Tea at Trianon: American Resorts

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

American Resorts

Edwardian Promenade reports on Newport.

Newport, known as the Queen of Resorts, or as Elizabeth Drexel Lehr stated ironically in her memoirs: “the very Holy and Holies, the playground of the great ones of the earth from which all intruders were ruthlessly excluded,” was transformed each summer for the sole and very conspicuous consumption of New York’s most exclusive society. Entree into this tiny kingdom by the sea was highly sought after, and nothing–not wealth, lavish entertainments, nor even making a splash in the highest European circles could crack this nut–as the grand doyenne of Chicago society, Mrs Potter Palmer, soon discovered when she made her first foray into the city. But Mrs Palmer was made of sterner stuff and she kept battering the gates of social recognition until the Mrs Astor had to acknowledge her Midwest counterpart. Many others, however, were not so determined nor so successful in their attempts to enter Newport society, and defeated and with lightened pockets, they were apt to sail away to more congenial climes, perhaps even Narragansett Pier, a smart Rhode Island city, though not as smart as Newport, of course.

Julygirl said...: A trip worth taking. I might add, (in keeping with Tea At Trianon), that some rooms in the mansions were lifted and shipped over from the stately salons of France.

Although Mrs. Astor was the ruling maven of Newport, her home was/is relatively humble architecturally speaking.; August 19, 2009 at 10:18:00 AM EDT
tubbs said...: Someone should write a book - full of anecdotes about the desperate social strivings of nouveaux riche american matrons. (Heck, I bet those about Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy alone could fill up a whole chapter!)
Does anyone here recall that wonderful Gibson cartoon of the social-climbing matron dragging her hapless daughter to the altar to marry some syphillitic gnome who had no money - but only an ancient title? The cartoon was based on the real life of poor Consuelo Vanderbuilt.; August 19, 2009 at 5:05:00 PM EDT
Julygirl said...: I just read the book "Davina" loosely based on the life of Maria Callas. There is a scene in the book where the Aristotle Onnasis character says he is so glad when he does not have to entertain Europeans and Americans and can drink Ouzo and eat stuffed grape leaves instead of Champagne and Cavier.; August 19, 2009 at 10:37:00 PM EDT