Tea at Trianon: House in Locust Valley

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, November 28, 2020

House in Locust Valley

From House Beautiful:

While buying the house was an easy decision, actually furnishing it was a more complicated process. One by one, she updated each room—out went the ’70s shag carpeting and heavy window treatments, in went decorative molding and French doors—filling them with a mix of custom pieces (like a blue velvet sectional that pulls out into a queen bed for visiting cousins), antiques from her shops (she has a special affinity for Louis XVI furniture), and personal art (the antique map collection in the family room includes Washington, D.C., where she grew up, and her husband’s home state of California). “It took time, but it was worth it,” says Pash. “A house needs layers and memories to feel like a home.” (Read more.)