{"id":7916,"date":"2017-04-23T08:06:16","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T07:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=7916"},"modified":"2017-04-23T08:06:16","modified_gmt":"2017-04-23T07:06:16","slug":"a-palatial-establishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/uncategorised\/a-palatial-establishment\/","title":{"rendered":"A palatial establishment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Impressive – but this is only the side entrance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently I played hooky from my desk for a day and went to Blenheim Palace. I\u2019d read about it, of course, and I\u2019ve seen it in any number of movies, but this was my first visit.<\/p>\n

Wow!<\/p>\n

The palace is a world heritage site and it well deserves that honour. It is amazing, but I had to wonder if some of my reaction to it is due to the fact that I am Australian.<\/p>\n

We have nothing like that in Australia.<\/p>\n

The Palace took many years to build and was finally completed in 1772. At that time, Europeans had yet to find their way to Australia. The indigenous Australians were mainly nomads, who lived off the rich land and felt no need to build permanent structures.<\/p>\n

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Gilded detail from the gate… still the side gate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other big difference of course is that Australia doesn\u2019t have an aristocracy. In the early years of our settlement, a \u2018squatocracy\u2019 developed. This was the elite of the colony \u2013 the squatters \u2013 who owned vast areas of land and cattle and sheep stations. But this was never a formal social structure as it is in the UK. Some of the homesteads on those properties are impressive \u2013 but there is nothing at all on the scale of Blenheim.<\/p>\n

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The front entrance – which is currently having a bit of a refurb. But it’s still utterly impressive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blenheim is the only place in the UK which is called a \u2018palace\u2019 even though it is not a royal residence. This is because it was built on royal land. Queen Anne gifted it to the First Duke of Marlborough \u2013 on behalf of \u2018a grateful nation\u2019 after he defeated the French in battle.<\/p>\n

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The chapel. The white marble monument on the right is the tomb of the first Duke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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A detail from the monument.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During my visit (crowds were very small because it was mid-week and off season), I got to wander through the halls. But I also took a tour of the parts of the palace that are still private. The Duke of Marlborough and his family still live there, but they weren\u2019t home at the time.<\/p>\n

By chance, we ran into the Duke\u2019s butler, who joined us walking around the guest bedrooms (about 18 of them), telling us very discreet tales of what it\u2019s like living and working in such a place. Amazingly, he is just 19 years old.<\/p>\n

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The beautiful library. I never wanted to leave.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apparently it takes 34 seconds to get a meal from the kitchens to the Duke\u2019s table up one floor and along a corridor. This would be a meal prepared by the Michelin starred chef who is part of the Duke\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n

The family has 11 staff. That\u2019s private staff and doesn\u2019t include the people who deal with visitors and gift shops and tours and such. Nor does that include the groundsman who look after the great park.<\/p>\n

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Blenheim is of course the place where Winston Churchill was born. The room is part of a display about his life.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the family is staying in their town house in Oxford, their laundry is still brought to the palace and washed and ironed by the laundry maid and taken back to the house. And meals are sometimes prepared at the palace and then delivered to the family in their other residences. Wow \u2013 that\u2019s a whole new definition of ordering take out.<\/p>\n

One of the things that struck me is that magnificent as it is, the palace has been quite a burden to the family. It is a heritage to be preserved at all costs \u2013 and what costs they are! Obviously, the money paid by people like me to tour the place helps with its upkeep. People pay to hold private shooting parties there. And the estate includes tens of thousands of acres of rich farmland.<\/p>\n

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An escapee from one of the shooting parties has found sanctuary in the chapel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the history of the palace talks about times when the family finances went into decline. There is mention of past Dukes who were, shall we say, not particularly responsible with money.<\/p>\n

Apparently, it was on the brink of ruin when, in 1895, the 9th<\/sup> Duke married American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt \u2013 and received a dowry of (in today’s terms) about 75 million dollars. Impoverished aristocracy marries new money seeking social standing \u2013 it\u2019s a story we have all heard and in this case the marriage was apparently a disaster. It was annulled in 1921, and both parties sought happiness elsewhere. The Palace, however, was now back in good shape for the future.<\/p>\n

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The Vanderbilt heiress, Consuelo who was forced into marriage by her mother.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blenheim is an amazing place \u2013 particularly for a girl who grew up in the Australian bush. I spent the whole day there and didn\u2019t see everything, so I will go back again. Maybe I\u2019ll get to talk to the butler again \u2013 because the butler always knows the secrets hidden behind the spectacular fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I played hooky from my desk for a day and went to Blenheim Palace. I\u2019d read about it, of course, and I\u2019ve seen it in any number of movies, but this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}