Tea at Trianon: She-Sheds

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, July 19, 2017

She-Sheds

From the Times-Picayune:

When life in the palace of Versailles with Louis and their four kids got to be too much, Marie Antoinette slipped away to the Petit Trianon, a quaint (by royal standards) cottage in the garden. Two-hundred-plus years later, women across America have found the young queen was onto something. Today, "she sheds" -- small outbuildings women have created for their own purposes -- are fast becoming the new "it" structures. "The term she shed was barely on the radar two years ago," said Erika Kotite, author of "She Sheds: A Room of Your Own" (Cool Springs Press, January 2017). "Today a Google search surfaces millions of hits. Pinterest is on fire with she-shed content, and last year, a new TV series called "He Shed, She Shed" came out on FYI Network" -- all in response to a pent-up need for some private space. (Read more.)