In the early 1900s there was a little forest path called the Chemin de la Faucille D’or, the Golden Sickle path. You can see it in the first Stevens map, nestled intimately between Monpignon and Beau Chêne. It runs from Drève des Eclaircies, present day Verdunningsdreef, to, err, nowhere. You can just make out a black dashed line leading to Monpignon, hardly a path at all.
By 1917 the name had changed. Stevens now records it as the Chemin des Ecureuils, Squirrel path.
The phrase “𝑓𝑎𝑢𝑐𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒 𝑑'𝑜𝑟” already carried, by the 19th century, a strong cultural association with Druids and mistletoe-cutting in Gaul, thanks to Pliny. A forest path given this name may well have been intended to evoke that classical and mythical imagery, rather than any physical sickle or curved shape particularly because it is straight.
But by the end of the 1910s the usage of the Forest was changing. In 1923 Stevens, in association with Louis van der Swaelen published a new edition of the ‘Guide du Promeneur dans la Forêt de Soignes’. He notes that since the first edition was published in 1914, sixteen new sentiers, three chemins (including the Chemin des Tumulis) and two pistes cyclables had been created. The Forest was becoming a leisure destination.
I suspect this helps explain the renaming of several of the paths at this time. Nearby the Chemin des Brocards (male roe deer) became the Chemin du Beau Hêtre. We move from allegory, hunting and classical reference to trees and cute forest fauna.
Names carry information, tone and colour. Changing them signals a change of emphasis, even of mood. The maps Stevens created just over a century ago are wonderful gateways to that process, I rather think he knew they would be.
I have also included a photo of the start of the path, where the apron of the entrance can still be made out. Look through the trees and you will see a narrow avenue of beech reaching away. The path is still there, but untrod.
And the dashed black line? That survives as well. It is now a part of a bridleway, connecting Monpignon to Beau Chêne.
What other differences can you see?
So…
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