If the Earth were only
a few feet in diameter, floating a
few feet above a field somewhere,
people would come from everywhere to
marvel at it. People would walk around it,
marveling at its big pools of water, its little pools
and the water flowing between the pools. People would
marvel at the bumps on it, and the holes in it, and they
would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and
the water suspended in the gas. The people would marvel at
all the creatures walking around the surface of the ball, and
at the creatures in the water. The people would declare it
precious because it was the only one, and they would protect
it so that it would not be hurt. The ball would be the
greatest wonder known, and people would come to behold
it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, to know beauty
and to wonder how it could be. People would love
it, and defend it with their lives, because
they would somehow know that their
lives, their own roundness, could be
nothing without it. If the Earth
were only a few feet
in diameter.

I take no Credit for The Writing Of this I just love it I found it On Another Board

The White Horses of the UK

The Uffington white horse, one of only four that face to the right, is high on an escarpment of the Berkshire Downs below Whitehorse Hill, a mile and a half south of the village of Uffington, and it looks out over the Vale of the White Horse. Though on the Berkshire Downs, it has been in Oxfordshire since county boundary alterations in the 1970s. It is cut, not on the steepest slope of the hill, but on the much shallower slope near the top, and can only really be viewed well from afar or from above.

This is by far the oldest of all the white horses, and is of an entirely different design to the others. Unlike the solid and more or less naturalistic figures of the other horses, the Uffington white horse is formed from stylized curving lines some ten feet or less wide, and its length of around 365 feet makes it over twice as long as the longest of the Wiltshire horses. Whether it is indeed intended to represent a horse, or some other creature instead, has been debated, but it has certainly been called a horse since at least medieval times. A cartulary of the Abbey of Abingdon from between 1072 and 1084 refers to "the place commonly known as the White Horse Hill" ("locum qui vulgo mons albi equi nuncupatur").

Until 1995 the Uffington white horse was thought to date from the Iron Age. However, in the nineteen-nineties, a new dating technique was developed. This technique, optical stimulated luminescence dating (OSL), can show how long soil has been hidden from sunlight. The lines of the horse consist of trenches dug in the hillside, then filled with chalk. OSL testing of soil from between the lower layers of that chalk shows that it has been buried since between 1400 BC and 600 BC, and probably between 1200 BC and 800 BC, and thus the horse is of Bronze Age origin.The original purpose of this horse is unknown. It may have been the emblem of a local tribe, and have been cut as a totem or badge marking their land, or it may have had a religious purpose or significance. The horse-goddess Epona was worshipped by the Celts in Gaul, and she had a counterpart in Britain, Rhiannon, so the Uffington white horse may have been cut by adherents of a cult of the horse-goddess.

The Cerne Abbas Giant

The Cerne Abbas Giant, Dorset The Cerne Abbas Giant or the 'Rude Man' is the largest hillfigure in Britain, he (the figure's gender is beyond doubt) is one of two representations of the human form, the other being the Long Man of Wilmington in East Sussex. The giant, carved in solid lines from the chalk bedrock measures in at 180 feet high, and carries a huge knobbled club, which measures 120 feet in length.

The first written record of the giant appears in 1751 in a letter by Dorset historian John Hutchins, he suggested that the figure was cut in the mid 1600's. Another slightly later reference to the figure can be found in the Gentleman's magazine of 1764, where the figure is described and depicted with a navel, that has long since disappeared. The lack of earlier references is frustrating but does not mean that the figure dates to the 17th century, and its style and proximity to an Iron Age earthwork suggests a much earlier origin.

There are numerous theories as to when and why the giant was created, one of the more popular is that he is the Greek-Roman god Hercules, who is often represented with a club and an animal fur. It has been suggested that the figure was once depicted carrying and animal fur in his left hand. It is possible that worship of Hercules arrived in the early part of the Roman invasion, which was then became amalgamated with a god of a local Celtic tribe. The theory given the most weight by historians is that it was created during the reign of the Emperor Commodus between 180 - 193 AD, he believed himself to be a reincarnation of Hercules and allowed the cult to revive.

Other stories suggest that the monks at the nearby monastery cut the giant as a joke on an Abbott called Thomas Corton, who was expelled from the area for malpractice. This is unlikely but its close proximity to a ecclesiastical house is strange, how could such an obviously pagan symbol have survived for so long? especially through puritanical times and the reformation. It may be that the religious buildings were built close to the giant as a form of amalgamation of the pagan site. This was common practice, and many churches are built on, or near to, sites that were once Pagan religious centres.

Folklore
According to one tradition, recorded from a farm labourer in the Gentleman's Magazine, the figure is the representation of a Danish giant who had led an invasion of England from the coast. He had fallen asleep on the side of the hill, and the local villagers had taken advantage of his slumber and cut off his head. They had then drawn around his prone body in the manner of a gigantic police chalk line, to show where he met his doom. However, the chalk figure sometimes rose from the dead on dark nights, to quench his thirst in the local stream, a habit also common to certain standing stones.

The giant's obvious sexuality and virility was put to use in fertility folk magic. Local women who wanted to conceive would spend a night alone on the hillside - most productively within the confines of his giant phallus, and young couples would make love on the giant to ensure conception.

The Long Man Of Wilmington

The Long Man of Wilmington is depicted in outline holding two poles. He is 230' high and 235' wide. The location of Windover hill is ideal, the angle of this slope is about 40 degrees. The figure is looked after by East Sussex CC for Sussex Archaeological Society. The figure is in quite good condition although a few of the concrete blocks have become dislodged, the fixings only being about 1" deep.

History

The late history of the giant is reasonably well known, however the origins are not. The first reference was a drawing made in 1710, although not particularly accurate in its depiction it indicates its antiquity. OSL dating has been carried out by the University of Reading giving a date of construction around 1545.

The chalk outline was replaced by yellow bricks in 1874 and these replaced by concrete blocks in 1969 although not in exactly the same outline. There is also some controversy as to the direction the feet point. They supposedly pointed downward and now point left probably changed during one of the many restorations. The giant was last worked on in 1993, the site is grazed and thus requires little maintenance. The giant has been surveyed (using soil resistivity measurements) and it is believed that one of the poles was a scythe and the other a rake, the giant also wore a head plume. A legend also suggested that a cock the the mans right existed, although these findings are unproven.

The origins are completely unknown although there is much speculation, based on legends and the archaeologically of the area. The figure is Roman say some authorities, bronze age others, the figure depicts an associate of King Harold so the figure dates from the 11th century. Another theory is that it depicts a monk who founded the nearby priory in the early 15th century. There are many more in fact too many to go into here, suffice to say that the truth may never be known.

New Zealand

The White Horse
During a visit to Leewarden Holland, in the early 1960's, Mr Norman Hayman, a retired farmer from the District was impressed with their statue of a Friesian cow, a tribute to that animal's contribution to the prosperity of that region. He thought of the Clydesdale horse, and what it had done for the district. It became his dream to see something similar erected in Waimate, and he came home from his tour planning to enlist support for the building of a statue in the town. In 1965 an area of land between 20 and 24 acres (8.1 and 9.7 ha) was donated to the Waimate Development Society by Mr J.M. Sutherland. It was suggested that a Look-Out and Park on Mt John, the hill which overlooked Waimate, would be a valuable community asset. With the co-operation of land owner, Mr Jack Sutherland and the Waimate County Council, "Centrewood Park" with its panoramic views, north, south, west, cast became a reality. Mr Hayman put forward his suggestion, a Clydesdale statue could be placed at the look-out, however it became obvious that to make the statue a size visible from a distance, the cost - an estimated $5,200 - would be prohibitive. Using his own words from notes he wrote at the time, Mr Hayman said ......... "I then came up with a plan of a silhouette, twice the size of a horse in a concrete slab on its edge. There was still doubt about the size being sufficient, time was still going on and no monument. 1 was given the idea of the Whitehorse of England, which 1 tried with wallpaper on the face of the hill. This was the start of action, the steep rocky face of the hill was too heartbreaking to smooth over. My next move was to the smooth valley close by, not so good for viewing, but where I could work myself. A load of plaster board scrap from the dump, laid in outline, proved the monument would be too small, but I was in business and ordered 200 paying stones." Over the next 3 months, almost single handed but with assistance from wife, Betty, he laid some 1,220 concrete slabs, and with a 2 1/2 ton head, precast in Mr Ron Hutt's yard, a dream was realised. The final cost of $240 was met by donations from old farmers, teamsters, and others who admired the Clydesdale horse. On October 10 1968 the then Minister of Agriculture, the Honourable, B. E. Talboys, unveiled the cairn erected above the concrete horse at Centrewood Park. A plaque with a raised figure of a Clydesdale is set into the stonework of the cairn and commemorates the many draught horses which helped develop New Zealand. The statue is 60 foot high (18.29 m) 48 feet long (14.63 m) ] 6 foot head (4.88 m) Set in 20 acres (8.09 ha) 130Oft above sea level (396.24 m

Thanks Jo for this Information,If any One has Any In other Countries I would be Interested In hearing about Them.