BLENHEIM PALACE 



223- 



FIG. 153. The Mausoleum at Castle Howard, as seen from 

 the Platform on which it stands. 



thickness of the masonry are contrived many recesses for the 

 reception of coffins. But few hare been utilised, and, as the 

 visitor discovers by the light of his taper cavern after cavern 

 still unoccupied and unlikely ever to be filled, as he stands in 

 the chilly spaces of the chapel with its dome soaring far over- 

 head, as he gazes from an angle of the platform across the fields 

 and the grass-grown bridge on to the distant house (Fig. 149), 

 he realises how vastly things have changed, how entirely this 

 fine conception has lost its point, how empty is the pomp of 

 architecture when the habits to which it ministered have ceased. 

 Castle Howard was a private undertaking. Immense 

 though it was its total length was to have been 660 ft. had 

 both its courts been built it was exceeded in size by the palace 

 of Blenheim, which was a national monument to the glory^ 

 of the British arms, although actually a gift to the Duke of 

 Marl borough. Here Vanbrugh must have been in his element. 

 There was presumably to be no unreasonable limit to the cost ;. 

 the result was to be monumental. Convenience of arrange- 

 ment, internal effect, the amenities of daily life were minor 

 considerations. The nation wanted a monument ; it should 



