Written in stone

摘要

Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, the client from Hell who eventually banned her architect from the site, never quite saw the point of the colossal, pretentious country house a grateful nation had given to her husband, the conquering hero who had defeated the forces of Louis XIV at the great battle fought near the village of Blindheim in Bavaria in 1704. The giant Corinthian order, the castle-like towers, the heraldic and martial symbols, the stone cannonballs - let alone the great bridge crossing a tiny stream, leading nowhere - did not make it convenient or comfortable. In fact, it was not a house but a palace and its longsuffering architect, Sir John Vanbrugh, argued that it should be 'consider'd as both a Royall and a National Monument'. That was the true function of Blenheim Palace, and the fact that it is today a tourist attraction surely justifies Vanbrugh's belief that 'it cannot be doubted, but if Travellers many Ages hence, shall be shewn the Very House in which so Great a Man Dwelt, as they will then read the Duke of Marlborough in Story'.