My friend Marystephanie and I had set ourselves another daunting schedule for our second full day in the United Kingdom. She arranged for us to be driven to both Blenheim Palace and Highclere Castle – a trip that would involve 4 hours of driving on the wrong side of the road. I was glad we had both a driver and a guide!

We set off for Blenheim Palace, about a 90-minute drive to the northwest of London. Our guide Mark kept up a steady stream of chatter, telling us about Blenheim’s royal beginnings and its fame as the birthplace of Winston Churchill. As the story goes, Winston’s mother was American heiress Jenny Jerome who married Lord Randolph Churchill on April 15, 1874, and gave birth to Winston on November 30, 1874, at Blenheim Palace, a scant seven and a half months after her wedding (which was not attended by her future in-laws!). Quel scandale! In any event, for those of you who may be confused by this maternal math problem, let me share some words of wisdom from my grandmother, to wit: “The first baby can come any time; the rest all take nine months.”

Sadly, we were not to see any of the fabulous interiors of Blenheim nor even the room where Winston made his debut. As we drew closer, we noticed that there were multiple ambulances and police cars as well as helicopters coming and going from the Palace. A medical emergency had closed the Palace (which is still also a private home). We hoped for the best for all concerned and instead took a stroll around the 12,000-acre estate. 

Thousands of daffodils were nodding their heads in the brisk March wind as we took a turn around the grounds and stopped by the Temple of Diana, a small folly where on August 11, 1908, Winston successfully proposed marriage to Clementine Hozier (she was the third woman he had proposed to, and the third time was evidently the charm!) This moment is marked by a plaque.

Further on is a life-size sculpture of Winston at his easel, painting Blenheim Palace. Blenheim Palace, interestingly, was the home of American Consuelo Vanderbilt after her marriage to Charles, the 9th Duke of Marlborough. Theirs was an unhappy union, forced on her by her domineering mother Alva and forced on Charles by his inability to keep Blenheim Palace solvent. If you have toured The Breakers in Newport, RI, you can hear the whole sad story and stand in the room where the engagement took place. In any event, Consuelo married Winston’s cousin and she and Winston became dear friends. She divorced Charles and was happily married to French aviator Jacques Balsan for many years.

We were able to enter the vast gift shop at Blenheim, which was a bit of a consolation. Since we had a fixed entry time for Highclere Castle, we couldn’t linger at Blenheim, but we stopped nearby at St. Martin’s Church. In the graveyard of this modest church are the graves of Winston and Clementine Churchill, Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill Balsan, and her son Ivor. A beautiful stained-glass window inside the church is dedicated to Sir Winston Churchill.

Our guide told us that when shepherds were buried here, a hank of wool was placed in their hands to help St. Peter understand that they had missed Sunday services to care for their flocks.