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Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Complete: B

by Mme. (Jeanne-Louise-Henriette) Campan

MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF MAMME. (JEANNE-LOUISE-HENRIETTE) CAMPAN
Our binding, not the publisher's

“As soon as the Queen rose, the wardrobe woman was admitted to take away the pillows and prepare the bed to be made by some of the valets de chambre. She undrew the curtains, and the bed was not generally made until the Queen was gone to mass. Generally, excepting at St. Cloud, where the Queen bathed in an apartment below her own, a slipper bath was rolled into her room, and her bathers brought everything that was necessary for the bath. The Queen bathed in a large gown of English flannel buttoned down to the bottom; its sleeves throughout, as well as the collar, were lined with linen. When she came out of the bath the first woman held up a cloth to conceal her entirely from the sight of her women, and then threw it over her shoulders. The bathers wrapped her in it and dried her completely. She then put on a long and wide open chemise, entirely trimmed with lace, and afterwards a white taffety bed-gown. The wardrobe woman warmed the bed; the slippers were of dimity, trimmed with lace. Thus dressed, the Queen went to bed again, and the bathers and servants of the chamber took away the bathing apparatus. The Queen, replaced in bed, took a book or her tapestry work. On her bathing mornings she breakfasted in the bath. The tray was placed on the cover of the bath. These minute details are given here only to do justice to the Queen’s scrupulous modesty. Her temperance was equally remarkable; she breakfasted on coffee or chocolate; at dinner ate nothing but white meat, drank water only, and supped on broth, a wing of a fowl, and small biscuits, which she soaked in a glass of water.”

From a cookbook of 1845

A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.

1845  ·  Acton
COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, ETC

Page Coffee 587 To roast Coffee 588 A few general directions for 589 making Coffee Excellent Breakfast Coffee 590 To boil Coffee 591 Café Noir 592 Burnt Coffee, or Coffee _à la 592 militaire_ (In France vulgarly called _Gloria_) To make Chocolate 592 A Spanish recipe for making 592 and serving Chocolate To make Cocoa 593

Sources: The passage is from Mme. (Jeanne-Louise-Henriette) Campan, Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Complete: B, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Acton, Modern cookery for private families of 1845, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — navy cloth, teapot stamp.

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