BLENHEIM PALACE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19944, 31 October 1934, Page 10

BLENHEIM PALACE

The laughter of children is to be heard again at Blenheim Palace, the historic home of the Marlboroughs, says the “Sunday Express.” Children have not lived there fbr nearly thirty years. Now, the new Duke and Duchess of Marlborough are to live there, and parts of the palace are being transformed to become the home of their four children. The children are the seven-year-old Earl of Sunderland and his sisters Lady Rosemary, aged four; Lady Caroline, aged 10; and Lady Sarah Spen-cer-Churchill, aged 12. Blenheim, the nearest village to which is Woodstock, Oxfordshire, stands in nearly SOOO acres of beautiful parkland, of which the principal feature is the large ial;e. Family retainers who have served at the palace upwards of forty years were rejoicing at the changed atmosphere that was stealing over Blenheim. One of these said to a “Sunday Express” representative: “It is thirty years or more since we heard the laughter of children and the patter of their feet in this house. Some of us wept for joy when we heard that the Duke and Duchess proposed settling down here. The palace has been a jlooiny place this last few years, but how dil£>:ent it will be with the children. ?t will be a great day when they arrive.” Another visitor whose arrival at Blenheim was being eagerly looked forward to is the Duke’s mother, Mine. Balsan. She was the late Duke’s first wife. Their marriage was dissolved in 1921. The return of the Mariborcugbs a.*so means the return of prosperity to Woodstock, whose tradespeople are already receiving large orders.