Tea at Trianon: Yule Amid the Blooms

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, December 23, 2020

Yule Amid the Blooms

From Victoria:

When magnate William Bowers Bourn II and his wife, Agnes, selected a picturesque parcel of land, midway between San Francisco and San Jose, on which to build their country house, they chose Willis Polk, an eclectic architect with a penchant for combining styles, to design the residence. Completed in 1917, the estate was bestowed with the unique name, Filoli—an acronym for Bourn’s personal motto: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”
For the gardens, the Bourns turned to a master of many trades, Bruce Porter. Along with landscape design, his talents extended to painting, stained glass work, and art critique. His ambitious plans for Filoli, which included many elements found in classic English estates, evolved from 1917 to 1929 and continued to flourish through both the Bourns’ residency and that of its subsequent owners, the William Roth family. Mrs. Roth donated the house and a portion of the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1975; the Filoli Center later purchased the remaining acreage. (Read more.)