Tea at Trianon: The Most Important Road in Scottish History

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, November 9, 2023

The Most Important Road in Scottish History

From STV News:

An ancient Roman Road said to be used by key historical figures including William the Conqueror, Oliver Cromwell and every King and Queen of Scotland, has been found in a garden near Stirling. Dating back almost 2,000 years, the cobbled road was built by the Roman armies of general Julius Agricola in the first century and would have connected to a ford through the River Forth. Many of the key historical figures of Scottish and wider British history would have used the road for military campaigns given its strategic importance for crossing the Forth and reaching the Highlands, as well as its proximity to Stirling – Scotland’s former capital. It was uncovered during an exploratory dig in the garden of the Old Inn Cottage, next to the 18th century Old Drip Bridge, a few miles west of Stirling city centre. (Read more.)