40 



Savernake Forest. 



ancient period, but have merely followed the words of an old Record 

 of Perambulation, and traced its course upon our Ordnance Map, as 

 well as I could : but there are a great many names of places in the 

 Record which no longer exist on the Ordnance Map. It is however 

 sufficiently correct to give you a fair general idea of the forest, when at 

 its largest. The tinted part shows the original demesne and something 

 more. All the rest had been added, but it is to be observed that the 

 district so added, was never enclosed by fence or paling, so as to make 

 one immense park. All that is meant, is, that the whole of the added 

 or afforested parts had been placed,so far as theKing's beasts and hunt- 

 ing were concerned, under the strict and arbitrary forest law. 1 It ap- 

 pears to have been divided at that time into three separate bailys, or 

 baily wicks, the several bailiffs being all subjects to the head warden. 

 1. Eastwick Baily, which reached from Workaway Hill, to a spot 

 called Braden. Southgrove and other woods are named as being J 

 disafforested in A.D. 1300. 2. The West Baily, including, I 

 believe, Savernake proper, the Brails, and Haredon, now called > 

 Hardings. 3. Plippingscombe Baily on the south, which lay to- 

 wards Chute Forest, and included part of it. The cultivated lands 

 now called Savernake Great Park were, I believe, part of the original 

 forest, which certainly ran a good way in the direction of Martinshill : 

 for there is a document of the year 933 that mentions a gift to the 

 Abbey of Wilton of some land that lay between Oare and Wans- 

 dyke, lying outside the wood called Sqfernoc. That is the oldest I 

 mention of the name that has been met with. The map, therefore, I 

 shows you what Savernake was when at its greatest ; and, knowing 

 the neighbourhood, you will understand better what a forest really 

 meant. It included every variety of ground : not all belonging to 

 one or two large properties, but at that time in a multitude of 

 owners' hands. It included rich land, arable and pasture, in the 



lower grounds ; open woods, such as the Brails, enclosed parks, as 



i 



1 It may be as well to mention that the two Perambulations, headed " Savernak " 

 in Wilts Mag., iv., 201, describe the three Bailys thus : — The first, p. 201, ap- 

 plies to Eastwick Baily, including Savernake proper and the Old Savernake I 

 Park : and names Southgrove and other woods. At p. 204, line 2, begins the 

 circuit of Westriclge or West Baily. The one beginning in the lower part of p. 

 204 is that of Hippingscombe Baily. 



