That part of the park which is seen from the north front of the new building has little variety of objects, nor does the country beyond it afford any of value. It therefore stands in need of all the helps that can be given, which are only five; buildings and plantations—those indeed, rightly disposed, will supply all the wants of nature in that place: and the most agreeable disposition is to mix them, which this old manour gives so happy an occasion for, that were the enclosure filled with trees, principally fine yews and hollys, promiscuously set to grow up in a wild thicket, so that all the building left, which is only the habitable part, and the chapel, might appear in two risings amongst them, it would make one of the most agreeable objects that the best of landskip painters cou’d invent. And if, on the contrary, this building is taken away, there remains nothing but an irregular, ragged, and ungovernable hill, the deformitys of which are not to be cured but at a vast expense; and that at last will only remove an ill object, and not produce a good one. Whereas, to finish the present wall for the inclosures, to form the slopes and make the plantation, (which is all that is now wanting to complete the design,) wou’d not cost two hundred pounds.
I take the liberty to offer this paper, with a picture to explain what I endeavour to describe, that if the present direction for destroying the building shou’d hereafter happen to be repented of, I may not be blamed for neglecting to set in the truest light I cou’d, a thing that seemed to me at least so very materiall.
J. Vanburgh.
Remarks upon this Letter by the Duchess.
The enclosed paper[[421]] was wrote by Mr. Robard, who lived always at Blenheim, and, as I have said, was taken into Mr. Bolter’s place. He wrote these directions from the Duke of Marlborough’s own mouth. And when he was gone, for fear of any contest, I suppose, in which he must disobey my Lord Marlborough’s orders, or disoblige Sir John Vanburgh, he brought it to me, and I wrote what you see under the instructions, which anybody would have thought might have put an end to all manner of expense upon that place. The occasion of the Duke of Marlborough’s giving these orders was as follows:—
Sir John Vanburgh having a great desire to employ his fancy in fitting up this extraordinary place, had laid out above two thousand pounds upon it, which may yet be seen in the books of accounts; and without being at all seen in the house, excepting in one article for the lead, which I believe is a good deal more than a thousand pounds of the money. Mr. Traverse, who calls himself the superintendent and chief of Blenheim works, let this thing go on (I will not call it a whim because there has been such a struggle about it) till it was a habitation; and then he came and complained of the great expense of it to me, desiring me to stop it; and Sir John having another house in the park where he lived, and where he had made some expense, Mr. Traverse was unwilling to think he designed this other for his own use, and very prudently wrote to my Lord Marlborough into Flanders, to ask for this old manour for himself, he having no place for the dispatch of his great business in carrying on these great works. The Duke of Marlborough made no answer, but when he came into England, I remember upon a representation that these ruins must come down, because they were not in themselves a very agreeable sight, but they happened to stand very near the middle of the front of this very fine castle of Blenheim, and is in the way of the prospect down the great avenue, for which a bridge of so vast an expense is made to go into. Upon this the Duke of Marlborough went down to Blenheim, and there was a great consultation held, whether these ruins should stand or fall; and I remember the late Earl of Godolphin said, that could no more be a dispute than whether a man that had a great wen upon his cheek would not have it cut off if he could. And upon hearing all people’s opinion, and the Duke of Marlborough seeing the thing himself, he gave this paper of directions, which prevented anything more from being done upon the ruins; but it had not the intended effect of pulling them down.
In August third, 1716, when I was at the Bath, Mr. Robart wrote to me that Sir John Vanburgh had ordered some walling about the old manour to plant some fruit-trees upon, which he would pay for. This, I suppose, was to save himself, because of the orders he had to do nothing there; and by the advance of what is done at that place, I believe it must have been begun a good while before I had this notice of it. I am sure it was upon the nineteenth of June, which was never mentioned by Sir John either to Lord Marlborough or to me. I thought this a little odd, but I had so great a mind to comply with Sir John, (if it were possible,) that I took no notice of this, nor wrote any to Mr. Robart concerning it, only that I was sure the Duke of Marlborough would never let Sir John pay for anything in his park, and I heard no more of it till I came here; only that I observed that several officers and people that had come by Blenheim to the Bath, when they talked of this place, and of the workmen that were employed about it, could hardly keep from laughing.
Since Sir John went to London, the Duke of Marlborough and I, taking the air, went to see these works, where there is a wall begun; I wish my park or some of my gardens had such another; the first having none but what you may kick down with your foot, nor the fine garden but what must be pulled down again, being done with a stone that the undertakers must know would not hold; but it was not their business to finish, but rather to intail work. If one may judge of the expense of this place by the manner of doing things at Blenheim, there is a foundation laid for a good round sum. There is a wall to be carried round a great piece of ground, and a good length of it done, with a walk ten feet broad that is to go on the outside of this wall on the garden side, which must have another wall to enclose it. There are to be fruit-trees set, but the earth not being proper for that, it is to be laid I know not how many feet deep with stone, and then as much earth brought to be put upon that, to secure good fruit. And there is one great hole that I saw in the park that must be filled up again, already occasioned by making mortar for that part of the wall that is already done. What I have wrote, I saw myself, and upon my commending the fancy of it, the man was so pleased at my liking it, who lives in the house, and has some care of the works about the causeway, that he told me with great pleasure the whole design.