Tea at Trianon: The Last Mitford

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

Friday, May 3, 2024

The Last Mitford

Image may contain Deborah Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire Furniture Couch Living Room Room Indoors Shelf and Human

Debo. From House and Garden:

The youngest of the Mitford sisters, Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, was a beauty - elegant, down to earth, English to her very core and mad for all things poultry. Her beloved hens are a motif to be found throughout the sale, an astounding 40 lots are poultry-related.
She once hosted Oscar de la Renta at Chatsworth and presented her hens and their chicks nesting in glass boxes as the table centrepieces. After 54 years as chatelaine of Chatsworth she moved to the Old Vicarage at Edensor and the pieces she took with her were deeply personal, her style and passions condensed into this collection of belongings.
'Debo', as she was known to friends and family, delighted in downsizing, writing in Wait For Me!, her autobiography, "For me it is an unheard-of pleasure for the kitchen to be just two steps away and for it to be two steps the other way into the garden". Her interiors had a typical Mitford wit and style, a playful irreverence. She mixed Meissen porcelain and fine furniture with cardboard cut-outs of Elvis - she was a huge fan. (Read more.)