re are, for
instance, at Chatsworth and Wentworth. Vanbrugh is responsible for good
and bad qualities alike. One would imagine a priori that he had everything
in his favor--unlimited money and a free hand. Far from this being the
case, the stupendous work was accomplished under difficulties greater than
any long-suffering architect ever had to contend with.

The beginning of the building was most auspicious. In 1705, the year after
Blenheim, Queen Anne, in accordance with an address of the Commons,
granted Marlborough the royal estate of which Woodstock was the center,
with moneys to build a suitable house. The nation was anxious to show its
gratitude to the General under whom English troops had won their first
considerable victory on foreign soil since Agincourt; the Queen was for
doing all in her power for her dear Mrs. Freeman; Marlborough saw in the
scheme a dignified and legitimate method of perpetuating his fame; and so
Vanbrugh was commissioned to build a house which should be worthy of all
three. The work was at once begun on the existing scale. Difficulties
sprang up when the Duchess began to lose, by her abuse of it, the power
which she had always possessed over the Queen; when, too, it was seen that
the architect's estimate bore no sort of relation to the actual cost.
Vanbrugh was often in the greatest straits for money, and wrote piteously
to the Duchess and the Lord Treasurer Godolphin without the slightest
effect. Things naturally grew worse when both the Duke and Duchess were
dismissed from all their posts, in 1711; and at last, in 1721, the
disputes culminated in a lawsuit successfully brought against the Duke by
the workmen for arrears of pay, the defendant's contention being that the
Treasury was liable for the whole expense. The Duchess vented her
displeasure on the unfortunate architect, whom she never credited with
doing anything right. She carefully kept his letters, and made spiteful
endorsements on them for the benefit of her counsel at the trial.

While Sarah was perpetually involving herself in quarrels with her
architect, the Duke was indirectly furthering the progress of the building
by a succession of victories abroad. Without taking an active part, he was
yet much interested in the house, always looking forward to the time when
he should live there in peace with his wife. When on a campaign he wrote
to her nearly every other day, and in almost every letter there is a
personal touch, showing