MARLBOROUGH HOUSE 



power, she became practically head of the opposition, yet there 

 seerns to have been no love lost between her and Sir Robert Walpole, 

 notwithstanding that like herself, he was a Whig. 



In a letter to the Duchess dated October, 1710, relating to 

 the construction of the house, Sir Christopher Wren says" the 

 rooms will take about 12,000 tiles, and the chimneys about 2,200 ; " 

 and in one of her own letters preserved at Blenheim, Her Grace 

 says that Marlborough House had cost herself and the Duke close 

 on 50,000. In plan it is almost a square : it contains 106 rooms, 

 inclusive of the domestic offices, and a noble saloon occupies the 

 centre. The conservatory now covering the steps leading to the 

 garden did not exist in 1710. 



Sarah survived the Duke twenty- two years, dying in 1744. 

 Although sixty-two at the time of his death, she had many offers 

 of marriage, for besides being a woman of wit, with the remains 

 of great beauty, she was immensely rich ; but she refused them 

 all, saying " that the widow of Marlborough shall never become 

 the wife of another man." Her devotion to and pride in her 

 husband were indeed the best traits in her character. 



After the death of the Duchess certain alterations were made in 

 the house. Charles, the third Duke, removed the balustrade with 

 which Wren had crowned the first story and added a second 

 story, insignificant in design ; and George, the fourth Duke, 

 built a large riding-school where now stand the royal stables. 

 After this the structure remained practically unaltered until Albert 

 Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards King, Edward VII., took 

 possession on his marriage in 1863. A print of " Prior Court " 

 as Marlborough House was formerly called taken in 1710, shows 

 that except in altitude, the garden front of the house has been 

 but little altered. The building in its original form had perhaps 

 more of symmetry and lightness and from its low elevation 

 might almost have been designed for a country, rather than a town 

 residence ; but though it may have lost something in elegance, it 

 has gained in dignity. As it stands as may be seen in the frontis- 

 piece to this book it is a stately, red-brick edifice, its proportions 

 massive yet not inharmonious, its colour enriched and softened by 

 time ; a fitting residence either for the eldest son of the sovereign, 

 or for a beloved, and venerated, and admired Queen-Mother. 



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