Loretta reports:
From France, by Lady Morgan (Sydney), and Sir Thomas Charles Morgan. 3rd edition. 1817
~~~
The elegant produce of the Indian loom is an indispensable object to every French woman, and from the estimation it is held in, one would suppose there was " magic in the web of it." I shall never forget the mingled emotions of pity and amazement I excited, in one of my French friends, by assuring her, I never had been mistress of a cachemir.
“Ah! seigneur Dieu, mes c'est inconcevable, ma belle," [Ah! but that is inconceivable,] and she added that I ought to buy one with the produce of my next work. I replied: "I had rather buy a little estate with it."
"Eh bien, ma chére," ["Well, but my dear,"] she answered quickly, " un cachemir, c’est une terre, n'est-ce pas?" [" a cachemir is the same as an estate, is it not?"]
In fact, these valuable and expensive shawls generally do become heir-looms, in a French family.
"Voila un trait de toilette pour vous, mon enfant," [" There is an anecdote of the toilette for you, my dear,"] said Mad. de Genlis to me one morning, as I entered her pretty apartment, at her Carmelite convent, to which she has retired. " Here is a trait will amuse you;" and she related to me the following anecdote.
A little before I had paid my visit, a young gentlemen had left this celebrated lady, suddenly cured of a passion for a young married woman, against which Mad. de Genlis had long and vainly preached. She had argued the matter with him morally, prudentially, sentimentally; she had even, like Mad. de Sevigne" (in listening to her son's confessions, respecting Ninon,) tried to get in "un petit mot de Dieu:" [a little word of religion;"] but it was all in vain, until a shawl " peau de lapin" [of rabbit-skin] effected what the charming eloquence of Mad. de Genlis failed to produce.
One of us -- 
5 comments:
Was the "rabbit skin" shawl really made from the skin of a rabbit? So more like a modern mink stole? Or was it just the hair, as angora rabbit hair is often substituted for cashmere in sweaters?
Mme. Tresbeau, I wondered about this, too. But fur didn't make sense in the context, so I concluded it was rabbit hair that so disgusted the gentleman.
The picture of the lady at the bottom is beautiful. Who is she?
The artist is Elisabeth Vigée-lebrun (1755-1842), whose work I love. The subject is La Comtesse Catherine Vassilievna Skavronskaia, about whom I know nothing. It's a little earlier than Lady Morgan's book, but I was trying to find less well-known beautiful examples of cashmere shawls in art.
I must confess to being a lover of shawls, myself, although mine are the sort that can be worn as a long scarf or wrapped around the shoulders when chilly. Love the pattern and texture over a turtleneck. No rabbit skins!
thanks for the fun post,
Cathryn Cade
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