It leads to Tottenham House, situated at the eastern extremity
and belonging to the Marquis of Ailesbury. This mansion stands on the
site of an old house of the Seymours, to whom the Forest passed from
the Plantagenet Kings (it was a jointure of Queen Eleanor). By marriage
the estates afterwards went to the Bruces, who still hold them.
Herds of deer roam the open glades, and wild life is abundant and
varied. In some parts of the Forest the thickets and dense undergrowth
are reminiscent of the district between the Rufus Stone and
Fording-bridge in the greater Forest, but the highest beauty of
Savernake lies in the avenues of oak and beech which extend for miles
and meet about midway between Durley and Marlborough. Here are no fir
plantations to strike an alien note. Rugged and ancient trees that
were saplings in Stuart times or before and the dense young growth of
to-day are all natural to the soil. The column that stands on high
ground, a little over a mile from Savernake station, commemorates,
among other events, the temporary recovery of George III from his
mental illness.
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