Tea at Trianon: Royal Ascot, June 2019

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

Friday, June 28, 2019

Royal Ascot, June 2019

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

From The New Daily:

Royal Ascot comes with a 36-page guide book to how to dress, and this year, for the first time, a modern change was made: guests could choose whichever gender dress code they most identify with. Hopes were high that might mean the Berkshire track saw the royal family emulating the likes of Cara Delevingne, who wore a top hat and tails to Princess Eugenie’s 2018 wedding, but most stuck firmly to blue or green shades in what they know and love.

There were a couple of exceptions. When the five-day event kicked off on June 18, Kate Middleton debuted a $6600 powder blue custom Elie Saab dress with silver heels and a Philip Treacy saucer-style hat. Based on the label’s 2019 resort collection, the dress had added sheer sleeves, which would have broken the Ascot rule had Kate ventured out of the Royal Enclosure into the more plebeian Village Enclosure. (Read more.)