Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, home of the Duke of Marlborough, c1880. One of Britain's greatest stately homes, Blenheim was intended to be a gift from a grateful nation to John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, after his victories over the French during the War of the Spanish Succession. The palace was designed in English Baroque style by Sir John Vanbrugh. The original gardens by Henry Wise, Queen Anne's gardener, were designed in the formal style of the Palace of Versailles, but from 1764 they were extensively modified in a more pastoral, naturalistic style by Capability Brown. A print from A Series of Picturesque Views of Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, edited by Reverend FO Morris, Volume I, William Mackenzie, London, c1880. Wood-engraved plates after paintings by Benjamin Fawcett and Alexander Francis Lydon.
