Tea at Trianon: Grazing Goats and Sheep Help Uncover Historic Headstones in Ireland

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, August 24, 2023

Grazing Goats and Sheep Help Uncover Historic Headstones in Ireland

From Smithsonian:

Uncovering graves buried by centuries of plant growth is hard work—for humans, at least. For sheep, it’s actually a tasty task. That’s why volunteers at a church in Ireland have brought in the herbivores to help with historical conservation work. As BBC News reports, the sheep are clearing an overgrown graveyard by St. Matthew’s Church in the Cork County parish of Templebreedy. They are helping to bring a forgotten history back to the fore,” Cork County Councilor Audrey Buckley tells BBC News.
The Templebreedy Save Our Steeple committee, which aims to preserve the historic site and connect it to the local community today, is spearheading efforts to recover the graves. St. Matthew’s was built in 1788 and has since fallen into ruin. A different church stood at the site before St. Matthew’s, and the grounds’ earliest grave dates back to 1711.

The sheep aren’t the first grazing creatures to help out with the project. Last summer, four goats were recruited to munch on overgrowth around the old headstones. As Buckley told the Irish Times’ Olivia Kelleher last May, she learned about “goatscaping” on a visit to Wales, where goats and sheep often help clear unwanted vegetation from churchyards. The animals can remove weeds in a more environmentally friendly way than power trimmers while presenting less danger to fragile tombstones. (Read more.)