Tea at Trianon: A Rat Problem

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, October 18, 2017

A Rat Problem

There were often terrible pest problems in the days of primitive sanitation. From Geri Walton:

In 1828, there was a tremendous problems with rats in Montfaucon. The rat problem was located in an area that neighbored the villages of Pantin and Romainville and is today located in the eastern suburbs of Paris. Part of the rat problem was attributed to a slaughter-house located in the area owned by a man named Dussaussois. Authorities conducted discussions about moving the slaughter-house because they thought moving it might eliminate or reduce the rat problem. However, residents in the immediate area argued against it. They believed moving the slaughter-house a great distance from Paris would result in dangerous consequences if the rats were suddenly deprived “of their accustomed sustenance.” (Read more.)