Chapter I: Preface

Born in one of the most beautiful provinces of France, in a country of noble forests and extensive vineyards; brought up in the open air amidst the blue hills, and ever wandering over the fields and mountains with a gun on my arm--all the hours of my youth, if I may so say, were spent in search of partridges and hares in the dewy stubbles, and in the pursuit of the wild cat and the boar in the shady depths of the woods.

When relating the adventures of these different shooting rambles to a friend, talking over with him our mode of sporting so different from that of England, and when in imagination I carried him along with me into the dells and dark ravines, and described to him the chase and death-struggle of the ferocious wolf, or the odd characters and antediluvian customs of the primitive people amongst whom I passed the days of my happy boyhood, astonished, he could hardly believe that such sports and such singular personages existed within so short a distance of his own country.

"Why not scribble all this?" he would say, "your sketches would make capital light reading."

"But to write is not easy; and, besides, what a poor figure I and my dogs and wolves, woodcocks and vineyards, would cut after the terrible Mr. Gordon Cumming. How could any description of mine interest the public in comparison with those of that famous shot and his three coffee-coloured Hottentots, with his bands of panthers and giraffes, his troops of yellow lions dancing sarabands round the fountains, and his jungles and swamps swarming with elephants and hippopotami?"

"But we might be able to go to Le Morvan," said my friend, "whereas few indeed, if they wished it, can go to the South of Africa to shoot elephants through the small ribs; neither is it probable that many of us would like to pass several years of their valuable lives shut up in a loose, rolling, sea-bathing-machine-like wagon, with their own beloved shadow alone for all Christian company. Let us have a narrative of your exploits?"

"You do not consider what you ask," I replied; "my gossip may have amused you, but the effusions of my pen would to a certainty make you yawn like graves."

"Nonsense," whispered the flatterer, "you will open to us a new country, you will confer a real service upon hundreds of restless Englishmen, who when summer comes know not for the life of them where to go, or where not to go;--write your work, and advise them to turn their steps to Le Morvan at the time of the vintage."

But now another, a huge difficulty, sprung up. Printers do not lend their types for nothing any more than they give gratis their time and paper. To publish a book is always an expensive affair; misfortune, which had touched me with its wing, which has been the sad guest of my house, deprived me of the power of undertaking it myself: and where to find a person so generous as to take upon himself the responsibility of the undertaking? Happily I was in England, in the land of kind hearts and warm sympathies. A noble lady, the mother of a distinguished English nobleman, who passes her life in doing good, took an interest in my forlorn history, and was pleased to honour me with her patronage. With this mantle of protection thrown around me, and my generous friend having undertaken to bear the responsibilities of publishing, the difficulties were soon swept away, and Le Morvan was written.

I had hoped that I should in this Preface be permitted to mention her name, which would have been less a compliment to her than an honour to me; but her modesty has refused this public acknowledgment of my unbounded gratitude,--a veil of respectful reserve shall therefore remain suspended over her name. As for me and mine, we shall treasure it in our thankful hearts--every day shall we pray that the Great Giver of all good may confer upon her His most precious and gracious blessings.

HENRI DE CRIGNELLE.

LONDON, _August_, 1851.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

English propensity to ramble--Where and how--Le Morvan--Vezelay--Description of the town--Historical associations connected with it--Charles IX.--Persecutions of the Protestants--View from Vezelay--Scenery and wild sports--The Author--Object of the Work _p._ 1

CHAPTER II.

Le Morvan--Forests--Climate--Patriarchs and Damosels--Peasants of the plain and the mountains--Jovial Curés--Their love of Burgundy--The Doctor and the Curé 14

CHAPTER III.

Geology--Fossil shells--Antediluvian salmon--The Druids--Chindonax, the High Priest--Roman antiquities--Julius Cæsar's hunting-box--Lugubrious village--Carré-les-Tombes--The Inquisitive Andalusian 26

CHAPTER IV.

Le Morvan during the Middle Ages--Legendary horrors--Forest of La Goulotte--La Croix Chavannes--La Croix Mordienne--Hôtel de Chanty--Château de Lomervo--A French Bluebeard--Citadel of Lingou 35

CHAPTER V.

Castle of Bazoche--Maréchal de Vauban--Relics of the old Marshal--Memorials of Philipsburg--Hôtel de Bazarne--Madame de Pompadour's maître d'hôtel--Proof of the _curés'_ grief--Farm of St. Hibaut--Youthful recollections--Monsieur de Cheribalde--Navarre the Four-Pounder--His culverin 43

CHAPTER VI.

Bird's-eye view of the forests--The student's visit to his uncle in the country--Sallies forth in the early morning--Meets a cuckoo--Follows him--The cuckoo too much for him--Gives up the pursuit--Finds he has lost his way--Agreeable vespers--Night in the forest--Wolves--Up a beech tree--A friend in need--The student bids adieu to Le Morvan 55

CHAPTER VII.

Charms of a forest life to the sportsman--The Poachers--Le Père Séguin--His knowledge of the woods and of the rivers--The first buck--A bad shot 65

CHAPTER VIII.

Le Père Séguin's collation--The young sportsman and the hare--The quarrel--The apology--The reconciliation--The cemetery--Bait for barbel--Le Père Séguin's deceased friends--The return home 75

CHAPTER IX.

Passage of the woodcock in November--Laziness of that bird--Night travelling--Mode of snaring them at night--Numbers taken in this way--This sport adapted rather for the poacher--The _braconnier_ of Le Morvan--His mode of life--The poacher's dog--The double poacher 88

CHAPTER X.

The woodcock--Its habits in the forests of Le Morvan--Aversion of dogs to this bird--Timidity of the woodcock--Its cunning--Shooting in November--The Woodcock mates--The Woodcock fly 100

CHAPTER XI.

Fine names--Gustavus Adolphus and the cabbages--Gustavus Adolphus no hero!--The Parisian Sportsman--Partridge shooting despicable--Wild boar-hunting--Rousing the grisly monster--His approach--The post of honour--Good nerves--The death--The trophy and congratulations 117

CHAPTER XII.

The _Mares_--Manner in which they are formed in the depths of the forest--_Mare_ No. 1.--Description of it--The appearance of the spot--Mode of constructing the hunting-lodge--Approach of the birds--Animals that frequent the _Mares_ in the evening 141

CHAPTER XIII.

Appearance of the _Mare_ in the morning--Forest etiquette--Mode of obtaining possession of the best _Mare_--Every subterfuge fair--The jocose sportsman--The quarrel--Reveries in the hut--Comparison between meeting a lady and watching for a wolf 157

CHAPTER XIV.

_Mare_ No. 2.--Description of it--Not sought after by the sportsman--The sick banker--The doctor's prescription--The patient's disgust at it--Is at length obliged to yield--Leaves Paris for Le Morvan--Consequences to the inmates of the château--The banker convalescent 170

CHAPTER XV.

Summer months in the Forest--_Mare_ No. 3.--Description of it--The Woodcock fly--The Banker has a day's sport--Arrives at the _Mare_--Difficult to please in his choice of a hut--Proceeds to a larger _Mare_--His friends retire--The Banker on the alert for a Wolf or a Boar--Fires at some animal--The unfortunate discovery--Rage of the Parisian--Pays for his blunder, and recovers his temper 188

CHAPTER XVI.

The _Curé_ of the Mountain--Toby Gold Button--Hospitality--The _Curé's_ pig--His hard fate and reflections--The _Curé_ of the plain--His worth and influence--The agent of the Government--Landed Proprietors--Their influence--The Orator--Dialogue with a Peasant 207

CHAPTER XVII.

The wolf--His aspect and extreme ferocity--His cunning in hunting his prey--His unsocial nature--Antiquity of the race--Where found, and their varieties--Annihilated in England by the perseverance of the kings and people--Decrees and rewards to encourage their destruction by Athelstane, John, and Edward I.--Death of the last wolf in England--Death of the last in Ireland 221

CHAPTER XVIII.

The _battues_ of May and December--The gathering of sportsmen--Preparations in the forest--The _charivari_--The fatal rush--Excitement of the moment--The volley--The day's triumph, and the reward--The peasants returning--Hunting the wolf with dogs--Cub-hunting--The drunken wolf 236

CHAPTER XIX.

Wolf-hunting, an expensive amusement--The _Traquenard_--Mode of setting this trap--A night in the forest with Navarre--The young lover--Dreadful accident that befell him--His courage and efforts to escape--The fatal catastrophe--The poor mad mother 248

CHAPTER XX.

Shooting wolves in the summer--The most approved baits to attract them--Fatal error--Hut-shooting--Silent joviality--The approach of the wolves--The first volley--The retreat--The final slaughter--The sportsman's reward--The farm-yard near St. Hibaut--The dead colt--The onset--Scene in the morning--Horrible accident--The gallant farmer--Death of the wolves, the dogs, and the peasant--The wolf-skin drum--Anathema of the naturalists 261

CHAPTER XXI.

Fishing in Le Morvan--The naturalist--The _Gour_ of Akin--The English lady--The mountain streams--Château de Chatelux--Sermiselle--New mode of killing pike--Pierre Pertuis--The rocks and whirlpool there--The syrens of the grotto--Château des Panolas--The Cousin--The ponds of Marot and lakes of Lomervo--Mode of taking fish with live trimmers--The Scotch farmer 280

CHAPTER XXII.

Village _fêtes_--The first of May--The religious festivals--The _Fête Dieu_--Appearance of the streets--The altars erected in them--Procession from the church--Country fairs--The book-stalls at them--Pictures of the Roman Catholic Church--Before the _Vendange_--Proprietor's hopes and fears--Shooting in the vineyards--The first day of the _Vendange_--Appearance of the country--Influx of visitors at this season--The consequences--Herminie--Her sad history--Le Morvan--Recommended to the English traveller--Lord Brougham and Cannes--Contrast between it and Le Morvan 297

LE MORVAN.