Not one or two only, but a great chorus of grateful voices have
arisen to spread abroad its fame. Half the famous writers of modern
France have had their word to say about Fontainebleau.
Chateaubriand, Michelet, Beranger, George Sand, de Senancour,
Flaubert, Murger, the brothers Goncourt, Theodore de Banville, each
of these has done something to the eternal praise and memory of these
woods. Even at the very worst of times, even when the picturesque
was anathema in the eyes of all Persons of Taste, the forest still
preserved a certain reputation for beauty. It was in 1730 that the
Abbe Guilbert published his HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PALACE,
TOWN, AND FOREST OF FONTAINEBLEAU. And very droll it is to see him,
as he tries to set forth his admiration in terms of what was then
permissible. The monstrous rocks, etc., says the Abbe 'sont admirees
avec surprise des voyageurs qui s'ecrient aussitot avec Horace: Ut
mihi devio rupee et vacuum nemus mirari libet.' The good man is not
exactly lyrical in his praise; and you see how he sets his back
against Horace as against a trusty oak. Horace, at any rate, was
classical.
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