Your Lordship’s, &c.
J. Vanburgh.
(Endorsed thus by the Duchess.)
Nov. 9.
All that Sir J. V. says in this letter is false. The manour house had cost me three thousand pounds, and was ordered to be pulled down, and the materialls made use of for things that were necessary to be done. The picture he sent to prevent this was false. My Lord Treasurer went to Blenheim to see the trick: ... and it is now ordered to be pulled down.
Reasons offered for preserving some part of the Old Manor, by Sir J. Vanburgh.[[420]]
June 11, 1709.
There is, perhaps, no one thing which the most polite part of manhood have more universally agreed in, than the vallue they have ever set upon the remains of distant times: nor amongst the several kinds of those antiquitys are there any so much regarded as those of buildings; some for their magnificence and curious workmanship; and others as they move more lovely and pleasing reflections (than history without their aid can do) on the persons who have inherited them, on the remarkable things which have been transacted in them, or the extraordinary occasions of erecting them. As I believe 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; and that they shall be told it was not only his favourite habitation, but was erected for him by the bounty of the Queen, and with the approbation of the people, as a monument of the greatest services and honours that any subject had ever done his country—I believe, though they may not find art enough in the builder to make them admire the beauty of the fabric, they will find wonder enough in the story to make ’em pleased with the sight of it.
I hope I may be forgiven if I make some slight application of what I say of Blenheim, to the small remain of Woodstock manor. It can’t indeed be said it was erected upon so noble or so justifiable an occasion; but it was raised by one of the bravest and most warlike of the English kings; and though it has not been famed as a monument of his arms, it has been tenderly regarded as the scene of his affections. Nor amongst the multitude of people who came daily to view what is raising to the memory of the great Battle of Blenheim, are there any that do not run eagerly to see what ancient remains may be found of Rosamond’s Bower. It may, perhaps, be worth some little refection upon what may be said, if the very footsteps of it are no more to be found.
But if the historical argument stands in need of assistance, there is still much to be said upon other considerations.