156 
ART IN THE FOREST. . 
[Nature and Avt, October 1, 1866. 
with a duck for your dinner, why do you not go to 
work as we do 1” It is impossible to express the 
disdain with which the first lady received this in- 
quiry; it must have almost turned her artist’s 
blood to gall. 
Marlotte is situated on the edge of a fertile plain, 
half surrounded by the forest, with the spire of her 
somewhat bigger sister, Bourron, standing out 
opposite against the hills. The plain is a perfect 
garden, cultivated in small patches with every kind 
of crop, from potatoes to vines, for whose especial 
advantage, also, are constructed stone walls, 
hundreds of yards in length, and covered with 
trellis-work. Everywhere are to be seen fruit-trees 
of noble growth — the lordly walnut, laden this 
year with its green eggs, apple, pear, plum, and 
cherry, and especially the great trees which bear 
the blackheart kind of cherries, called in France 
ginnes. Certain young ladies, on seeing the tempt- 
ing store of fruit on these trees, and deeply im- 
pressed with the severity which generally exists, in 
France, in relation to even fallen fruit, asked a 
worthy peasant how much he would sell them some 
ginnes for. 
“Oh,” said the man, “if you will take the 
trouble to gather them yourself, you ai-e quite wel- 
come to them ; and if you pick more than a pound 
or so, you can leave two sous at my cottage there ! ” 
Rural felicity ! Fine cherries a penny a pound, 
and the weighing left to the purchaser’s conscience ! 
Some of the finest spots in the forest of Fontaine- 
bleau are close to Marlotte, or within easy walk. 
The Longs Lockers, for instance, are a splendid range 
nearly two miles in length, enclosing within their 
sinuosities several exquisite plains that seem marked 
out as amphitheatres for silvan games. They are 
broken into the most romantic forms, covered 
with purple heather and green fanlike ferns, and 
enamelled with flowers. They possess, moreover, a 
cavern which furnishes shelter for a large party, 
and on whose floor may be seen, in spite of the 
forest laws, the marks of many a fire around which 
the gypsies of cultivated Paris have warmed their 
chilled fingers and dried their dripping habili- 
ments drenched by the Aquarius of the region. 
The Gorge aux Groups is another fine rocky scene, 
where the pleasure of a moonlight ramble is 
heightened by the reputation of the place, and by 
the presence of a wolf-trap discreetly hidden from 
sight, Imt indicated by a placard or a wooden post, 
the inscription on which may be read if you are in- 
formed beforehand of its purport. The Mare aux 
Fees, again, where shadowy beings flit over the 
pools, and amongst the noble beeches and oaks 
which surround the still, cold, grassy tvaters, and 
many another lonely spot, lies buried in masses of 
pine and juniper, or towers aloft and commands 
prospects over the tops of miles and miles of 
forest to the blue-grey hills beyond. The sandstone 
and the crystals of Fontainebleau are known to 
every geologist, as well as to every sight-seer, who 
has visited the neighbourhood. The varieties of 
ferns, the beautiful branched mosses, the exquisite 
lichens, and the abundance of wild flowers, are the 
delight of all. And those who are curious in fungi 
will find a rich harvest, almost all kinds abounding 
in the forest, from the common toadstool to the 
true mushroom, which enters so largely into French 
cookery. There are six varieties of the cepe or bolet; 
amongst which are the cepe ordinaire ( Boletus edulis), 
considered delicious eating in some parts of France, 
the cepe noir, or bolet bronze (B. cereus ), the 
bolet orange, or gyrolle rouge, and the Boletus 
cyanescens, blue and poisonous. Some of these 
grow to a gigantic size, and we picked some the 
other day which measured a foot in height and ten 
inches across the head. One of the most curious 
fungi of Fontainebleau, however, is the Gyrolle , 
called also Oreille de Houx ( Agaricus agnifolii, 
Poulet), of a bright orange-yellow colour, and which 
often gives the ground the appearance of being 
strewed with orange-peel ; it is peculiar in form, 
the top being slightly hollow, the edges indented 
irregularly, and the stalk thickening upwards and 
channelled. The surface is waxy, and it strikes 
every one as looking just like a clumsy attempt to 
model a flower in yellow wax ; a more poisonous- 
looking thing it is scarcely possible to conceive, but 
it is not so, and is eaten largely at Marlotte and 
elsewhere. We ventured upon a dish upon one oc- 
casion, but found it so like our idea of a stewed kid 
glove, that we did not ask for any more Gyrolles. 
We have met with a very delicate-looking fungus 
in the forest, the name of which is unknown to us ; 
its form is that of the common mushroom, only the 
top is thinner and more fragile, and the whole is 
translucent and as perfectly white as if it had been 
carved out of the finest ivory — or rather out of 
vegetable ivory — while the entire surface is covered 
with a fluid which seems to be watery, not viscous, 
and gives it a peculiarly fresh and polished look. 
It is disappointing to see a forest with so little 
game, and such a want of singing birds, as that 
part of it which lies about Marlotte : here and 
there a solitary deer, very rarely a pheasant, a hare 
now and then, but plenty of rabbits ; the too-whit 
of the night owl and the cry of the rabbit or hare 
when in danger are the best-known sounds in the 
woods. But the naturalist who loves butterflies 
and beetles, lizards, salamanders, big ants, and frogs, 
will find a splendid field of study. There is one 
creature, the viper, for which Fontainebleau has 
a bad reputation, and against which ladies as well 
as gentlemen wear leggings ; but although they 
exist there, they are not numerous. 
An old forest would be unworthy of its name if 
it had not its spectre : the spirit of Fontainebleau 
is the Grand Veneur , the master of the hounds 
long gone to the dogs, the black huntsman who 
appeared to Henry IV. just before his assassina- 
tion. There can be no doubt about the truth of the 
legend, for the Croix du Grand Veneur still stands 
in the forest to prove it. However, the black 
huntsman has not been seen lately ; but there is 
another spectral exhibition which may be seen 
every night in several parts of the forest. At the 
point where the Marlotte road enters the domains 
of the black huntsman, and where communal rule 
