A Roman road skirted the foot of the White Horse Hill, and on the side
of this road was a strangely shaped sarsen-stone called the "Blowing
Stone." It was quite a large stone, in which holes had been formed by
nature, running through it in every direction like a sponge. It was said
to have been used by King Alfred to summon his troops, as by blowing
down one of the holes a booing sound was produced from the other holes
in the stone. On a later occasion my brother tried to make it sound, and
failed to do so, because he did not know the "knack," but a yeoman's
wife who was standing near, and who was quite amused at his efforts to
produce a sound, said, "Let me try," and astonished him by blowing a
loud and prolonged blast of a deep moaning sound that could have been
heard far away. The third verse in the ballad referred to it as:
The Blewin Stun, in days gone by,
Wur King Alfred's bugle harn,
And the tharn tree you med plainly zee.
As is called King Alfred's tharn!
The thorn tree marked the spot where the rival armies met--the pagans
posted on the hill, and the Christians meeting them from below--it was
through the great victory won on that occasion that England became a
Christian nation.
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