Tea at Trianon: Stonyhurst College Museum

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

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Stonyhurst College Museum

St. Thomas More's Gold and Pearl Crucifix

From Great British Life:

No matter how many times you walk up the long driveway from Hurst Green, it is hard not to be awe-struck by the soaring towers of Stonyhurst College. But behind those imposing stone walls is something equally impressive – one of the most remarkable museum collections in the world.

This priceless mix of religious relics, works of art and esoteric artefacts gathered from around the globe would have any self-respecting historian beating a path to the Ribble Valley. Begun in 1609, it is generally accepted to be the oldest surviving museum collection in the English speaking world.

It includes some 60,000 items and up to 70,000 books, many of them ancient and valuable kept in three libraries that would send bibliophiles into raptures.
The frustration for curator Jan Graffius and her team is that few of these fascinating objects are ever seen by the public. Their location inside a school means the summer vacation, when the boarders have gone home, is the only time the public can be admitted. (Read more.)