2-617-815 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Aerial view of Blenheim Palace, 1939. One of Britain's greatest stately homes, Blenheim was intended to be a gift from a grateful nation to John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, after his victories over the French during the War of the Spanish Succession. The palace was designed in English Baroque style by Sir John Vanbrugh. The original gardens by Henry Wise, Queen Anne's gardener, were designed in the formal style of the Palace of Versailles, but from 1764 they were extensively modified in a more pastoral, naturalistic style by Capability Brown. From the Senior Service 'Britain from the Air' cigarette card series, 1939.