When I lived in Britain some years ago, I always journeyed a few times a year to the village of Woodstock, and to an iron gate that opened onto a most spectacular landscape: the grounds of Blenheim Palace, home of the Churchill family for more than 300 years, with grounds designed in the 1700's by celebrated landscape gardener Capability Brown.
Although many books have been written about Blenheim, a new book, Blenheim by Henrietta Spencer-Churchill (Rizzoli USA, 2024), takes the reader on a comprehensive journey that includes the people who have inhabited the palace, its interior, its exterior, the park and gardens, the lifestyle of those who've lived there, and prospects for its future.
The Blenheim estate was gifted to John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, by Queen Anne for his service in the war of Spanish Succession. The US-UK connection began in 1888, when the 8th Duke, George Spencer-Churchill, married wealthy American Lilian Hammersly of New York. She used some of her fortune to begin renovations at Blenheim, but later sued for the return of her money. The Duke's brother, Randolph Spencer-Churchill, married Jennie Jerome of New York, the mother of Winston Churchill, who was born at Blenheim and spent much time there as a boy. The 9th Duke, Charles, married American Consuelo Vanderbilt, and her large dowry was used to undertake considerable renovations inside and outside the palace.
The park and gardens at Blenheim are open to the public and are well worth visiting. The estate's original architect, Sir John Vanbrugh, created a large, striking design that included a Grand Avenue lined with elms, an imposing bridge over a canal; a walled kitchen garden; and a walled Military Garden with ordered plantings. Most of that design was swept away in the mid-1700's, when Lancelot "Capability" Brown was hired to bring about a more naturalistic design. As the author notes, "His vision for Blenheim, as indeed it was for many of the finest estates in Britain, was to paint a vast romantic picture using water, grass, trees, and artful "ruins."
Brown dammed a river to create a grand, 40-acre, tree-lined lake that included Vanbrugh's bridge, and he situated trees to offer views that invited further exploration. His vast South Lawn is a long vista that runs from the palace and includes a ha-ha, a sunken fence, to keep livestock away from the building. Most of Brown's vision remains intact, but subsequent owners have made changes to bring the landscape up to date. The 9th Duke added a formal Italian Garden, upper and lower water terraces. There is also a Rose Garden, a Secret Garden, and a Churchill Garden, which celebrates the place where Winston proposed to his wife, Clementine.
Aside from the gardens, the staterooms, the architecture and the objets inside the palace, Henrietta Spencer-Churchill does not spare any of the inhabitants. You'll read about scandals and intrigues, happiness and sadness, and the determination of a celebrated family to preserve their ancestral home and its heritage for generations to come.
And p.s.: a perfect present for the holidays.
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