Litchfield enquirer., 1871-01-26
BLENHEIM PALACE
ENGLAND's TRIBUTE TO MARLBcRoUGh-
 PRESENT CONDITION OF THE ESTATE.

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 A recent visit of the Prince of Wales 10 the Duke of Marlborough has directed public attention to Blenheim Palace, which certainly is all abode not without histori- cal interest. The estate of Benheim, which forms part of the manor of Woodstock, was, f, centuries prior 10 its being grant ed to the greatest captain of the last cen tnry, q royal property, and the scene of Fair Ros,mond's bower. In later days Queen Elizabeth Was kept in the palace of Woodstock in tiurance vile by order of her unpleasant sister Mary. and here the par liamentary commissioners were disturbed in their slunbefs in the humorous manner described by Walter Scott ill the preface l to Wavetiy. ',. F. 4 The ancient pal,ce has long since been pulled down, and it's park is now the park of Blenheim. Never was d mansion reared amid more jealousy, rancor and heart
 burning than this palace for John Church l i'll. There was lady in tie case, and that lady had temper.
 When it was decided by the country in the full flush of gratitude, that q magDif- icent palace should be reared to reward the conquering hero of Blenheim, Ramil- lies, Oudenarde and Malpequet, no system atic plan was sanctioned by the House of Commons, and still worse, no definite pay ments for the purpose appointed. During the reign of Anne the money was forth coming pretty regularly out of the Queen s civil list, but when the house of Hanover ascended the throne, cash became scarce, and the architect carried on the work at a risk. Then there ensued perpetual squnb- bIes between Sir John Vanbrugh, the fa- nous architect. and the imperious Duchess Sarah. Sir John writes
 'I have been forced ill chancery by that B. B. B. (sic--something terrible, no doubt, is intended to be conveyed under these in itials, the Duchess of Marlborough, but have prevailed on Sir R. Walpole to help me in scheme by which I get my money in spite of the hussy's teeth. My carry ing this point enrages her much. and the more because it is of considerable weight in my small fortune, which she has hearth ly endeavored so to destroy as to throw me into an English bastile, there to finish my days began them in @ French one"
 What her Grace's feelings towards Sir John were, may be gathered from the fol- lowing note, written, when, in company with some of Lord Cariisle's family ly-whose seat, Castle Howard, he built-he desired to visit his creation in Oxfordshire: t
 "We staid two nights at Woodstock; but there was an order to the servants under her Grace's own hand not to let me enter BIenheim! And lest that should not nor tify me enough, she, having somehow learned that my wife was one of the com pany. sent an express the night before we came there, with orders that if she (Lady Vanburg, came with the Castle Howard la- dies, the servants should not suffer her to. see either house, gardens, or even to enter the park So she was forced to sit all day
 long snd keep mo company at the inn."
 Isis melancholy comznentary on world
 T greatness that John, Duke of Marlbo- rough himself, who long survived his fac, ulties, lived to be exhibited by his ser wants for an extra shilling to the curious visiting Blenheim. ssThat," said he in those dark days, as he surveyed his own portrait taken at that period when he was known as "the handsome Englishman," ''that was orce a man." 8 9s at 4
 His son, the Marquis of Blanford, died when student at Trinity College, Cam bridge, and in default of male issue the ti- tie passed to his eldest daughter who mar ried the Earl of Godolphin. She also died without son, and the dukedom then de- volYed on Spencer, the Earl of Sunderland, son of her next sister, It will thus be seen that the present family, directly descend ed from Lord Sunderland, is the only Churchill in the female line. The first Dukes other daughter married the Duke of Bridgewater and Montagu, and the Duke of Buccleuch, heir of the latter, is therefore descended in the female line from tsthe great captain, '" and has. moreover, in herited many of his personal belongings. To- NI, A,.A some years ago this nobleman was talking at levee at St. James to the late Duke of Wellington, when the latter taking his swordI wore at Waterloo" ''And this, that Marlborough wore at Bienheim D
 The wealth of the first Duke and Duch- ess of Marlborough was enormous. Their year-a sum nearly double in value what it would be now. Their rapacity knew no bounds; and it is only just to say that in this respect the lsdy's eye for the main chance was not one whit inferior to the gentleman's. There Is story of how the famous Lord Bolingbroke once snubbed a fellow, who, with the view of inaratiating himself with him, began running down the Duke, and especially dwelt upon his ava rice. ''Had he that vice" said Lord John, .ssmy Lord of Marlborough was really SO great a man that I had forgotten it." It was grand rebuke, but Marlborough cer- tainly required all his greatness as war rior to make men obliyious of his weak nesses. ts%i @ s482& *8 5s3
 It was a marvellous match. the union of two such spirits as John Churchill and Sa- rah Jennings. Never were two beings more determined on what is vulgarly calI- ed in these days ''getting on iE the world' than they He the younger son of an inn poverished Devonshire cavalier gentleman, and she the daughter of a Hertfordshire squire, with house hard by the ancient abbey of St. Albans. When her brother died, his property fell between his three sisters, and Marlborough bought up the shares of the other two. These were 'sla belle Jennings of whom De Grammont discourses with such gusto in the memoirs, and Mrs. Griffith, unknown to fame and Iperhaps the happiest Of the three. for the great Duchess wrote to Lady Mary Wort- | ley Montagu that she had undergone such
 miseries already that she felt sure that mental troubles now could kill her; and Is belle Jennings married James II. s Gene
 ralissimo, whom that monarch created af-
 ter his fall Duke. of Tyrconnell, and was
 reduced to such extreme poverty-for it
 seems that her millionaire sister did not