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No visit to Wiltshire would be complete without going to see a White Horse or eight. Yes eight. Once long, long ago some-one decided to dig out a patch of steep hillside in the shape of a horse and let the chalk show through. Like a lot of good ideas, it sort of caught on!

Oldest of Wiltshire's horses is that at Westbury. The original is generally believed to have been dug out to honour King Alfred's victory over the Danes in 878. True or not, the horse you see is a replacement from 1778. Restored several times since then it is now concrete rather than chalk. Not so terrible as it sounds. It no longer washes away down the steep hillside and looks just as good viewed from a distance, the only way to view it properly, it is after all 182' high.

Westbury

Next oldest is that at Cherhill near Calne, this dates from around 1780. This horse is even bigger. Best viewed from the A4 Calne to Marlborough road, it can however be seen from the A420 as you approach Chippenham from the west, some 9 miles away! Recently the Cherhill Horse had been looking a bit grey, Cherhill Parish Council who are responsible for its upkeep enlisted the help of local groups and businesses to re-chalk the surface.

Positively the newest White Horse is near Devizes.

In September of 1999 the out look of the Vale of Pewsey changed with the cutting of a new White Horse facing that of Alton Barnes. A group of enthusiasts from Devizes with the help of local civil engineering contractors cut the horse in just over a month. Although the initial suggestion had been put forward the previous year, planning had only been granted in April of 1999. All in all a pretty quick turn of events. A time capsule was buried on Millennium Eve. Take the A361 Devizes - Swindon road and turn left at the Industrial Estate towards Roundway Hill.

There are other horses at

Preshute,  SW of Marlborough A4 or Preshute tennis courts. Alton Barnes,  best seen from the south on the Alton Priors and Lockeridge roads. Hackpen,  on the right of the B4041 Broad Hinton - Marlborough road. Broad Town,  from centre of Broad Town and from B4041 Pewsey,  A354 South of Pewsey The latter until recently was the youngest having been cut in 1937 by the local Fire Brigade. If you are pressed for time go to Cherhill, but all these horses can be seen in a day if you're determined enough and use the car to travel between sites. However if you're a keen walker get yourself a copy of the White Horse Trail visitors pack. This includes seven pull-out walks which link to long distance paths and show cafés, pubs, village shops and bed and breakfast establishments. The full circuit is some ninety miles and includes sections of the Ridgeway and Kennet and Avon Canal towpath. Price £6 from the Wiltshire Walking Hotline 01980 623255. I shall get letters if I omit to mention that there is an much older horse in Oxfordshire at Uffington. Possibly some 3000 years old it is a very stylized version. Indeed some would have it that it commemorates a dragon. The dragon actually, slain by St. George, certainly Dragon Hill is nearby.	Alton Barns
	Hackpen
	Broad Town
	Pewsey

While you're doing the rounds of Wiltshire's White Horses, keep an eye open for Crop Circles. They are not exclusively Wiltshire phenomena but more appear here than anywhere else in the world. I don't think there was a summer in the nineties that we did not have a dozen or so reported. Are they natural, the work of some alien visitor, or just a series of elaborate hoaxes?

The complex geometric design seems to rule out nature for some of them. Many appear appear so quickly that the human hand (or foot) could not have produced them during in the time the site was unobserved. While some circles may be hoaxes, given the huge numbers that appear each year, how come few people have ever been caught in the act of making one. Bear in mind they have been reported back as far as the 1700s. What does that leave? Spooky! Whatever your view, here's one I found a couple of years back, it was the first of the year. I photographed this simple circle the morning it appeared at the beginning of May, in a field of rape on the opposite side of the A4 from Silbury Hill.

Silbury Hill stands to the north of the A4 between Beckhampton and Marlborough. Follow the A4 east from Chippenham, about twelve miles and as they say, "You can't miss it" There is a car park for viewing, Please obey the notices and do not climb the hill. Silbury Hill is the largest man made mound in Europe, 130 feet high, the base covers over 5 acres and the top is some 100 feet across. Nobody really knows why it was built, there have been several excavations which have found no evidence of any burial. The mound is dated at around 2500 BC. don't be content with the view just from the car park, from the northern corner a pathway leads all around the hill at a distance of a couple of hundred yards, affording many fine views.

To the south about a half of a mile the other side of the A4 is West Kennet long barrow, an impressive Neolithic tomb, the construction which commenced about 3600 BC. There is another car park by the road side but if you have walked around the hill you're there already, well you're at the start of the path anyway!. Walk behind the entrance of huge sarsen stones and into the burial chambers, around 30 feet into the mound. A torch is a good idea here! There are five burial chambers with a central corridor connecting two chambers on each side and one at the end. Excavations have revealed a total of 46 burials, it is thought that this tomb was in use for as long as 1,000 years.

A chance remark in the yourguide to Chippenham Guestbook reminded me that nowhere in these pages was the story of the Wiltshire Moonraker told. A serious omission, this seemed as good a place as any for a bit of folklore.

The story goes back a few years and there are a few variations but the central theme remains the same. It is usually told in dialect, but Wiltshire folk don't talk like that any more, not zince I were a little un. So except for the odd lapse I'll stick to "proper" English.

A long while back two Wiltshire men were engaged in the traditional occupation of smuggling brandy, usually landed by boat at night on the Dorset coast, moving their load by night and hiding it by day.

Nearing Devizes and suspecting the approach of an Excise Man they had hidden their barrel of brandy in a pond. When they thought the coast was clear they started to retrieve the brandy, using a couple of hay rakes. Just then of course the excise man showed up. "What are you two up to?" he asked. "Ah zur" the yokels replied, "why we be tryin' to rake thik gert cheese out'the pond". The excise man saw only the reflection of the moon in the water. He had a jolly good laugh at the at the stupidity of the two yokels and went on his way.

The outsider doesn't always see all of the game, we Wiltshire folk aren't quite as dumb as we sometimes let on.

The pond in question is generally reckoned to be The Crammer in Devizes, home to half a dozen swans and small boys with sailing boats. Standing on the corner of the green by the church, it seems a fairly innocent sort of place, in the daytime.........