Email, the Old-Fashioned Way
On
top of the white horse is a big bucket on a pole. This bucket is
actually the Westbury signal beacon, one in a series of more than 1000
beacon across England from Berwick-upon-Tweed in the North
East to the Isles of Scilly in the South West.
The point of a signal beacon is to pass a message to the next signal fire as a a call to arms. This message sent by beacon would travel far faster than a messenger struggling along difficult and dangerous tracks on horseback. All counties were required to have a militia force that could be called into action at times of national emergency. By the time this militia had been mustered more accurate information would have hopefully reached them.
The system was not foolproof though: In 1545 rumours spread
of a French landing on the coast, the beacons were lit, and the Worcestershire
militia tramped all the way to Swindon before they were told it was a false
alarm.
During the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) they were used to warn of the Spanish Armada setting sail (9th May 1589). Queen Elizabeth now knew the Armada was coming and sent Sir Francis Drake and his sailors to meet the Spanish, the rest, as they say, is history!
The
Beacon was last lit on the 3rd of June 2002,
as part of the celebrations for the golden jubilee of
Queen Elizabeth II. There was a chain of about 2000
beacons all round the world. One group lit a beacon on Mount Kenya. The many
others included beacons near the North Pole, and in Antarctica.
The chain started overseas, in Commonwealth and other countries. It finished when the Queen lit the National Beacon on the Queen
Victoria Memorial in the Mall, near Buckingham Palace initiating a
spectacular fireworks and light show.