THE FORESTS OF BELGIUM 



25 



Letters which have been received Methods of Conserving Them, and es- 

 within a very recent date indicate that pecially the Forest of Soignes." 

 so far the forest of Soignes has been Its naivete takes one back to the 



spared. In view of the pangs which we fugitive broadsides and pamphlets of 

 have all suffered at the thought of the the time of Defoe, and yet it is in 

 destruction of the ancient buildings in reality the title of a communication 

 Belgium and France, always secondary presented to the Fourth Congres Inter- 

 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 will 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 an artist and landscape architect, and 

 to go back into the past of two or formed a part of the work undertaken 

 three centuries ago. It was entitled: by the League of the Friends of the 

 "Study of an Element of the Restora- Forest of Soignes; it puts forth a plea 

 tion of Public Taste through a Return for revitalizing the beauties and glories 

 to the Contemplation of Forests and of the forest, such as must have fallen 

 Natural Sites, particularly Forests and upon sympathetic ears. 



Beeches in the Forest of Soignes. 



the trunks are clothed in an almost translucent 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., 



