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XV. Some Observations on the White Horse of Berkshire; by William J. Thoms, Esq. F.S.A. in a Letter addressed to Thomas Amyot, Esq. Treasurer of the Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

William J. Thoms Esq.
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Extract

The remarkable Monument of antiquity which gives its name to the Vale of White Horse in Berkshire, has not, I believe, attracted the particular attention of any antiquary since 1738, when the Rev. Francis Wise published his “Letter to Dr. Mead, concerning some Antiquities in Berkshire,” &c.; or, perhaps I should rather say, since 1742, the date of his second work upon the subject, entitled “Further Observations upon the White Horse and other Antiquities in Berkshire,” &c.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 31 , 1846 , pp. 289 - 298
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1846

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References

page 290 note a Cottonian MS. Claud. B. vi. fol. 151.

page 291 note b Cottonian MS. Claud. C. ix. fol. 132.

page 291 note c See Grimm Deutsche Mythologie, p. 626, ed. 1844. “Mir scheint der pferdecultus überhaupt auf gleiche weise Celten Deutschen und Slaven eigen, welche einʒelnen stämme unter diesen volkern ihm ʒumeist ergeben waren, wird sich kunftigen forschungen allmälich enthüllen.”

page 292 note d Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, s. 141.

“Wode, hale dinem rosse nu voder,
Nu distel unde dorn,
Tom audern jar beter korn.”

page 292 note e After saying “lucos et nemora consecrant,” Tacitus proceeds, “proprium gentis, equorum quoque præsagia ac monitus experiri. Publice aluntur, üsdem nemoribus ac lucis, candidi et nullo mortali opere contacti, quos pressos sacro curru sacerdos ac rex vel princeps civitatis comitantur, hinnitusque ac fremitus observant. Nec ulli auspicio major fides non solum apud plebem sed apud proceres, apud sacerdotes: se enim ministros deorum, illos conscios putant.”

page 293 note f Deutsche Mythologie, s. 622.

page 294 note g The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, translated from the Latin of Bede, &c. by J. A. Giles, LL.D. 8vo. 1840, pp. 110, 111.

The reader desirous of consulting the original, is referred to pp. 136–7, of Venerabilis Bedæ Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, ad fidem Codicum Manuscriptorum recensuit Josephus Stevenson, 8vo. 1838.—The first of the admirable series of our national Chronicles, published by the British Historical Society.

page 295 note h Ask veit-ék standa, heitir Ygg-þrasill

Hár-baþmr, ausinn hvitom auri;

þán kóma dauggvar, þærs i dali falla.

Vaulu-Spa, edit. Ettmuller, s. 9.

See Schrader, Germanische Mythologie, s. 88 and 172.

page 296 note i I may mention among other monuments of this description still existing, hitherto but comparatively unnoticed, and to which my attention has been directed since the present communication was commenced, one near Ripon in Yorkshire, and one not far from Fraserburgh in Scotland.

page 297 note h Lib. iv. c. 19.

page 297 note i Metam. lib. iii.