Uneasy lies the Head that Wears a Crown

History is not about dates and quotes and obscure provisos. History is about life. About change. About consequences. Cause and effect. It's about the mystery on human nature. The mystery of time. And it isn't just abour politics and the military and social issues, which is almost always the way it's taught. It's about music and poetry and drama and science and medicine and money, and love. David McCullough

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☽ QUEEN ALEXANDRA AND HER SISTER EMPRESS MARIA FEODOROVNA ☾

I used to try to attach myself to my Aunt Alix after dinner, for of all the relations she was my favourite, perhaps because she was the most beautiful person in my small world. Even after all these years I remember her as I saw her then, the grace of her every movement, the sweetness of her smile. No woman ever possessed to greater degree that inde-finable quality known as charm. That, combined with beauty, will turn anyone's head, unless they be made of stone. Everyone who knew her came under its spell, grown-ups as well as children, for she could talk to either with equal fascination. She was very witty, brilliant in repartee and a wonderful mimic, yet her wit was never cruel.

Aunt Minnie, the Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, was a smaller and less beautiful edition of her sister; she had the same charm, the same tact, but had more strength of character. Although she was small she could enter a room so majestically that everyone would stop talking and turn to look at her. She was a great smoker, but wanted no one to know it but the family, so if anyone else entered the room she would immediately hide her cigarette behind her back. | Prince Christopher of Greece

Young, lively and full of joie de vivre... the sisters set each other off and became the centre of a glittering crowd wherever they went. | Louisa, Countess of Antrim

The Italian villa is the home of Queen Alexandra and the Empress Marie, and the two sisters, who adore each other, are absolutely happy in each other’s society, and in the simplicity of the life they lead. In the sitting-room they share they both wanted to show me their special corners at the same time. "Come and see my writing-table", said the Empress, pulling me to her end of the room. "No", cried Queen Alexandra gailey, pulling me in the opposite direction; "come and see my writing-table." How we all laughed! "This is my chair," said the Empress, showing me one in her corner of the room. "And this is my chair," echoed the Queen, calling my attention to the favourite chair in her corner. I had to see everything and admire everything. | Infanta Eulalia of Spain

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Cameo with Medusa, mid-1800s. Attributed to Luigi Saulini, 1819-1883. Sardonyx, gold mount.

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Clarence Hudson White, The Watcher, 1905.

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He's just like me (daydreaming about package arrival)

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new Rembrandt painting discovered, confirmed by Rijksmuseum:

Vision of Zechariah in the Temple, 1633

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EVENING GOWN |  By Sir Norman Hartnell it was worn to open the third session of the Thirty-Third Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, 12 February 1963. The elegant combination of oyster duchesse satin and silver and gold embroidery in a geometric design is combined with a scoop-necked bodice and a scissor-cut skirt. The Royal Collection.

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Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, 1881.

Queen Victoria - April 4, 1880 | Darling Victoria, May every every blessing be showered on you on your dear 17th birthday and may you have strength given to you to be that support and help to your dear Papa which he so greatly needs! Every, every where you see what your beloved Mama did – how she worked for your country, watched over & led everything & how she stood by & supported your dear Papa – and you must try to follow in her footsteps – Modestly, unpresumingly , not putting yourself forward too much but being always ready to help & ready to do at Home what Papa wishes & requires. You must learn not to be posée, not talk too much or too loud – but take your place as your beloved Father's eldest daughter deprived of your beloved mother!

Queen Victoria - December 8, 1880 | Darling Victoria, I cannot tell you what pleasure your dear affte. letter of the 14th gave me! It shows so much good sense & right, proper feeling - as well as such confidence in your old loving Grandmama who loves you as a Mother & wishes to be one to you as much as she possibly can. God bless you for it sweet Child ! [...] And at the dinners remember not to talk too much & especially not too loud & not across the table.

Married life did little to stem Victoria's chattering. Her husband became one of only two people able to silence her, the other being the Queen. Years later, her younger son, Louis Mountbatten, became a third. In her memoir, Without Prejudice, Victoria's friend, Gloria Vanderbilt, complained: 'Rarely can one get a word in edgeways.' The diarist Chips Channon pronounced Victoria 'garrulous to the point of madness'. | The lives & deaths of the Princesses of Hesse by Frances Welch.

Louis Mountbatten | My mother was very quick on the uptake, very talkative, very agressive and argumentative. With her marvellous brain she sharpened people's wits, and of course especially my father's.

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i like to think of a group of friends crying with laughter hundreds and even thousands of years ago

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obsessed with humans again tonight

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John Galliano for Christian Dior, Fall/Winter 2000 Couture

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Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth II) and her sister Princess Margaret Rose in 1945 🌹

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Paris and Helen. Athenian red-figure hydria, Helen painter, 400 - 300 BC.

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french expression of the day:

"𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗻𝘀 à 𝗻𝗼𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗻𝘀"

literally, "let's get back to our sheeps"

While the English say "let's get back to the matter at hand," the French say "let's get back to our sheeps" 🐑.

This expression comes from a medieval French comedy, La Farce de Maître Pathelin (c. 1456), where a merchant gets deceived in the selling of both a sheet and a sheep. When the trial begins, the merchant confuses the sheet and the sheep in court, and an exasperated judge, who only wants to focus on the sheep, exclaims: "Let's get back to our sheeps!"

The expression quickly became popular and is still used today to express getting back to the matter at hand.

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A Room with a View (1985) directed by James Ivory

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19 January, 1924 Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov

“I love you. Infinitely and inexpressibly. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night and here I am writing this. My love, my happiness.”

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Been gone a few months and Tumblr adds ugly white frames to posts...

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Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna on a swing photographed by her daughter Xenia, 1912.

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