I've always been fascinated by maps. One of my fun things to do in early years in the late 60s was to trace maps from the The Times 'Atlas of the World' onto the paper the dry dry cleaning was wrapped up in. The sections on Precious and Semi-Precious stones were equally fascinating. Then, I wanted to be a cartographer when I grew up but I didn't know how go about it, being a Force's kid living in Cyprus.
Anyway, my current favourite is René Steven's 1910 map of the Forêt de Soignes, includingthe Bois des Capucins and the Bois de la Cambre. It's in colour too. Stevens included much detail, of things that were once there and are no longer and of things that are still here today. Take a look at this excerpt from near me at the end of Avenue du Brassine.
Can you see the 'R's? These refer to man-made water channels, ravinements artificels. And what about those curious circles? Those sites of small-scale forest industry, ancien établissement sidérurgique, now long-gone but you can often make out undulations and depressins in the forest floor which don't look quite right in clearings. The numbers like (120) refer to height above sea-level. Notable trees are marked and in some cases, like the Chêne De Bruyn are still there. It is oldest tree still in the Forest. Paths no longer accessible, like the Chemin de la Faucille D'Or can still just be made out, betrayed by trees in straight lines along their former edge.
At the end of the Chemin Monpignon (still there, but now with its Flemish name, Puntgevaldreef) is a Ferme which was a cabaret-restaurant. Not a cabaret as we now think of them, but a small an informal inn. It is now Merry Horse, a stables but which still offers drinks and light meals. It has a lovely terrace and I have often, in warmer days, loitered there a while.