To Marlborough´s House We Go!

Prologue:
 
There have been some devious rumors circulating about my fickleness and lack of commitment. That's just absurd. I won't stoop to naming my accuser(s), but you know who you are. As such, I believe a reckoning of accounts is in order. All of us here in Oxford wished to make use of a five-day travel period promised to us many weeks ago back in Starkville, MS.  Plans were indeed made to journey to Scotland in search of the legendary McPhail manor. However,  having subsequently been assigned tutorial essays which are due early next week, such a lengthy trip seemed inadvisable and our traveling companions began to drop out one by one.  I did indeed suggest a sojourn to Reykjavik, Iceland but EVERYONE agreed that the travel costs were prohibitive.  A day-trip London was suggested, but such a trip would have conflicted with a scheduled program visit to Cambridge, and our science-majors were understandably unwilling to miss an incredible opportunity to stalk that Stephen Hawking guy.

Wanting to avoid a conflict as well as a long commute and the terrible weather expected in Cambridge, I finally suggested a half-day excursion to the nearby Blenheim Palace.  I believe one would be hard-pressed to find anything malicious or "fickle" in this chain of logic, and with this account, I consider the matter settled.  At any rate, the excursion was a success and a good time was had by all, as we shall soon see.

Typical dress at McPhail Manor (substituting McPhail tartan, of course)

And Now Our Story Begins...

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, received his title for leading the English army to victory against the French at the  Battle of Blenheim (1704) during the War of Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714). Confusing geopolitics aside, Britain's Queen Anne rewarded him and his family for his service with an hereditary title and estate. The palace which the family constructed on the estate takes its name from the 1st Duke's reputation-making battle, Blenheim Palace.

His Grace the 1st Duke of Marlborough.  Fancy wig comes standard.

As one might guess from the Duke's family name, he is a distant ancestor of the legendary Prime Minister Sir Winston S. Churchill. Churchill was a nephew of one of the later dukes and was actually born at the palace.  He would later spend much time there and was married on the grounds. According to one story Adolf Hitler, as a snub to Churchill, hoped to make Blenheim Palace his summer residence upon his conquest of Great Britain. But this, of course, never happened and the estate remains in the hands on the Dukes of Marlborough. The 11th and current Duke is in his late 80s and is well-known for his many marriages (he is currently with his fourth wife).
 

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blenheim_Palace_panorama.jpg

The palace itself is predominately supported through private funding as well as through visitors' admission fees and regular events on the grounds. As luck would have it, during today´s visit the estate was hosting the 2012 GE Blenheim Triathlon and the grounds were swelling with competitors in addition to the usual weekend crowd of tourists.

2012 GE Blenheim Triathlon

Triathletes and visitors alike use a temporary bridge to cross the bicycle course.

10:45am - Such were the crowds and the general confusion, that Hannah and I were able to walk right up to the front door of the palace without seeing any ticket office. The elderly doorman was quite flustered, "What's this? You haven't any tickets, you say? Just a moment, please." Fortunately, the palace staff had managed to set up a crude remote ticket office in the main hall and were attempting to assist the stream of ticketless visitors.  Unfortunately, the young clerk didn't seem to be able to make change, resulting in us only paying £4.50 apiece despite the £15.50 listed student price. We only realized the error ourselves after we were swept up in to crowd filing into the manor.
 

Blenheim Place´s imposing main courtyard finds a temporary use as the staging area for the running portion of the triathlon.

 
While not quite up to the level of Versailles in France, Blenheim Palace has many lavish accouterments of its own.  The main building and courtyard follows a similar pattern to Versailles which was being redesigned and expanded to its present-day form in the years surrounding Blenheim's construction.  We explored several crowded exhibits dedicated to Winston Churchill before passing through the various state rooms and apartments of the palace.  To some amusement, we found ourselves wedged between a German tour group and an English-speaking one.  Despite the tours being free, the English guide refused to allow us to join her mid-tour!  Fortunately, I just happen to have majored in German, and so we opted to throw our lot in with the German tour.  I was actually able to translate a good bit ("Such and such is 100-years-old.  That vase is early Etruscan.  The craftsmanship is beautiful. etc."), but we grew bored and decided to skip ahead.  Hannah tried her best to translate the French tour, but the guide´s thick British brogue was nearly impossible to decipher!

We were most impressed by the massive library which contains many rare books (e.g. Charles Dickens) within its 10,000 volume collection and also houses a massive pipe organ, one of the largest in private hands. The organ is in desperate need of repair, and  visitors are encouraged to donate towards the restoration of individual organ pipes. (Tiny pipes for the highest notes start at around £25!)   And everywhere there are many tapestries and paintings depicting the 1st Duke's exploits at the Battle of Blenheim.

(As interior photos are forbidden, follow the link to the official Palace Image Gallery.)

 
Afterwards, we explored as much of the grounds as we could, given the ongoing triathlon and the inclement weather. The grounds contain a waterfall, numerous formal gardens and monuments, and many walking trails. Quail and pheasants roam freely. We only saw a tiny fraction of everything there was to see, and sadly we didn't have the time to ride to miniature train over to the Pleasure Gardens. Another time...

Free-range pheasant just doing his thing.

This waterfall shot demonstrates the power of framing. The water on the left was full of vile chemical foam and a crumbling pump house sits just out-of-frame to the right. The smell is best left to the imagination...

The much-more-pleasant gardens on the west side of the palace.  The tables belong to a budget-level cafe. The palace also boasts an upscale tea room featuring a Winston Churchill-inspired champagne and cigars.

Hannah models with my new favorite-named architect, Blemheim´s designer Lancelot "Capability" Brown.

1:30pm - Leaving the palace and the triathletes behind, we wandered over to the neighboring (hippie-free) village of Woodstock. We ate a good lunch at the Woodstock Arms, one of several pubs near the main road, holdovers from the days when carriages were the dominant mode of transport and every town contained several public houses with stables to host and feed the travelers and their horse teams.

The Woodstock Arms

Street view of Woodstock, Oxfordshire

3:00pm - We also paid a visit to the town hall which was hosting a weekend antique market.  We paid a pound admission apiece and looked around.  I wanted to purchase a silver-tipped cane for Dapper Josh but was sadly denied.

A silver-tipped cane would  really complete the effect.

Hannah Rogers and I were grateful to survive the return bus!

4:00pm - Survived the traumatic bus ride down narrow country lanes and under low, overhanging tree limbs back to Oxford and returned to reading and essay writing.