Philobiblon

My 19th-century blogger, Miss Frances Williams Wynn, is today indulging in what can only be described as pure gossip – albeit it delicious gossip, about Queen Caroline of Brunswick, who was, you might say, a character. A sample:

When the Princess was at Baden and the Grand Duke made a partie de chasse for her, she appeared on horseback with a half-pumpkin on her head. Upon the Grand Duke’s expressing astonishment, and recommending a coiffure rather less extraordinary, she only replied that the weather was hot, and nothing kept the head so cool and comfortable as a pumpkin.