UFFINGTON, a parish in the hundred of SHRIVENHAM,
county of BERKS, 4 miles (S. S. E.) from Great
Farringdon, containing, with the chapelries of Baulking
and Wolstone, 925 inhabitants. The living is a discharged
vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Berks, and
diocese of Salisbury, rated in the king's books at £21.
J. A. Houblon, Esq. was patron in 1816,. The church,
dedicated to St. Mary, is a handsome cruciform structure,
in the early style of English architecture: the
spire was destroyed by-lightning, about 1750. The Wilts
and Berks canal passes through the parish. Thomas
Saunders, in 1636, founded and endowed a free school
for twelve boys of this parish, and six from Wolstone;
the rents applied for its support amount to £41. 15.
On White Horse hill, just above the village, is Uffington.
Castle, a large encampment, surrounded by a double
Vallum, the inner one very high: it is seven hundred
feet from east to west, five hundred from north to
south, and is supposed to be a work of the Britons,
afterwards occupied by the Romans. This hill. has its
name from the rude figure of a horse, three hundred
and seventy-four feet in length, cut in the turf, near
the summit, said to be commemorative, of the victory
which Alfred obtained over the Danes in this neighbourhood,
though some consider it a British work. Lands
were formerly held here by cleaning, or rather cutting,
away the turf, to render the figure more visible; for
which purpose a custom still prevails among the inhabit
ants of assembling to scour, as it is termed, the. horse,
on which occasion they are entertained by the lord of
the manor, and spend the day in festivity. To the westward
of Uffington Castle is a large tumulus, called Wayland-
Smith, and there are various other tumuli scattered
on these downs, particularly between Uffington and
Lambourn, the most considerable of which are those
called the Seven Barrows.