Tea at Trianon: Maryland: Only the Beginning

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

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Maryland: Only the Beginning

Hiking along the trail. From The Trek:

Friends George and Michele joined me and my Michele for a kick-off dinner at the Rabbit Hole on the 25th. The next morning I said my goodbyes and was on my way. The first couple of miles out of Harper’s Ferry are dead flat along the C&O Canal. Lots of cyclists, algae, and basking turtles.

Leaving the canal, the trail ascends to the Weverton Cliffs. Lovely view, but a bit overwhelmed by visitors. The rest of the day was mostly ridge top walking and I spent the night tenting at a site that was over run by loud, partying campers lured by the parking lot less than a mile away. Four buddies from Indiana did give me a cold beer and an orange, much appreciated.

I was warned about rainy days. Keep your head up, roll with it, and of course rain is inevitable. So be it. I plodded along as the rain started and stopped at least three times. In the worst downpour, I noticed some Boy Scouts and parents at a group campground and they generously let me stand under their roofed picnic area. Disappointing that the mountaintop Washington Monument was socked in the clouds. (Read more.)