Tea at Trianon: The Z

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, August 14, 2017

The Z

From Southern Lady:

Annie Zeleskey, who opened The Z last fall with older sister Brittany, recalls, “Growing up, we would always stay at B&B’s, and I loved how cozy and how personal they were.” So as she finished her last semester in the hospitality management program at the University of Mississippi, she hatched a plan with Brittany, who was completing her master’s in accounting that same May: Rather than return to their home state of Texas and the potential corporate careers awaiting them there, the pair would stay in Oxford to pursue their retirement dream, a bed-and-breakfast, several decades early.

From the inviting porch swings out front to the sweet tea with fresh mint served at check-in, Annie and Brittany have turned their college-town cottage into a gracious Southern getaway. Their interior designer mother, Kelley Zeleskey, helped shape The Z’s identity with French country–chic décor and lavish appointments in the three guest rooms, named Live, Love, and Laugh. Then Mary Ann Mewbourn, their grandmother and an expert seamstress, contributed her talents to make the bedspreads, pillows, hand towels, and most of the curtains. “It’s nice to be able to say my grandmother made those,” says Annie, beaming. I feel that it adds a special charm.” (Read more.)