July 17 Oxford//Blenheim

I was planning on taking the bus to Blenheim and doing a circular walk there, but I was too late for the 5:15 a.m. and didn't want to hang around for the 6:25, so I walked.  Good choice!

The first major segment was along a canal, which had a kind of Sausalito vibe:

There was some art on the walls of an underpass:

I hope they were successful!

After a few wrong turns through fields—sometimes the map app can be maddeningly wrong:  "You are about to go off the route.  The route is 120 feet behind you."  "You are going in the wrong direction." The most maddening is, "You are off the route.  The route is 70 feet in front of you."  (In front of you?!)  Sometimes, yes, but sometimes, no.  And sometimes I just don't think things through thoroughly enough.  But I arrived.  

The first thing you have to know about Blenheim is that it is big:

I don't particularly care about its history; all those people and dates and their doings and misdoings make my head spin, but Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim, in this very bed:

(But it is unlikely that his portrait was hung there at the time.)

And here is a picture of his curls when he was five years old:

I assume that sample was obtained before he was shipped off to boarding school.  (I was speaking to the woman who was dealing with the headphones; she told me that her brother was sent off at four.)  It is not only another time; it is another world.  In fact, the palace, the grounds, the whole thing is beyond beyond.

But back to Winston:

A few memorable quotes:

"At Blenheim I took two important decisions, to be born and to marry. I am happily content with the decisions I took on both occasions”.

"[My idea of a good dinner] is to discuss good food, and, after this good food has been discussed, to discuss a good topic with myself the chief conversationalist."

"Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed  once, but in politics many  times"

This is Queen Elizabeth's coronation robe:

Front:

And back:

                                    

                                Queen Elizabeth II (r. 1952 - 2022)

Tuesday 2nd June 1953 was unseasonably cold and wet - it was also the date of the late Queen's coronation. It took place in Westminster Abbey and was the first one to be televised; in the UK alone over 27 million people watched the live, black, and white broadcast.

The Queen, accompanied by her husband the Duke of Edinburgh travelled to the Abbey in the Gold State Coach - Lady Rosemary was one of only two Maids of Honour to take part in the Queen's carriage procession - the others were taken to the Abbey by car. When the Queen arrived, the Maids of Honour began the task of bearing the Queen's trail as she processed into Westminster Abbey.

The ceremony lasted for almost three hours and involved standing for long periods. The Maids of Honour were advised to conceal a vial of smelling salts in a glove in case they felt faint; the Archbishop of Canterbury managed to shatter Lady Rosemary's when greeting her with an overly enthusiastic handshake!

Oh no!!!  Another disaster was at Victoria's  coronation.  The archbishop or whoever forced a ring (who knew there was a ring involved) onto the wrong finger and it hurt like the dickens!

The most exciting thing I learned at Blenheim has to do with rank.  

The ranks of the peerage are baron, viscount, earl, marquess, and duke. Each rank has its own ceremonial dress.

Peers wear two kinds of ceremonial outfits: their coronation robes and parliamentary robes. Both designs date back at least 400 years. In the last 300 years peers' coronation robes have only been used twelve times. The robes are made of crimson silk velvet, the rows of ermine extend around the full width of the cape, with half rows reaching from the right front edge to the centre back. These rows of spots reveal a peer's rank.

                Duke - 4 rows 

                Marquess - 3½ rows

                Earl - 3 rows

                Viscount - 2½ rows

                Baron - 2 rows

In addition to the rows of ermine on the cape, other symbols that show the rank of the peeresses are the width of the edging and length of the robe.

        

Now you know the rank (but not the serial number) of the wearer of this robe.  

Two important bits of information about running the household.  There were lots of clocks so that master and servant could know the time, the exact time.  AND bells for summoning the servants had distinctive rings so that the servant would know who was calling.  But you might have picked that up from Upstairs Downstairs or Downton Abbey.

In the stables we meet a Shire:

                    The Shire is a British breed of draught horse.

It is usually black, bay, or grey. It is a tall breed, and Shires have at various times held world records both for the largest horse and for the tallest horse.

The Shire has a great capacity for weight-pulling; it was used for farm work across the Estate and was the principal means of goods transport as a cart-horse for road transport, and to tow barges at a time when the canal system was the principal means of goods transport.

One traditional use was for pulling brewer's drays for delivery of beer, and some are still used in this way; others are used for forestry - a tradition being revived, for riding (including side-saddle) and for commercial promotion.

Outside, on a great lawn, we see a tree repurposed as a work of art (IMO):

  

After viewing the palace, the formal gardens and the walled garden, the secret garden and the lake, but, inter alia, not the rose garden, the butterfly house or the fire engine house, it was time to take the bus back to Oxford.  I even waited on the correct side of the street!