Tea at Trianon: Elizabethan Manor in Kent with Gardens by Gertrude Jekyll

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, March 4, 2024

Elizabethan Manor in Kent with Gardens by Gertrude Jekyll

From Country Life:

Enhancements, alterations and additions include the redecoration of the entire timber-frame house, the upgrading of utilities and bathrooms, the conversion of a rare twin-roundel kiln oast house to versatile secondary accommodation, garaging and store rooms, the addition of a south-facing swimming pool and the landscaping and restoration of the beautifully structured gardens, designed by Gertrude Jekyll for Lady Rhonda in 1925. Encircling the property, the gardens are fully enclosed, with privacy provided by the almost eight acres in which the manor sits, including a large paddock with a stable block to the north of the house.
In all, Stonepitts Manor offers almost 9,400sq ft of elegant accommodation on three floors, including a colourful Great Hall, two further reception rooms, a study, games room, kitchen/breakfast room and various domestic offices on the ground floor, with a sitting room /music room, two bedroom suites, four further bedrooms and two bathrooms on the first floor and a further bedroom suite and attic storage on the second floor. (Read more.)