However, I can't shake the feeling that the ditch held water, intentionally, as a vital element of the complex. It feels right to me, which is obviously proof of nothing beyond my own tendency toward romance, but it is an enduring image.
The green against the gleaming chalk, wood, stone and the water surround, reflecting the sky, the people peering into it, the sun, the moon.
Any thoughts, feelings, ideas about this?
With regard to the bank...this is from A Lady in Waiting:
'I have mentioned that the finished article must have looked spectacular on its completion and others have made mention of the ditch and bank having a gleaming white appearance at that point in time, but would that really have been the case?
The ditch alone must have taken so long to dig out that surely earlier digging would have ‘greened up’ as continued digging took place! Evidence of this is seen quite regularly when groups of people are seen carrying out ‘maintenance’ on many of the white horses and other such hill figures and designs throughout the countryside. If this remedial work was not carried out every few years many of these figures would have long since disappeared as Mother Nature reclaimed what was rightfully hers. To all intents and purposes, that is exactly what has happened at the Great Circle with both ditch and bank now completely covered in grass, save for the well trodden paths along the top of the banks.
Of course it is entirely possible that the ditch and bank that had already been dug out and heaped up were cleaned regularly as work continued so that the white surface remained. But would that have been necessary if the ‘look’ was not important? Probably of little importance but nevertheless an interesting point to at least consider'.
