University of Virginia Library

TO MISS LUCY CRANCH.

I thank you, my dear Lucy, for writing by Mr.
Jenks.

You learnt by Captain Barnard, that I was going
a journey. I have given your mamma and sister
some account of my late excursion to Devonshire.
We returned home through Bristol, and took Oxford
in our way, from whence we went to Woodstock, and
visited Blenheim, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough,
which was built at the public expense, and
granted by the Crown to the Duke, for the services
he had rendered his country. This castle is upon
the grandest scale of any thing I have ever yet seen.
We enter the park through a spacious and elegant
portal, of the Corinthian order, from whence a noble
prospect is opened to the palace, the bridge, the
lake, with its valley, and other beautiful scenes.
The front of this noble edifice, which is of stone, is
three hundred and forty-eight feet from wing to
wing. On the pediment of the south front, towards
the garden, is a noble bust of Louis the Fourteenth,
taken by the Duke from the gates of Tournai. This,
the gardener told us, he never failed pointing out to
the French gentlemen who visited the place, and
that they shrugged their shoulders and mon-Dieu'd.
But, before I describe to you the gardens, I will attempt

to give you a short, though imperfect account
of the palace. It would require a week to view it,
and a volume to describe it particularly. I will,
therefore, only collect from my little journal the
most remarkable objects.

We entered the palace through a magnificent
hall, supported by Corinthian pillars. Over the door,
going into the saloon, is a bust of John, Duke of
Marlborough, and two statues in bronze, namely, the
Venus de' Medici and a Faun. The ceiling is
painted allegorically, representing Victory crowning
John, Duke of Marlborough, and pointing to a plan
of the battle of Blenheim. From the saloon, we
pass through a suite of rooms, all of them containing
a most costly and beautiful collection of paintings,
many of them originals of the first masters. In the
dining-room is a family-piece, the present Duke and
Duchess, and six of their children, by Sir Joshua
Reynolds. The furniture of the rooms is different-colored
damask. The family being at the house,
we saw only the lower apartments. The winter
drawing-room is of tapestry, upon which is represented
the Cardinal Virtues; chairs and curtains,
white damask. From a series of smaller, though
magnificent apartments, we were suddenly struck at
entering the library, which is one hundred and
eighty-three feet long, and the most costly, as well
as beautiful place I ever saw. The Doric pilasters
are of marble, with complete columns of the same,
which support a rich entablature; the window frames,
the surrounding basement of black marble, and the

stuccoed compartments of the vaulted ceiling, are
in the highest taste, both of design and finishing.
There is a person, who always attends at these
seats, who has by heart the whole history of all that
is to be seen; and he makes a very handsome sum of
money by it. This library was originally intended
as a gallery for paintings; but the late Duke of
Marlborough chose to have it furnished with the
noble collection of books made by Lord Sunderland,
his Grace's father, which amounts to twenty-four
thousand volumes, and is said to be the best private
collection in England. They are kept under gilt
wire lattices, and make a superb appearance. At
one end of the room, is a highly finished marble
statue of Queen Anne, with this inscription; "To
the memory of Queen Anne, under whose auspices
John, Duke of Marlborough, conquered, and to
whose munificence, he and his posterity with gratitude
owe the possession of Blenheim, in A. D.
1746." There are two marble busts over the chimney,
one of Charles, Earl of Sunderland, who collected
the books, and another of Charles Spencer,
Duke of Marlborough; and, at the farther end of the
room, is a fine Greek bust of Alexander the Great,
and fourteen full-length family portraits. From two
bow windows in this noble gallery, the eye is delighted
with a view of the declivity, descending to
the water, and the gradual ascent of the venerable
grove, which covers the opposite hill. In short,
whether we look within or without, all is on the scale
of the sublime and the beautiful. I must not overlook
the chapel, which makes one of the wings of the house,
and in which there is a proud monument, of white
marble, to the memory of the renowned Duke and
Duchess of Mariborough. The group of marble figures,
large as life, upon this monument, are the Duke
and Duchess, with two of their sons, who died young.
They are supported by two figures, Fame and History.
The altar-piece is the best painting I ever saw;
our Saviour taken down from the cross.

From the house, we visited the gardens; and here
I am lost, not in confusion, but amidst scenes of
grandeur, magnificence, and beauty. They are
spacious, and include a great variety of ground.
The plain, or as artists term it, the lawn, before the
palace, is kept in the most perfect order; not a single
spire of grass rises above another. It is mowed
and swept every other day, and is as smooth as the
surface of a looking-glass. The gardener, who has
lived twenty-five years upon the place, told us that
he employed about sixty-three hands during the
summer, in mowing, sweeping, pruning, lopping,
and in ornamenting the grounds. From this lawn
is a gradual descent to the water, and you pass
through spacious gravel walks, not in straight lines,
as Pope expresses it,

but pleasing intricacies intervene. Through the winding
paths, and every step, open new objects of beauty,
which diversified nature affords of hill, valley,

water, and woods; the gardens finally are lost
in the park, amidst a profusion of venerable oaks,
some of which are said to have stood nine hundred
years. The gardens are four miles round, which
I walked; the park is eleven. There is a magnificent
bridge consisting of three arches; the water
which it covers, is formed into a spacious lake, which
flows the whole extent of a capacious valley. This
was built at the expense of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough,
as well as a column which I shall mention
in turn. The gardener, who was very loquacious
and swelled with importance, told us, that since his
residence there, the present Duke had greatly enlarged
and improved the grounds; that he had beautified
them by the addition of some well-placed ornaments,
particularly the temple of Diana, and a
noble cascade, round which are four river gods, represented
as the guardian genii of the water.

This celebrated park was first enclosed in the
reign of Henry the First. His successor, Henry the
Second, resided at this seat, and erected in this park
a palace, and encompassed it with a labyrinth, which
was fair Rosamond's bower, celebrated by Addison.
There are now no remains of it, except a spring at
the foot of the hill, which still bears the name of
Rosamond's Well. This palace is celebrated as the
birth-place of Edmund, second son of Edward the
First, and of Edward the Black Prince. Elizabeth was
kept a prisoner there under the persecutions of Queen
Mary; and it continued to be the residence of kings
until the reign of Charles the First, but it was demolished

in succeeding times of confusion. There are
now two sycamores planted as a memorial upon the
spot where the old palace stood. The column will
close my narrative. This is in front of the palace of
Blenheim at about half a mile distance, and is one
hundred and thirty feet high; on the top of which is
John, Duke of Marlborough, and on which is the following
inscription, supposed to be written by the late
Lord Bolingbroke.

Thus is the gratitude of the nation expressed, and
thus do the heirs of Marlborough triumph. The
present Duke is a man of literary pursuits, domestic,
and a great astronomer. He has a fine observatory
and apparatus. From this observatory he makes
signals to Herschel at Windsor, and they study the
stars together.

I have made a very long letter of it. I hope it
may prove an amusement to you.

Remember me kindly to all inquiring friends, and
believe me, my dear niece,