Seo = 

75 
At the station a messenger from the Blenheim Estate Office 
handed the Secretary an order for the party to view the Palace 
and gardens at a moiety of the ordinary charge, which is a 
shilling a head for the interior and another for the gardens, the 
proceeds being granted annually by the Duke of Marlborough to 
the Radcliffe Hospital at Oxford. As a preliminary to viewing 
the Palace, which is open to the public by order on Tuesdays and 
Fridays up to the hour of 3.30 p.m., the chief hostel of the town 
of Woodstock, the Bear, was sought, and the previously ordered 
luncheon duly appreciated, after which a start was made for the 
triumphal arch, which gives access to the park from the town. 
This structure was built in the Corinthian order by the Duchess 
Sarah, to the memory of the great General John Churchill, Duke 
of Marlborough, a.D. 1723, the year following his death, and bears 
a Latin inscription on the town side, an English paraphrase 
thereof on the park side. The progress of the party was here 
barred by a gorgeously liveried porter, who directed them to the 
second lodge, a short quarter of a mile’s walk through the park 
on the east side of the lake, which is an artificially expanded 
reservoir of the river Glyme, one of the small influents into the 
Evenlode, which disembogues into the Thames at Cassington. An 
equally gorgeous porter at the second lodge divested the party of 
all sticks and umbrellas, and in exchange for a sovereign and the 
written order for viewing the Palace, presented the 2¢ Members 
with tickets, which on arrival at the grand entrance in the 
centre of the North Front, were taken by a black-clad menial, 
who ushered the party into the grand hall, first directing their 
attention to the lock of the entrance doors, which is a copy by 
Messrs. Smith, of Birmingham, of the lock on the outer gates of 
the city of Warsaw. There are few who have not read in guide 
books the contents and treasures of the interior of this Palace. 
Through the 14 apartments shown to the public the Members. 
were far too rapidly conducted by the guide, and finally passed 
out of the last, which is the Chapel, into the open air on the 
