Tea at Trianon: An English Garden

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, June 8, 2011

An English Garden

Marie-Antoinette loved English gardens and would have appreciated this one in Connecticut, featured in Veranda magazine.

On an estate in Connecticut, James Doyle has created a wondrous pleasure garden replete with alluring horticultural delights — herbaceous borders, rose garden, folly, maze, chess set, orchard, parterre, topiaries, water features — and all set about with tropical plant specimens in summer. While pleasure gardens are traditionally public amusement park affairs, this enchanting setting is private and brings joy and happiness to all involved, from owners to caretakers and, immeasurably, to Doyle, the landscape designer who conceived it and attends its evolution. "Old Mill Farm is one of the last great estates in Greenwich, a 1926 landmark treasure," he notes. "My clients and I have tried to create a balance between architecture and horticulture." They have succeeded spectacularly.

tubbs said...: (LOL) Thinking of you walking your daughter in a shady English Garden, daughter holding a basket with kitty peeking out from the top of it, with Mr. Gainsborough on the side, capturing the scene.; June 8, 2011 at 10:39:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: With wide, floppy straw hats and ruffled pinafores...yes, that's us....; June 8, 2011 at 10:51:00 PM EDT