Tea at Trianon: Hadrian's Wall

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

Monday, April 29, 2013

Hadrian's Wall

How photographs can change history. From the BBC:

Hundreds of miles away from Hadrian's Wall, a man surfing the internet from the comfort of his home stumbled across something that astonished the professionals. Bryn Gethin's discovery on his computer in Warwickshire, was one of a number, based on aerial photography and imaging techniques, that are rewriting a whole era of Roman history. He spotted something while browsing old LIDAR (light detection and ranging) images, which show remains even if covered by trees or buildings. Experts say he had potentially discovered the camp of the men who actually built the wall that runs across the country from Tyneside to Cumbria. Surveyor Humphrey Welfare, currently investigating the site, said the camp would not have been seen without aerial images.

"It gives us another little insight, a little window into what happened during the construction of the wall," he said. "And that's how archaeology builds up, piece by piece."

It was known the wall supported civilian communities which provided goods and services in a local economy that benefitted both occupiers and natives. But it seems there were Iron Age settlements hundreds of years before the arrival of the Romans who, rather than being an aggressive conquering force, forged working relationships with the resident population. (Read entire article.)