Tea at Trianon: Beating The Bounds

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

Friday, July 21, 2023

Beating The Bounds

This post is more appropriate for Ascension and the Rogation Days in spring. But it is an example of another ancient custom that Oliver Cromwell tried to banish for being pagan. From Rural Historia:

Church parish borders were not marked on maps as they were rare, but members of the community, and of course the ecclesiastics, knew their location and this knowledge needed to be passed down through the generations. It was only by knowing where the boundaries of the parish were, that there could be certainty about who lived within them. This determined who had a right to be buried in the churchyard and who would be asked to put their hand into their pocket for a contribution when the church building needed repairs. Where a parish began and ended also determined issues such as where parishioners could graze animals and the limits between various jurisdictions.
Beating the Bounds evolved into a Christian ceremony and the festival of Rogantide was incorporated into the calendar, to coincide with the time of year when God’s blessing was sought for seeds being sown. Also coinciding with Ascension Day, five weeks after Easter it became a major event. A party of local people, usually comprised of clergymen, one of whom would head the procession, church wardens, local dignitaries, villagers and a group of boys, would walk the borders and learn the whereabouts of the boundaries by their relationship to local landmarks, such as stones, gate posts, walls and trees. Having the boys in the party was a way to insure that the knowledge would be then passed down through subsequent generations. They were also given the job of carrying planks which would be laid down over streams, so that the more important members of the group could cross without getting their feet wet. (Read more.)