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Saturday, July 11, 2009
Chapter 6: Part 1, Blenheim Palace
Wednesday after class Dr. Selesky took a group by bus to visit Blenheim Palace which is on the outskirts of the city of Oxford.
Blenheim Palace is said to be the monument to England’s greatest soldier, John Churchill. The grandeur of the estate amazed me as soon as I entered the grounds. Churchill was granted the estate and the title of Duke of Marlborough from Queen Anne after defeating the Fench at Blenheim August 13, 1704. While this is the home of the Duke of Marlbourugh, its size and ornamentation is only fittingly called a Palace.
Blenheim is also the place where Henry II had a hunting lodge. The Place now stands on the supposed spot of the lodge. This is the same lodge that is mentioned in the Rosamond poems (Rosamond the Fair and Complaint of Rosamund.
Upon entering the foyer, if the large room my even be called such, I saw before me such display of wealth and history as I have never seen. The ceiling is painted, on either side of the room there are passage ways and walls with cut out spaces for large marble statues. Directly in front is a large room. In the back there are a few steps leading up into the center of the house and the door into the dining room. Over the steps hang three or four flags on their poles. This is the exact same scene that is in the portrait of the ninth Duke of Marlborough and his family.
I first took a left and got into the que (the British term for line) to go on the untold history tour. While in line I saw two scale model replicas of Blenheim Palace. One was a cake in a glass case. The cake is over thirty years old and has been coninually repaired to keep it on display. Opposite the cake replica was another scale model made out of wooden sticks.
The untold history tour was like going into Disney’s hall of presidents. There were nine rooms with various anamatronic figures, story boards, and heirlooms all narrated by the “lady’s maid” of the wife of the first Duke fo Marlborough, Sarah Churchill. That led me to the café and the gardens. I would have loved to have explored the gardens; however it was raining heavily. I decided to go on the guided tour of the staterooms instead. This was the best part of the trip to Blenheim. A witty British woman was our tour guide. We began in the green reading room. There were large pheonixes up in each of the corners of the ceiling all made from 24 carat gold. The gold was in such good condition that they looked brand new. In this room was a portrait of the John Churchill, another of his wife in black as she mourns the loss of her son, and various photos of the current Duke of Marlborough.
Next was the red drawing room in which the same 24 carat gold pheonixes were hung in the ceiling corners. In this room were also three of the tapestries commissioned by John Curchill. He had several of these made. Each one depicted his victories in battle. The most important tapestry being the one depicting his victory at Blenheim. There is one that has the first dog that the weavers had ever woven into a tapestry. Because they were so familiar with doing horses, the dog’s feet look more like the feet of a horse.
The following staterooms were intended for entertaining royalty. They were decorated by the ninth duke of Marlborough. The previous dukes had squandered their fortune and left no money for decorating. So the ninth duke married a Vanderbuilt, who with her fortune saved Blenheim from any harm. This was more of a forced alliance than a marriage. The duke’s wife, as the guide said, “did her duty and produced an heir and a spare.” Meaning she had two sons. She eventually left the duke for the man she loved and moved to France. Yet she returned to Blenheim to be near her ill and dying son. She is buried on the estate. A picture of the family is displayed in one of the staterooms. She is standing on a step to hide the fact that she was extremely tall and even taller than her husband. It, of course, would not have been proper to depict that fact.
In one of these rooms is also displayed an imitation of the white French flag with three gold flur de lys. Queen Anne granted John Churchill the land on which Blenheim Palace is built. However, it is land belonging to the crown, so some sort of rent must be paid for the Duke to continue renting the home. Churchill, when this was told to him, presented the Queen with the french flag. Ever since, every year the Duke of Marlborough presents an imitation flag with the years date to the Queen as rent.
Another one of the staterooms was a bedroom. It is said that Winston Churchill often stayed in this room. Churchill was born at Blenheim. There is a painting of the first Winston Churchill and the Prime Minister’s namesake, in this room. The first Winston Churchill was John Churchill’s Grandfather. He was named after his mother’s maiden name. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, loved visiting Blenheim and was close to his second cousin, the ninth Duke of Marlborough. The room that Winston Churchill was born in is on display in another section of the Palace, along with some of his baby clothes.
The guide then led the tour group into the dining hall. This room is used only once a year by the duke’s famiy. That is on Christmas Eve. They invite their friends and family and enjoy a formal meal. The old table can comfortably accommodate forty people, and forty six if squeezed. In the center of the table is a solid silver centerpiece. It is a depiction of John Churchill handing a note of his victory at Blenhiem to a messenger to take to his wife. The messenger made the journey from Germany to England in only eight days. I was also struck by the floor to ceiling tromp l’oeil paintings in the dining room. The first duke’s wife, Sarah, was said to be the richest and the stingiest woman in England at the time. She refused to pay her first choice of painter because he wanted to charge her 1000 pounds for the work. She found another painter, a master of troump l’oeil painting and he only charged her five hundred pounds. On the ceiling, I saw a highly symbolic and moving painting. It is of John Churchill dressed in armor with a red cloak flowing behind him. His arm is raised and he is gripping a sword in his hand, ready to go to war. Yet, in keeping the theme of the room, the poetic imagery of the painting is in the white robed woman, Peace, standing behind Churchill, preventing his arm from striking.
The guided tour ended with my favorite room in Bleheim, the Library. This was the final room before entering the cathedral. The library is housed in the second longest hall in England, painted peach with white molding. There are two levels of books locked behind black iron bar cabinets. Some of the books were rare titles I had never heard of before and some had leather bindings, discolored with age and wear, that looked to be over a hundred years old. For a lover of books as I am, it made me almost cry that I could not but hold one of the precious books. The ceiling of the hall has three portions that were meant for murals; however, when this portion of the house was built, funds ran out before the murals were painted.
It was a rainy day out and I missed going through the gardens of Blenheim, unfortunately. Yet, I was able to see the Column of Victory.
Blenheim Palace is said to be the monument to England’s greatest soldier, John Churchill. The grandeur of the estate amazed me as soon as I entered the grounds. Churchill was granted the estate and the title of Duke of Marlborough from Queen Anne after defeating the Fench at Blenheim August 13, 1704. While this is the home of the Duke of Marlbourugh, its size and ornamentation is only fittingly called a Palace.
Blenheim is also the place where Henry II had a hunting lodge. The Place now stands on the supposed spot of the lodge. This is the same lodge that is mentioned in the Rosamond poems (Rosamond the Fair and Complaint of Rosamund.
Upon entering the foyer, if the large room my even be called such, I saw before me such display of wealth and history as I have never seen. The ceiling is painted, on either side of the room there are passage ways and walls with cut out spaces for large marble statues. Directly in front is a large room. In the back there are a few steps leading up into the center of the house and the door into the dining room. Over the steps hang three or four flags on their poles. This is the exact same scene that is in the portrait of the ninth Duke of Marlborough and his family.
I first took a left and got into the que (the British term for line) to go on the untold history tour. While in line I saw two scale model replicas of Blenheim Palace. One was a cake in a glass case. The cake is over thirty years old and has been coninually repaired to keep it on display. Opposite the cake replica was another scale model made out of wooden sticks.
The untold history tour was like going into Disney’s hall of presidents. There were nine rooms with various anamatronic figures, story boards, and heirlooms all narrated by the “lady’s maid” of the wife of the first Duke fo Marlborough, Sarah Churchill. That led me to the café and the gardens. I would have loved to have explored the gardens; however it was raining heavily. I decided to go on the guided tour of the staterooms instead. This was the best part of the trip to Blenheim. A witty British woman was our tour guide. We began in the green reading room. There were large pheonixes up in each of the corners of the ceiling all made from 24 carat gold. The gold was in such good condition that they looked brand new. In this room was a portrait of the John Churchill, another of his wife in black as she mourns the loss of her son, and various photos of the current Duke of Marlborough.
Next was the red drawing room in which the same 24 carat gold pheonixes were hung in the ceiling corners. In this room were also three of the tapestries commissioned by John Curchill. He had several of these made. Each one depicted his victories in battle. The most important tapestry being the one depicting his victory at Blenheim. There is one that has the first dog that the weavers had ever woven into a tapestry. Because they were so familiar with doing horses, the dog’s feet look more like the feet of a horse.
The following staterooms were intended for entertaining royalty. They were decorated by the ninth duke of Marlborough. The previous dukes had squandered their fortune and left no money for decorating. So the ninth duke married a Vanderbuilt, who with her fortune saved Blenheim from any harm. This was more of a forced alliance than a marriage. The duke’s wife, as the guide said, “did her duty and produced an heir and a spare.” Meaning she had two sons. She eventually left the duke for the man she loved and moved to France. Yet she returned to Blenheim to be near her ill and dying son. She is buried on the estate. A picture of the family is displayed in one of the staterooms. She is standing on a step to hide the fact that she was extremely tall and even taller than her husband. It, of course, would not have been proper to depict that fact.
In one of these rooms is also displayed an imitation of the white French flag with three gold flur de lys. Queen Anne granted John Churchill the land on which Blenheim Palace is built. However, it is land belonging to the crown, so some sort of rent must be paid for the Duke to continue renting the home. Churchill, when this was told to him, presented the Queen with the french flag. Ever since, every year the Duke of Marlborough presents an imitation flag with the years date to the Queen as rent.
Another one of the staterooms was a bedroom. It is said that Winston Churchill often stayed in this room. Churchill was born at Blenheim. There is a painting of the first Winston Churchill and the Prime Minister’s namesake, in this room. The first Winston Churchill was John Churchill’s Grandfather. He was named after his mother’s maiden name. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, loved visiting Blenheim and was close to his second cousin, the ninth Duke of Marlborough. The room that Winston Churchill was born in is on display in another section of the Palace, along with some of his baby clothes.
The guide then led the tour group into the dining hall. This room is used only once a year by the duke’s famiy. That is on Christmas Eve. They invite their friends and family and enjoy a formal meal. The old table can comfortably accommodate forty people, and forty six if squeezed. In the center of the table is a solid silver centerpiece. It is a depiction of John Churchill handing a note of his victory at Blenhiem to a messenger to take to his wife. The messenger made the journey from Germany to England in only eight days. I was also struck by the floor to ceiling tromp l’oeil paintings in the dining room. The first duke’s wife, Sarah, was said to be the richest and the stingiest woman in England at the time. She refused to pay her first choice of painter because he wanted to charge her 1000 pounds for the work. She found another painter, a master of troump l’oeil painting and he only charged her five hundred pounds. On the ceiling, I saw a highly symbolic and moving painting. It is of John Churchill dressed in armor with a red cloak flowing behind him. His arm is raised and he is gripping a sword in his hand, ready to go to war. Yet, in keeping the theme of the room, the poetic imagery of the painting is in the white robed woman, Peace, standing behind Churchill, preventing his arm from striking.
The guided tour ended with my favorite room in Bleheim, the Library. This was the final room before entering the cathedral. The library is housed in the second longest hall in England, painted peach with white molding. There are two levels of books locked behind black iron bar cabinets. Some of the books were rare titles I had never heard of before and some had leather bindings, discolored with age and wear, that looked to be over a hundred years old. For a lover of books as I am, it made me almost cry that I could not but hold one of the precious books. The ceiling of the hall has three portions that were meant for murals; however, when this portion of the house was built, funds ran out before the murals were painted.
It was a rainy day out and I missed going through the gardens of Blenheim, unfortunately. Yet, I was able to see the Column of Victory.
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