Farley Mount

Farley Mount is one of the highest points in Hampshire at 174 metres ASL (571ft). It is in Farley Mount Country Park, about four miles west of the historic city of Winchester, Hampshire.

Farley Mount
Highest point
Elevation174 m (571 ft)
Coordinates51°03′33″N 1°25′34″W
Geography
Farley Mount is located in England
Farley Mount
Farley Mount
OS gridSU403290

A folk song, 'On Farley Mount' included the lines:


"oh on Farley Mount

the clouds drift by,

rustling the trees,

on Farley mount I wonder why,

what troubles you and I,

blue is the sky

and so are your eyes,

oh left alone on Farley Mount".


These words are believed to date back to at least the sixteenth century and are sometimes sung in pubs in the area.

Monument

On top of the mount is a folly, which is a monument and burial place marker to a horse named 'Beware Chalk Pit', which carried its owner to a racing victory in 1734, a year after falling into a 25-foot (7.6 m) deep chalk pit while out hunting.[1][2]

Farley Mount

The monument is the subject of Timothy Corsellis' poem 'the first great goodbye'. Corsellis, an alumnus of Winchester college who lived in the early-mid 20th century, wrote 'I'll plant myself on Cheesefoot Head/and miles of Hampshire will I tread,/I'll turn my nose to Farley Mount/No ugly bypass need I count, And in a second I'll be there/ Or in the beech woods standing near'. Goethals, Helen, ed. (4 January 2013). The Unassuming Sky: The Life and Poetry of Timothy Corsellis. Winchester, UK: Cambridge Scholars. ISBN 1443845175.

There are plaques on the interior and exterior of the monument, which read:

Underneath lies buried a horse, the property of Paulet St. John Esq., that in the month of September 1733 leaped into a chalk pit twenty-five feet deep afoxhuntiing with his master on his back and in October 1734 he won the Hunters Plate on Worthy Downs and was rode by his owner and was entered in the name of "Beware Chalk Pit".[1]

References
  1. "The Horse Monument at Farley Mount". Hampshire County Council. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  2. O’Brien, Charles; Bailey, Bruce; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Lloyd, David W. (2018). The Buildings of England Hampshire: South. Yale University Press. p. 278. ISBN 9780300225037.
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