Tea at Trianon: Apsley House

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

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Apsley House

The home of the Duke of Wellington. From Early Modern England:

On the ground level, the first room I entered was a room full of swords and spectacular dinnerware. There were pieces with depictions of Waterloo and Wellington in battle, alongside scenes from his life and a few plates with pictures of Apsley house . These gifts came from many places: Prussia, Berlin and Austria and Portugal. Silver dining sets and beautiful porcelain plates adorned the walls. There was also a display case that held the sword Wellington wore at Waterloo. The most interesting set in this room (for me) was the Egyptian “divorce gift” Josephine had requested from Napoleon. It was a beautiful Egyptian dinnerware set that she refused after commissioning it because she felt it was ‘too severe’. King Louis XVIII of France ended up giving the Egyptian dinnerware to the Duke of Wellington as a gift along with a lovely note with a few kind words in English about the virtues of friendship. This was my favorite set in the collection. (Read more.)