Tea at Trianon: Holiday Plans

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

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Holiday Plans

From Inside Chic:

Since my children are older now and the older ones are only briefly in town from college, they like to be with their friends as much as possible. This year I’m going to host a multigenerational holiday sing-a-long cocktail party. I have hired a person to play holiday tunes on the piano, and I am inviting family and friends, as well as my children’s friends and their parents! I know the kids won’t stay all that long but it’s a nice way to catch up with everyone, and I like a party where people have an activity to do sometimes. And after the teenagers leave, I will still have the adults linger over cocktails for some holiday cheer, plenty of champagne and lots of laughter. I don’t believe in trying to make the holidays more complicated, but I do believe in extending a little bit of extra effort and stopping to celebrate to make them more enjoyable! (Read more.)