terous cavaliers, the object was accomplished even beyond his hopes. The truth was not discovered till after the Restoration. Woodstock manor remained unoccupied, or nearly so, for about fifty years, when it was granted by Parliament in testimony of the nation's gratitude for the brilliant exploits of the Duke of Marlborough. Sir John Vanburgh was employed to build a suitable edifice, and the palace of Blenheim was the result. Yet the hero for whom it was intended never had the pleasure of inhabiting it; and, as may be seen from an interesting chapter in Mr. D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature," it became a source of annoyance to him for the remainder of his days. Parliament neglected to provide positively and in a proper manner the necessary funds, which were always charged upon the civil list of Queen Anne until her death, when the workmen, whose wages had been long in arrear, were glad to accept one third of their claims. Sir John Vanburgh feared his total ruin: the Duke of Marlborough groaned in bitterness of spirit, lest he should be forced in some way or other to pay a penny out of his own pocket, for the expenses of a building which was to have been erected at a nation's cost, and ultimately died without enjoying his princely abode, leaving his hostile Duchess and the architect to fight out the question of expense between them. This fine building has been condemned by some as too massive, while others have regarded its massiveness as its great beauty. The north, or grand front, extends from wing to wing three hundred and forty-eight feet; and the centre is supported by pillars of the Corinthian order. The southern front has a handsome portico, surmounted by a colossal bust of Louis XIV, taken from the gates of Tournay by the victorious Marlborough. The approach to the front of the mansion is over a lofty bridge, which was originally built at the desire of the great Duke himself over a very narrow stream, which gave rise to the following epigram in allusion to his well-known parsimony: The lofty bridge his high ambition shows- The stream, however, was afterwards widened by the celebrated Capability Brown, who is reported to have said that the Thames, envious of the nobler expanse of water which his art had formed, "would never forgive him for what he had done at Blenheim." Near the bridge stands a column one hundred and thirty feet high, the plinth of which is inscribed on the four sides with the exploits of the Duke of Marlborough. The interior of the mansion is fitted up with great magnificence, and contains a picture gallery with many fine pictures, some of which were presented to the Duke by the citizens of Antwerp and other towns in Flanders. The library is also a fine room, upwards of two hundred feet in length, occupying the whole range of the west front, and containing a collection of books valued at thirty thousand pounds. The park, of about two thousand seven hundred acres, is laid out, as the parks of English noblemen usually are, in a style of great taste, and true appreciation of the beauties of natural scenery. Where Nature is niggard she is aided by art, and where bountiful, turned to the best advantage. Two sycamore trees upon an eminence mark the site of the ancient palace of Henry II, which was pulled down by the first Duke of Marlborough, at the advice of Lord Godolphin, because he thought it would obstruct the view from the windows of Blenheim. Having lingered a sufficient time at this historical spot, we must retrace our steps to the neighbouring banks of the Thames, and proceed onwards from Ensham or Eynsham to Stanton Harcourt. 23 CHAPTER II. Stanton Harcourt. English and French Epitaphs.-The River Windrush. The Splendid Shilling. A Poet's Whim.- Battle of Radcot Bridge. HE village of Stanton, called Stanton Harcourt, from the residence of the Earls of Harcourt, before they removed to their more magnificent seat at Nuneham Courtney, is pleasantly situated within view of the Thames, about two miles from the bank, and derives considerable interest from the fact that Pope was for some months an inmate of the hospitable house of the Lord Chancellor Harcourt, in the year 1718, and that there he finished the fifth volume of his translation of Homer. In the tower of the chapel is a room still called Pope's Room, which is the one he occupied as his study during the summer of the year mentioned. The poet recorded the completion of |