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 1s. 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 facade, 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 
144 
