Tea at Trianon: Lilliothea

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

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Lilliothea

From Habitually Chic:

I’ve just returned from Boston so I thought it was a good time to post this historic house outside the city in Manchester-by-the Sea that has recently been featured in Architectural Digest. Lilliothea which means “place with a view from a hill” was a Shingle-style house before architects Bigelow & Wadsworth wrapped the building within a larger structure clad in tapestry brick and limestone which turned it into an 11-bedroom daydream of a French château for Mr. George R. White, philanthropist and owner of Potter Drug & Chemical Corporation, in 1912.
According to the blog Half Pudding Half Sauce, “At the time of construction, the estate with its barrel-vaulted loggia, stone balustrades, and turrets rivaled the era’s grand seasonal “cottages” in Newport, Rhode Island. Built using the finest materials available, the exterior consists of tapestry brick, imported barrel by barrel from France and carved Indiana limestone. Twenty-eight stone carvers were brought to the site to ensure the elaborate carving was done with absolute authenticity, and they worked 24 hours a day.” (Read more.)