building was so delayed—and as to the Manor House, he wanted it restored so as to live in it himself! There was no other possible explanation.

She complained to Godolphin, and made him raise the question with Vanbrugh, who argued the case valiantly. He declared that the improvements in the Manor House had only cost eleven hundred pounds, and not three thousand as her Grace had said; that some of the building had already been taken down; and as for the rest of it, his scheme was the cheapest way not to make the Manor a fault in the approach: he even enclosed a drawing to convince the Lord Treasurer. And as to his desire to live in the house himself, this was a charge he repudiated indignantly, declaring himself “much discouraged to find I can be suspected of so poor a contrivance for so worthless a thing". When this letter came into the Duchess's hands she endorsed it, "All that Sir J. V. says in this letter is false ". The drawing also was false '. This time she would not be fooled.

It is possible that in the sincere desire of a conscious artist to preserve a beautiful building, Vanbrugh had a little exaggerated the possibilities of the Manor as a part of the new design-it would be a pardonable falsehood; but in any case he put too much faith in her Grace's artistic perceptions. For the drawing he sent her in the next few days, 'to plead in silent paint', had not the least effect. The Duchess was convinced there was something queer about it all. It was true that Vanbrugh had another house in the park already, and that “Mr. Travers, who calls himself the superintendent-in-chief of the Blenheim works ", could so little conceive that the architect wanted the Manor to live in that he had asked for it for himself-but what could the reason be for wanting to spend money on it when even

I

Mr. Travers, as surveyor to the Crown, complained of the expense? 1

So the Duchess, in her most Atossian mood, was blind to silent paint, and equally deaf to honest Van's "Reasons Offer'd for Preserving some part of the Old Manor ", which he addressed to her in June. "As I believe ", he wrote in the dignified prose he could use when he was

angry,

"it cannot be doubted, but if travellers many ages hence shall be shown 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 has ever done his countryI believe, though they may not find 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. . . . It cannot indeed be said that [Woodstock] was erected on so noble nor on 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 come 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 Rosamund's Bower. It may perhaps be some little reflection upon what may be said, if the very footsteps of it are no more to be found."

But the Duchess was a strong-minded woman, and her endorsement runs, " This paper has something ridiculous in it-to preserve the house for himself. . . but I think

1 Add. MSS. 9123, May, June, July 1709.

2 Ibid., 11th June 1709.

there is something material in it concerning the occasion of building Blenheim ". So evident was it, that Vanbrugh's flattery was wasted-swallowed as part of her due nourishment-and she would not budge an inch. Nor was she going to allow herself to be taken in by Vanbrugh's argument that his scheme would take only two hundred pounds to finish, whereas thousands would not make the hill look well if the building was destroyed. The artifice was too transparent, and the Lord Treasurer was appealed to, being made to journey to Woodstock 'to see the trick'. Godolphin was a shrewd judge of horseflesh, a frequenter of Newmarket, and would pronounce a good opinion upon a main of cocks,1 so he found no difficulty in deciding this question. He cared nothing for either art or literature, but he could put a thing graphically. Of course the old ruin must go: there was no more doubt about it, he said, than there would be in removing a disfiguring wen from a man's face. Thus the battle of Woodstock Manor was lost, and Vanbrugh began regretfully, and very slowly indeed, to pull down the gracious and historic abode of sovereigns.

2

Atossa had now lost all confidence in her architect. She warned the Duke that she suspected Vanbrugh of sending him false reports as to progress. The Duke replied that he was sending no reports at all, but was he not perhaps too eager to lay the foundations of new portions of the building when it would be better to finish the old? Undoubtedly; but the Duchess had no help, for her creature' Boulter was dead, and had been replaced by one Bobart, with whom Vanbrugh seemed on the best of terms. Why could not others see through the latter as she did? It was most annoying, and when the question of stone again arose, she thoroughly lost her 2 Priv. Corr., 11th July 1709.

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Macaulay, Addison.