Tea at Trianon: Notley Abbey

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, March 12, 2021

Notley Abbey

The country house of Sir Laurence Olivier and his second wife Vivien Leigh was formerly a monastery endowed by Henry V. It is now a wedding venue. From author Kendra Bean at Viv and Larry:

Returning to war-torn England in late 1940, Larry and his new bride found their old house, Durham Cottage, practically in ruins from a bomb raid. While waiting for renovation, they shifted from one temporary house to another, often going to a town nearby where Larry was stationed in the Fleet Air Arm. In 1944, they finally found the house that would serve as their marital estate until 1960. It was a large stone abbey in Buckinghamshire that had once been endowed by the real Henry V.

Larry was instantly taken by its majestic presence, but Vivien had her doubts (and so did many of their friends). How would it be possible to make the place liveable? It would cost a fortune to renovate it; there were hardly any modern amenities. As friend David Niven said, “It looked absolutely hopeless”. But Larry could not be swayed, and they purchased the abbey shortly before the end of the war.

Vivien may not have thought much of their country retreat at first, but as her health began to cause her more and more problems, she took refuge within the great gray walls and made Notley into a romantic other-world where some of the greatest parties of the day took place with everyone who was anyone in attendance. The Oliviers also enjoyed the outdoors, planting massive amounts of rose bushes and a widow’s walk along the drive, leaving a signature on the grounds that still exists today. (Read more.)

More HERE and HERE.