British Library Journal (volume 8, number 1, spring 1982)

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'A pleasing example of skill in old age': Sir Christopher Wren and Marlborough House
(1982-04)
Searle, Arthur
THE lease of the site of what was to become Marlborough House was first granted to the Duke of Marlborough by the Crown in 1708. The Duke left the whole matter of the projected town house to his Duchess, so the choice of architect was hers. In her own words: 'I sent for Sir C. Wren and told him I hoped it would be no trouble to him to look after the building I was going to begin. . .' By this time Wren was in his late seventies and anyway much occupied with the control of royal building works in his role as Surveyor-General. He was assisted in many projects, whether for the Crown or others, by his son Christopher, who had entered the Office of Works as Chief Clerk and Clerk Ingrosser in 1702. The younger Christopher was particularly involved with the work at Marlborough House, to the extent that it has been suggested that this was a deliberate attempt on the part of the ageing architect to gain his son credit for the design of a major building, and with it an increased chance of higher office.
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Accounts of the conduct of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, 1704-1742
(1982-04)
Harris, Frances
SARAH, Duchess of Marlborough's self-justifying narrative of her years at Court, An Account of the Conduct of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough attracted a considerable amount of attention at its first publication in 1742, and has since frequently been used as an historical source. For not only had she been the wife of one of Queen Anne's chief ministers and the close associate of several others, she was also the intimate for many years of the Queen herself, and an active figure in Whig politics in her own right.
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Antoine De Guiscard, 'Abbé de la Bourlie', 'Marquis de Guiscard'
(1982-04)
Jones, Peter
SOME wars more than others offer scope to the hopeful military adventurer armed with plausible projects. The chevalier d'industrie flourished mightily in the War of the Spanish Succession, as the papers of the 1st Duke of Marlborough reveal. The imagination of the military projector was admirably stimulated by the obstacles which long drawn-out sieges and skilful avoidance of battle threw in the way of a speedy end to the conflict. As a result, the Duke was the recipient of schemes which ranged in ambition from the surprise of a town to the raising of a national revolt in France. Many of these schemes were as fanciful as those of the financial projectors who proliferated after the Peace of Utrecht, but they were not ignored or rejected out of hand. The Duke was particularly responsive to anything which might contribute to the success of what he called 'the great Design', the invasion of the French homeland. His hopes had been raised by the entry of Savoy and Portugal into the alliance, which seemed to expose France's southern flanks. Stalemate on the Meuse or in Flanders reinforced the desire to strike a decisive blow, and bring France to the conference table.
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Recent acquisitions: Department of Printed Books: Dutch acquisitions
(1982-04)
Simoni, Anna E. C.
Recent acquisitions: Department of Printed Books: Dutch acquisitions.
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The Blenheim Papers
(1982-04)
Hudson, J. P.
THE papers of John, 1st Duke of Marlborough, his wife, Sarah, and his son-in-law, Charles 3rd Earl of Sunderland, as well as of other members of the Spencer, Churchill, and related families, formerly kept at Blenheim Palace, were acquired by the British Library in 1978. They were originally offered to the Treasury in part payment of duty on the estate of the 10th Duke of Marlborough (d. 11 March 1972) late in 1973. The present writer spent two long week-ends inspecting the collection in the Muniment Room at Blenheim in January and March 1974, and made a list and valuations based on the original manuscript list, in three volumes, made at the end of the nineteenth century by J. Stuart Reid, which was itself based on the arrangement made by Archdeacon William Coxe at the beginning of the century. Staff of the Department of Manuscripts collected the papers from Blenheim in mid-November 1976, and the papers were stored in the Department pending their allocation to an institution. The Department of Education and Science advertised the collection in mid-March 1977, and the decision to allocate the papers to the British Library was announced in Parliament on 25 January 1978.
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Marlborough as Imperial Prince, 1704-1717
(1982-04)
Barber, Peter
EARLY in June 1704, as the campaign that was to culminate in the victory of Blenheim-Hochstadt was gaining momentum, Johann Wenzel, Count Wratislaw von Mitrowitz, the Imperial ambassador at the English court, who was accompanying the Allied armies on their march to the Danube, suggested in a confidential letter to his master, Emperor Leopold I, that the Duke of Marlborough should be created a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. In his reply the Emperor agreed it would be 'nothig und convenient', confessing that he had come to the same conclusion as it had become ever more likely that the Duke would, with God's help, become the saviour of the Emperor, the Habsburg dynasty, and indeed the Empire itself from invasion by the French and their Bavarian allies. Such an honour was the greatest that it was in the Emperor's power to bestow and, to make it plain it would not be a 'blosse Apparenz', Leopold instructed Wratislaw to suggest some lands in Germany which could be bestowed on the Duke as a fief.
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Some unpublished correspondence of Sir Richard Steele
(1982-04)
Wright, C. J.
IN its January issue of 1782, the Gentleman's Magazine carried amongst its obituaries the following item: 'January 1st . . . In the Circus, Bath, the right hon. Lady Trevor, relict of John Lord Trevor, and dau. of the late Sir Richard Steele'. The story of the Steele Family, it could be said, had come to a close. In fact, nothing in the life of that remarkable but improbable, improvident, and impoverished house was ever as tidy or clear cut as that. Sir Richard had had an illegitimate daughter, Mrs. Aynston, and her daughter Mrs. Thomas had been both a confidante and a considerable help to her aunt, Lady Trevor. Lady Trevor looked round for ways to repay her kindness and, shortly before her death, she gave to the eldest of Mrs. Thomas's sons those of all her possessions that probably meant most to her, her father's letters to her mother, herself, and her sister Mary, 384 in all. This presented a marvellous opportunity to the co-proprietor of the Gentleman's Magazine the self-educated publisher and antiquary John Nichols. He nursed a keen interest in late Stuart literature and had published editions of Swift, William King, and Atterbury. Purchasing the correspondence from Thomas, he brought out the letters in 1787 as one of a series of Steele's works he was editing at this time. The originals, with other material he had collected, he presented to the British Museum on 20 April 1787, where ever since they have formed Add.MS. 5145 (A, B, C).
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British Library Journal (volume 8, number 1, spring 1982)

British Library Journal (volume 8, number 1, spring 1982)

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