Blenheim Palace

The Stone

When the masons at Blenheim were at their busiest, an army of men and horses brought the stone from more than twenty quarries. The tracks to some of these quarries turned after rain to mire. In 1710, when the carters demanded an extra penny a foot to fetch large blocks of fine stone from Barrington the Duchess's refusal delayed pr ogress on the main part of the building: the very thing she most wished to avoid. Lichened monoliths of Cornbury stone, poised above a lake in the heart of Wychwood Forest and intended perhaps for the unfinished stables court, still await the Blenheim wag ons. For the steps to the north and south porticoes, Vanbrugh prescribed Plymouth Moor stone, and since this was long in coming, the Duchess found herself, as late as 1716, without any worthy means of entry. By that time she was fully prepared to attribut e such shortcomings to malice. For a number of reasons, however, she found it impossible to live in the palace before 1719, and when she did, she complained that the stone aggravated her gout!

Aswell as the grand exterior stone work, there is much or nate work by Gibbons inside the Palace, and by other masons in the Monuments and exterior buildings.