Tea at Trianon: Ladies Taking Tea

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, July 28, 2018

Ladies Taking Tea

From Mimi Matthews:

No formal invitation was required for an afternoon tea. Instead, a lady simply announced the day and hour of the tea by writing it on the back of her visiting card. If she must send a more personal note round to a friend or acquaintance, it was generally phrased in a casual manner. As an example, the 1900 edition of The New Century Standard Letter-Writer includes a sample of a letter for “Inviting a Lady to an Informal Afternoon Tea.

It reads:
“Dear Mrs. Salter:—
A few of our friends are coming to afternoon tea on Friday next, and we hope to have a little good music. Perhaps you may be able to look in for half an hour: if so, I should be very pleased to see you.
Believe me,
Yours sincerely,
Selma White”