I haven’t seen a lot of country homes in England, so I really enjoyed visiting Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. It was built between 1705 and 1722 and is the birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill.
According to Wiki, at the end of the 19th century, the palace was saved from ruin by funds gained from the 9th Duke of Marlborough’s marriage to American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt. Sounds a bit like Downton Abbey, hmmm?
The design of Blenheim was done by Sir John Vanbrugh, an untrained (!) architect who had worked with Nicholas Hawksmoor on Castle Howard, a place I’ve been dying to see since viewing Brideshead Revisited. Have any of you seen the version with Jeremy Irons? It was filmed at Castle Howard and is such a brilliant production. Very faithful to Evelyn Waugh’s novel. Would be fun to see that and Highclere Castle, where Downton is filmed.
Great weekend, everyone!
{carole}
Pearls & Prose 
Majestic.
Brideshead Revisited is one of my favourite novels but I haven’t seen the movie. I often don’t watch movies based on favourite books. I’d like to keep the pictures in my mind intact. But I’m tempted now. š
It’s one of my favorites too, Caroline. I can’t recommend the shorter movie version, as I haven’t seen it, but the 11-part miniseries is wonderful. It’s available on Netflix and probably Youtube. I think you can tell from the first episode whether you’re going to like it or not. Jeremy Irons and the rest of the cast are very good.
I hadn’t realized it was a mini series. Hmmm. Tempting, tempting.
š I don’t think a movie could do the book justice. Too much there.
This is quite a “country home!”
I’ve not read Brideshead Revisited, though I think I would enjoy it. I’ve read only one other Waugh novel: Decline and Fall. That was a terrific read.
Yes, it is. š
The only other Waugh I’ve read was A Handful of Dust. It’s considered by many to be his finest, but I just didn’t like it.