Tea at Trianon: Guardians of Days Gone By

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

Monday, April 3, 2023

Guardians of Days Gone By

Dining Room at Highclere, with equestrian portrait of Charles I

Dining Room at Cadland

From House and Garden:

Important to keep in mind is that the houses have survived because of the tenacity and commitment to the cause by those who live in them. Salaries from external jobs get pumped directly into upkeep, some homes have been opened to the public, while others have diversified into safari parks, sculpture parks, wedding venues, and more - that necessary entrepreneurial energy rather putting paid to the perceived chatelaine lifestyle of glamorous balls and endless afternoon tea. Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey was filmed, is home to the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon (it’s been in the family since 1793) and receives about 1,500 visitors a day; “I act more as CEO,” says the Countess. “There’s the estate, there’s the castle, there’s the properties and the people renting cottages, and then there’s the horse-feed business and the books I’m writing.”
Her job description is something that Fee Drummond, who lives in Cadland House in the New Forest, identifies with: “the Cadland Estate [which has been owned and managed by the Drummond family for over 250 years] is a multi-faceted business, an eco-system of micro-businesses as well as a larger number of coastal properties of various sizes that need permanent maintenance. I try to separate work from home, but it isn’t easy when you live in the middle of the machine; most of the time I’m wearing a hard hat, gutting houses that haven’t been touched for decades, and working out how to do them up with a budget of nothing – like everybody else’s home renovations, but on a larger scale.” (Read more.)