Marlborough house and its occupants, present and past . s largestapartments was originally the vestibule ; and oldMontague House possessed a noble marble-flooredand pillared hall. Thus, for the great Duchess, Sir ChristopherWren had to provide a waiting-room of ampleproportions, for the accommodation of the crowd ofpoliticians, broken-down officers, authors, actors,and suppliants for favours and advancement, whowere certain to assemble there. Attire temps, autre mozurs. Therefore, whenMarlborough House was enlarged and altered forits occupancy by the Prince and Princess of Wales,and a porte-co
Marlborough house and its occupants, present and past . s largestapartments was originally the vestibule ; and oldMontague House possessed a noble marble-flooredand pillared hall. Thus, for the great Duchess, Sir ChristopherWren had to provide a waiting-room of ampleproportions, for the accommodation of the crowd ofpoliticians, broken-down officers, authors, actors,and suppliants for favours and advancement, whowere certain to assemble there. Attire temps, autre mozurs. Therefore, whenMarlborough House was enlarged and altered forits occupancy by the Prince and Princess of Wales,and a porte-cochere and entrance hall added to theoriginal front, the old vestibule was converted intoa saloon, a truly noble salle - de - reception thirtyfeet long by thirty wide, not very large, but ad-mirably proportioned. At one end, a narrowgallery connects the Royal private apartmentswith the visitors rooms on the first floor. Thereare no windows, but good light is obtainedthrough a domed skylight. The top of thelight is covered with lead, painted inside with. ft, 8 ^ £ -5 £ Marlborough House. 49 allegorical representations of the Arts andSciences. I am inclined to think that this is one of thehandsomest rooms in London. Indeed, it wouldbe hard to find another anywhere, whose generalarrangements are more harmonious ; and such an in-describable atmosphere of by-gone times pervades itthat were one to draw to the heavy portieres,and, alone in the fading daylight, let imaginationexercise its full power, one could almost see theDuchess herself returning from an interview withQueen Anne ; or—aged before his time, the grimspectre of paralysis hovering over him — theillustrious John Churchill, greatest of EnglishGenerals, who had raised his country to a height ofglory never obtained since the days of Poictiersand Agincourt, but who in his declining years wasso beset with detraction and envy, that neither herenor at Blenheim could he find the rest so noblyearned and so earnestly desired.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectedwardv, bookyear1896
