Tea at Trianon: Stonehenge's Altar Stone

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, August 16, 2024

Stonehenge's Altar Stone

From Live Science:

Researchers now know the exact region in Scotland where Stonehenge's Altar Stone originated, thanks to a chemical analysis of the behemoth rock's geological makeup. The finding, which is part of a new study published Wednesday (Aug. 14) in the journal Nature, offers further evidence that the builders of the immense monument would have used advanced methods to transport the approximately 13,200-pound (6,000 kilograms) stone from its original location to its current site in southern England, where it now sits in the inner circle of Stonehenge, according to a statement from Aberystwyth University in Wales. For years, it was thought that the Altar Stone originated in Wales. However, a 2023 analysis of the large stone determined that it may have come from as far north as Scotland, since it contained large amounts of barium, similar to other stones in that area. This discovery helped researchers narrow down the stone's true origin. (Read more.)