LE monve.x. *

Tiffs volinne is a species of varied and animated topography ; a

el book of which there is no very good specimen in English. The bst of our local histories derive their value from their matters of fact; the freshness of their natural descriptions is owing to the perfect truth. of their delineations ; but it is rather like a camera obscure, delineation than an artist's. Our inferior books are flat, or fall of emptiness of a dead lively kind: the graver overwhelm the spirit of the past in the dry formalities of antiquarianism, the lighter" sketch" a variety of things without much precise knowledge of the subject or any animated grace of manner. We must go to a Frenchman for a mixture of history and science, manners and legends, descriptions of the earth and animated nature, together with field-sports or what pass for such in France, all done with spirit and gayety, as well as with mas- tery or something which looks like it. To get this light sparkling literature in perfection, a chaster taste and a more scrupulous at- tention to exactness are necessary than will always be found in our lively neighbours. Ilenri De Crignelle, Ancien Officier de Dragons, is somewhat addicted to use his pen a little too freely in mere writing, to over-elaborate the dramatio dia- logues of his Stories, and he has touches of the gallantry of the " ancien regime" in his frequent compliments and allusions to the ladies. Ins book, however, is a very pleasant book ; fresh in sub- ject, various in matter, lively in manner, and opening up a new district, of wild nature and primitive life, which is something any- where in these days' of revolutions, railways, and advancing civil- ization much more in a district within easy reach. Le civil-

ization, anciently Morvennium, the Pagus Morvinus of Cwsar, is a district of France, in which are "included portions of the departments of the Nievre and the Yonne, having on the West the vineyards of Burgundy, and on the East the mountains of the Nivernois." Its surface is various ; sometimes extending into Plains, sometimes rising into mountains, sometimes forming well- watered rallies, where the bottom may run into marsh or bog. Its productions embrace two out of the three sources of agricultural riches, corn and wine ; it is pretty thickly studded with ruins, castles, and legends, or local stories ; it has a superstitious primi- tive population, devoted to its priests, and insensible to the eloquence and blandishments of Republican orators—who fare but badly in Le Morvan. The most remarkable features of Le Herren, and the sources of its wealth, are its forests, which yet cover a con- siderable extent of country, as gloomy and as grand if not so ex- tensive as in the days when they were head-quarters of the Druids; as they are still the resort of the bear, the wolf, and the wild cat,

• Le Marrona District of France, ) its Wild Sports Vineyards, and Forests ; A with Legends, Antiquities ]tund and Local Sketches. By Henri De Crignelle, An- cien Officier de Dragons. .Translated from the riginal Manuscript in French, by Captain Jesse, Author of "Life of bruin:ell," teitc., Lac. Published by Saunders and oticy. rApw OgtagAs, off pOtleT,;, `1:14t'T04140F9V0144 4ibesides roebuck and lesser game. r TANB9 tapre the things which, hi• dre w-1?-1-1°' ktVitt,gpkt4g rie2ff. De Crignelle's opinion farashld telaptation to the British do net come befere the w6 .Oe'-'nfait 'ffiet-that"a 'Pletestgat*.sportsman who is fluentin. Frenoh,hard,ydn]aabit, and enthusiastic reeerissiDiesenting prenber i noteneceisatily_koptfrein the sins Laii m his ;ova a the chase. , It weuld be as well, however, for the in- spealartg because:he •happenetto be-married z and when he affeuds, whether !tending visitor to make some 'further inquiry into 'the' means or in Ekfirgye say LWjesemertgesly, 144 in all cases he has by patvireouy but rights of snorting a stranger may possess. Countries that have no exchanged a bad pm for a woree,.and has become an adulterer instead of being f game-laws have often very rigid laws of trespass, which your non- e se ucer. Matrimony only does this for him, that his purity is leas pro- of -Ptotesnant ministers, whether in-the 'Establishment. mein Dissent. ' I re- Among the various topics of M. De Cr'ignelle, the descriptions peat,1 al.knowiperffietly 1011 that -there•arca great number of highreinded of the country are the most informing, the legends or stories the /nen among the•Anglicaa,elergy,,whe would as lief think of murder as of most " interesting," the sporting accoutits the most seasonable; from ern to othere ; nor ant I' deeying—what, though of course r cannot de- In than by the,*ibteet.rietof intlecerum upou the reverence which is duo and in a certain sense the most practical. The English or Anglo- on tiny keowledge iffine, yet I wish to deny with all my heart—that oportsma.n must not however, expect the same kind of theinajority of Wesleyan and Dissenting ministers lead lives beyond all re- manly, open, fair-play style of doing business, which characterizes preach: but still, allowing all this, the terrible instances of human frailty, the sioceedings. of the adds-giving Briton. • Pot is the purpose of of ,which one reads and hears in protestant bodies, are quite enough to show Le orvan ; " quocumque mode, rem," the motto of the die- that- the mewled state is no sort -of warrant for moral correctness, no pre- triet : You go out to catch, so catch when you can. In the case of ventive, whether of. scandalous offences, or much less of minor forms of the same general sin. Purity is not a virtue which comes as a matter of course the .o does considerable damage and sometimes destroyi

• •

to the married anyitiore than to the single, 'though of course there is great infant life, trim anyhow proceeding is not surprising ; but think diftbrence between than and man; and though it is impossible to bring the of calling the perpetrator of these "cabbage and poodle" doings an matter fairly to an issue, yet for that very reason I have as much a right to "enthusiastic sportsman " ! my opinion as another to his, when I state my deliberate conviction, that "At some distance above Sermiselle, where the silence and solitude of the there are to say the least, as many offences against the marriage vow among country still reign, a very curious mode of fishing is adopted during the Protestant ministers; as there are aeeainst the vow of celibacy anieng Catholic burning 'heat of the Hummer months. About mid-day, when the sun in all priests. I may go very much farther than this in my own view of the mat- its power shoots his golden rays perpendicularly on the waters, illuminating ter, and think, at I de, that the priest's TOW is generally the occasion of vir- every large hole even in the profoundest depths, the large fish leave them, tues whicha married clergy does not contemplate even in idea ; but I am on ' and, ascending to the surface, remain under the cool shade of the trees the defensive, and only insist on so much as is necessary for my purpose. I watching for whatever tit-bit or delicacy the stream may bring with it, '4 But if matrimony does not prevent cases of immorality among Protestant ' while others prefer a quiet saunter, or, with the dorsal fin above the water, ministers, t is not telibacy whith causes them among Catholic priests. It lie so still and stationary, near some lily or other aquatic plant, that they is not what the Catholio Church. imposes, but what human nature prompts, 1 scam perfectly asleep,

which leads any portion of her ecclesiastics into sin. Human nature will "The enthusiastic sportsman, who fears neither storms nor a coup-de- break out, like some and regime element, under any system : it bursts soleil, makes his appearance about this time, without, it is true, either fish- out under the Protestant system ; iebursts out under the Catholic ; passion lag-rod, lines, worms, flick or bait of any description, but having under hie' willcany away the man-led clergyman as well as the unmarried priest. On ' left arm a double-barrel ginin his right hand a large cabbage, and at his' the other hand, there are numbers to whom there would be not greater but heels a clever poodle. The 'fisherman, or the huntsman, I scarcely know, less trialin the vow of celibacy, than in the TOW of marriage." I which to call him, now duly reconnoitres the river, fixes upon some tree, the

Cases of weak views. and deficient logic, of bold perversion or large and lower branches of which spread over it, ascends with his gun and over-cunning fallacy, might readily be multiplied; for so far as ar- I his cabbage, and having taken up an equestrian position upon one of Use gument is in question, such things form the staple of the volume. }projecting arm s, examines the surface of the deep stream below him. He Its literary attraction is of a very different kind. The Lectures has not been long on his perch when he perceives a stately pike paddling up abound with. sketches of Protestant views and Protestant charac- ter—onesided, exaggerated, and, though not all untrue, yet un- true in the sense of substituting a part for a -whole, but written from a wide observation of English life under the guidance of a penetrating genius. Many parts are pregnant with thought, both deep and refined ; and there is ever present a free, full, clear, and flowing style; • with occasional personal passages, alluding to the lecturer or his contemporaries, full of interest. the river : a leaf is instantly broken off the cabbage, and when the Branclue ostagous has approached sufficiently near, is thrown into the water; fright- ened, the voracious fish at once disappears ; but shortly after rises, and, grateful to the unknown and kind friend who has sent him this admirable parasol, he goes towards it, and after pushing it about for a few seconds with his nose finally places himself comfortably under its protecting shade. The sportsman, watching the animated gyrations of his cabbage-loaf, immediately fires; when the poodle, whose sagacity is !mite equal to that of his master, plunges into the water, and if the fish is either dead or severely wounded, fails not to bring out with him the scaly morsel."

The general mode of destroying wolves is after the Indian' fashion; the peasantry of the district assembling to beat the

forests, and the sportsmen, placed on the outside, firing at the ani- mals when they are at last driven out of cover. The hunting of them is occasionally practised; but it seems a tough job, unless wall, the case of helpless cubs, which the dragoon-officer terms " capitaL sport."

"Wolves are likewise hunted, all the year round with dogs, by gentlemen in the neighbourhood of the forest. But this sport is very fatiguing and weary work, if that animal alone is employed; for nothing is so difficult as to get up with a cunning old wolf, whose sinewy limbs never tire, andwhose wind never fails—who goes straight ahead ten or fifteen miles without look- ing behind him : if he meets with a mare, or stream of water, on his road, then your chance is indeed up ; for into it he plunges, and makes off again, quite as fresh as he was when he left his lair.

"The best and most expeditious mode of taking a wolf, is to set a blood- hound on him, bred expressly for this particular sport; large greyhounds being placed in ambush, at proper distances, and slipped, when the wolf makes his appearance in crossing from one wood to another. These dogs, by their superior swiftness, are soon at his haunches, and worry and impede his flight, until their heavy friend the hound comes up ; for the strongest grey- hound could never manage a wolf, unless he was assisted in his meritorious work by dogs of large size and superior strength. The huntsmen, well mounted, follow, and halloo on the hounds ; every Lee runs, every one shouts,

the forest echoes their cries and wolf, dogs, and sportsmen, pass and dis- appear like leaves in a whirlwind, or the demon hounds and huntsmen of

the Hartz. And now the panting beast, with hair on end and foaming at the mouth, bitten in every part, is brought to bay—his hour is come—no longer able to fly, he sets his back against some rock or tree, and faces his numerous enemies.

"It is then that the oldest huntsman of the party, in order to shorten his death-agony, and save the dogs from unnecessary wounds, dismounts, and,' drawing a pistol from his hunting-belt, finishes his career before further mischief is 'lone. When a ball hits a wolf and breaks one of his bones, he immediately gives a yell; but if he is despatched with sticks and bludgeons,

he makes no complaint. Stubborn, and apparently either insensible or re- solute, Nature seems to have given him great powers of endurance in suffer- ing pain. Having lost all hope of escape, he ceases to cry and complain ; he remains on the defensive, bites in silence and dies as he has lived. In a sheepfold, the noise of his teeth while indulging Ids appetite is like the re- peated crack of a whip. His bite is terrible.

"The months of September and October, the period for cub-hunting, afford capital sport. The young wolves are not like the old ones, strong enough to

take a straight course,. and they consequently can rarely do more than ran a ring : when tired, which is soon the case, they retire backwards into some hole or under a large stone, where they show their teeth, and await, with a juvenile courage worthy of a better fate, the onset of their assailants."

There is a good sketch of the habits of the woodcock, and a clever account of the modes of catching them in snares,—for it is a mis- nomer to call that night process sport. The mode of shooting them is little better : it takes place in the breeding season ; the so-called sportsman attacking the bird when its passions overcome its fears and wariness, by hiding himself and proceeding in this wise. •

"The silence in which you have till then remained is suddenly broken by shouts of 'They come ! they come !' quickly followed by bang, bang, bang, along the glade. And here indeed they are, at first by twos and threes, and then a compact flight, whirling along with appealing cries of love, flutter- lag, and flapping their wings, and pursuing one another from bush to bush; They show now neither fear nor circumspection, and crazy, blind, and deaf, scarcely seem to notice the noise, the flashes, or the cries of the sportsmen. At length all is in complete confusion. They toss antwirl like great leaves in a hurricane, and finally fly, with their ranks somewhat diininished, to their several homes. This sped lasts but a short hail-hour; after which, the woodcocks having said all they had to say, made and accepted their ea- ents for the fotiowiag day, vanish as if by magic, like the puff of a ci,gar a hadow, or a royal promise, and the same silence that preceded their amvaz reigns once more in the forest. No gun is loaded after their departure: the sportsmen assemble, count the dead, never so numerous as one might sup- pose, and having bagged them, also retire from the scene. I have known one person kill four couple of woodcocks in this manner, but it was quite an exceptional case ; two or three is nearer the usual number. Chance, as in war, in marriage, in everything, is frequently the secret of success; but if you are not cool and collected, and handy with your gun, you will scarce (lorry a &sisal home to your expectant friends. To the young sportsman, the novelty, cronfusien, and hubbub of these evening shooting-parties, are per- fectly bewiklering ; Parisian cocknics, above all, are quite beside themselves— shutting first one eye and then the other, firing, of course, without having token any aim, and eventually beating a retreat without a feather in their game-bags." . It appears &tenths preface, that M. De Crignelle is an exile in England, and has written this book at the persuasion of his friends, which Captain Jesse has translated for publication : the funds have been furnished by "a noble lady, the mother of a distinguished English nobleman."