[This is the second in a series of articles describing some
English Stately Homes and their connections]
Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace are two of the most
spectacular Baroque buildings in England. Both are generally attributed to the
architect Sir John Vanbrugh but he was substantially assisted by that enigmatic
yet highly talented pupil of Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor, whose trademark
monumentality unmistakably characterises both buildings.
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| Castle Howard, Frontage |
Castle Howard is
15 miles north of York and 6 miles from Malton, in North Yorkshire. The Castle
was the project of the highly ambitious, rich and unpopular Charles Howard, 3rd
Earl of Carlisle who organised the building between 1699 and 1715. Taking a
reckless chance, he appointed as architect Sir John Vanbrugh, a successful
playwright, wit and society figure with a persuasive artistic imagination.
Vanbrugh had never built anything before but he closely consulted Nicholas Hawksmoor,
already widely experienced as a pupil of Wren in rebuilding St Paul’s and the
City Churches, destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666. The two made a formidably
talented team.
Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor conceived the huge central dome
hitherto only seen in royal palaces. Together they completed the grand Baroque
Front and East Wing. After Vanbrugh died in 1726, the West Wing was completed
in the Palladian manner by Sir Thomas Robinson, nephew of the 3rd
Earl.
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| Castle Howard, The Great Hall |
The Great Hall is the finest room, all columns, capitals and
carved figures with (now restored) paintings by the Venetian Rococo master
Antonio Pellegrini, beneath the soaring dome. There are fine paintings,
porcelain and classical statues in other parts of the Castle as several later
earls were avid collectors. The extensive grounds contain Vanbrugh’s fanciful
Temple of the Four Winds and Hawksmoor’s beautifully austere Mausoleum
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| The Temple of the Four Winds |
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| The Mausoleum |
The Castle was
neglected in the 19th and early 20th century; the 10th
Earl moved to Naworth in Cumbria and Howard cousins inherited the Castle. Requisitioned
as a girls’ school for WW2, a fire devastated the Front and destroyed the Dome.
The shell was patched up by the trustees who assumed the family would never
return.
In fact George
Howard, returning from the war after being a Major in (naturally) the Green
Howards, moved in, rebuilt and restored important parts of the Castle to
Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor’s plans. He saved this great house, which became
familiar to the public as a setting in Granada TV’s 1981 serialisation of
Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. There
were terrific performances by Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte, Jeremy Irons as Charles Ryder and Laurence Olivier as Lord Marchmain. The Castle was
used as the Marchmain country seat and there were few more evocative sights
than Castle Howard emerging out of the morning mist, accompanied by the lovely plaintive
theme music composed by Geoffrey Burgan.
-------------------------------------------
Blenheim Palace,
at Woodstock, Oxfordshire was also the work of Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor, appointed
in 1704, but it was a much more public building erected as a reward to the
military hero, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and to the
honour of his royal patron, Queen Anne. Marlborough and his Duchess, Sarah,
were in high favour, he, after the stunning victories of Blenheim, and later
Ramillies and Oodenarde and she, as the long-term friend, confidante and
courtier to Queen Anne.
Political intrigues
in London by Tories Harley and Bolingbroke led to his dismissal in 1711 and
hot-tempered Sarah had lost the friendship of the Queen in 1710. £220,000 of
government money had been spent on Blenheim but the money dried up by 1712: Marlborough
himself paid £60,000 to complete the Palace when he returned from self-imposed
exile on Anne’s death in 1714. The building of Blenheim was not a smooth
exercise: Sarah complained, with some justice, about the extravagance of
Vanbrugh and the high fees of sculptors like Grinling Gibbons. Vanbrugh was
finally dismissed in 1716 and spiteful Sarah had him barred even from the Park
when he tried to revisit before he died in 1726. However the end result was
truly magnificent.
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| Blenheim Palace, Frontage |
I cannot properly describe the splendid interior so full is
it of treasures. The Great Hall, 67 ft high, has a Grinling Gibbons carved stone royal coat
of arms and an allegorical painted ceiling by Thornhill. A Green Drawing Room
with Hawksmoor moulded ceilings has paintings by Kneller, Romney and Reynolds
is followed by a Red one with a Van Dyck and famous Reynolds of the 4th
Duke and a Sargent of the 9th with his American wife Consuelo Vanderbilt and
the 10th Duke as a child. With the Green Drawing Room we start a
sequence of rooms dominated by huge Brussels tapestries commissioned by the 1st
Duke to record his victories. The Saloon, a state dining room, boasts ravishing
ceiling and mural paintings by Louis Laguerre and striking Grinling Gibbons
door-cases.
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| The Red Drawing Room |
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| the Second State Room |
Three State Rooms are followed by the immense (180 ft long)
Long Library with stucco executed to Hawksmoor’s designs, a huge organ and
tremendous statues and busts by Rysbrack. Finally the Chapel, with a tomb again
sculpted by Rysbrack holds the remains of the 1st Duke and his
Duchess.
The Grounds include lovely fountains and water gardens and a
notable formal parterre. The Lake created in the 1760s by “Capability” Brown
complements Vanbrugh’s cherished Bridge to make what Lord Randolph Churchill
described as “The finest View in England” and the Palace is overlooked by the
Column of Victory dedicated to the 1st Duke.
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| Blenheim Bridge and Lake: "The finest View in England" |
Blenheim Palace, like Castle Howard, was not a convenient or
practical place in which to live. It was built for show in a spirit of triumphalism.
Apart from the 1st Duke, the Marlboroughs have not been a
particularly distinguished family. Blenheim has always been a burden as well as
a pride. Lord Randolph Churchill, a mere 3rd son if briefly an
important politician, married American Jennie Jerome, promiscuous and
neglectful mother to Winston. “Dollar Duchesses” Lillian Price and Consuelo
Vanderbilt, daughters of millionaires, kept the Blenheim bandwagon going,
winning their social cachets at the
cost of large sums spent repairing the roofs and fabric of the Palace.
The brightest of bright stars was of course Winston
Churchill (1874-1965). As a junior sprig of the family his connection with
Blenheim was tenuous, although he remarked “At Blenheim I took two very
important decisions; to be born and to marry” (he had proposed to Clementine
Hozier in the Temple of Diana in the grounds) “I am happily content with the
decisions I took on both those occasions”. He revered and wrote a biography of
his ancestor the 1st Duke and he was on good terms with his cousin
“Sunny”, the 9th Duke. Winston’s horizons stretched far beyond
Blenheim, yet as the Saviour of the Nation he was modestly buried in nearby
Bladon churchyard beside his mother and father.
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| Winston, the finest of the Churchills |
SMD,
30.07.13,
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2013
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