Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere) > Recent Status Updates

Fun guillotine fact - "Originally meant to be stationed permanently at the place du Carroussel in the Tuileries Gardens, the machine of execution was afterwards disassembled and reassembled and taken from place to place." - people with houses nearby complained of the noise, the smell, etc.

Gross out time: description of fluids body releases on execution, male vs. female. Railings were only put around the scaffold in 1792 when one of the executioners slipped on the fluids and fell, dying of the injuries. Don't imagine the smell of all this. "...blood pooled into a pond underneath the scaffold...rivers of blood ran down the...streets..."

""You are going to hurt me, please don't hurt me, just one more moment, I beg you!" (Said to be the last words of Madame du Barry, King's courtesan.)"

Madame du Barry was considered by her peers to have had a bad death because she screamed, cried, begged and in doing so "frightened and alarmed the mob" - this to me says that going quietly and noblely to your death is probably not the way to wake up a crowd to its humanity. And know what? Grace Elliot said much the same in her journal. Which I now MUST read.

"Of all the death sentences pronounced in France during the Revolution, Paris accounted for only 15 percent; 19 percent were dealt in the southeast and 52 percent in the west, where the worst of the civil war was being waged."

For the portion where Grace is being tried by the Revolutionaries I am really enjoying the authors asides. Wonder how dude that is treating her meanly will fare later? Aside in parentheses notes he will die eventually, the usual way. Of course, at this period in France, that happened a lot. To just about everyone.

If you've never read about this before, it's one of those "why make things more difficult" moments of the French Revolution, when they remake the calendar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_R...

(Oops wrong, not a maid in that last comment, but a manservant. Who also saw the death.)

Really great comparison of Grace's account of Phillipe's (Duke of Orleans) death at the guillotine versus the account by Evarts Seelye Scudder in Prince of the Blood. And it's not weird that their accounts differ - it's what the maid told her versus an eyewitness - and both can be faulty.

"Earlier that day, Grace Elliot was to recall, as she herself was traveling in a carriage through the Paris streets, her carriage was stopped for the procession and so she saw close up the bloody head of the Princesse - whom she'd also known personally - as it was borne on that pike."

Grace as a Royalist trying to help the French monarchy, carrying messages to various countries - great stories. Have marked her journal (available free online) to read.

When the author of Eliot's bio notes his books show he had "very limited medical knowledge" Manning then states "But is one being excessively hard on Dr. Eliot here?" - ok, nice to see the fairness.

One thing this history does make you realize - there were a LOT of bastard children running around. Which makes you wonder about people who keep thinking out of wedlock children are some new problem.

"He [Eliot] is consistent to the end in his need to assert his superiority over other men. (Is it one of those short-man things? One wonders.)" - and another example of just a touch too much snark for me. Yes Eliot does seem like a jerk, but lots of men divorced their wives like this, and yes it doesn't seem fair. However making him the constant butt of the joke/villain forever gets a bit much.

"Among these bequests [in the will] are amounts to a number of women and their - and his - offspring, Eliot's bastard children. What a hypocrite, divorcing his wife [Grace] for her adulterous behavior! But, as noted, that's the way the game was played in Georgian England. Advantage: men."

"Stories of [George Augustus] Selwyn's necrophilia abound in the letters and diaries of the time, and there was also an interesting aside suggesting that he went to the executions of criminals dressed as a woman." - what, no details on the necrophilia?

"The Ceremonies of the Straw. This was the custom of laying down straw in the streets around the house of an invalid, someone on his deathbed, or a woman in labor. The straw acts as a cushion, or as insulation, softening traffic and street noises."

"It should be made clear that Walpole probably bore no ill will toward Grace personally, nor toward her daughter Georgiana, whom he'd described as being - like her mother - "pretty." " - oh well good, because you were making it sound like it was all his fault, and Lord Cholmondeley was just standing about being told who to marry by the villainous Walpole.

Lord Cholmondeley "looked out for Grace and her child and grandchild through the rest of her life and theirs, but it's understandable that, under the influence of his granduncle, he balked at marriage." - sorry, no real evidence that it was primarily Walpole behind that decision.

And going for titillation: "An interesting sidelight to the adoration of Lady Sophia by both Lord Lincoln and his pal Horry Walpole is that it's now believed by some biographers that Lincoln and Walpole had been involved romantically and sexually themselves - together. But though Walpole never married, [Lord Lincoln} did..."

Only now does the book bring up Horace Walpole's supposed homosexuality - which is assumed by some scholars but not really proven. This is after titling this section, on p. 158: "Granduncle Horry, Man of Letters, Letter Writer, Closeted Homosexual" - I get that being gay in this period would be a subject of scandal (and illegal), but this is framing it in an awkward way...

Ok this is totally pulling a "what if" without any facts, in usual parentheses-author-aside. Grace's husband shot at by highwayman: "(Mysteriously no attempt was made to rob him, and one has to wonder if a frustrated Grace Elliott took the initiative and hired hit-highwaymen to rid herself of her husband.)" - zero proof for this, no sources cited. Major eyeroll from me.

"..It appears in general that age is more disgusting in women than in man..." - quote from scandal sheet of 1770something. Ugh.

"A man could sit in the bow window at White's (the oldest gentleman's club still in existence in London), read one of the many freshly ironed newspapers (ironed to keep the ink from getting on one's hands or gloves)..." - I had wondered why newspapers needed ironing, I'd seen that in other books, just not had an explaination.

"Upon death of the monarch his [Lord Great Chamberlain, ceremonial role] duty is to break his stave of office [6ft+ wood pole] over the grave." - question, if this happens in present/future, will the BBC televise it? Or has it done so already? Sigh, more things to google.

Thanks to the story of a gentleman with lewd images painted on his waistcoat buttons Google now knows I've been searching for "painted waistcoat button porn" and various other phrases. The Morning Herald (1783) had a story about it, so it must be true, right? Still nothing from searches. You'd think someone would collect them, right?!

Oh dear. Author just compared Grace and Lord Cholmondeley to: "Recall the media frenzy over the former couple known as "Bennifer" - Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez - and one begins to get an idea of this pair's allure." - I think the Bennifer thing should be forced out of history books, but that's me.

Lord Cholmondeley's nicknames were "the Athletic Peer," "Lord Tallboy," "the Whimsical Lover," "the Torpedo" - I don't think even an academic text could write about this without snickering. Er, without the literary equivalent of a snicker. Because yes, it's all about sex.

"A 2003 exhibition at the British Museum - London 1753 - included two of only a few surviving examples of condoms. ...Yes these condoms were made to be used, washed (one hoped!), and reused. Yuck! The condoms were donated to the British Museum by Eric J. Dingwall, nicknamed "Dirty Ding," who collected erotica and material on aberrant sexual customs..."

Look out, pages 112 on are full of birth control - lots of condom info and a few photos - and some period porn. Yep, not dozing off for this part...