Tea at Trianon: Jubilee Afternoon Tea in Londpn

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, June 4, 2022

Jubilee Afternoon Tea in Londpn

From Tatler:

A bastion of Britishness in its own right, Fortnum & Mason has long-running connections to the Queen – it was the monarch herself who first opened the Tea Salon in its famed Piccadilly department store in 2012, the year she celebrated her Diamond Jubilee. A decade on and Fortnums is paying tribute to Her Majesty’s 70-year reign in a spectacular fashion, with the launch of a new tea menu. Expect exquisite reimaginings of classic British flavours, from dainty finger sandwiches to freshly-baked scones and commemorative cakes and pastries (the violet crème pâtissière-filled choux swan is a nod to the Queen’s ownership of all the swans in the UK), as well as vegan, gluten free and exclusively savoury options. The aesthetic aspect of the experience is remarkable in itself, with special touches like hand-crafted teapots, live piano music and seasonal flower displays inspired by Her Majesty’s favourite blooms.(Read more.)