564 



BLENHEIM BLESSING. 



battalions of infantry ; but they expected so little to 

 be attacked, that when tin- line of the allies bewail t> 

 move, August 13, at two o'clock in Uie morning, they 

 supposed them to be marching off. Tin- 'ivate-.t 

 part of their cavalry was sent to forage. Even at 

 seven o'clock, when the heads of the eight columns, 

 with which Eugene and Marlborough advanced to- 

 wards the Nel>elbarh, were to be seen, Tallard 

 thought the whole a stratagem intended to cover the 

 retreat; but he soon saw his error. The dispersed 

 troops were recalled in the greatest hurry, and the 

 cannon were drawn up in line. The French and 

 Bavarians made every exertion to prevent the passage 

 of the enemy over the Nebelbach, and the capture of 

 the two villages, the conquest of which was consider- 

 ed, by Mariborough and Eugene, as decisive. Their 

 line of attack was uncommonly long, about four and 

 a half miles. Marlhorough, in order to secure his 

 right wing, attacked 1 '.. . but without success : he then 

 changed his plan, and threw himself, with his prin- 

 cipal forces, into the wide interval between the right 

 wing and the centre of the enemy, leaving only as 

 many troops before B. as were necessary to check 

 the body which occupied tin's position. At five o'clock 

 in the afternoon, he succeeded, after great efforts, in 

 passing the Nebelbach, by which his victory was de- 

 cided. The French in the centre were obliged to 

 retreat : their example was followed by the Bavarians 

 on the left wing, who, for a long time, had resisted 

 the impetuous attacks of prince Eugene. Marlborough, 

 instead of pursuing the retreating enemy, placed him- 

 self between the line of retreat and the position of B., 

 guarded by 18,000 men, who were thus cut off from 

 assistance, and forced to surrender. The cavalry was 

 routed by the fire of the English cannon and musket- 

 ry ; and a large part of the defeated army remained 

 dead on the field of battle (which was covered with 

 more than 11,000 corpses), or were made prisoners. 

 Tallard himself was among the prisoners; his son 

 was killed. The consequences of the battle were 

 decisive. Bavaria, as Marlborough had anticipated, 

 fell into the power of Austria. Fortune deserted 

 Louis XIV., as it did Napoleon after the battle of 

 Leipsic, and, though he was able to continue the war 

 for almost ten years longer, it was owing to the dis- 

 sensions among the allies themselves, who contended 

 about the best use of the victory till the opportunity 

 to use it was lost. See Marlborough. 



BLENHEIM, the name of the demesne bestowed by 

 national gratitude on the duke of Marlborough, is 

 situated in the parish of Woodstock and county of 

 Oxford. The honour of Woodstock, which had for 

 many centuries belonged to the crown, having been 

 conferred by queen Anne on that great commander 

 for his eminent services, parliament granted the sum 

 of half a million sterling to erect a suitable family 

 seat The building was intrusted to Sir John Van- 

 brugh, and called Blenheim, from the village where 

 the duke gained his great victory. The grand ser- 

 geantry by which the manor is held, consists in the 

 presentation at Windsor castle on each anniversary of 

 that event, by the duke of Marlborough and his de- 

 scendants, of a flag embroidered with fleurs-de-lis. 

 In this park once stood the royal palace of Woodstock, 

 where Alfred is said to have resided, and which was 

 the favourite residence of Henry II., who erected a 

 house in the park for his favourite mistress, Rosamond 

 Clifford, whence the well known legend of Woodstock- 

 bower, queen Eleanor, and the fair Rosamond. Here 

 the same monarch received the homage of Malcolm, 

 king of Scotland, and Rhys, prince of Wales. Ed- 

 ward III. was also much attached to this palace, in 

 which his eldest son, the illustrious Black Prince, was 

 born, as well as his youngest son, Thomas, duke of ' 

 Gloucester, usually called Thomas of Woodstock, [ 



from that event. Richard II. likewise kept his court 

 here, at which time the poet Chaucer resided at 

 Woodstock, in a house which stood near the present 

 entrance to the park. When alarmed by the conspi- 

 racy of Sir Thomas Wyat, queen Mary placed her 

 sister the princess, afterwards queen Elizabeth, in the 

 palace at Woodstock, under the superintendence of 

 Sir Henry Bedenfield. During the civil wars of the 

 seventeenth century, it was for some time defended 

 for the king ; but it ultimately surrendered, and was 

 much injured and dilapidated by the parliamentarians. 

 The gate- house remained, and was tenanted so late 

 as the reign of William III., and existed until the 

 commencement of the last century, when the whole 

 was removed. 



The usual approach from Blenheim to Woodstock 

 is through a triumphal arch or portal, from which the 

 advance to the mansion is very fine. In front of the. 

 building stands a sculptured column 130 feet high, 

 surmounted by a statue of the duke, whose victories 

 and achievements are recorded on tablets round tin- 

 base. The front of the house measures 3-18 feet from 

 wing to wing, and although architectural critics find 

 many faults in detail, the general effect is in the 

 highest degree noble and commanding. The interior 

 is also extremely magnificent; the hall, which is 

 supported by Corinthian pillars, is sixty-seven feet 

 high ; and the ceiling is painted by Sir James Thorn- 

 hill, the design representing Victory crowning the 

 duke. The gallery and bow-window room abound 

 in portraits by the most eminent masters, both foreign 

 and English. On the tapestry of the latter are figured 

 the various battles gained by the same great general, 

 and more especially that of Blenheim. The saloon 

 is a noble and spacious apartment, which communi- 

 cates with the hall, and occupies the entire breadth 

 of the centre. The lower part is lined with marble, 

 and six of its compartments are decorated with pic- 

 tures by La Guerre, representing the inhabitants of 

 the different nations of the world in appropriate cos- 

 tume. On the ceiling is a representation by the same 

 artist, of the victorious duke arrested in his career by 

 Peace and Time. The remaining principal subjects 

 of admiration are the library, the theatre, the state 

 drawing-room, the blue and green drawing-room, the 

 grand cabinet, the dining-room, and the dressing- 

 room, a description of the contents of which, includ- 

 ing pictures, statues, grand articles of vertu, <ind 

 splendid furniture, would occupy a volume. In the 

 chapel, which forms one of the wings, is a fine marble 

 monument by Rysbrack, to the great duke and his 

 almost equally celebrated duchess, Sarah. The gar- 

 dens and grounds, which are exceedingly spacious, 

 were laid out by Brown, who contrived to make a 

 most admirable use of the small river Glyme in the 

 formation of a lake, or piece of water, which is justly 

 deemed one of the greatest beauties of the place. It 

 is crossed by several arches, and at the middle or 

 Efrand approach is a magnificent bridge, the space of 

 the centre arch of which is 101 feet. 



BLESSING, or BENEDICTION. The expression of wish- 

 ing one well soon gave rise, in early ages, to a so- 

 lemn act, accompanied, like other solemnities of those 

 periods, by symbolic signs ; this was the blessing or 

 ^Benediction. In the patriarchal times, when the au- 

 thority of the head of a family included that of the 

 Driest and the civil ruler, the blessing of course 

 ippertained chiefly to him, on account of his vene- 

 rable character, and, when the priests began to form 

 a separate class, became, in certain cases, a preroga- 

 tive of theirs. As the authority of the father, in the 

 nlancy of every nation, is extremely great, the idea 

 soon sprung up, that his prayers, invoking the favour 

 of the Deity, were more effectual than those f others, 

 and that whatever he blessed would be likely to re- 



