First editions. A Letter to Dr Mead was the first serious archaeological study of the Uffington White Horse. Francis Wise, Keeper of the Archives at Oxford University and later a friend of Samuel Johnson, contends that the horse, which he eulogises as a work of art, had Saxon origins, because of the common use of horse motifs in Saxon decoration. His most enduring antiquarian contribution, however, is to link the nearby long barrow Wayland’s Smithy to the legendary Saxon figure Weland.

Shortly after the publication of A Letter to Dr Mead, an acrimonious pamphlet, The Impertinence and Imposture of modern Antiquaries issued under the name Philalethes Rusticus, responded with the claim, now believed accurate, that the horse in fact had iron-age British origins. Though Wise was first defended by George North he replied in his own hand with some Further Observations, expanding his remit to include several other hillside monuments.

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