The Scouring of the White Horse; or, The Long Vacation Ramble of a London Clerk

Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1859. Hard Cover. Very Good. 0x0x0. Doyle, Richard. Copyright states: "Author's Edition, fifth thousand." Board corners rubbed, few pages lightly foxed. 1859 Hard Cover. xii, 324, 16 pp. "Tom Hughes's The Scouring of the White Horse is a combined travel book and record of regional history in the guise of a novel, sort of. That description probably suggests what an odd book it is. Travel writing has long relied on techniques of the novel, including elaborate description, dialogue, narrative, and substantial quotation from earlier writers who've visited the same locations, and so there's no obvious reason why Hughes chose the form of a novel to relate his experience involving the Valley of the White Horse in Berkshire. The larger portion of the text relates stories of King Alfred and the traditional celebrations, athletic contests, and other activities that surround the preservation of "a rude colossal figure cut out in the turf, and giving the name to a whole district." Legends, Hughes tells us, connect the area to the ninth-century King Alfred "and with his great victory over the Pagans, and a festival which has been held at very short intervals ever since the ninth century. Rich as our land is in historical monuments, there is none more remarkable than the White Horse" (x). Hughes gives us plenty of warning that we readers will encounter a hodge-podge or, as he calls it, "a stir-about."--victorianweb. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: "Thomas Hughes QC (20 October 1822 – 22 March 1896) was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's School Days (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford (1861). Hughes had numerous other interests, in particular as a Member of Parliament, in the British co-operative movement, and in a settlement in Tennessee, USA, reflecting his values."--Wikipedia