THE

AMERICAN SPIRITIN THE

ENGLISH GARDEN

Jean Stone

PART THREE

THE DOLLARPRINCESSES

The close of the 19th century saw a trend forAnglo-American marriages. Having made theirfortunes in the New World, the millionaires andbillionaires of America – and especially theirwives – looked for a way to become part of theexclusive social elite. The popular way to achievethis was to marry their daughters into theBritish aristocracy.

The American heiress would bring with her asubstantial dowry, so often desperately neededto underpin a disintegrating aristocratic estate.

In 1886, a New York newspaper reported thatonly two Dukes remained available for matrimony,and these were quickly snapped up: ConsueloYznaga became the Duchess of Manchester andMay Goelet married the Duke of Roxburghe. By1914, 60 peers and 40 sons of peers had marriedso-called ‘Dollar Princesses’; most unionsmotivated by financial need.

It is not surprising that many American ladies,wishing to become part of the English socialscene, threw their energies into the gardens oftheir English country estates, which played suchan important part in confirming the status ofthe English aristocratic family.

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It was often American mothers who were keenest to launch their daughters into the world of

the European aristocracy, and Mrs Alva Vanderbilt, wife of the railroad tycoon William Kissam

Vanderbilt, was no exception. She was determined to get a title for her daughter Consuelo; if

Consuelo’s godmother, Consuelo Yzanaga, had become the Duchess of Manchester, there was no

reason why Consuelo Vanderbilt could not also become a Duchess. Mrs Vanderbilt went to great

lengths to achieve her aim. To keep her daughter from her childhood sweetheart and true love,

Winthrop Rutherford, she locked Consuelo in the family’s cottage at Newport and bullied her

into a marriage with ‘Sunny’, the very elligible, but cash-strapped 9th Duke of Marlborough

(1871-1934).

* * * * * * * * * * *

Blenheim Palace, The Duke of Marlborough’s country seat, had been gifted by Queen Anne in

1705 to the 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) following his victory at the Battle of Blenheim.

This magnificent building was designed by the architect Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726) with his

assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736) and, together, they successfully achieved a palace

equal to the grandeur of Versaille. When developing the landscape, Vanbrugh worked with Henry

Wise, master gardener to the Queen. Every detail within the proximity of the grand palace was

arranged and planted in the symmetrical French formal style, the height of fashion when the 1st

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Previous pages: The Water Terraces.

Far left: The Duke of Marlborough and hissecond wife Miss Gladys Deacon on theirwedding day in Paris.MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY

Left: Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough, Sunny’sfirst wife. La Duchesse de Marlborough assise byPaul Cesar Helleu. PRIVATE COLLECTION; PHOTOGRAPH BY COURTESY OF

RICHARD GREEN GALLERY, LONDON.

CONSUELO VANDERBILT and

GLADYS DEACON at BLENHEIM PALACE

Duke of Marlborough moved into Blenheim in 1719.

A little later, when it was foreseen that the Duke was

approaching the end of his life, Wise took the

decision to transplant fully-grown trees in baskets,

and so achieve an instant feeling of maturity that

would be appreciated by Marlborough. When he died

in 1722 it was left to his widow, Sarah, to direct the

work on the estate, which she did with great success.

By the mid-18th century, horticultural fashion was

changing. Landscape designer Lancelot ‘Capability’

Brown (1716-83) was employed to make alterations

at Blenheim and create a landscape that would appear

completely natural. He swept away the formal

geometric planting, and between 1764 and 1774

planted the undulating 2,500-acre parkland with

ornamental clumps and fringes of trees including many

hundreds of beech trees. The sweeping vista was

dramatically transformed and King George III believed

the natural landscaping of the parkland of Blenheim to

be unequalled. It was also much admired by Thomas

Jefferson when he visited with John Adams in 1786.

Entering the park through Hawksmoor’s Triumphal

Arch from the carriage drive, the visitor comes upon

the spectacular features that Brown integrated to

compose a magnificent picture. The River Glymme

was dammed to form a lake spanned by Vanbrugh’s

bridge, and Brown contrived several captivating vistas.

The rockwork cascade at the end of the western lake

has recently been restored, and many of his

plantations have reached a magnificent maturity. The

scene is awe-inspiring and a permanent reminder of

the triumph of the first Duke of Marlborough and his

great victory at the Battle of Blenheim.

When the Marquis of Blandford (1756-1840)

became the 5th Duke of Marlborough he had not lost

the passion for plants that he had enjoyed with such

financial abandon at Whiteknights (see earlier chapter)

and he continued to indulge in vast expenditure. In his

first year at Blenheim he immediately set to work on

his new garden and when the gardens of Whiteknights

were stripped of their treasures, many of them found

their way to Blenheim rather than to the auction

house. In particular, precious plants from the

greenhouses at Whiteknights were transferred to

Blenheim’s Arcade rooms, greenhouse, and vineries.

The former Duchess’s Flower Garden was planted

with choice American hardy species, which were

among the Duke’s favourite plants, and the lawn to the

east of the Palace once again became a flower garden

with 20 oval beds, the planting of which he personally

supervised. Since his time at Whiteknights, the Duke

had been a disciple of Humphry Repton (1752-1818),

and kept the flower gardens separate from the park.

During the following years, huge numbers of American

trees and shrubs were also moved from Whiteknights

to Blenheim. There was further great expenditure

when random alterations were made to the grounds

and every ornamental bed displayed the rarest and

most costly specimens, admired for both their beauty

and botanic interest. Indeed, a watchman was housed

in a Swiss Cottage, from where he could keep an eye

on the valuable planted areas.1

The private garden that had been laid out by the

4th Duke was extended, and a new circuit walk and

an elaborate rock garden were created. American

plants were introduced and from the walk that led

down to the lakeside, the view across the water was

towards a terrace planted entirely with American

varieties of magnolias, peonies, azaleas,

rhododendrons, wisterias and a long line of tulip

trees. The import of 9,000 loads of bog earth to

provide suitable soil for the plants2 guaranteed

success. Unfortunately, the 5th Duke’s continued

extravagance eventually depleted his funds and as a

result, the Palace and grounds suffered a period of

intense neglect and decay. However, though noting

some deterioration since his earlier visit, the

horticultural writer John Claudius Loudon wrote in

his major work Fruticetum Britannicum (1838),

‘Among the planters of arboretums in Great Britain

during the 19th century, the first place belongs to

George, 5th Duke of Marlborough’. 3

* * * * * * * * * * *

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From that time onwards, the various Dukes of

Marlborough have constantly striven to maintain the

standard of the parks and gardens and to follow

current trends in design and planting. There could be

no denying that the upkeep of both Palace and

gardens required a fortune.

When funds were low, the 8th Duke of

Marlborough married the rich American widow

Lilian Hammersley. Her fortune paid for the re-

leading of the 14 acres of Blenheim roofs, the

installation of central heating, as well as a boat

house.

Just one generation later and money was again in

short supply. So it was that ‘Sunny’, the 9th Duke of

Marlborough, went to America in search of a bride

and returned with the heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt,

whose ‘tin’ he desperately needed to spend on his

Palace and estate at Blenheim. The settlement was

$2,500,000 in 50,000 shares of capital stock of the

Beech Creek Railway, on which an annual payment

for life of 4% was guaranteed by Vanderbilt’s New

York Central Railway Company.4

In November 1896, the couple were married. For

Consuelo this was a disaster from the first miserable

day until their divorce, by which time she had done

her duty and provided the required ‘heir and a

spare’. Even after their divorce, the Duke had no

qualms about continuing to accept the allowance he

had secured, and this was large enough to enable him

to continue with his grand plans for the Palace and

grounds. Indeed, Blenheim would have been lost

without the annual Vanderbilt payment.

After Consuelo’s separation from the Duke of

Marlborough she busied herself with charitable work

in London. She soon found a small stone-built Tudor

manor house at Crowhurst, in Sussex, where she

could escape to at weekends and enjoy her beautiful

garden, which she managed with the help of visiting

friends. It was a truly charming country garden, and

very different from Blenheim where she had not

played an active role in gardening. At Crowhurst

there was a sunken garden and pool surrounded by

terraces, the air was filled with the scent of herbs

and roses, there was an herbaceous border with a

profusion of pinks, blues and purples and ‘in spring

the garden was gay with flowering shrubs and

blossom of peach and plum.’5

Both the Duke and Duchess remarried

immediately after the divorce, and Consuelo, happy

at last, at least had the satisfaction of knowing that it

would be her son who would eventually reap the

benefit of her family’s money. Consuelo married

Jacques Balsan; at their home ‘Lou Sueil’, in Eze,

France, having discovered a passion for gardening at

Crowhurst, she created a magnificent garden with

the help of the designer Achille Duchêne (1866-

1947), who had been employed by the Duke at

Blenheim. Together they created a formal knot

garden and steps ingeniously threaded their way

from terrace to terrace, rising up steep slopes

covered with luxurious seasonal planting; indeed, Lou

Sueil was to become one of the great gardens of the

Mediterranean.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Gladys Deacon was another rich American

beauty. She had been left mentally scarred by an

incident during her childhood. She was on holiday in

Cannes with her four sisters and her mother, who

was enjoying an affair with a gentleman by the name

of Emile Abeille. The couple were interrupted by

her husband, Edward Parker Deacon. Abeille hid

behind a settee in vain – he was killed by three

shots from Deacon’s gun. News of the tragedy

spread quickly around France, England and the

United States, leaving even the façade of the

marriage in tatters. The murder trial took place in

Nice and the jury found Deacon guilty of unlawfully

wounding Abeille, but without intent to cause death;

accordingly, he was sentenced to imprisonment

rather than execution.

Edward Deacon subsequently altered his will to

exclude his wife and set up a trust for their four

daughters; Gladys was provided with an annual

income for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, the

calamity hung over Gladys; a continuous battle

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ensued over her custody and she was moved from pillar to post.

However, even at the young age of 14, she had already set her sights

upon the Duke of Marlborough, but when she read of Consuelo

Vanderbilt’s engagement to him she determined that she would

outdo Conseulo and find herself another Duke. However, in 1897

Gladys, who already by this time had quite a reputation, and had

developed a forceful personality, was taken to England to be

introduced into London society. And it was in London that she first

met the 9th Duke of Marlborough, himself. It was a meeting that had

surprising consequences.

Quite taken with Gladys, the Duke invited her to visit Blenheim and

she became a friend of Consuelo, who in her memoirs wrote: ‘Gladys

Deacon was a beautiful girl endowed with a brilliant intellect’.6 Edith

Wharton described Gladys as ‘an attractive and eccentric woman’.7

Indeed, Gladys was wonderful company and an asset at any party. As

well as becoming Consuelo’s friend, she became the Duke’s mistress.

In May 1921, Consuelo and Sunny’s marriage finally came to an end. By

June that same year, Gladys became the Duchess of Marlborough.

Whilst helped along by annual payments from the Vanderbilt

settlement, the Duke continued to work on his estate. Unlike

Consuelo, Gladys took an enormous interest in the development of

the grounds; watching and photographing every stage, including the

arrival of mature trees on horse-drawn carts and the statue of Venus

being lowered from a motor vehicle. The avenue in the park beyond

the Column of Victory was replanted and the lake dredged. Gladys’

favourite place was the rock garden created by the 5th Duke, where

she was often to be found at work dressed in gardening gear. Her deep

voice could be heard supervising the gardeners, directing the shifting of

rocks, adjusting the placement of steps and organising the planting of

the saxifrages to make the most of their mass of yellow flowers. It was

her visits to the Rock Garden that released her from the restricting

atmosphere of the Palace, and she would frequently eat a picnic lunch

at one of the Druid’s tables and distribute tobacco and chocolate to

the gardeners.

Sadly, due to a series of miscarriages, Gladys’ health suffered and

though in 1925 she gave up toiling at the Rock Garden. Even without

her attentions it grew to be quite spectacular, though it has long since

disappeared.

The two Water Terraces commissioned by the ninth Duke from

Achille Duchene and built between 1925 and 1930 are spectacular.

They were constructed on the west front and are linked by a wall of

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The Water Terraces.

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caryatids by Visseau and flanked by tiers of shells.

One day when one of the gardeners, Bert Timms of

Hanborough, happened to be passing, Visseau called

him aside and used him as a model. And so Bert is

immortalised in the head and torso of the

northernmost caryatid.

The faces of the two lead sphinxes that stand on

the second of the majestic Water Terraces tell a

different tale. The face of the Duke’s second wife,

Gladys, is recreated on the pair of winged sphinx by

W. Ward Wills, completed in 1930, which stand

elegantly brooding over the water gardens against a

backdrop of iceberg roses. Gladys was a beauty, her

face said to have been of the classical Grecian type.

Sadly, she was dissatisfied with her profile and went

to a museum to measure the proportions of the

faces of classical statues. When she found the noses

of the statues continued in an unbroken line from

the forehead, Gladys decided to have cosmetic

surgery to remedy the small indentation at the

bridge of her nose. Plastic surgery was then in its

infancy, and unfortunately the paraffin wax that was

injected into the bridge of her nose eventually

slipped down beneath the skin and ran to her chin,

causing an unsightly and permanent swelling below

the jaw. From that time onward she covered herself

with swathes of tulle arranged to disguise this

deformity.

From the Water Terraces, a driveway leads

southward towards the Arboretum, but before

reaching the magnificent cedars, the prunus and

yews, the eye is caught by the Temple of Diana, built

by Sir William Chambers for the 4th Duke in a

prominent position overlooking the lake.

Beyond the Arboretum is the Rose Garden, now

restored, where a delicious confection of roses in

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Facing page: A wall of caryatids links the terraces.

Right: A lead Sphinx depicting Gladys, Duchess ofMarlborough.

Below: An ornamental terrace for the Sphinx.

every shade of red, pink and cream is held in geometrically-shapedbeds within a circle. In a central circular bed stands a stone statueof a solitary lady engulfed by a sea of roses. Surrounding thisextravaganza is a wrought-iron pergola dressed with rosesscrambling over its delicate ironwork, and skeins of roses linkingone post to another are underplanted with a froth of blue forget-me-nots.

132

Above: Skeins of roses link the delicate ironwork encompassing theRose Garden.

Right: The Rose Garden.

Winston Churchill, the son of Randolph Churchill

and his American wife, Jennie Jerome, was born at

Blenheim Palace and he spent a great deal of time

there. It was whilst visiting Blenheim that the dashing

young Winston persuaded his cousin ‘Sunny’ to invite

Clementine Hozier to join him at small party.

Clementine accepted and Winston offered to take

her on a tour of the rose garden the next morning; a

tour that was repeated in the afternoon. Interrupted

by a shower, they sheltered in the Temple of Diana and

it was there that Winston proposed to Clementine,

who later in 1908, became his wife.

Needless to say, English rose gardens were to

become a passion throughout her life, and many years

later she had a traditional formal English rose garden

created at their home, Chartwell, in Kent. The Temple of

Diana at Blenheim was restored in 1975, Architectural

Heritage Year, and plaques to commemorate the event

were unveiled by Clementine, Lady Churchill, by this

time the widow of Sir Winston Churchill.

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To the east of the Palace is an area once known as

the 1st Duchess’s flower garden, which in time

developed into a Victorian shrubbery. This was

replaced at the beginning of the 20th century with a

parterre designed by Duchêne, now known as the

Italian Garden, though with a decidedly French

influence. The private apartments and the Orangery

now overlook the quartered parterre, composed of

swirling patterns of clipped dwarf hedges and

enlivened with roses. Box hedges, punctuated with

studs of topiary and ornamental orange trees,

surround the gracious, centrally-placed and gilded

Mermaid Fountain, the work of the anglophile

American sculptor, Thomas Waldo Story (1855-1915).

Sunny and Gladys’ marriage eventually failed, and

by June 1931 had deteriorated to a state of hostility;

the Duke died in 1934 before they could divorce.

Gladys lived on until 1977, sadly spending her last

days alone, first living in an isolated cottage, and then

in a nursing home.

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Left: The Italian Garden designed by Achille Duchene andthe gilded Mermaid Fountain by Thomas Waldo Story.

Below: Topiary birds look to the Italian Garden.

The Secret Garden, restored by the present Duke in

2004 to celebrate the tercentenary of the Battle of

Blenheim, lies hidden away within the sweeping parkland,

and isolated from the formal gardens. Winding paths

thread their way along meandering streams; fountains

and waterfalls tumble into scattered ponds and only the

gentle sound of water and birdsong interrupt the silence

of the secluded and peaceful setting. Some mature trees

remain, and additional ornamental shrubs and trees have

been planted to bring springtime blossom and

harmonious autumnal hues. Gone is the pomp of the

awesome park and formal garden and it is a joy to the

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The Secret Garden gives a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

visitor to discover this garden, built on a domestic scale.

Today, as well as the historical gardens, there are

pleasure gardens, a lavender garden, a maze and a

butterfly house, indeed, something to please every

member of the family. The Palace and its surrounding

landscape continues to be true to the description of

Lady Randolph Churchill upon her first visit in 1874:

‘Looking at the lake, the bridge, the miles of magnifi centpark studded with old oaks, I found no adequate wordsto express my admiration and when we reached thehuge and stately palace, I confess I felt awed.’ 8

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