THE FORESTS OF BELGIUM 



25 



Letters which have been received 

 within a very recent date indicate that 

 so far the forest of Soignes has been 

 spared. In view of the pangs which w^e 

 have all suffered at the thought of the 

 destruction of the ancient buildings in 

 Belgium and France, always secondary 

 to the thought of the agony 

 which has been heaped upon the 

 people themselves, it seems tri- 

 vial to even think about a forest. 

 Yet those who know the forest 

 of Soignes would experience the 

 profoundest sorrow were they 

 forced to believe that it too had 

 gone the way of all the rest. 



Soignes is at once the pride 

 and the glory of Brussels, one 

 of the most beautiful of all the 

 world's forests, one of the most 

 delightful spots in all Europe. 

 For reasons which it is quite 

 easy to understand, its loveli- 

 ness is little known to the 

 thousands of Americans who 

 annually visit Brussels. One 

 goes to Belgium to see its art 

 treasures — to study Van Eyck 

 and Memling at Bruges and 

 Ghent, to wander through the 

 quaintness of M alines and Lou- 

 vain — alas! that it has gone 

 forever! In Brussels one may 

 drive to the Bois de la Cambre, 

 one of the most enchanting of 

 parks, but few evidently have 

 the courage or desire to continue 

 the drive and lose themselves in 

 the glades and archways of the 

 forest of Soignes itself, which is 

 practically a continuation of the 

 park. It means a whole day, 

 starting early and returning late, 

 if one is to gain any real idea of 

 the forest, but few who have 

 made the journey w411 ever forget it. 



Some few months ago there came 

 into my hands a very curious pam- 

 phlet with a title of such philosophic 

 significance that in reading it one seemed 

 to go back into the past of two or 

 three centuries ago. It was entitled: 

 "Study of an Element of the Restora- 

 tion of Public Taste through a Return 

 to the Contemplation of Forests and 

 Natural Sites, particularly Forests and 



Methods of Conserving Them, and es- 

 pecially the Forest of Soignes." 



Its naivete takes one back to the 

 fugitive broadsides and pamphlets of 

 the time of Defoe, and yet it is in 

 reality the title of a communication 

 presented to the Fourth Congres Inter- 



THE 



Beeches in the Forest of Soignes. 



trunks .are clothed in an almost tr.\nslucent veil 

 of delicate green. 



national d'Art Public, held at Brussels 

 in 1910. 



It was signed by Rene Stevens, the 

 artist, and; Louis Van der Swaelmen, Jr., 

 an artist and landscape architect, and 

 formed a part of the work undertaken 

 by the League of the Friends of the 

 Forest of Soignes; it puts forth a plea 

 for revitalizing the beauties and glories 

 of the forest, such as must have fallen 

 upon sympathetic ears. 



