Editing Uffington White Horse (section)

==Scouring of the White Horse==
The White Horse has been carefully cleared of vegetation from time to time. The figure has remained clear of turf throughout its long existence, except for being covered as a precaution during the [[Second World War]] (as it could be used as a visual landmark for navigation by enemy planes). The cleaning process, known as the Scouring of the White Horse, was formerly made the occasion of a festival. Sports of all kinds were held, and keen rivalry was maintained, not only between the inhabitants of the local villages, but between local champions and those from distant parts of England.

The first of such festivals known took place in 1755 and they lasted until 1857, when 30,000&nbsp;people turned up for the event and were "too rowdy."<ref name="guardian scouring">{{cite news |first=Steven |last=Morris |date=22 May 2009 |title=Bank holiday grooming for Oxfordshire's White Horse |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |via=theguardian.com |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/may/22/oxfordshire-white-horse-bank-holiday |access-date=15 August 2022 }}</ref> ''The Scouring of the White Horse'', by Tom Hughes, was published in 1859 as a semi-fictionalised recounting of his visit to the 1857 event. He recounts being told that the local towns had laid claim to a tradition of scouring the White Horse since [[Saxons|Saxon]] times.<ref name="landow">{{cite web |author-link=George Landow (professor) |first=George P. |last=Landow |title=A "great basket of country treasures": Tom Hughes's ''The Scouring of the White Horse'' |website=The Victorian Web |url=https://victorianweb.org/authors/hughes/whitehorse.html |access-date=15 August 2022 }}</ref>

The tradition was revived in 2009 by the National Trust, with local volunteers replacing a layer of freshly quarried chalk on the [[Spring Bank Holiday]] weekend.<ref name="guardian scouring"/> Frequent work is required for the figure to remain visible. If regular cleaning is halted, the figure quickly becomes obscured. Periodic scouring continues, organised by the [[National Trust]]. On Chalking Day, volunteers with hammers, buckets of chalk, and kneepads kneel and "smash the chalk to a paste, whitening the paths cut in the grass inch by inch."<ref name="SI"/>