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some " Ruins " inscribed on a sign post, and after much 

 ■wandering and the usual divided counsels found themselves at 

 the edge of a park like expanse of greensward, with large herds 

 of fallow deer grazing on the left. The "ruins" were then 

 discovered to be merely the remains of Savernake Lodge, after the 

 fire which destroyed it a few years since. However this detour was 

 not without its advantage. The tall straight stems of the beech 

 trees, with their light green spring foliage, arose on either hand 

 as far as the eye could reach, and one felt penetrated with the 

 the spirit of the forest primaeval; then an oak tree struggled up here 

 and there tall and slim like its beech brethren; then as one 

 advanced further into the inner penetralia a large and wide spread- 

 ing solitary oak maintained its true dignity and asserted its right of 

 expanse ; until passing through a wooden fence boundary mag- 

 nificent old oaks reared their gnarled arms and heads in solemn 

 grandeur alone, keeping their brother trees at a respectful 

 distance, and claiming respect due to their patriarchal age. 

 Then again there was much of interest in remarking the soil 

 upon which these trees grew. A section on the left revealed 

 some four or five feet of Tertiary beds, rounded flint drift on the 

 surface succeeded by sand and angular chalk flint debris resting 

 upon clay, thus aff"ording an admirable subsoil and nourishment 

 for the forest growth before its roots reached the Chalk 

 beneath. Whilst enquiries were being made of a gardener, near 

 the lodge, for tlie nearest way to the " King Oak," the botanists 

 found several dwarf orchids in flower, either Maculata or Morio, 

 and the photographers of the party made their first attempt with 

 the camera. Turning Avestward, the party struck across the 

 grass for the great avenue, crossing it in the direction of the "12 

 o'clock avenue ; " just before doing so a fine herd of fallow deer 

 away to the left, picturesquely feeding in the open, were 

 unconsciously the object of most earnest attention by two 

 curiously posed figures beneath a black pall in front of a tripod; the 

 distance, however, was probably too far for their successful capture. 



