Tea at Trianon: Fingal’s Cave

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 31, 2022

Fingal’s Cave

From Ancient Origins:

This sea cave has been able to draw tourists to the deserted island for several reasons. Apart from being a geological marvel, Fingal’s Cave is also an important site in Irish legends. Another of the cave’s claims to fame is that, despite being in an uninhabited part of the world, it has been visited by a number of well-known figures over the centuries, and it even served as the inspiration for a concert overture. Fingal’s Cave has a height of about 22 m (72.18 ft.) and a depth of about 82 m (269.03 ft.). It has been speculated that Fingal’s Cave is over 50 million years old. As the island of Staffa is situated in an area of volcanic activity , Fingal’s Cave was created by lava flow. The cave is made up of three layers. The base consists of a layer of tuff and the top is composed of a layer of basaltic lava lacking a crystalline structure. In between these two layers are interlocking colonnades (perhaps as many as 40,000) of black fine-grained Tertiary basalt. (Read more.)