country the latter excites your wonder with its views, the most sublime, immense, and almost overwhelming; whilst the landscapescenery of the Vosges wins your admiration with its softness, and, as it were, with the mellowness of those more humble tints that nature has imparted to it. Nevertheless, during three-fourths of the year, you have all the scenery of the Alps, softened and fined down the naked points of rocks, frowning and "cloud-capped," between which glitter the miniature glaciers in all their tortuous and fantastic forms; and when the genial warmth of a summer's sun has thoroughly developed the enamelled splendour of the Chaumes, the enraptured eye of the most insatiate admirer of "the beautiful" may feast in uninterrupted tranquillity upon towering domes and "balloons" clothed in the deepest verdure of these magnificent pine-forests. On one side is spread out, like a carpet, the chequered pasturage of some naked hills, appearing at a distance as if it were irregularly spotted in its pattern by the innumerable herds of cows which are so peacefully grazing upon the sides and summit of the declivity: in another direction, the eye rests upon a cool and delicious valley, whilst the ear almost listens to the fancied sound of the happy voices of those Lilliputian figures which are so busily employed in cultivating the scantity patches of rye, flax, and potatoes, which form the meagre harvest of these thrifty and unwearying husbandmen. Here and there are interspersed roaring and foaming torrents, ploughing their rapid furrows through the umbrageous gorges of the sombre mountains, or glittering like blades of burnished silver as they meander more peacefully through the meadows in their transit to the clear and limpid waters of Longemer.

Scenes like these belong to the Vosges, beautiful in the extreme, though humble and unpretending when compared with the more overwhelming magnificence of the Alps or Pyrenees. Here are no objects to stupefy with their immensity-no bottomless precipices, nor falls of water which deafen you with their raging noise, like thunder; but a solemn and majestic calm appears to reign throughout these patriarchal forests; a smiling and refreshing welcome seems to encourage you in the murmuring of the mountain streams, pure in their nature as the honest and inoffensive dispositions of these unsophisticated mountaineers who dwell beside them...

These mountainous districts, to which nature and the hand of man have each assisted to give so great a variety of contrasts, offer throughout tableaux both "grave and gay, lively and severe," bearing both the impress of a wild and natural tranquillity, as well as the more active scenes of rustic life. There is nothing vulgar which meets the eye; and towards whichever side the gaze is directed, something presents itself to inspire the greatest admiration, whether it be those swelling domes, now cleared of their silvery winter-garb, in which they have been wrapped six months of the year, and now so thickly peopled by a host of herdsmen, who are so busily employed in tending their cows around their unpretending huts, or where the more bustling industry of the sawmills on the banks of the mountain-streams indicates the rapid progress that commerce and the ingenuity of man have produced throughout these wooded solitudes during the last quarter-of-a-century. Independent of the enormous revenue derived from the sale of the timber, a considerable quantity of essences are extracted from the

pines; and, before a most murderous and exterminating system of poaching was introduced (invariably the case where the population has increased to the extent it has amongst these hills, unrestricted by the interference of a more wealthy class of proprietors residing in the country), the woods abounded in not only the more destructive animals, such as wolves and wild boars, but in every other description of game, the partridge excepted. Now, all have nearly disappeared. The stag has long since become extinct; roe-deer are so scarce as to be rarely met with; and all that remain to afford amusement to the sportsman are a very few hares, and now and then a slight sprinkling of capercailzies or cocks-of-the-wood, and some gelinottes, which are procured for sale much more frequently by the snare of the poacher than by the gun of the legitimate sportsman. The lakes, too, and the rivers, which by nature swarm with beautiful trout and other fish, have shared in the like calamity; for, what with the baskets, the nets, the rods, the flies, and the worms, to say nothing of the lading, the groping, and the tickling that these most prolific streams undergo both winter and summer-for be it known that in these parts a trout is just as saleable out of season as in the waters have become pretty much in the state of desolation with regard to their inhabitants as the woods.

The mineral resources of this part of the world are not of very extensive importance. The granite is, without contradiction, as beautiful and durable as can be discovered, of which there are several varieties to be met with throughout the whole of the mountains of the Vosges; but the enormous expense of transporting it from so isolated a locality at once prevents any commerce upon a large scale from being established. The same may be advanced with regard to the specimens of marble dug from these hills, which are found in great abundance, and most beautiful and varied in their nature; but as yet they are, I fear, doomed to blush unseen, excepting in the chimney-pieces of the towns and villages within a circuit of some twenty or thirty miles' distance. There have also been discovered mines producing silver, copper, and lead, as well as cobalt and pyrite; but, from some cause or other, the working of them has been abandoned,

The celebrity of the baths of Plombières, in the Vosges, and Luxeuil, in the Haute-Saône, at no great distance from the former, requires no aid from my humble pen to augment their renown; but all the medical men whose patients have consulted them upon the use of these mineral waters have invariably declared that, after the great change and excitement which the system must necessarily undergo during the treatment prescribed, a repose in some tranquillity is indispensably necessary to establish an efficacious result. The celebrated Dom. Calmet, Abbot of Sinones, has compared the baths of Plombières to the Pool of Bethesda, around which had used to assemble all the infirm of Judæa. To use the words of this author, who says, "Ne sont-ce pas choses merveilleuses, que ces sources, ces canaux, ces fleuves, promenant, sans doute pour quelque grande harmonie, le cristal ou le boue de les flots salutaires à travers les entrailles de notre globe, s'y enrichissant, s'y épurant, puis s'élevant à sa surface, pour apporter aux créatures qu' y souffrent, le bienfait d'un immersion qui les sauvera? Plus tard, la foi Chrétienne y vit un don du Ciel, et lui remercia des miracles qu'il avait fait. Des miracles? Oui vraiment, car supérieures à toutes les res

sources de la médecine, elles guériraient, à elles seules, des maladies désespérées. L'homme et la science disparraissent ici; et, debout à côté de ces merveilles, on n'aperçoit plus que Celui qui les forma et les fit jaillir, Celui, enfin, qui veille avec autant de puissance que de bonté sur la création." And M. Hutin, the talented author of a "Guide to the Bathers of Plombières," in recommending the necessary repose to patients after the use of the baths, says, "Les eaux minérales resteront la plus puissante et la plus universelle ressource contre les souffrances de l'humanité; et elles exerceront d'autant mieux leur action curative, que le pays que l'on choisira pour se livrer à leur influence sera plus propre à en seconder les effets. Nul, à cet égard, ne me parait réunir plus d'avantages que les Vosges, où tout est riant et pittoresque; où l'âme s'épanouit au milieu des paysages frais et élégants; où l'air, pur et léger, reçoit de l'arôme des forêts de chênes et de sapins, des propriétés stimulantes si favorables; où, enfin, tout semble vous confier, tout semble vous dire, Venez ici pour vous guérir." So much for the general attractions of this wild and romantic country, which offers so much of interest to the observation of the tourist, the naturalist, or the convalescent, which, if its praises had been sung by a Scott or a Cooper, or if its ever-varying and magnificent landscapes had but had a Landseer or a Turner to bring them out before the world, and rescue them from the neglected obscurity of their granite rocks, or if the red deer, the trout, and the capercailzies had been reserved for the amusement of those who would have brought with them the true means of strengthening the natural resources of the country, these Vosgian wilds would have perhaps seen as many visitors during the summer months as are wont to bend their steps in search of variety or novelty amidst the Highlands of Scotland, or who follow each other, like flights of wild fowl, along the well-beaten track so accurately prepared for them by a Grandville, a Head, or a Murray.

The chief village (for the widely spread assemblage of houses and cottages cannot in any way aspire to the title of a bourg, much less to a town) within that wild district of the Vosges, to which I am about to confine my observations, is Gérardmer, the origin of which dates itself from a very modern epoch, when compared with other larger places in the department-such as, for instance, Remiremont, Saint-Dié, or Epinal these places had already acquired no small share of celebrity in the history of the wars in France and other political events, when Gérardmer was still but a dreary and, comparatively speaking, an unexplored wilderness. The Romans, who found nothing upon their arrival in these parts to induce them to make settlements on the banks of the Jamagne or Vologne, have left behind them no traces of their presence which can excite the interest of the antiquarian, excepting the remains of certain causeways, or rough roads, which they were obliged to construct for the furtherance of their progress through these desert wilds, beset as the country then was with bogs and almost insurmountable barriers in every direction. To the attractive allurements of the chase Gérardmer owes its origin; for it was Charlemagne, as history informs us, who, upon his return from an expedition into Germany, being delighted with the great beauty of the country and the extraordinary quantity of game and wild animals that it contained, was resolved to sojourn here a short time for the recreation of himself and attendants. He accordingly built a château-a work, one would suppose,

which might be easily and quickly accomplished, considering the enormous quantity of beautiful granite and timber which was to be met with, ready for the hand of the builder, in every direction. To this hunting seat he returned for several years; and, as the chroniclers of the events of those days inform us, in 808 the Emperor received here his eldest son, upon his return from a successful war which he had been carrying on in Bohemia; and, attended by a numerous train of courtiers and a magnificent hunting equipage, he waged a humbler description of warfare against the immense quantity of wild animals which had so long existed unmolested throughout all the forests between the river Vologne and the town of Remiremont and even at the present day a large flat stone which is close to a small fountain or rivulet, and which flows immediately into the Vologne, is shown by the peasants as the identical spot upon which Charlemagne sat, when this hunting party reposed for a short time to refresh themselves with a grand collation, after the fatigues of their morning's chase.

We must now pass over a short lapse of time, as no more mention is made of the place--for at that period it did not even possess a nameuntil the year 1070, when we find that Gérard d'Alsace, first hereditary Duke of Lorraine, arrived here for the same purpose as Charlemagne had done before him. Here he built a château and tower, upon the spot where the parish church now stands, and established a kind of strong place of refuge for his friends who might arrive here for the purpose of hunting, against the brigands who about this period began to infest the country, when they had been driven out from the more civilized localities. From the name of this prince, then, and the word Mer being added, signifying a mere or lake, as descriptive of the large sheet of water which lies about three hundred yards to the west of the village, in a valley between the mountains, this village of Gérardmer undoubtedly received its name: and this most expressive name was, in fact, all that the place did receive at the hand of this great and powerful prince, for no more mention is made of it by historians until the year 1540. The traditions handed down from father to son with respect to the state of the neighbourhood during that long lapse of years, is all that the inquirer has to guide him in his research. The two châteaux built by Charlemagne and Gérard d'Alsace had tumbled into ruin long since; there was no tower, no church, no village- in fact, nothing but a few scattered wooden huts interspersed about the forest on the mountains' sides, inhabited by a rough race of men, who had sought an asylum here, either for their love of the chase or fishing, or to escape from the busy world, where they had left behind them either their crimes or their disgust of life. These wild settlers in the mountains of these dreary forests lived by the chase and fishing, and by the produce of the few cows and goats they were enabled to keep, selling the cheese, as occasion might require, to enable them to purchase at the distant towns the other luxuries of life, of which they must have necessarily been destitute in these uncultivated regions. The remains of many of the little reservoirs where these hunters and fishers preserved their fish, formed by stones in the springs on the mountains' sides, and the rough causeways by which they were enabled to approach them, are easily visible at the present day, and exceedingly interesting remains of the primitive habits of those people.

(To be continued.)

CONFESSIONS OF A SPORTING MAN.

EDITED BY SCRIBBLE.

CHAPTER I.

When a man's heart is full and his pocket empty, he generally becomes exceedingly penitent. Mental reservation is the right of the wealthy: confession is the luxury of the poor. I should mend, if I could, but am much too old to do so; and as I still believe two-thirds of mankind to be as bad as myself, and infinitely more mischievous, they will be in my debt by the time I have finished my revelations.

I have been seldom beat by philosophic speculation: some solution of the wildest problem always presented itself. I should like to gratify the reader with the reason why I became a sporting man. I confess my utter inability to do so. The motive, strange to say, I believe to have been vanity-personal vanity; but the constitutional first cause of that peculiar vanity I have always been at a loss to discover.

My father was a most respectable merchant of the city of London: his dinners and conduct were irreproachable. He was a poor man until he failed; when, like a phoenix from his ashes, he rose into greatness. He paid a trifle in the pound: downright insolvency would have made him eminent. He loved pictures, olives with his wine, his cup of coffee after dinner, and his wife: would just as soon have mounted a scaffold as a horse; and died rather suddenly of eating truffles to excess, in black silk breeches, diamond buckles, and in debt.

My mother was a spoilt beauty, and fond of china monsters and old point. Her heart was divided between the curiosity-shops in Old Bondstreet and the curiosities with which she had presented my father at home. We certainly had the best half of it. A truer, kinder, more loveable woman (a woman in her weaknesses as well as her virtues) never lived. If shopping is a failing, tenderness, truth, devotion are virtues; and all these my mother possessed. However, there was nothing like sport in all this: I got none of my sportsmanship from my parents.

If in these confessions it were my intention to foster the weaknesses of society, instead of correcting its faults, I should certainly have begun with my great-grandfather at least, for the Levesons are an old family: that is, as far as any English families can be old. What they were is quite another matter: I paid a great deal of money to the Herald's College after a successful St. Leger, in search of a sportsman; but we hit so hard upon a respectable Staffordshire brickmaker about the end of George II. that I was fain to give up the search. The Garter Kingat-Arms tried hard to turn him into the proprietor of some stone quarries, but broke down utterly in the attempt. In a word, I can establish no genealogical claim, can found no hereditary excuse, for my sporting propensities.

I think a picture did it. I remember hearing or reading of the im

C