our Society, and call us a set of quill-

but he didn’t look so tall quite when he stood by[41] himself—I suppose because his figure was so good. For you never saw such a clean made man; he was for all the world like a well-rounded wedge from his shoulders down, and his neck and head put on like a statue. He looked just as if he could have jumped the highest five-barred gate in the Vale, and then have carried

alking to him, and in another minute the Squire called for his coat—a gray tweed shooting-jacket it was—and put it on, and took up his riding-whip, and

4

was all covered with thistle down, which came drifting along like snow with the south wind; and all down below the country looked so rich and peaceful, stretching out for miles and miles at my feet in the hazy sunshine, and the larks right up overhead sang so sweetly, that I didn’t know

arson from some of the villages near. And we began talking about the weather, and what chance[43] there was of having fine days for the pastime. He was a very grave, elderl

t,” and you’ll see as you go on that I never made a better guess in my life. So I got my note-book out quietly, so that he shouldn’t take much notice of what I wa

ition of this sort may always be pretty safely believed. Country folk hold on to such stories, and hand them down in a very curious manner; but you know

one wouldn’t care so much about it if it wasn’t made by the Saxons and their great king. The Druids don’t seem akin

any signs of it—above all, graves enough to hold

d I, sitting up and looking at

” and he pointed to a small mound a few yards off, and just like the one I was sittin

rrupting him, and pointi

] a larger and grander affair, you see, than these. Pro

they,” said I, “that St. Geo

This is another curious instance of the tenacity of tradition; but here I think our good folk in the Vale have held on to the name, or a part of

Sir?” said I,

leaders in the time of national distress, and means nothing more than ‘caput regum,’ ‘the chief of kings.’ According to some, ‘Arthur’ is the same or a like word, being ‘Ardh-reg’ or ‘Ard-heer,’ and meaning ‘summus Rex’ (whence the ‘Arviragus’ of Juvenal; but I lay no stress on this). Now we know of at least three Pendragons. There was Cassibelan, who was chosen Pendragon at the time of Julius C?sar’s invasion, Uter Pendragon, and Arthur Pendragon; which Uter and Arthur were, without doubt, chosen to resist the Saxons, who had won already the eastern part of the

ith my mouth open; but when he turned round I shut it pretty quick, and looked as wise[48

wing up of Dragon’s Hill in the beginning, say the first half, of that century. Now, in the year A.D. 520, according to Gildas and Bede, Arthur gained hi

he victory, he wasn’t killed there, I su

en many Arthurs or Pendragons just at that time, and many battles fought between this a

been very likely to cut out the horse up here just above, as another monum

4

hought I saw him give a twinkle with his mouth, as if he felt I had been pretty near him. “Beside

been conjecturing pretty freely, if it came to that. “The battle of Ashdown, Sir, was a very great battle the

probably in which Alf

e troublesome, but if you would only tell me abo

of this day to take an interest in these matters, the study of which would greatly benefit t

ng long before I shall of listening. And you wou

h about Pendragon and Natan-leod if I had seen that you were taking me down; but now I will be caref

s long coat-tail pockets, to which he sometimes referred, and looking out over the Vale, as if he were travel