Uffington White Horse forum 29 room
Image by davidtic
Uffington White Horse

Any comments?

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The image has been touched up for the postcard. Look closely and you will see that it doesn't follow the contours of the hillside at all. The lines of the horse's legs ignore the valleys and folds of the terrain. I would say that after the photograph was taken ( which would have been black and white of course), it was then hand coloured in awful green ink and that obscured the feint trace of the horse. The finishing touch was to paint the horse on to the photograph and the photographer (or his assistant) guessed its appearance.

... but here's a drawing made in 1776 that Pete sent me.
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/20779

I'd have said that this also was largely fanciful, but having tried to roughly transpose it onto the modern image I'm not so sure.
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/20780

There seems to be a case for thinking that the modern image is an "emaciated" version of the 1776 image. Generations of failure to fully cut back the edges...? And isn't the modern "head" the 1776 eye?