Tea at Trianon: Hidden Crypt of Exeter Cathedral

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, August 14, 2023

Hidden Crypt of Exeter Cathedral

From Ancient Origins:

Situated in Devon, England, Exeter Cathedral stands among the masterpieces of European medieval architecture. Founded in 1114 AD, this mega-structure of Christian worship took over 70 years to complete. Standing on a classic Gothic design, and constructed with a local red sandstone facade and a spectacular two-towered west front, a range of splendid stained-glass windows and finely carved sculptures are covered with soaring vaulted ceilings. A report in Devon Live explains that hidden in “a sunken area” beyond the Norman period high altar, a team of archaeologists found a crypt that was back-filled in the 14th century. Within one of the burials the team unearthed the remains of a 13th-century Bishop of Exeter, William Brewer. In another they unearthed the body of the 12th-century Bishop William Warelwast, nephew of William the Conqueror who invaded England in 1066 AD. (Read more.)