Paddy Power have decided to add an Uffington White Jockey to the Uffington White Horse.
Now we don't know what the White Horse is all about. Some say religious, some say a territorial power-symbol, intimidating other tribes. Some might say - what's the difference between those two anyway, to somebody from the Bronze Age. At least, I might say that.
And I recall how, long and merry ago now, I cycled out to Uffington from Oxford with a friend, climbed up to the top, and felt an almost physical sense of oppressive power. Although admittedly that was only because we realised how close we were to Swindon.
Paddy Power should be ashamed. They've trampled around an ancient monument which they could easily have damaged. Have they never heard of Photoshop? Let's face it, if they'd Photoshopped the Horse they could have put some more topical rider on it. Like David Cameron, with a blue flashing light on the horse and a Sun logo.
In any case, we all know there's only once that the landscape round the White Horse was added to with good reason - that celebratory, free-spirited challenge to gray authority that is "Cloudbusting". Take it away, Kate.
Ah, the video explains a lot, the first time I was up there was for the lighting of the beacons to celebrate the defeat of the Spanish Armada (or something like that.)Hundreds of us stood around in the drizzle on this hillside with nothing much happening. My daughter's German visitor kept saying "I do not understand."
ReplyDeleteThe second time I was escaping life by attempting to cross the country by horse and cart using ancient tracks and we fled an approaching storm along the Ridgeway.