NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Art · Saint Petersburg · Humour
The Bengal Lion and Tiger and the Petersburg Lion and Tiger. A caricature, presumably of the 1840s, from the album of Prince Pyotr Urusov. In the guise of the Petersburg lion is Arkady Pavlovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (above)
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Observations
On the question of how the Germans ruled Russia. Olga Nikolayevna, daughter of Nikolai Pavlovich, married her cousin, Crown Prince Karl of Württemberg. At the time of her betrothal she said rapturously to V. A. Zhukovsky: “May the Lord bless this step in my life and grant me the strength
Aristocracy · Books · Mores · People
The women met in 1768, when Sarah was 13 and Eleanor 29. Ten years later they left their native parts together, setting off on a journey through Wales and, a little later, settling in Llangollen. They turned their house into a veritable pearl of local architecture and, given their way
NB! · Aristocracy · Mores · People
Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby were for most of their lives known as the Ladies of Llangollen. The romantic friends lived together in the Welsh backwoods for 50 years; today their union would be called a same-sex marriage
Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Mores · People
Lady Hertford was one of the best-known mistresses of the Prince of Wales, the future George IV. She was the wife of his friend, and the prince was a frequent guest at their house. It was joked that not a day passed without George calling on Lady Hertford. Although
Aristocracy · Observations · Mores · People
A great-great-granddaughter of the Russian historian Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev spoke about the background of another famous historian, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. Karamzin's stepmother had a nephew, Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev, who was on friendly terms with Senator Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov, the curator of Moscow University, a former tutor
Aristocracy · London · Society · People · Humour
In 1807 the Duke of Portland was appointed First Lord of the Treasury for the second time, thereby becoming, to all intents and purposes, head of the British government. The 69-year-old premier was, by all accounts, an exceedingly worthy man and a model aristocrat. But he was also
NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Observations · Mores
For some time I have been gathering material on twins among the aristocracy and the royal houses. One of the most remarkable and touching stories is, perhaps, that of the Faucher brothers, who lived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
Aristocracy · Cinema · Books · Mores
Byron once wrote that a woman should never be seen eating, unless it is lobster, salad or champagne. Only these dishes, so the argument goes, do not diminish pure femininity. Idiocy, of course. But in the biographical film about Byron made by the BBC in 2005, this quotation is wittily
NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Art · Observations
And here is the place where the Duke and Duchess of Angoulême are depicted in Étienne Garnier's portrait. Chartres, Bishop's Palace, 2017. Almost nothing has changed
NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour
The Duke and Duchess of Angoulême: he puts one in mind of our pensioners in Rubchinsky, chasing fashion with their brains switched off; really, silly boy, can one go about with a bikini line like that? Not even in 1823.
Aristocracy · The East · Mores · Society
A love drama comes to mind. The Catherinian grandee Count Osip Igelstrom, packed off to live out his days on a pension for his Warsaw failures, was appointed by Paul I, after the Empress's death, military governor of Orenburg. In Orenburg the 60-year-old Igelstrom made the