Tea at Trianon: A Mysterious, Recipe-Filled Diary From 1968

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, March 27, 2021

A Mysterious, Recipe-Filled Diary From 1968

From Atlas Obscura:

One hot day in May 2019, Georgie Williams went to a South London market to buy antique furniture for her new place. Later, within the vintage cabinet she brought home, she found something intriguing: a brown booklet, with Official Diary 1968: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office inscribed on the cover. Inside, she discovered 150 handwritten recipes, scribbled down by a mysterious cook.

Williams was stunned by the hard work the diary owner had dedicated to preserving her beloved recipes. Apart from recipes and tips, the 365-page diary had personal notes, cooking notes, magazine cut-outs, and names with phone numbers that Williams speculates may have belonged to cooking teachers. (Read more.)