Tea at Trianon: 10 Dangers of Georgian London

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

Saturday, September 13, 2014

10 Dangers of Georgian London

Without vaccines we would all still be dying of smallpox. From History Extra:

Smallpox was one of London’s biggest killers, and even those who were lucky enough to recover were often badly pock-marked, with patches of hair and eyelashes missing. Smallpox could also leave skin thickened, as if by burns.

Yet, domestic servants who had visible smallpox scars were often preferred to those with unmarked skin, as it was proof that they wouldn’t be bringing the disease into their new household!

Early inoculation was introduced from Turkey by smallpox survivor Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in 1720, before Edward Jenner introduced mass vaccination in 1796, using a less dangerous strain of cowpox. (Read more.)