Blenheim Palace is the Churchill family estate. Winston Churchill was born here. Built in the English Baroque style, it has been home to the Churchill family for over 300 years. Our guide was very good. She concentrated on the history of the family telling it through the paintings, furniture and tapestries in the rooms. Most notable sights were the furnishings that came from Versailles, the Singer Sargent painting of the 9th Duke and his wife Consuelo Vanderbilt, the C. Duran painting of Consuelo that hung nearby, and the 10 Flemish Victory Tapestries of John Churchill. The gardens were very formal, very green and beautifully set against the River Glynne.
We returned to Oxford and the Ashmolean Museum in mid afternoon. There is a beautiful Uccello painting, The Hunt in the Forest, here. We later went in Blackwells Book Store (another Morse haunt) to pick up an Oxford tour book. We then returned to Summertown and had dinner at The Spice Lounge, a very good Indian restaurant.
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