Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere)’s Reviews > My Lady Scandalous: The Amazing Life and Outrageous Times of Grace Dalrymple Elliott, Royal Courtesan > Status Update

"He [Sainte-Beuve, in a book review] also disputes the anecdote that Bentley repeats, that General (and soon to be emperor) Napoleon proposed marriage to Mrs. Elliott." - great example of how Bentley seems to have used any and all gossip, from any source.

"The French have always been kinder to Grace Elliott than her own nit-picking and biased countrymen."

Critics of Grace's Journal claimed that there's no proof of her imprisonment - to which can be noted that the prisons had lax record keeping, and Grace may not have always used her real name.

Another mystery, Grace's Journal ends abruptly because the manuscript is torn off at the end. So someone decided to censor it at some point, but of course no idea who.

"It was reported that he [George IV] drank gallons of cherry brandy and had delusions of taking part in - and singlehandedly winning - the Battle of Waterloo."

One of my favorite eccentrics mentioned in passing: William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_... (Go, Team Eccentric!)

"In the second decade of the nineteenth century, according to Christopher Hibbert in Queen Victoria, it was reckoned that King George III had at least fifty-six illegitimate grandchildren, or, as they were called, "children of the mist."

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.)"