Page 232 - WDT Magazine Egypt

short walk from the nearby tiny town of Woodstock, mony or taste.”
was always very dear to Churchill, who was also bap- Even American-born Consuelo Vanderbilt
tized in the chapel here, proposed marriage here, and Balsan--who reigned here for 11 years (1895-1906) as
is buried nearby. the Duchess of Marlborough when she was unhap-
Located 65 miles north of London in Oxford- pily married to the 9th Duke (in a forced, loveless,
shire, the 18th century Baroque-style Blenheim Pal- $2.5 million financial arrangement to restore the
ace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is surrounded by property)--commented: “It is strange that in so great
a gorgeously green 2,000 acre park, with exquisite a house there should not be one really livable room.
Italian gardens, fountains and the Grand Bridge. The It’s planned to impress rather than to please. . . .”
stunning estate has a fascinating, yet controversial, The “house” later known as Blenheim Palace
300-year-old history. came about in 1705 as a gift from Queen Anne to a
The site of concerts, celebrity wedding recep- 52-year-old soldier from humble beginnings, John
tions, and numerous films (including “The Young Churchill, who commanded the British forces dur-
Victoria” and the television series “The Royals”), it’s
been home for generations of the Marlborough and
Spencer-Churchill clan (including ancestors of the
late Princess Diana). They include some colorful,
eccentric characters who encompassed greed, jeal-
ousy, paranoia, estrangement, infidelity, ruthlessness,
snobbery.
It was here in the vast Saloon--known as the
State Dining Room, richly decorated with wall fres-
coes, murals, and painted ceiling, and which seats up
to 30--that Lady Nancy Astor made her infamous
comment to her archrival Winston Churchill: “If I were
your wife I would put poison in your coffee!”
To which Churchill retorted, “And if I were your
husband I would drink it!”
Today the warm, hospitable home of the 12th
Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, it’s been re-
ferred to both as “Britain’s Versailles” (even British
royalty was dazzled by the opulence: King George III
once exclaimed, “We have nothing to equal this”)--
and as “The Dump” by Laura, Duchess of Marlbor-
ough, widow of Bert, the 10th Duke.
And there have been other critics throughout
the years. Noel Coward, once a guest, complained
that his bedroom was “the coldest room I have ever
encountered” and that he “woke frozen. . .shaving
sheer agony...loo like an icebox.”
Observed the French writer Voltaire: “If the
apartments were only as large as the walls are thick,
the mansion would be convenient enough.”
And Alexander Pope once referred to it as “the
most inhospitable thing imaginable and the most
selfish. . .I never saw so great a thing with so much
littleness in it. . .It’s a great pile of stone without har-

232 WDT MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018