Tea at Trianon: New Light On One Of Victorian London’s Most Notorious Workhouses

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

Saturday, December 16, 2023

New Light On One Of Victorian London’s Most Notorious Workhouses

From All That's Interesting:

Excavations of the workhouse have focused on areas that were demolished after bombings during World War II, according to the BBC. In what was likely once the female ward, archaeologists found well-preserved walls “standing up to a meter high, coated in vibrant blue painted plaster,” suggesting that residents at St. Pancras were not living in grim spaces.

They also uncovered dishes bearing the image of St. Pancras alongside the words “Guardians of the Poor St. Pancras Middlesex,” as well as items like a ceramic hot water bottle and a bone toothbrush with horsehair bristles.

“While the facilities are spartan, the inmates were not there to be punished,” Williams explained, according to The Guardian. “There were gardens, an infirmary and nursery. These acknowledge their needs as much as the heated rooms, or the pale blue paint on the walls.” (Read more.)