w. Nothing can be conceived more striking than the
scenery which this variety of rock and wood produce in every part of
this romantic forest. At times you pass through an unbroken mass of aged
timber, surrounded by the native grandeur of forest scenery, and
undisturbed by any traces of human habitation, except in those rude
paths which occasionally open a passing view into the remoter parts of
the forest. At others, the path winds through great masses of rock,
piled in endless confusion upon each other, in the crevices of which the
fern and the heath grow in all the luxuriance of southern vegetation;
while their summits are covered by aged oaks of the wildest forms, whose
crossing boughs throw an eternal shade over the ravines below, and
afford room only to discern at the farthest distance the summits of
those beautiful hills, on which the light foliage of the birch trembles
in the ray of an unclouded sun, or waves on the blue of a summer
heaven.

To those who have had the good fortune to see the beautiful scenery of
the Trosachs in Scotland, of Matlock in Derbyshire, or of the wooded
Fells in Cumberland, it may afford some idea of the Forest of
Fontainbleau, to say that it combines scenery of a similar description
with the aged magnificence of Windsor Forest. Over its whole extent
there are scattered many detached oaks of vast dimensions, which seem to
be of an older race in the growth of the Forest,--whose lowest boughs
stretch above the top of the wood which surrounds them,--and whose
decayed summits afford a striking contrast to the young and luxuriant
foliage with which their stems are enveloped. When we visited
Fontainbleau, it was occupied by the old imperial guard, which still
remained in that station after the abdication of Bonaparte; and we
frequently met parties, or detached stragglers of them, wandering in the
most solitary parts of the Forest. Their warlike and weather-beaten
appearance; their battered arms and worn accoutrements; the dark plumes
of their helmets, and the sallow ferocious aspect of their countenances,
suited the savage character of the scenery with which they were
surrounded, and threw over the gloom and solitude of the Forest that
wild expression with which the genius of Salvator dignified the features
of uncultivated nature.

The town and palace of Fontainbleau are situate in a small plain near
the centre of the forest, and surrounded on all sides by the rocky
ridges with which it is ev