SAVERNAKE FOREST 183 



and its outskirts, passiog the loveliest forest scenery 

 in England. Nothing can compare for magnificence 

 with the massed beeches and oaks of Savernake, whose 

 glorious alleys of foliage extend for miles in every 

 direction. These fine full-grown trees are planted 

 for the most '^^\\j in a well-considered design, and 

 radiate from a central point in eight directions. 

 These "Eight AValks," as they are called, vary in 

 leno-th from f(Uir miles downwards, and lie to the 

 south of the road. The highway runs through the 

 northern verge of the Forest, quite open and hedgeless 

 all the way, with two gates across it, about two miles 

 apart. The scenery is like nothing so much as a 

 painting by De Wint or Constable. 



The Marquis of Ailesbury, to whom this noble 

 demesne (the only Forest in the possession of a 

 subject) belongs, has his residence near the southern 

 boundary of the Forest, at Tottenham House, which 

 is a singularly plain building externally, and so 

 reminiscent in name of the Tottenham Court Eoad 

 that it would have been exquisitely appropriate had 

 the late Marquis sold the estate to Sir John Bluudell 

 Maple instead of to Lord Iveagh. 



I suppose the eccentricities of the late Marquis of 

 Ailesbury will become the subject of curious legends in 

 the coming by-and-by. He was born out of his time, 

 and was a kind of " throw-back " to earlier types 

 that flourished when the Prince Reg-ent and the Toms 

 and Jerrys disported themselves in the famous 

 Corinthian manner. 



The glades of Savernake still remain in the family, 

 but were alienated to Lord Iveagh, the man of Dublin 



