GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



Horace Walpole, '* what the alteration might possibly cost " 

 " only three crowns," was the significant, pertinent, and witty 

 answer ; the Queen took the hint, and nothing more came of 

 the suggestion. 



According to Mr. Arthur Beavan, the cost of laying out the 

 ground for the Duchess of Marlborough's garden was about 500, 

 the labourers being paid Is. 8d. per day. Many magnificent trees, 

 were felled in the process. 



The mansion, a one-storied one, was completed and occupied 

 by the Duke and Duchess by midsummer, 1711. 



Defoe, in his " Journey through England in 1722," remarks, 

 that " the palace of the Duke of Marlborough is in every way 

 answerable to the grandeur of its master. ... It is situated at 

 the west end of the King's garden on the Park side, and fronts the 

 park, but with no other prospect but that view." 



And if there is but little to be seen from the house, neither is, 

 it possible to get a 'view of it, except from the Mall. In former 

 times it was concealed on two sides by chestnut trees ; it is now 

 closely built up on the north and east by houses, and in its situation 

 is still as sequestered as though it were miles in the country. Marl- 

 borough House lacks an entrance befitting the rank and dignity 

 of those who dwell there, befitting also its own native stateliness 

 and beauty. On the side of Pall Mall it may be said to have no 

 frontage, and the handsome courtyard entered from a side road 

 of which the gates are in Pall Mall, and the dignified proportions 

 of the red brick faade, are lost. This cannot have been Sir 

 Christopher Wren's intention when he designed this noble residence 

 for one who was perhaps the greatest military genius this country 

 has produced ; and this gives colour to the story that " Queen 

 Sarah " had intended to possess herself of certain obstructive 

 houses in Pall Mall on purpose to demolish them and secure a 

 proper approach, but, that before she could do so, Sir Robert 

 Walpole stepped in and effected their purchase in order to frustrate 

 her schemes. Beautiful, grasping, and haughty, and possessed 

 of by no means inconsiderable political talents, her importance 

 enhanced by her husband's military glory, and moreover for ten 

 years the virtual ruler of Queen Anne, she had naturally many 

 enemies, and her political friends were probably the persons most 

 jealous of her enormous influence. When the Tories came into 



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