“I do the thinking, you do as you are told.” -Alva Vanderbilt to her daughter Consuelo (later Duchess of Marlborough) Sit back and strap in, kittens, because today we have a massive post for a massive house. Blenheim Palace is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and began as a project of the first Duke and Duchess, who were favorites of Queen Anne. Today it’s still one of the grandest homes in the country. 
For a sense of the size we’re talking, this massive entrance isn’t even in use. 
Like many great homes, much of the house is open to the public for a fee. But it’s still a working estate in many ways, and as these houses were supposed to do, employees a small army. 
We absolutely lucked out (a theme of our travels this summer) because it just so happened that Blenheim was hosting an exhibition by the famed artist and activist Ai Weiei. The contrast between the establishment that one of the most prominent aristocratic families and houses of Britain represents and the anti-establishment artist was quite interesting and his ultramodern pieces within the historic staterooms was very effective. This chandelier is one of his pieces, and does not belong to to the house. 
One of the most famous of the family, Consuelo Vanderbuilt was one of the American heiresses whose family traded her wealth and beauty for position. By the time she married the 9th Duke (under duress), Blenheim was in serious need of funds. During the Gilded Age, these marriages were the stuff of society papers and saved many a British estate. Downton Abbey portrays this, somewhat unrealistically, but the reality behind it is correct. Many American beauties, including Winston Churchill’s mother (who married another member of the extended Marlborough family) made the bargain. One interesting fact I learned is that the Marlborough family is the only other highborn family in Britain, besides the Royal Family, to allow daughters to inherit the title. And interestingly enough they did it three hundred years before the current government got around to doing it. The 1st Duke and Duchess had several children but none of their sons lived to adulthood, so a special inheritance law was passed that applied only to their title to allow their eldest daughter to assume the title of Duchess in her own right, rather than as the consort of a Duke. Downright revolutionary stuff at the time. 
And speaking of! One of Ai Weiwei’s pieces covers the carpet. Contrast the historical art with the new… 
Ceramic crabs, a comment on the sea-based economy of some parts of China. 
Commentary on tradition and stability. 
Pieces representing the Chinese zodiac signs… 
Located in the unbelievably big formal dinning room. Apparently this cavern is never used by the family except on state visits…and for the family Christmas dinner. I don’t think I’d be able to eat a thing with that much history bearing down on me. 
She might have been miserably married and later happily divorced and remarried, but Consuelo’s influence still reigns supreme at Blenheim. The palace might not be standing today if not for her money. That banner over the fireplace also has an interesting role, apparently it’s the “rent” that the Dukes pay to the crown, a new one is presented annually, and the Queen has a collection of them somewhere. 
Another Ai Weiei piece beneath a portrait of Louis XIV. One Duke had a small obsession with Louis’ larger than life persona and sense of building scale and decided to redecorate Blenheim, modeled upon Versailles. The effect was less than impressive as Blenheim might be massive, but it’s not Versailles, and the scale of the new gilt and moldings ended up not being what His Grace envisioned. By which time, of course, the money was spent and the fait was accompli. 
Pearls as rice. 
The beautiful library with a most un-quiet looking (and staggeringly massive) organ at the far end which is kept in good form by daily recitals. I was quite perturbed to have missed that! And on the walls… 
A series of Ai Weiwei at various significant social, political, and religious sites with his, um, reaction. Offensive yes, but an interesting series to hang where it does. 
Horrible grounds, really. Quite tragic. 
Those poor Marlboroughs. 
Such an embarrassment. 
Oh well, I guess we all have our trials.
Tag: History
“I have good reason to be content,
for thank God I can read and
perhaps understand Shakespeare to his depths.”
― John Keats
I don’t understand people who say, “Oh, I’ve already been to such-and-such, I don’t need to go back.” Things change, all the time. It’s pretty much the only guarantee in the universe. Even extremely old places change, and we as people certainly do, so it’s always worth revisiting a lovely and interesting spot to see what’s new or how your experience of it may shift.
In a related note, I don’t exactly understand why so few Britons travel within their own country as infrequently as they do. When I told a British friend how we were going on a trip around the southwest with my in-laws and mentioned we would be driving from London to Salisbury, he sighed and said it sounded like a terribly long drive. It wasn’t. I think we’re dealing with a sense of scale issue. The US is a third of an extremely large continent and Britain is smaller than many states, what is long to them simply isn’t to us. At any rate, we saw both Stratford-upon-Avon and Blenheim Palace in a single day and weren’t rushed in the slightest, in spit of the fact that they were in opposite directions from our starting point.
Stratford-upon-Avon is lovely, but is really only one reason to go: Shakespeare. His family homes, that of his wife, and the church where he was probably baptized and married and definitely buried are within easy distances of one another and well worth a visit. The last time I was here was when I was studying in London still in university and there have been some changes. I don’t believe the extensive (and quite good) visitor’s center with accompanying exhibits had been completed then, and it was lovely to have a look round.
Shakespeare’s family home is nicely the same as it has been for many centuries now.
There have also been some recent research developments in the church, including some potentially hidden Catholic imagery, which would have been quite a big deal given the political and religious realities of the day.
What really hooked me on this trip, however, was the gentleman in the striped shirt standing center. He was a wealth of historical information about the church, Shakespeare’s day, and the ways both the building and the faith climate would have influenced him. He also talked extensively about Elizabethan burial practices, which seems gruesome but was rather interesting. If you’ve every wondered how centuries of burials have been managed in enclosed spaces, the answer is that most churches would perform burials in circular way around the church, moving like the hands of a clock. It would take about a local generation to complete a pass, after which the bones would mostly be dug up (the flesh would have, er, been taken care of by time and other things) to be further processed by burning or mashing up. The word bonfire derives from this, a “bone-fire” meant to reduce bulky human remains to more manageable chunks.
Hence the famous scene in Hamlet of the gravediggers mucking about with Yorick et al.
However if you were very wealthy or very influential, your remains could avoid this fate by permanent interment. You had to pay a hefty fee to the church powers of course, but in an age where being remembered was important, plenty of people found the funds. Billy S. doesn’t need a memorial for that, of course, but it’s very nice that we have one anyway.
Indeed.
“None but the most blindly credulous will imaging the characters and events in this story to be anything but fictitious. It is true that the ancient and noble city of Oxford is, of all the towns of England, the likeliest progenitor of unlikely events and persons. But there are limits.”
― Edmund Crispin
Christ Church College, Oxford, is a unique one. It is the only academic institution in the world that doubles as a cathedral. It’s the seat of the Bishop of Oxford, but incidently in its charter the resident ecclesiastical overseer is the monarch. Which is, of course, thanks to Henry VIII and his truly staggering sense of self-importance. Reformations can be such messy things.
It’s also a really lovely place to visit and is chock full of fun historical odds and ends.
Hideous grounds. How can any right thinking person work there? Horrible…
If the Hall looks familiar, it’s because it was used as a model for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. The pictures don’t move, but Henry VIII looms (of course he does) from the place of honor above the head table.
Sir Robert Peel was a graduate of the college but not always popular in elections. A later student tattooed his political opinion on a door of the college, which let it stand permanently!
The cathedral itself is a beautiful building, but it’s hidden bits are easily my favorite parts. I mentioned that reformations are tricky, and nowhere more complexly than Britain. These might not look like much but they are the remains of a medieval painting that was whitewashed over when Catholicism went out. Since medieval era church art like this was often scrubbed away, stripped, and burned, whitewashing is practically a gift since in many cases it preserved the art beneath it.
One of the most famous graduates was Charles Dodgson, better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. Look closely in the windows of the Hall and you may discover a delightful tribute hidden away. See them?
The Duchess is one of my favorite characters. Rare indeed is the cooking expedition in which pepper is called for and I do not belt out, “More pepper!” in honor of her cook as I rummage in cupboards. I’ve even got Jeff doing it, it’s officially a family quirk.
The Mock Turtle is a delight!
“Your father’s state of health must be a great drawback. Why does not he try Bath? Indeed he should. Let me recommend Bath to you.”
-Jane Austen, Emma
After the Roman baths, the next best thing in Bath is the 18th century Pump Room. It features in Austen novels, Gillray’s cartoons lampooning the Regency’s main figures, and countless travelogs. Largely unchanged since it was built, it was one of the main places for people to meet and greet, see and be seen in the 18th and 19th centuries.
And without doubt, the focal point is the fountain where do this day you can pay 50p to “take the waters,” as those who came to Bath over the years did to improve their health. On this visit, I was happy to just take pictures. I’ve tasted the water, and I’m convinced it’s more kill than cure.
The restaurant is lovely. I heartily recommend taking tea if you get the chance.
And those three performers? Apparently they are called the Pump Room Trio, and as an institutional group, they are the longest established residential ensemble in Europe. Knock back your tea (or mineral water, if you’re a masochist) and scones listening to beautiful classical music while feeling you most Austen-esque.
“Your head runs too much upon Bath; but there is a time for everything — a time for balls and plays, and a time for work. You have had a long run of amusement, and now you must try to be useful.”
– Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
Obviously the most famous thing in Bath is…the Roman bath complex! A combination of historic site and museum, it’s well worth the cost of the tour. Like most places in Britain these days, you pick up an audio guide that takes you around the museum and through the baths, allowing you to set both the pace and amount of information you want to take in. There are also options for children who might not want to spend hours staring into collections of votive offerings to the goddess of the hot water spring like, er, some people…
The Baths are right next door to the Bath Abbey. If you love historic cathedrals like, er, some people again it’s worth a look in, but if not you can admire it from outside just fine and move on to other things.
The Baths are still flowing and still heated by the self same spring that fed it in the Roman era. Look closely and you can see steam rising up above he water in certain places.
This is the entrance to the spring itself, with a bit of Roman civil engineering thrown in for good measure.
The thing about Bath that really makes it worth a visit is that it’s just so very pretty. It’s utterly picturesque. The primary building material is the iconic limestone that is quarried from the area that gives a light sort of feeling to the entire city. It rises up out of the dark green hills, with tendrils of creamy stone curling through the river valley. The elegant Georgian architecture doesn’t hurt either.
It’s hard to explain how something like rock can be so alluring but I personally think Bath is at its best in twilight. The stone gives off a warm sort of glow that makes everything look like a Jane Austen mini-series. Ironic since she might be Bath’s most famous resident (and the locals trot her out at every opportunity), but she didn’t particularly like it there.
It’s a very British thing to talk about the weather, but it must be said that the “green and pleasant land” pulled out all the stops for my in-laws’ visit. The weather was perfect throughout the entire trip, and I’m fairly certain I got more Vitamin D in their week visiting than I had in the previous six months!
The other major site we took in was Number 1 Royal Crescent, a Georgian home that’s been restored and furnished to look as it would have in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Everyday items like hair scratchers (necessities for ladies who might have had their hair washed and set once a quarter) and mousetraps are displayed alongside formal dining and reception rooms. You can head up the main staircase, or tromp down the servants’ one to get a taste of life above and below stairs during the period.
Last but not least: FOOD. Sally Lunn’s is a Bath establishment. It’s fairly simple fair, but there has been a bakehouse on this site for centuries (and some excavations have revealed there may have been one in Roman times as well!). The current house dates from the 17th century and got its name from a French Huguenot baker who set up shop who created the “Bath bun,” a large and fluffy roll of white bread. Sally Lunn’s serves all meals, with a side of her famous bun with each portion.
We stumbled across The Circus cafe and restaurant on our way to the Royal Crescent and decided to take a late lunch there. A helpful sign informed us that it was ranked #4 in a nationwide list of “restaurants that only foodies know about,” and I can see why. My lunch of roasted squashes and vegetables with a pomegranate sauce and some magical concoction of goats cheese was easily the best dish I had on the entire trip. The food is locally sourced, season, and excellent–and most importantly, very reasonably priced for what you get.
“No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.”
– Magna Carta
My father-in-law wins, hands down, for finding accommodation for a trip through the southwest of England. We provided the itinerary and travel suggestions, he came up with the most wonderful housing finds. We did a five day loop through Salisbury, Bath, the Cotswolds, and Oxford to take in the sights and he was armed with guidebooks and things to do at every step of the way. And with not a single miss!
Salisbury is a small, but completely charming city. The center is a delightful hodgepodge of medieval through 20th century architecture and most of the historic sites and buildings are fantastically preserved. Unless you like history it might not be in your typical travel plans, but let me heartily recommend it as a stopping point on the way West from London. We stayed in a B&B called Cricket Field House that was very lovely and nicely appointed, and was just over a five minute drive from convenient and free/cheap parking near the cathedral.
The Breakfast Room won me over for a very important reason: the liberal use of Blue Willow china. It may be ridiculous, but that’s what my family has always owned and used and nothing in the world makes me feel more at home. The staff is fantastically friendly and helpful. I chatted with the breakfast server for quite a bit, and the gentleman who owns the establishment, when he heard where we hoped to eat that evening made a quick call to be sure that we could be accommodated immediately, without even being asked. In the interest of honesty, I also feel compelled to report that as we were leaving after breakfast a tiny and fluffy black puppy made an escape from the home portion of the house and put in an appearance by dashing across Jeff’s shoes before being snatched up by me. Puppies have a rather alarming effect on my brain so even though I’d decided that Cricket Field House was a delight, she sealed the bargain.
After parking the car we walked across the river and took in the views.
The New Inn is a bit of a misnomer, since it was built in the 15 century and remains essentially identical today. But we’ll let nomenclature slide because it was a great place to eat. Traditional hearty pub food, with a very nice sticky toffee pudding it has to be said.
The interior is tilted and uneven in the best possible way, with low beams and paneled rooms, open fireplaces and hidden corners.
And the view from the garden? Not half bad!
I took enormous delight in how the lowest beams have been altered to accommodate our modern heights with handy leather padding. It’s still about a foot above my head, but Jeff pronounced them not only useful but necessary.
After dinner we went for a late night stroll by the cathedral, to which we returned on the following day to see the best preserved version of the Magna Carta in existence (the Magna Carta is celebrating it’s 800th birthday next year, incidently), to gander at the supposedly oldest working clock in the modern clock in the world, and admire the various medieval and Tudor minions and courtiers buried there. I got to study up on the 1st Baron Hungerford who fought in the Battle of Agincourt, and his grandson the 3rd Baron who famously got into a land dispute with a family named Paston–through the Paston family letters we have some of the best information about the life and experiences of the up-and-coming gentry class in the Middle Ages.
Virginia might be for lovers, kittens, but Salisbury is for history people!
I find Cambridge an asylum, in every sense of the word.
-A.E. Housman
-A.E. Housman
Just a few shots leftover from our Cambridge adventure that were too good not to share.
This sign is simple, but I thought it one of my loveliest snaps of the day.
In case you missed my write up on the best places to eat (hint, it’s right here) this is the side entrance of The Anchor which is on Laundress Lane, across the street from the world’s most charming bike and rental shop.
If you go to Cambridge, you must eat at Fitzbillies. I insist. I might even drag you there myself.
No biggie.
It’s hard to overemphasize how much Henry VIII is omnipresent in Britain. He’s (understandably) most often remembered in pop culture for his marriages, but the truth is that those episodes were mostly short and crammed together into the back half of his reign. His most controversial wife, Anne Boleyn was only married to him for around three years while Anne of Cleves (lucky woman) was only wife number four for a matter of weeks. His marriage to Katherine of Aragon lasted for 20 years by comparison. He brought the Renaissance to England (largely kicking and screaming) and throughout his reign he enacted a number of laws and reforms that turned England from a feudal and medieval backwater that most of Europe sighed about, rolled their eyes at, or schemed to overpower, into a force to be reckoned with.
As a result, his mark is everywhere. The ruins of abbeys and monasteries dot the country, his effigy turns up in surprising places, the royal supremacy he developed still holds in theory, and his direct touch is stamped over the history. He might have been a thoroughly nasty fellow and a terribly bad person, but I think a decent argument can be made that at points he was a good or at least effective king and certainly one of the most influential in history. Make of that what you will.
The Senate House, a gorgeous piece of neoclassical architecture alongside the medieval and Victorian ones.
Lunch on the Cam.
“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.”
― Mark Twain
I’m furious to report that the photos of the first room we entered on our way to the Haddon Library didn’t turn out at all. This room was dark, stuffed with shelves filled with books about ancient Babylon, first contact with the Zulu, Assyrian and Egyptian glossaries, and other fabulous finds. Some of the old tomes containing early maps were nearly as tall as me. And it turns out that the room had a slightly scandalous recent history.
The academic who was in charge of interacting with visitors told me the story of a recent department reshuffle when collections of libraries were combined and had to be moved from one location to another. Not only did they have to worry about the proper transfer of historically significant books, they also had to be sure that the order and classifications were preserved–putting a collection like this back together from scratch if it was scrambled was too daunting a task to be thought of! Luckily the professor in charge found a moving company that specializes in this and a disaster was avoided.
It didn’t seem like too many visitors were going to the Haddon Library through this entrance and the professor and librarian talked to me for nearly twenty minutes simply because I started asking questions about the massive books. It’s always a delight to me what you can learn about the workings of places and people if you just pull up a chair and are genuinely interested.
The Haddon Library itself looks like a Victorian Eccentric’s private room and it’s wonderful. It supports primarily Anthropology students and research. What I loved was the old card catalog still there and still in use. No school like old school. Literally in this case.
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero
My very idea of heaven is a library, but this is just ridiculous!
The building itself was designed by William Wilkins, who also designed the National Gallery.
Excuse me while I sit on my hands to keep from stroking the bindings inappropriately.
The Parker Library in Corpus Christi College houses one of the most impressive collection of medieval manuscripts in the world, one to make the eyes of a nerd like me absolutely pop out. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, a 15th century Chaucer manuscript, a glossary from the 800s, and the Gospel of St. Augustine, which is considered the oldest book in Britain and is believed to have been brought to the country by St. Augustine of Canterbury when he first came to spread Christianity to the English. It’s the oldest illustrated gospel in the Western world, and is used at the enthronements of the Archbishops of Canterbury.
The library’s collection can really be attributed to the 16th century clergyman Matthew Parker. He served as the private chaplain of Queen Anne Boleyn and under Queen Elizabeth I became Archbishop of Canterbury. We owe his collection to Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, after which the centuries old libraries that these institutions once houses were flung far and wide. Parker got permission to collect whatever books he found useful, and thank goodness. His collection includes a quarter of all known Anglo Saxon manuscripts today.
A letter written by Anne Boleyn to her father while she was serving as a lady-in-waiting at the French court.
For the open day, the library also included several pieces from the personal collection of Dr. John C. Taylor, who designed the Corpus Clock.
In other words, Jeff had to drag me away from this place…
“Time is an illusion.”
― Albert Einstein
Cambridge has a number of distinguished and distinguishing landmarks, most of which are medieval, early modern, or in some way dating from before the 20th century. The Corpus Clock, housed at the library of Corpus Cristi College, is unabashedly modern. Normally facing the street, for Open Days the wall was turned to allow library visitors to get an up close and personal look at and within it.
Invented and designed by Dr. John C. Taylor (who has an amazing collection of clocks which will also feature in tomorrow’s adventures), it is a strange and wonderful creation. The face is plated in pure gold and the design is a rippled effect, created by explosions within a vacuum. They symbolize the Big Bang, the impact of which set space and time into motion and exploded outward. At the top is a grasshopper-like creature that Dr. Taylor calls the “Chronophage,” meaning “time-eater” (which is apparently a pun since an 18th century horologist referred to a clock mechanism as a grasshopper).
It has no hands and tells time through concentric rings of lights to signify seconds, minutes, and hours. When the hour strikes, all the lights flash. And yet it is purposefully designed to appear irregular and sometimes be irregular; the pendulum appears to catch or the lights race and lag. The whole point is to be functional, but also show the somewhat threatening nature of time. The beast (which is apparently nicknamed both “Rosaline” and “Hopsy” by locals and students) swallows the seconds without ceasing, and if you look closely you may catch it blinking or moving its mouth unexpectedly. Time flies, it’s untrustworthy, it’s easily consumed or lost, and there’s no getting it back.
Pointing out the features of the gold plated exterior.
But look inside…
…and the almost science fiction quality is revealed!
I scrambled up another level in the library to get a less obstructed view because I found the clock unexpectedly delightful. I love seeing things cracked open and their inner workings revealed.
Budding videographer that I am (she laughed!), I snapped a short video of the clock’s function being presented. The speaker does a better job of explaining the lighting sequence than I could, plus you get to see the creature’s movement.
Small Dog Syndrome 