Tea at Trianon: When Big Cats Roamed the Land in Ancient Greece

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, October 14, 2021

When Big Cats Roamed the Land in Ancient Greece

From The Greek Reporter:

Excavations in the cave began in the mid 1970s and continue to this day. Scientists say that the fossils found there date over a large period between twenty-five thousand to seven thousand years ago. They believe that the cave was either a natural trap for animals, or perhaps was a place where large predators, like lions, would bring their prey to enjoy a quiet dinner. Because most of these species became extinct in Greece such a long time ago, little is known about the animals’ possible ranges throughout the country. Yet, it is clear from not only fossils but also from eyewitness accounts that lions and big cats roamed the land in ancient Greece. (Read more.)