Ralph Whitlock, in his book Salisbury Plain, published in 1955, writes:
. . . . . the Fonthill estates. These extend over the climbing downs and embrace the greater part of Great Ridge Woods, a vast, lonely wilderness of stunted oaks, hazels, birch and scrub, through which wander many ancient trackways and a Roman road from Sorbiodunum to the Mendip mines. Many of the old downland pastures on the slopes around the forest have been ploughed in recent years and yield, when the rabbits will let them, reasonable crops of barley; but barren, unspoilt corners still remain, jewelled in summer with all the exquisite little downland flowers that are here never stifled by ranker growths.