A ROYAL FAIRYLAND.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 2715, 30 January 1892, Page 3 (Supplement)

A ROYAL FAIRYLAND.

THE KING OF THE BELGIANS AT CIERGNON. (st. james’s gazette.) The Belgian JYeus prints an interesting 1 account of the Chateau de Ciergnon, in the Ardennes, which King Leopold has been enlarging and improving for many years past, m pursuance of the strongly marked taste for building which be shares with Louis Quatorze and the late King of Bavaria. A SURPRISE FOR A QUEEN. Just before you (we read), perched high up on a rock above the trees, and glistening in the bright autumn sunshine, stands Ciergnon, which fully deserves its double designation of castle and palace. There is a boldness in its lofty corner towers which at once commands your admiration. They seem to be quite close ; but half an hour’s walk along a romantic winding road is necessary before you come to a lodge which has just been completed from English designs. The gate is opened by one of the head gardener’s assistants, and yon find yourself at the beginning of a broad drive passing through a series of grassy lawns. The background of Scotch firs and oaks reminds yon forcibly of Balmoral 9 and so enchanting is the scene that it is difficult to rcaHse the fact that another 20 minutes slip away before you arrive at the principal entrance —a massive stone portico, with. a projecting canopy placed just midway between the square towers of the park front. The ponderous door is opened, and a dozen steps bring you into a spacious entrance-hall, with a deep conservatory on either side, in which when the King touches a knob a globe of i electric light appears at the root of every fern and plant. Ten whole years have been devoted to making Ciergnon what it is today, and during that time the designer of all yon see would never allow anybody to have the smallest inkling of his plans or progress. About three weeks ago he quietly requested the Queen to drive over from Spa, and on her arrival she was greeted with one of those Aladdin-like surprises which one if ten reads of but rarelv exoerienccA kexitnisc .-.Ci: w JSST: C*r«3EOTTE.

The inner hall which belonged to the original structure is flanked on either side by staircases, and terminates in a corridor adorned with panel pictures by Madou and Lauters. A glass door at the end opens on a terrace from which one looks right down on the Lease, rushing rapidly over its rocky bed, and a never-ending prospect of pine-clad hills, deep ravines, and rich green meadows. It is a curious admixture of what one sees from Windsor Round Tower and the battlements of Balmoral. A door to the left opens at once on the drawing-room, which contains a great many full-length family portraits. Side by side you see Leopold I. (Scheffer 183 S), Queen Marie Louise (Wappers), and her mother, Marie Amelie of France (Francois

Dubois, Paris, 1834), in a green velvet dress, crimson embroidered scarf, and a gigantic red bonnet with white feather. The homeliness of this picture contrasts curiously with that next to it, which represents our own Princess Charlotte of Wales in the heyday of youth and beauty, wearing her gorgeous robes of State and a diadem set with precious stones. Within IS months of its completion they painted the allegorical group opposite, in which angels are seen carrying the dead child-mother through the clouds to Paradise. ECHOES OF WAR. The years 1870-71 witnessed a romantic episode in the annals of Ciergnon. The ground-floor rooms, now so comfortable and luxurious, were at almost an hour’s notice converted into a military hospital, directed solely by that large-hearted and noble-minded woman, Queen Marie Henriette. The din of war reached the peaceful Ardennes, and before the first echoes of Metz and Sedan had died away the Queen had tenanted the salons of her modest hunting-box (as it was in those days) with wounded French and German soldiers. The Queen often tells the story of the young German schoolmaster, shot through the body, who expired quite unconscious of his approaching fate, with the love-letter of his betrothed full of pleasant hopes and anticipations for the future laid beneath his pillow. Different quarters were assigned to the Teutonic and Gallic combatants, and attendants of their own nationality were thoughtfully provided for each. The upper story was entirely given up to the doctors and nurses. Of the forty patients only four (two French and two German) died, so carefully were they tended ; and now the only relic of those sad days are four grass-grown graves in the nearest churchyard. LANDSCAPE GARDENING IN EXCELSIS. Ciergnon, as it is seen to-day, is probably one of the finest examples of what the art of the landscape gardener can accomplish. The River Lesse runs some 60 yards below the foundations of the castle, and so near to the rock from which they spring that you aTe not aware of its presence till close upon it. From the principal entrance the ground slopes gently downwards till it suddeoly rises into a pine-clad plateau. Three years ago not a drop of water was obtainable in the park; but, undaunted by the porous character of the stony soil, the King has causad a reservoir some 120 yards square to be constructed on the summit, the water being supplied from the Lesse by the same pumping apparatus which works the electric lighting both of the interior and exterior of the buildings. The great tank has been invested with an appearance of natural beauty by an artificial cascade falling over 20ft. of rock-work into a smaller lake, from which what seems to be a genuine mountain to: v«nt gradually descends by an irregular com-' and series of minature waterfalls, past ■ ! ' massive portico and carriage-drive, into U.- ' esse. The whole of this improvised laudsca. : s intersected by grottoes, retreats, rustic bi> ■ °s, vistas, secluded paths, and patches oi lower-beds, while "a striking natural background is provided by the fir forests which once sheltered the game of that mighty hunter Leopold of Saxe - Coburg. Not a "drop of water is lost: for every lake, pool, torrent, rivulet is lined with the brick and concrete so arranged that not a trace of masonry can be perceived by the moat critical observer.

AX ESTATE EIGHT MILES ACROSS.. While at Ciergnon King Leopold (like his wife and daughter) spends moat of his time out of doors, but works hard iu his study while the rest of the inmates of the castle are asleep, and always smokes one cigar after dinner in the new fumoir , built over the entrance-hall, which commands a delightful view of the 44 royal” torrent and its tributary cascades. But Leopold 11. will never rest on his laurels. His estates extend as far as Ardenne, eight miles away as the crow flie9 : and here he is just second and much larger castle, over the front door of which you read in golden letters the words “Erected by Leopold 11., King of tbe Belgians, 1874 —1391.” Next year the railway from Yillers-sur-leese to Dinant will be opened, and the British tourist—be he artist, trout-fisher, sportsman, or simple sight-seer —will find himself in the full possession of a new Highlands and a second Switzerland. The extraordinary transformation wrought in these once wild valleys and tangled forests is the achievement of the shrewdest man in all Belgium, whose hands are always more full of work than those of the busiest of his liege subjects. The effect of the marvellous changes vrftich have been accompHshed during the past 15 years is heightened by tbe king's persistent desire to keep hia plans a profound secret, even from the members oi hia own family. .