Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, was erected at the public expense during the time of Queen Anne, the architect being Sir John Vanbrugh, and the style Italo-Corinthian. In it were stored, amongst other celebrated pictures, The Young St. Augustine and Pope Gregory, by Titian; Europa, Esther, and The Massacre of the Innocents, by Veronese; Tintoretto's St. Jerome, Rembrandt's Isaac Blessing Jacob, etc., portraits by Rubens, Vandyck, etc. The collection was disposed of by auction in 1884, when Raphael's Ansidei Madonna was bought for the National Gallery at £70,000. The Titian Gallery was burnt down in 1859. The grounds of Blenheim cover an area of 2,700 acres, and are adorned with, amongst other things, a pedestal 130 feet high, surmounted by a statue of the Duke of Marlborough. The plantations are said to represent the positions of the troops on the battlefield of Blenheim.