"Another Animal Tale - this time mainly concerning cats.

Winston Churchill had a strong liking for cats particularly marmalade ones. He apparently requested in his will that there should always be a marmalade cat named Jock in residence at his former home Chartwell. Sir Winston was so fond of cats that they would often sit next to him in a specially reserved seat.

He seems to have been a real softy where animals in general were concerned. He could often be observed when he was writing his memoirs with a budgerigar perched on his head, a ginger cat on his lap and a poodle fast asleep across his feet. I think it shows a very human side to a very public figure.

"

" Apparently after his execution it was realized there was no official portrait of the Duke. He was, after all acknowledged to be the son of a King. So it was decided to stitch his head back on the body. A tall story or true? you guess is as good as mine. "

"This reminded me of another macabre beheading story. During the french revolution one of Marie Antoinette's friends the Princesse de Lamballe was beheaded. The mob decided to put the head on the spike & parade it through the streets but after a while it began to look a bit shabby. So the head was taken into a nearby barbers where it's hair & make up were done to make it presentable."

"Whilst on the subject of Frederick Prince of Wales. In 1738 the poet Alexander Pope gave the Prince a dog with the following inscription on its collar:-

I am His Higness' dog at Kew
Pray tell me sir whose dog are you?
"

"I have difficulty in understanding how anyone can find funny what they made to the unfortunate princess of Lamballe.
Because the storie about the bloody French revolution who most traumatized me is exactly the description of the massacre of this innocent woman and this disgusting parade which they made with her poor body mutilated and opened everywhere, described in the book "La chambre" in a particularly realistic and raw way.
Without doubt I am more sensitive to it because I am French."

"I'm not condoning the massacre of the aristocrats during the French Revolution. However, the society they created could not continue. The poor were paying all the taxes, and the wealthy were living ludicrously lavish lifestyles at the expense of the starving millions. Ofcourse they were angry. It was a dreadful situation, just waiting to explode. Explode it certainly did."

"As I explained it in a message to Kittywake09, I expressed myself rather hard in my comment because I am particularly touched by the story of this woman and at the time I was moved by reading comments about her story, but with hindsight I understand that it was only some black humor.
To answer at Elliemental, I agree that France needed a change because the ancient system was too inequitable and unegalitarian and could not last, but I hate the way that took place.
Louis XVI, his wife and them son were not responsible for errors of his ancestors and for the system which they established long time ago and did not have to pay for all this.
Besides Louis XVI was ready to negotiate, it was not a tyran, I think he was a good person unlike Henry VIII, he loved his country, his people, his wife and them children.
Marie-Antoinette, the friends of the royal family and all the noble persons of France were innocent and did not deserve to be killed.
Besides, this revolution is ineffective because the monarchy is restored some decades later, then we had several emperors to finish by a change of system gently, thus what's the use of this blood bath of 1789 ? "