Three Women and a Palace

This is the front gate of Blenheim Palace, Britain's only non Royal Palace. 

It  sits in its own massive grounds, so we had to start somewhere....

We take our MIE research very seriously!

This is the front door.

The corners of the internal quadrangle..

This was a few days after Donald Trump had visited the Queen here. The visit was downgraded so they could not meet in a state owned property. He evoked outrage by walking in front of the Queen ( if you are a monarchist)  or by walking in front of a 92 year old woman who happened to be the Queen (if you are not). There was a wonderful piece of footage of her slightly flapping her hand at her side, signalling to him to walk back here like he was a slightly demented corgi.

Well he is the same colour.

"All I wanted was compliance with my wishes after reasonable discussion"

A famous quote by Winston Churchill, the most famous son of Blenheim.

Hope Trump read that.

A map of the victory at Blindheim, the village  in Barvaria where John Churchill led his troops into battle on the 13th of August 1704. He  is considered one of the greatest generals of the British/English Army.

The Marlborough Cart.  (The family are known as the Duke/ Duchess etc of Marlborough)

 These narrow  carts with their high wheelbase allowed Churchill's troops to use very small tracks, often making it look like the entire army had vanished into the forest.

The dispatch announcing victory was written by Churchill on the back of a tavern bill on the battlefield at Blindheim and sent off by horseback to Queen Mary.

                                                      The two famous Churchills.

Queen Mary was so chuffed she 'gave' the land and £250 000 (in 1704!) as a 'gift'. Which was an issue as it was not quite enough. Maybe more of a golden handcuff. Like winning a Ferrari but not being able to afford the petrol.
Queen Mary found herself on the wrong end of the temper of her previous best friend Ann Churchill.

They had a habit of painting  heavenly images on the ceiling, beautifully  detailed, and getting their own features painted onto the main characters.

This is expensive, as we walked round we could see the paintings getting plainer.

You can guess the favourite daughter here...in red!

The women herself

A picture of the two woman, one 'looking at the camera', the other 'playing with her mobile'. They are NOT talking.

A courting chair- see the wee barrier for the chaperone to sit and prevent pattifingers

This is the first ever picture of the Blenheim spaniel,  it's just like a normal spaniel but has a speckly pattern on its head.  This was due to either the Duchess or the dog being pregnant while the latter was sitting in the lap of the former. I couldn't hear which way round it was due to screaming small people.

This pic shows who was boss in the relationship.. .. ie not him.

And here's a close up of the speckly headed spaniel.

By now, the Duke of Marlborough was running out of money- architects, gardeners, artists were sacked for being too expensive. 

There was stalemate until the next generation came along..and the next..and the next...

 To save the house, this Churchill  ( the 9th Duke of Marlborough) did an unthinkable thing. He married an AMERICAN.

( Dramatic pause)

This was Consuelo Vanderbilt of course.  She was in love with somebody else but he didn't have a title. He was in love with somebody else but she had no money. Consuelo was 5 feet 11, she could wear 11 strands of pearls round her neck without them overlapping.

Her mother was very keen on the marriage. She wasn't.

This tapestry shows the Marlborough handcart in use.

The paintings above the main hall are plain but give the illusion of a pillared open space, with men of every nationality looking down; every nationality looking down on the high heid yins ( those in charge). Trump had his reception in this atrium. I wonder if the paintings were pointed out to him.

Maybe even explained to him.

A wedding gift of the message being written on the tavern tab in silver.

Consuelo's mum gave her daughter this as a wedding present.

A gold plated cot.

No pressure there then.

The dispatch on display..

The land etc is rented by the crown to the Marlborough estate. The rent is this piece of cloth that has to appear at Buckingham Palace on a specific day each year. In June I think. Then it goes back to Blenheim to  dangle from the mantelpiece and catch dust.

Consuelo

Before she died Ann Churchill commissioned this larger than life size statue of Queen Mary which stands overlooking the long gallery.  So they made up at the end.

You can see that the ceilings in the long gallery remain  unpainted, no money left.

The statue stands in a truly beautiful room, with books everywhere. ( just like Murder Is Everywhere)

I was going to say Queen Mary stands at one end looking at the organ. 

It is the biggest organ in a private house in Europe. 

Trump was there  before us, a triathalon happened the weekend after us. It was our job to eat the cake.

Caro Ramsay 03 08 2018

The Queen Mary

As the advert says ,'I should have gone to Iceland'.

But instead I went to San Diego to look at the zoo.

And it took us 50 hours to get home.

The super duper Dreamliner aircraft with its high spec non jet lag cabin pressure, its electric windows ( darkening not opening) and state of the art in flight entertainment system is a fab plane. So new, it sat on the runway in its wrapper.

It is the most fuel efficient plane ever manufactured.

Because it doesn't actually fly.

It sits on the ground and looks pretty.

The plane we eventually got in (three airports later) had a special  turbulence seeking feature.

The luggage is making its way to Scotland by independent means.

Like I said, should have gone to Iceland.

So here is a blog from a free wheeling jet lagged mind, 

I'm from the part of Glasgow right on the Clyde (well all of Glasgow is on the the Clyde but you get my drift)

My Grandad , as a very young man, riveted bits of the Queen Mary together. My mum, years later worked for the computer that made her valves, all the aunts and uncles worked in shipbuilding somewhere. My dad designed some of the cranes that Browns, Kvaerner, Clyde Ship Builders ordered. Most of them are still in operation.

In China.

So this was  my favourite picture of the QM. Still on the Clydeside. If that ship could think, she's ruminating on her retirement, wishing for the good weather of Long Beach! 

See the wee guy in the foreground, umbrella, running to get out the rain.

Fred Astaire was a famous passenger.

Liberace was another

Yip, I had a shot in a Captain Kirk kind of way.

                                                             Full steam ahead Scotty,

Oh No captain, the engines canny take it

Then for some reason there was a picture of David Niven doing a Highland fling.

During the war, she was painted grey, and became known as the 'Grey Ghost'. The exhibition at her current Loch Beach site naturally emphasises the heroism and the gallantry of  sailings where  16500 men crammed onto a boat built to hold 2000 passengers and 1000 crew. I've been told since that there were many fatalities from overcrowding, some from of crush injury  due to so many being in such a confined space.  That might be anecdotal, the actual reports still seem to be classified.. 

This report of a soldier on board talks about being more afraid of the Scottish weather than the enemy submarines.  The QM was rigged with a degaussing coil to prevent magnetic mines. She zigged zagged her way to make her difficult to track and her sheer speed made her difficult to pursue.

One night, off the coast of Scotland, she was hit by a rogue wave

That was December 1942, She had 16,082 American soldiers on board. which still stands as a record for most passengers transported on one vessel.

She had sailed 700 miles of the New York to GB trip when the wave hit.. It was 28 metres high, and went onto her broad side. The ship rolled 52 degrees. Three more and she would have been over.

A writer chappie called Paul Gallico  read about it many years later and wrote a book inspired by it.

The Poseidon Adventure

This does bring tears to the eye. After all that horror of war, the QM sailing into New York in the darkness. Grey painted, you can imagine her almost invisible in the night air - then they see the Statue of Liberty  lights flashing 'Welcome home' in Morse code.

But this was my favourite story. A young boy, a third class passenger, got into a bit of trouble in the swimming pool and was rescued by - Johnny Weissmuller!

Second class cabin

First class

Third class

Enjoying the sun in her retirement.

When these boats were launched the bow wave caused havoc down the Clyde into Renfrew and beyond. It  flooded everywhere. Kids ( of all ages - my grandparents included ) used to climb on high things on the day. They  leaned out of windows of upstairs neighbours in the tenements and enjoyed every minute of the chaos. Much of the old cine film of these launches is on U tube and worth viewing.

I've read that 18 drag chains acted as the breaks in the QM  and they had to widen the river to give her more of a diagonal to cross on at her launch - otherwise they feared she would ram the riverside further down.

All ship shape captain.

The radio room with radio sets from different eras.

Beautiful!

All that wood was covered in leather to protect it while she was 'grey'

Many more crew died than passengers on board. Their cause of death is well documented and listed.

The ghosts that are aboard now don't correlate with any incidents as they are listed.

I found this plaque naming the engineering works where my mum worked the comptometer machine. Weird!

Clark Cable.

First class dining.

Some facts -  'born'  3 April 1929,  Build: John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland

Her hull number was 534. Launched  26 September 1934. Maiden voyage: 27 May 1936

She captured the Blue Riband in August 1936, lost it in 1937, recaptured it in 1938 and retained it until 1952 when the SS United States came along. She was chugging along at about 35 miles per hour.

It's a sign of the times that she was the first ocean liner with a Jewish Prayer room,  It was a policy to show there was no religious issue - any body of any faith could travel.

Of course, in any conflict, people have to make difficult decisions. On 2 October 1942, the QM  sliced through one of her escort ships, HMS Curacoa off the Irish coast. 239 lives were lost. But the QM was carrying thousands of Americans of the 29th Infantry Division to join the Allied forces in Europe and was under strict orders not to stop for any reason as the risk of U-boat attack was too high, The QM had been damaged in the collision but managed to sail on.

At the time it was claimed  she sailed on, regardless but later it was claimed that the Cpt sent one escort boat back to pick up survivors from the stricken Curacoa. Even later, a published memoir reports more than one escort boat went back, saving over 90 of the Curacoa crew.

.

 Queen Mary was retired after her 1,000th crossing of the North Atlantic.

Her last captain had a geat name; Captain John Treasure Jones. I wonder if he was known as Davie Jones.

My favourite fact, the Whistle on the QM can be heard ten miles away!

Caro Ramsay  27 8 11 2014