Tea at Trianon: A Georgian Country House

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, February 24, 2024

A Georgian Country House

From House and Garden:

In a village? On the outskirts? Or total isolation? How near are the schools? How far from London?’ This litany of questions must be familiar to many Londoners looking for a home in the country. It took three years for the owner of this Georgian house in a peaceful part of Hampshire to find her ideal place. Built on the side of a gentle hill, it looks down over meadows to its sister hill opposite, which is crowned with a wood. When it came to finding the ideal interior designer, however, the owner did not need to search far. Henriette von Stockhausen, of VSP Interiors, has helped her with houses in London and Switzerland over the past 18 years – they work well together.

The house, as the owner found it, was in need of some updating, and there had been various additions tacked on over the years. Adam Architecture was first called in to replace these with a handsome extension to match the rest of the house. The ground floor of this huge new space is taken up by a breakfast room and kitchen, the design of which was a collaborative effort involving Henriette, the owner and bespoke specialists Artichoke, who made it. (Read more.)