The smallest (in terms of width) such horse in Wiltshire, the Marlborough horse was cut in 1804 by boys at Mr Greasley's Academy, also called the High Street Academy, a school in Marlborough High Street which occupied the building now known as The Ivy House Hotel. This was not the present-day
Marlborough College, which is only a short distance away. The horse was designed and marked out on the hill by a boy called William Canning, whose family owned the Manor House at
Ogbourne St George. From then onwards, it was "scoured", or cleaned, every year, this becoming a tradition at the school marked by revelry. Greasley died about 1830, and the school was closed, leading to the horse being neglected for some years. By 1860, however, it was back in good condition and can be seen in a photograph taken that year at a cricket match. In 1873, Captain Reed, an old boy of Greasley's Academy who had taken part in the horse's creation, oversaw a new scouring. ==Inspiration==