Tea at Trianon: Greenwood Gardens

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, July 2, 2022

Greenwood Gardens

From Gardenista:

It’s a miracle when the past survives long enough to see the future. Many beautiful places and structures exist only in photographs and beg the question, why wasn’t it saved: the original Penn Station, the Gilded Age mansions of 5th Avenue, and many old country estates that are now housing developments.
But that didn’t happen to Greenwood Gardens. It was saved by forethought and planning by the second family that owned it. Large estates are expensive to run and maintain. Houses fall into disrepair and gardens become overgrown. But the Blanchard family knew that they had a jewel and the only way to save it was to share it.
Located in Short Hills, New Jersey, and tucked in between Old Short Hills Park and the South Mountain Reservation, Greenwood Gardens started out as the Pleasant Days estate of Joseph P. Day, a New York City real estate tycoon, as his retreat to escape the chaos of the city. He commissioned a massive garden with architect William Whetten Renwick that included terraces, fountains (many decorated with Arts and Crafts Rookwood tiles), formal gardens, and vistas of the Watchung Mountain range. And there was also a golf course. (Read more.)