Transcriber’s Note
The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully preserved. Only obvioustypographical errors have been corrected.
LE MORVAN,
[A DISTRICT OF FRANCE,]
ITS
WILD SPORTS, VINEYARDS AND FORESTS;
WITH
Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches.
BY
HENRI DE CRIGNELLE,
ANCIEN OFFICIER DE DRAGONS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT IN FRENCH,
BY
CAPTAIN JESSE,
AUTHOR OF "NOTES OF A HALFPAY;" "LIFE OF BRUMMELL;"
"MURRAY'S HAND-BOOK FOR RUSSIA," ETC., ETC.
SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, CONDUIT-STREET.
1851.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM TYLER,
BOLT-COURT.
PREFACE.
Born in one of the most beautiful provinces of France, in a country ofnoble forests and extensive vineyards; brought up in the open air amidstthe blue hills, and ever wandering over the fields and mountains with agun on my arm—all the hours of my youth, if I may so say, were spent insearch of partridges and hares in the dewy stubbles, and in the pursuitof the wild cat and the boar in the shady depths of the woods.
When relating the adventures of these different shooting rambles to afriend, talking over with him our mode of sporting so different fromthat of England, and when in imagination I carried him along with meinto the dells and dark ravines, and described to him the chase anddeath-struggle of the ferocious wolf, or the odd characters andantediluvian customs of the primitive people amongst whom I passed thedays of my happy boyhood, astonished, he could hardly believe that suchsports and such singular personages existed within so short a distanceof his own country.
"Why not scribble all this?" he would say, "your sketches would makecapital light reading."
"But to write is not easy; and, besides, what a poor figure I and mydogs and wolves, woodcocks and vineyards, would cut after the terribleMr. Gordon Cumming. How could any description of mine interest thepublic in comparison with those of that famous shot and his threecoffee-coloured Hottentots, with his bands of panthers and giraffes, histroops of yellow lions dancing sarabands round the fountains, and hisjungles and swamps swarming with elephants and hippopotami?"
"But we might be able to go to Le Morvan," said my friend, "whereas fewindeed, if they wished it, can go to the South of Africa to shootelephants through the small ribs; neither is it probable that many of uswould like to pass several years of their valuable lives shut up in aloose, rolling, sea-bathing-machine-like wagon, with their own belovedshadow alone for all Christian company. Let us have a narrative of yourexploits?"
"You do not consider what you ask," I replied; "my gossip may haveamused you, but the effusions of my pen would to a certainty make youyawn 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, whowhen summer comes know not for the life of them where to go, or wherenot to go;—write your work, and advise them to turn their steps to LeMorvan at