Tea at Trianon: Lightness

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

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Lightness

From Lady Carnarvon:

Last year, Christmas 2020, we were lucky enough to be able to open for a few tours over a two-week period before a fairly grim year came to a sudden and sooner than anticipated close. In any year, Christmas offers a moment in our busy lives to pause and wonder and to take part in a story but it seemed particularly appropriate that year, in terms of decoration and theme, that we should anchor ourselves in reds and greens, Charles Dickens and all things traditional: to look for reassurance and comfort from the past.

One of the unexpected results of last year’s November lockdown was that we had time to be able to make a programme with Channel 4 about getting ready for Christmas. It kept us occupied and was obviously sufficiently entertaining that it is being shown again this year on Saturday December 4th at tea time, 4.30pm.

Sitting down with chief Christmas Elf Sally in January of this year, with everything closed down and, like everyone else, feeling somewhat low and worried, we made a plan for Christmas 2021. We thought it should be entirely different and looked at lightness and at white and frosty themes. In fact, since we were locked down for, as it turned out, months on end, Sally took the opportunity to make some of the garlands during those wintery months.

This was just as well as it turned to be rather bigger project than anticipated since, of course, neither Christmas trees nor the castle are really white. So instead of highlighting them as we have done in the past, the decorations had to be rather more transformative. The garland on the main staircase took hours of work, there is a second, even longer garland on the red staircase (the original Georgian one) plus Luis wanted one to go all round his Christmas marquee as well as a centre piece (Santa’s sledge and some arctic tree stems). (Read more.)