Every once in a while I find myself inside the Wikipedia maze, clicking link after link of British history going back to The Conqueror and even before. There’s just so much of it, most of it quite remarkable and sometimes I get lost.
It doesn’t much help that they’re still making it. I was browsing the BBC news feed this morning over breakfast and saw this item about poor Lady Diana and her travails within the House Royal. It’s sad, really. The frightened wanderings of lonely, isolated mind, trapped in a hostile Court of Saint James.
With apologies though, that sort of thing is not really my cup of tea, so I mostly skimmed until my eyes came to rest on this:
Diana also thought both she and Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall, were to be “put aside” in favour of royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.
Who among us could become aware for the first time of the existence a “Tiggy Legge-Bourke” – a royal nanny for whom Charles might overthrow not just Diana Spencer but also Camilla Parker Bowles – and not have their curiousity piqued.
Further research reveals that Ms. Legge-Bourke was considered not quite the thing by some in the Court, although her distaff relationship to the delightfully hyphenated Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erie-Drax surely ought to have counted for something among the blue bloods.
Still, I like to make my own mind up about such things, and it was this quote that won a spot for Tiggy Legge-Bourke in my heart:
“She gives [her children] a tennis racket and a bucket of popcorn at the movies,” she was reported as saying of Diana, whereas “I give them what they need at this stage.” Friendship, affection and intellectual stimulation? Nope: “Fresh air, a rifle and a horse.”
That’s a keeper.
“Fresh air, a rifle and a horse.”
What could be better?
And a little gun-handling instruction, I hope. But they probably already have had that.
Marianne Matthews
Lex,
This just begs you to watch:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/queen_elizabeth_ii_will_leave
OT, but, relevant for the Lexmeister:
Tipping Point
Not being part of the royal bloodline, Ms. TL-B can afford to provide her kids with the possibility to fall off their horse or shoot themselves with their rifle, as they likely would have no worries from hemophilia, as the royals do (still?).
xformed, Out…f**king standing…made my day…many thanks. Best
“Fresh air, a rifle and a horse”? Is that woman a Kentuckian? Heh heh heh…
As long as xformed is commenting off-topic…
Tech Lust alert!!
“Fresh air, a rifle and a horse.”
A- effin’ men! Had I had such advantages, you betcha I’d have turned out better.
Diana’s life story is a sad one, though. She was picked for her genotype, and being a virgin.
She had a really messed-up phenotype, and I’m talking about the part between the ears, brought about to some extent by growing up in her crazy family.
Hey, at least Harry and William are taller than their Dad!
The Hanover leftovers were getting shorter and shorter, until Liz2 applied sound stockbreeding principles.
Note to Justthisguy … Harry and William may be taller than their Dad, but Willie is incredibly stuffy for a young man of his age. Only Harry shows promise, when he settles down. I’ve liked that boy ever since his Mom called him a little ankle-biter. I think his genes are robust enough to overcome Di’s lack of a rigorous mental attitude. She was so beautiful she never had to be smart. So she wasn’t.
Marianne
I never thought she was all that beautiful, just very well dressed and coiffed.
Fresh air, rifle and a horse? You can get all that in my Boy Scout Troop, although not all 3 at once, I admit.
See also, “sloane ranger.”
Teddy Roosevelt seemed to find the fresh air, rifle, and horse to be just the ticket for improving his health and giving him the energy necessary to tackle politics on the national stage, not to mention the solitude to grieve over the death of his wife and his mother on the same day (two people, not one. Just in case that wasn’t clear).
But, I’ve found nothing about The Royals sending their boys to work on ranches in the Dakota territories. Might broaden their horizons a bit, finding a little honest labor on the high plains. I can attest that it’s served me well.
Awfully cold at times, though.
– Max