Peter Cunningham

Name: Once a Week
Author: Peter Cunningham

Once a Week (1863)

Summary

“Once a Week”, published in 1863, is a work by Peter Cunningham. It explores elements such as Maids, Anne Hyde and Queens.

Quotes from Once a Week (Peter Cunningham)

Peter Cunningham, Once a Week (1863)

“ Anne Hyde, the mother of two queens—Queen Mary and Queen Anne—was once a Maid of Honour. Ladies of the Bedchamber—we care not for them: for Mistresses of the Robes we care still less: but for the “Maids of Honour” to our Queens we have a kind of sneaking affection—fast forming into “right honourable love,” the more we learn about them.
The Maids of Honour to our Queens have always been a laughing and light hearted race. The earliest account we have of them is a little incident provocative of laughter. The Maids of Honour to Eleanor of Castille tossed King Edward the First in a blanket. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Peter Cunningham, Once a Week (1863)

“ Nought can compare with the Maids of Honour manufactured and sold at Richmond. Thy cakes, O Richmond! will not bear carrying; they must be eaten on the spot. Ask any schoolboy, if after a determined resolution to take a shilling’s-worth of Maids of Honour home to dear mamma, or sister Mary, he has ever reached home with them intact, or at all. They will not cross the Thames at Kew Bridge without turning sour (inquire of any schoolboy) , and at Turnham Green they are fit only for the pigs. Exquisitely delicate is this divine pastry, and not to be made by uneducated hands. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Peter Cunningham, Once a Week (1863)

“ Now, then, I have it! “Who has e’er been to Richmond must needs know the shop” where Mr. Billett and Mrs. Billett dispense wholesale and retail a peculiar pastry known far and wide as “Maids of Honour,”—known to school-boys and school-girls—known to dignitaries of the church and law—to chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place—to all who are willing to partake of, and, above all, who can pay for a pastry palateable to “youths of both sexes,” and men and women of all ages. We know, to our cost, that most enticing shop. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Peter Cunningham, Once a Week (1863)

“ Miss Anne Boleyn (we ask pardon of antiquaries for the designation) was observed by King Harry on this Reading progress seated on a dais, with a silver dish of cheese-cakes, or tartlets, before her and her honourable fellows. The cakes were disappearing, as good cakes will disappear when young ladies are alone. The king asked what they were eating. No one knew. Let them be called, said “the Defender of the Faith,” Maids of Honour, and Maids of Honour they were then called, and are happily so called to this day. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Peter Cunningham, Once a Week (1863)

“ Of the Maids to Henrietta Maria I have full and entertaining particulars. This part of my work will include Cecilia Crofts (Tom Killigrew’s wife) . Miss Porter (Endymion’s daughter) , Mrs. Kirk, that delightful blue-stocking, and Margaret Lucas, Duchess of Newcastle, whose life of her husband no casket is too good to contain. I claim particular attention for the life of Anne Hyde, the future mother of the two Queens of England, Mary and Anne. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Peter Cunningham, Once a Week (1863)

“ The reader will find plenty of true gossip and Court scandal touching Britannia Stewart (afterwards Duchess of Richmond and Lenox) , Mrs. Simena Carew, Mrs. Catherine Boynton, Mrs. Henrietta Maria Price, Mrs. Winifred Wells, Mademoiselle de la Garde, and Mademoiselle Bardon. Tom Thynne’s intended bride, Mary Trevor, will be found acceptable seaside and Christmas fireside reading in this portion of my work.
Equally rich (if not more so) will be found those chapters in my work which relate to the Maids of Honour connected with the court of Anne Hyde, Duchess of York. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Peter Cunningham, Once a Week (1863)

“ If any one has a doubt of the truthfulness of this origin of so appetite-provoking a name they are at liberty to ask Sylvanus Urban, or the editor of “Notes and Queries” in person, for a more trustworthy solution. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Peter Cunningham, Once a Week (1863)

“ My materials at present for the lives of the Maids attached to the household of Anne of Denmark, the queen of James I., are few and not very interesting. I am sorry for this. A few lives, however, will prove of value to (d.v.) ”

Peter Cunningham

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Quotes from Once a Week (Peter Cunningham)

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