So this is our last day.
Our flight departs London Heathrow Terminal 3 at 9:30 pm. We have indicated that we’ll drop the car off
at the Heathrow depot of Enterprise Car Rentals at 5:30 pm but I am not too
fussed if we cop an extra payment for being late.
Hubby’s not been well overnight and stays in bed as long as
he can. He skips breakfast. Seriously. You know he’s really ill if he skips
brekky. I run down and just grab a
simple breakfast of cereal and fruit and a little bit of grapefruit juice. Wolfgang is lovely and offers chamomile tea
for the patient. The juice is worth
commenting on… it was really good and really red.
Athole House has been splendid and absolutely deserving of
every good review. Like many of the
properties we’ve stayed in we are sorry to leave. In this case it really feels like a privilege
to stay. I actually think that Athole house would be as much a reason for my
return to Bath as anything we’ve seen in the town.
I’ve been doing some research for outlets for tea pigs
tea. I want more white tea and I can get
it Bath no doubt, but I’d rather find a smaller centre. This I do and I scribble some addresses in my
notebook. We’re quite late leaving
Athole House. We’ve left the room about
11 am and are driving away at about 11:30. Hubby’s feeling a bit better and
insists he’s fine to drive though I do offer to take the controls very happily.
So, what today? The
weather is rainy and we’re not up for more around town. OK. I’ll confess it
now. I have a burning desire to go to Blenheim or die trying. This may be my only chance to see it. I want this badly enough that I’m prepared to
risk not seeing anything but rear bumper bars all day and then hop on a
flight. I’d also rather go via backroads
to get there. Am I sounding crazy? It’s perhaps as well no one tried to dissuade
me. I have palace fever.
We have luckily missed the worst traffic around town by this
time though we do strike a warning of peak hour queues as we head down
Brassknocker Hill. We’re heading for
Bradford on Avon and a little shop listed on the tea pigs website called
Growing Needs. The threatened queue is
nothing much. The views from Brassknocker Hill are glorious and I wish in vain
that the queue was longer and slower! Tomtom
is doing a stirling job. She’s been a good girl since she recovered from her
tantie, but hubby misses a turn. Nice
work, that’s quite handy, just pause here for a mo while I get a photograph of
Brassknocker Hill. Done.
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| Brassknocker Hill |
Bradford on Avon is busy but so lovely and it is packed with
shops that would be lovely to poke around in.
We’ve got no room for additional souvenirs though so palace fever is
unabated. Growing Needs is a store for
pregnancy and childrens things. What the?
I gingerly wander in and say “ah.. this feels like a really stupid
question but do you stock tea pigs tea?”
The young man seems lost for words.
I go on. “You are listed on the tea pigs website as selling it?” Turns out his wife runs some sort of side shoot
to the shop, but no, no… definitely no white tea in stock.. Oh well.
Gee they have good toys in here.
Oh I like those magnetic wooden letters.. I pick up the pack and bounce
it up and down testing the weight. Shall
I risk it?.. hmm. Oh what the heck. I take a chance, quickly pay with some of
my remaining cash and I’m back out the door as hubby pulls up and I hop back in
the car.
Right. I’m not wasting any more time on royal goose chases
for white tea. Lets go. We’re heading
for Blenheim now. It’s not like we’re making an early departure. Tomtom is duly instructed. Oh tomtom…. Have I told you lately.. I love
you.. do do do do do. ..and I mean it
from the bottom of my heart… shut up Lionel!
Tomtom takes us across country, down a few one lane roads which
these days cause us no angst whatever, through green fields and rain swept
landscapes to join the larger roads which are happily congestion free. The M4 impresses with it’s chevron markings
and signs for drivers to keep apart two chevrons. What a great idea. Our route is a perfect compromise of large
roads and small. Just what we want
today… and another reason why I decided that a start from Bradford on Avon
would work best. .. yeah.. I checked it on google maps first. . :o)
We arrive at Blenheim without incident at about 2
oclock. No need to factor in lunch
neither of us is looking for it. We just need to see the house. Clearly not time enough to see everything,
but so long as I see enough of the historic stuff and formal gardens I’ll be
happy. We pay our £20 entry and park. It’s a long walk up to the archway into
the inner courtyard and I occupy myself with wondering what the go is for
people with mobility issues. No doubt there is some sort of system. The walk is also nice as we can look out across
the park to the column of victory which stands proudly a mile or so in the
distance across the Capability Brown landscape.
They describe this park as a “naturalistic Versaille”. It LOOKS like
nature just conceived this beautiful outlook. Nope. The lake is constructed,
mature trees were carted in and placed carefully for maximum effect. It is magnificent and much more to my taste
than the gardens at Versailles.
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| The Gates of Blenheim |
We pass through the elaborate gates and pause again in the courtyard where you enter and admire
the view. Hubby instructs me to take a
video because a still photograph simply can’t capture this place. We’re dragging our feet. Best get on with
it. As we enter the palace – through the
front door into the main hall mind you.. we are assisted by a trio of ladies
who having ascertained that we have not visited before, and who are keen to
give us some advice about our visit.
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| The coutyard of Blenheim Palace |
We decide that we will start with the exhibition on Sir
Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill and follow up with the tour of the State
Apartments as has been suggested.
Throughout our time in the Churchill exhibition there is an audio
recording loop of excerpts of famous speeches and statements of the great war
time leader. The exhibition gives a run down on his life and displays artifacts
relating to it. Mostly these are letters between interested persons. Winston to
his parents; his nanny to his mother; that sort of thing. Naturally it also covers his service in South
Africa, his marriage and roles in public life. It also covers his relationship
with his paternal grandmother and his relationship with Blenheim. Eventually we come to the room where Sir
Winston was born. It’s all interesting
enough, but it’s largely not new information for me and it’s not blowing my
socks off… yet…
We’re not quite through this exhibition when a lady comes
through indicating that the tour of the house is about to begin.. we loiter..
then hurry to the start place. Some
preliminaries are undertaken which involve introductions to portraits hanging
around us and some background information on the palace and the Dukes of
Marlborough and we are handed over to a dapper little man who is clearly expert
on the things we are about to see. Like
the Chateau de Versailles, Blenheim Palace is a world heritage site. We had a superb guide for our tour at
Versailles and we get another today.
Everything about Blenheim reflects the context of it’s
creation. John and Sarah Churchill were
already well established and close friends of Queen Ann when the Duke was
responsible for achieving victory at the battle of Blenheim. This battle was fought against Louis XIV –
the sun king, builder of the Chateau de Versaille – and we are here told that
this critical victory put paid once and for all to France’s ambition to
dominate Europe, paving the way for the following growth of the British Empire. It was huge basically. It’s huge for me today too. The pennies don’t
drop, they cascade in my mind as I can now slide the Sun King into place within
my existing knowledge of English history.
So back to Blenheim.. the Queen and parliament were duly
grateful. But how to reward John Churchill? He’s already a Duke. That’s the
highest rung in the ladder. The
reward? These lands which had been royal
hunting grounds, and money, lots of money, to build a wonderful palace. The lands aren’t owned though. They are
subject to a nominal rent. Every year the Duke of Marlborough must present a
flag covered with the fleur de lys of France to the sovereign or the land
reverts to the crown. We see such a flag
at Blenheim. We’ve seen them at Windsor Castle too, nicely closing the circle.
The architecture also betrays the purpose of this palace. It
is a victory palace. Atop the clock tower archway, sculptures of the lion
of England assaulting the cockerel of France speak of England’s triumph. No grand staircases as would ordinarily be found in the reception hall, you enter through a triumphal archway into the main reception rooms. . The column of Victory is not so subtle either,
though it was erected after the 1st Duke’s death by his grieving
widow. Theirs was a true love match.
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| The tower of Victory under magnification |
The art work in the State Apartments is primarily portraits
of the family. We meet pretty much all
of them and they are all interesting paintings and people. In later history one of the Dukes managed to
trade a position in the aristocracy for the hand in marriage of young Consuela
Vanderbilt. Not a love match. Not a happy match. They ended up divorcing, but
no doubt it was also not a match that was regretted from a financial point of
view by the Marlboroughs. 17 year old Consuela came absolutely overflowing with
dowry money. Millions upon millions of lovely dowry money. The Marlboroughs were good at the selection
of rich American brides. Winston’s mother was Jenny Jerome and she too came
equipped with a handsome dowry.. enough to buy the hand of the second son of
the Duke. First sons are more expensive.
The first Duke and his wife were well known for having
simple tastes in decorations. There is
for example, existing correspondence about how the Duke did not like the gold
and silver thread in a tapestry they were given. The current gilded decoration of several Hawkesmoor
ceilings would most definitely not have met with their approval.
There’s no point me writing a thesis on the tour and it’s
content, but it is very well done. The route is taken in a way that makes each
new room more amazing than the last. The
main reception hall which is now used for a long banquet table and used once a
year at Christmas is set to show that for our visit. It is an awesome space and
simply fabulous to see. It does it’s job of impressing the visitors with the
might and wealth of the house very well.
The whole palace is tasteful. This is somewhere that I will return to if
I am lucky enough to get back to England. This is a fabulous place. Perhaps best of all is that I did see it in
the same trip as Versailles and each property has informed the other,
representing as they do a grand tussle between great houses and great nations.
Everywhere one looks in Blenheim Palace there are references
to the legacy of the first Duke. It’s
pretty much a place of worship to his achievements and his position as one of
the great men in British history. There
are the 10 tapestries he had created to show accurate details of the various
battles leading ultimately to success at Blenheim for example. Our guide describes them as the glory of
Blenheim. Even historians come here to
study them to learn about the battles, being as they are the record created
with great care by the Field Marshall himself.
I can’t help but chuckle at the items the agents of the Duke picked up
in the fire sales after the French revolution.
The only portrait in the house not of family – a huge one placed
centrally over a fire place – the sun king himself. One of several copies of
the same portrait made for the French King. In another room… see all this
furniture. It’s French.. Originally in Versailles. This furniture in this bit
here.. more from Versaille. And here..
look… over at this side of the room a bust of Louis XIV. Opposite side of the
room bust of John Spencer 1st Duke of Marlborough. Not looking at
eachother. They seem perhaps to be looking at the tapestries.
Blenheim being what it is, it is not hard to see why Winston
Spencer-Churchill grew up with an unshakeable conviction that it was his
destiny to save his country. How could you not?
Our tour brings us out of the palace via a look at the grave
of the 1st Duke in the chapel.
To do the next aspect of the interiors you need to re-enter, but we have
a priority on having a look around the gardens before we have to leave.
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| The lake is man made and part of the landscaping |
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| Another view of the water gardens |
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| Enticing avenues lead from the water gardens |
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| The Water Gardens and palace |
We stroll through the water terraces and
wander around the side of the palace passing acres of grass that is manicured
to glow like velvet. We peer over into
the Italian garden which is still a private space. The Duke and Duchess still live in the wing
of the palace that the Duke and Duchess always have. State Apartments have
always been the public spaces and places where guests are accommodated and
impressed. It’s not a case of the Duke having had to “vacate” as it were. We take a truncated stroll through the area
where the secret garden is located. Then
our time here at Blenheim must draw to a close.
Just the gift shop to navigate now. I look for a DVD but they don’t do
one. It will have to be the book. At least they have made it quite light, while
still covering what we’ve seen today.
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| Returning from the secret garden |
By now it’s 4:30 and we tear ourselves away. There is a lot to see we haven’t had time for
but our visit was more than worth while. Considering our over all trip Blenheim
has been a perfect ending. We’re ending
on a high note. I got far more out of
our visit here even than I expected.
Everything we’ve done has informed other things on the itinerary. It’s
been fantastic.
We have an uneventful drive in to Heathrow. About 10 minutes out from our destination we
hit a bank of traffic at a stand still. "Here we go" I think. Just as well we’ve got plenty of time… but it
turns out (luckily) that this was only a short term problem and the delays are
on other junctions, not ours. It is a
long weekend and I guess people don’t travel long haul for a holiday
weekend. We have no difficulty finding
Enterprise. They have a very efficient service for drop off and at 6pm on the
nose we are happily settled in the shuttle to take us over to terminal
3. Some weighing and simple rearranging
of our luggage ensues. No major drama
but we are over in our weight allowance, by several kilos overall. It is nothing that cannot be dealt by slight
of hand with within our hand luggage.
Bags now dropped, what about something to eat. Hubby is
still fasting but improving. In a fit of desperation I just head in to Pret a
Manger. A chain. We’ve seen these freakin’ everywhere and it’s
put us off. I bought a chicken and bacon
sandwich with salad on dark bread. They look fresh. They look popular. Reasonable price too. I’ll give it a go. I say what the? That sandwich was absolutely sensational!
Talk about yummy. Why didn’t we try this stuff sooner? Why don’t we have this chain in
Australia. Hey. You there… Pret a Manger
people… get yourselves down under for goodness sake… I’ve since read something about them not
being as healthy as they look. Sheesh.
Who cares. Bet they’re no worse than Maccas or KFC. Probably better. Definitely twenty times yummier.
And so we end a fantastic day. A fantastic trip. The trip of
a lifetime. No regrets. We have met wonderful people, experienced wonderful
hospitality. We have seen some of the world’s great wonders. We have visited the home towns of some
ancestors and found them more delightful than we could have imagined. How
privileged we are. How very very
privileged we are.
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