Tea at Trianon: A Faux-medieval Folly

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

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

A Faux-medieval Folly

All the aristocrats in every country had "follies." Not just Marie-Antoinette. From Country Life:

Ingoldisthorpe Hall is the sort of house that is as easy to fall in love with as it is hard to spell. Norfolk is the fifth-largest county in England by area, with 2,074 square miles — and yet it doesn’t even crack the top 20 for population. This is a wonderfully diverse landscape of woods, lush farmland and a glorious sweeping coastline that stretches for 90 miles from King’s Lynn in the west to Hopton-on-Sea in the east. And there is good news for buyers looking to secure a base in this least cluttered of counties: this year there is an unusually wide selection of coastal and country properties, from manors and farmhouses large and small, to seaside houses old and new.

Ben Rivett of Savills in Norwich sets the pace with the launch onto the market of Grade II*-listed Ingoldisthorpe Hall, for sale with a guide price of £3.75 million, situated only three miles from the royal estate at Sandringham and 10 miles from King’s Lynn. (Read more.)