Friday's Flashback: Blenheim Palace

This is the good stuff right here.  We left Highclere Castle and drove toward Oxford.  It was so fun heading into this crowded-with-people town and imagining what it was like in the time of Lewis and Tolkien.  The trees surrounding the motorway were really cool, looking a lot like Ents.  KJ felt like he had a better understanding of Tolkien's affinity with trees, and it felt easier for me to imagine dryads in such surroundings.

Blenheim Palace was not on our radar at all when we started planning our trip.  I happened upon it while looking for places to stay in Oxford.  One of the bed and breakfasts I really liked listed a near location to the ancestral home of Winston Churchill, and I think it was covered on our British Heritage Pass, so we had to check it out.  I'm so glad we did.  It was absolutely amazing.

One of the things that's been fun since we returned home is watching movies filmed at places we visited in England.  The front entrance with columns you see there is used as Buckingham Palace in The Young Victoria, a movie I really, really enjoyed by the way.  The funny thing is that they used the other side of the house as Leopold's Belgian palace in the same movie.  When you have a house that large, you have a lot of land to work with, and no one's the wiser...unless you've been there.  If you're standing on those front steps, there is a looong drive leading up to the palace.  Here is part of your view.

 

The Column of Victory

  Hello, sheep, grazing in the fields.

I'm in a rush to head out to Field Day at Ella's school this morning, so there's no time for more detail, but in short, the Column of Victory represents the battle won by the first Duke of Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession, in which John Churchill also won money and the favor of the king that led to the building of this home.  That is a very short and uninformed explanation.  It is an absolutely stunning and breathtaking view, though.  These grounds were also the work of Capability Brown, I believe.  On the right side of the above bridge you had this:

The left side of the house is where the actual entrance is today. There's another long drive and grass space used for parking, and you walked through this gate.

 

You're looking at the first Duke and Duchess of Marlborough's eyes.  There was this trend back in the 1700s of having your eyes painted.  A man might carry a small picture of his lady's eye about with him, and it was less compromising, a little harder to figure out whose eye it was.

I hate to stop here, but I am really going to be late for Field Day if I don't hurry!  :)  I think I have to say this was my favorite house.  It was the most grand but in a dignified, tastefully grand way.