Churchill and Blenheim Palace FRIDAY JULY 23

   Blenheim Palace reminds me a lot of Hearst Castle, on the California coast.  Both are monuments to conspicuous consumption, which dwarf the efforts of most of today's plutocrats.  In today's dollars Hearst Castle cost over 500 million dollars to build and furnish;  Blenheim over 500 million pounds, or 1.5 times as much!  Even more remarkable, more than half the cost of Blenheim was a gift from Queen Anne to the first Duke of Marlborough in gratitude for his victory over the army of Louis XIV at Blenheim in southern Germany in 1704.  In a sense Blenheim Palace and its gardens were the British reprisal to the Versailles of Louis XIV.
   Most of the dukes since the first have struggled to maintain the palace and its associated lifestyle.  One sold over a hundred paintings which would have a current value averaging 1.5 million dollars apiece.  Another, the uncle of the palace's most famous resident, married a Vanderbuilt... he needed her family money and the families of the Guilded Age all longed to marry their daughters to dukes and earls and princes (he was all 3).
   That most famous resident was born in the bed below in 1874, and I was ticked when he lost Time magazines competition for most influential person of the 20th century, finishing second to Albert Einstein.  I'm talking about Winston Churchill, of course.  He was born in the palace and spent much of his childhood there with his grandmother, the duchess of that time.  He continued to love it and upon his death chose to be buried in the local churchyard rather than in Westminster Abbey.  Despite his flaws, I have always been fascinated by his towering impact on modern history (not just WW2) and that is why I was eager to see this place.
   I have to admit I was especially impressed by the library, the second longest non-commercial room in England.  Unrecovering bibliophile that I am I have long harbored the blatantly materialistic desire to have a house with a traditional wood-paneled library.  Even a small one, unlike this one which could have contained the Wright Brothers' first flight...
   Today's Duke doesn't have the money problems of his ancestors—the palace more than pays for itself.  As a World Heritage site it attracts tourists by the busload, and adult admission is almost $30.  Today they had a special deal where admission included a card good for a year.  I'd love to get back since an hour-and-a-half barely started us on the interior, let alone the gardens.  Since I probably won't be back, though, the card makes an attractive souvenir :)  The other picture below is the private chapel by the way... I'd love to show the library but most of the interior is off-limits to photography.