Tea at Trianon: Classic English Garden Style at Hollister House

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

Sunday, November 14, 2021

Classic English Garden Style at Hollister House

From Gardenista:

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had plans to tour some of the great English gardens. With my trip on hold, an afternoon at Hollister House Garden felt like the closest thing to a visit to Great Dixter on this side of the Atlantic.

Set amongst the grounds of an eighteenth-century farmhouse in the rolling hills of Litchfield County, Connecticut, Hollister House Garden is an unmistakable nod to classic English garden-style. Former antiques dealer George Schoellkopf started the garden over 40 years ago and drew inspiration from places such as Sissinghurst and Hidcote.

The property’s 25 acres feature many “rooms,” including a rill garden, kitchen garden, and, of course, a walled garden. Gravel paths connect the different spaces, and, in true English garden-style, plants seem to tumble out of every corner and crevice. (Read more.)