Winston Churchill said it was the best view in England … or perhaps the world. For him, it very likely amounted to the same thing.
Tussling at dusk: Georgina, Fabian, and Milo Tudor Caruncho
At Blenheim Palace at dusk, or dawn, or any other time of day, it’s hard to argue the point. You walk in through the gate that leads from the town of Woodstock (not the grander entrance on the main road), look to your right, and you see this delicious scene.
Churchill’s views on his birthplace (he described the estate’s origins in his massive work, Marlborough: His Life and Times) were related to me by my friend Eliza Tudor, who lives in nearby Wootton, next to Woodstock, the ancient burg where her ancestor Edward the Black Prince was born.
Capable.
Blenheim is, of course, the 18th-century palace where the Nobel writer Churchill was born, where he proposed to his future wife Clementine, and where all the Dukes of Marlborough lived (Sir Winston was, alas, was the son of a younger son). It also represents the labor of England’s legendary landscape architect Capability Brown (marvelous name, that), who created two thousand acres of verdant slopes, leading to this lake, with architect Sir John Vanbrugh‘s Grand Bridge.
Anyway, these pictures (except for Capability’s) are taken from Eliza’s iphone. Not bad. With only a little imagination, they take me away from a messy house, a score of emails and letters to write, and the dishes in the sink on a long holiday weekend.
Hope they do the same for you. At least a little.
Tags: Capability Brown, Eliza Tudor, Sir John Vanbrugh, Winston Churchill