Phantasm – An Encounter with Baroque English Music

For my third art interaction at Oxford through this class, I attended a traditional English music concert at Magdalen College this past Sunday. The artist group that performed the concert was called “Phantasm,” joined by Daniel Hyde on the organ. Being a classical violinist I thought I knew what I was in for before I walked over to Magdalen for the concert. However, what I expected from Phantasm was not what I actually experienced.

The biggest fact that threw me off about Phantasm was that I was expecting a classical chamber music string sextet, with violins, violas, and cellos. When the musicians walked out with their instruments it was instantly clear that they were not “classical musicians” in the most typical sense. In fact, they carried with them were not violins but “viols,” late 15th century baroque instruments that were completely different from the modern violin that we know today. While the violin has four strings and no frets, the viol, or Viola da gamba, is a six-stringed, fretted instrument that is played with a bow. Viols are most commonly strung with low-tension gut strings, as opposed to the violin, which is typically strung high-tension steel strings. Unlike violins, which are tuned in fifths, viols are tuned in fourths with a major third in the middle. In contrast to the modern-day concave violin bow, the bow used to play the viol is convex, as the bows in the baroque period typically were. The “organ” that Hyde played was also less of a traditional modern-day organ and more like a baroque-period virginal.

After recovering from this initial surprise I took my seat and prepared to listen to some baroque music. The musicians of Phantasm were very gifted and expressive musicians. Technically, I heard almost no mistakes. Musically, I felt that the pieces they chose to play were both challenging and adventurous. I had never heard of William Lawes or John Ward before. This concert exposed me to an entire field in music that I had forgotten about – early baroque music, and English baroque at that. The actual concert itself was intriguing to me, as the music Phantasm played was very rich and expressive, yet there was something rebellious about the texture of the music. With the pieces by Lawes, I noticed that while the viol typically was considered a “quiet” instrument, the music he wrote significantly defied this norm. These pieces would have moments of quiet, peaceful meditations, followed by outbursts of energy. There is a substantial amount of emotion packed into these pieces, demonstrated through the striking contrast of the music, sometimes within a matter of a few beats. The organ only added to the rich texture of Lawes’s compositions. It played a major role in tying the melodies and harmonies of all six viols together, weaving in and out of the other instruments to create underlying themes in the music.

All in all, I felt that Phantasm achieved the artistic goals that it set out to achieve. It performed expressive, adventurous, enjoyable music in the style of the baroque period, never faltering in their professionalism or stage presence. They chose music that made the audience think, about the melodies, about the shape of phrases, about the rich textures and interesting chord progressions of the music. I think they did a very commendable job in interpreting William Lawes’ music.

The Power of Plants: The University of Oxford Botanical Garden

The University of Oxford Botanic Garden holds a scholarly collection of plants. It has been around since 1621, originally a Physic Garden (for medicinal plants). In the 19^th century, it became botanical (for any utility). It is a center of tranquility in the middle of High Street, right by the river. The wind blows less strongly inside the walls, and beyond its academic and artistic value, is a nice place to sit in the sun watching punters pass.

Not many people appreciate that medicine would be nowhere today if it weren’t for plants. The Botanic Garden still grows medicinal species. They have “The Healing Power of Plants Trail” which includes the key foxglove (heart conditions), mulberry (diabetes), and sweet corn (for pill capsules). The trail invites the visitor to imagine the diabetes pill, the cancer drug, and caffeine outside the capsule. It is a commemoration to a time when the things stuff was made out of was not a mystery. Nowadays, it is usually impossible to understand how something like our medicine is manufactured: rest assured it doesn’t grow like a plant anymore.

Composed of two courtyards, the Botanic Garden has patches bursting with flowers, grasses, and trees. Beside each patch of flora are descriptive plaques. About an eighth of one of the courtyards is taken up by the medicinal plants. Each field of medicine has a patch. As a pre-medical student, it was refreshing to encounter drug derivatives in their non-textbook form. The subtle clusters of the dark green mandrake, used to treat dysentery, or the conical white flower bundles of the Woolly Foxglove, for the treatment of severe heart conditions, puts me in contemplative bliss. The Botanic Garden is a monumental display of the importance of natural things, in all their simple beauty.

In a series of glass houses, are an alpine room, a fernery, a lily house, an insectivorous house, a palm house, and an arid house. These rooms are all carefully rendered little areas. The fernery’s floor is spiraling stone, the ferns copse around, clustering out to brush passersby. The lily house dangles teal colored vines and lilies the size of inflatable swimming pools. The arid house is desiccated by prickly cacti. A tree from India bulges with football-sized oranges, another’s no bigger than a marble. It is a floral emporium, token organisms plucked from every colony and buried into the Queen’s soil, but with rainbow glittering results in this university setting.

The Botanic Gardens immerse the visitor into a mini-microcosm trove of natural science diversity. It is more than just sun, a river, rocks, and plants; it resounds with the cry that Penicillin was first a plant.

Taking Back Sunday! Tell All Your Friends!

Not many bands continue to exist after eleven years of playing together, but not many bands have more past members listed in their line-up than current members. Taking Back Sunday, the American rock quintet from Long Island sent shockwaves into the depths of online punk-rock forums around the world when they announced last year they would be reuniting the original line-up that recorded the cult-classic Tell All Your Friends in 2002. After the bad blood that initially divided the band and spurred countless songs of hatred and betrayal had passed, John Nolan and Shaun Cooper rejoined with Adam Lazzara, Eddie Reyes, and Mark O’Connell to record a new album and roll through London on a quick European stint.

It was a sold out show at the Roundhouse in London on Friday, May 20th, as tattooed, flannel-clad twenty-some year olds crowded the stage. Taking Back Sunday opened with “Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team),” the breakout single off Tell All Your Friends that first gained the band notoriety. The first four open chords of the intro ushered in an immediate burst of energy; anticipation had been building throughout the sound check and suddenly broke the stillness of the crowd. Adam Lazzara, the lead singer known for swinging the mic just as much singing into it, quickly paced the stage, belting out the words with intensity. John Nolan, the guitarist/keyboardist, provided raspy back-up vocals in the band’s trademark call-and-response manner. The crowd was as much a part of the experience as the band, moshing against each other, crowd surfing toward the stage, and screaming every word of every verse and chorus.

The venue was a large circular room with the stage slightly offset of the middle, so the sound was pretty well balanced compared to most other venues because of the speakers set in front of the stage, as well as around the second level seating areas. The band’s live energy more than made up for Adam’s sometimes fleeting voice and the lack of polish and production that a recorded album allows. It was clear that all the members of the band had massive amounts of experience playing live shows, even if most of those shows were not together. They rotated seamlessly between different electric guitars acoustic guitars, and keyboards to accommodate various tunings and tones of songs. Adam and John both did a great job entertaining the audience with witty banter and clever anecdotes in between songs as the band retuned and called for in-era monitor adjustments from the soundboard in the back.

The band also did a fantastic job mixing material from their four previous albums and up-coming album, as well as a cover song from John Nolan and Shaun Cooper’s, previous band, Straylight Run. They played many songs off of their first CD that the band usually did not play previous to the line-up reunion. They also had a touring member providing back-up vocals and guitar hidden in the back corner to help fill out many of the parts that had been layered on the recorded songs.

Taking Back Sunday played to the audience, keeping the energy up for the first six songs of the set. Adam would hold the mic out over the crowd for them to scream lyrics into it, then swing it high in the air before catching it by wrapping it around his neck and arms during instrumental parts. Mark O’Connell kept time in between songs to keep the energy up and click in the band for the next song. The Straylight Run cover of “Existentialism on Prom Night” was the only mellow song throughout the set, though they have a handful in their catalogue. “Everything Must Go” also started out soft and slow, but then built to a strong, heavy finish. The rest of the set was a compilation of singles and crowd-favorites with no real surprises in the set list. The songs had areas of dynamic distinction, but even when the band would bring it low or drop out completely, Adam and John’s raspy sing-screaming kept the energy high. Before the final song, their most popular single, “MakeDamnSure,” Adam asked the crowd for requests. The crowd called for “There’s No ‘I’ In Team,” which Adam swore they would never play again after John and Shaun quit the band in 2004. Much to the crowd’s delight, Taking Back Sunday obliged their request. My personal favorite moment of the concert was hearing the band play “Best Places To Be A Mom,” the first song released off their forth-coming record. The raw, syncopated drums and open balance of music and singing translated incredibly in a live atmosphere. Even though the band was often playing songs they wrote ten years ago as teenagers, they performed and sang with all their hearts, as if every note and every word still rang true.

Here is a decent quality video of the opening song at the Roundhouse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YopvhZZygFw

Stand-Up at the Glee Club, Oxford

The Glee Club in Oxford offers a charming diversion for hen and stag parties, middle aged couples, and the over-thirty guys’ night out on a Saturday night. Located on Upper Fisher Row, the Glee Club Oxford is strategically placed next to one of the busiest nightclubs in Oxford—the Bridge—which is not far off from its competitor, Park End, offering a complete package of casual and intoxicating amusement in one street block. Upon entering the Glee Club, the hostess will lead you to an assigned table, assuming that you purchase tickets ahead of time. For non-university adult tickets, the price is £18. However, the student ticket pricing is a tantalizing steal at £5.

The aesthetics of the Glee Club is reminiscent of a 1970s game show stage without the polyester. The wall facing the audience is decorated by a red-orange stage curtain, which serves as the background for a large sign that reads “glee” in Impact font. The stage lights projected an orange lava-lamp pattern, which might have been intended to stimulate a kitschy nostalgia for Woodstock or even Nixon. The entirety of the Glee Club is dimly lit except for a selection of a few lamps, which is strangely a signifier for all entertainment venues that cater at night. The early bird attendees are mostly in the 40- and 50- something demographics, and the similarities between the aesthetics and the attendees could be attributed to the need to cater to the age of their customers. The bar is seemingly the only corner of space that belongs to the contemporary generation, comparably lit and catered by young bartenders.

Comedian Matt Brown served as the host throughout the night. While he considered his interjections of monologue between the comics as a “comedy act,” Brown’s performance is better labeled as entertaining and witty hosting than a traditional comedy act. He thoroughly engaged the audience, asking first if there were any “couples” in the audience, then “university” students, and then “Americans”—equally antagonizing the audience with the pitfalls of their categories. The subject of committed relationships seemed to be the common vein of most of his jokes, catering to the older demographic in the audience.

The first act, Dave Twentyman, entertained the audience with the same topic of relationships, ruminating on the Hangover-esque nature of stag parties to the role of the naked phallus in older relationships. However, for the only two Americans in the audience, his Scottish accent proved to be a difficult barrier in translating his jokes into laughter.

Nick Helm, the second comic who resembled an intoxicated Zach Galifianakis, employed a revolutionary type of humor. He blurred the lines between staged insanity and real insanity and dared the audience to question whether his character of an obese, bipolar depressant is inspired by his actual life. Helm entered the stage and asked an audience member whether he liked jokes, but the genius of his work originates from the fact that he repeated “Do you like jokes?” 10 more times in a maniacal manner. He also played a number of original, ironic love songs on his guitar in a fashion reminiscent of comedian Demetri Martin. Helm maintained his character throughout the entire act; this commitment to the art form was the crux of his comedic genius. However, the absurdity of his act divided the audience into two groups: those who could barely sustain a living breath from laughing so hard and those who were so frightened that they couldn’t laugh.

The unfortunate nature of being the act after “the tough act to follow” is that no one remembers the details of your act or even your name, which is the real life case of the comedian after Nick Helm. Unfortunately, his act—regardless of the caliber of humor—could not compare to Nick Helm’s and received conventional laughs for his conventional humor.

Overall, the value entertainment value of a stand-up comedy show at Glee Club far outweighs its cost by a far measurement. While our generation has neglected these comedic cesspools for the conventional club hop, they should reconsider stand-up’s potential for nightly entertainment.

Learning is Fun!? A Review of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden

At first glance, the University of Oxford Botanic Garden seems to fit the generic framework of an aesthetically pleasing garden. The main part of the garden is located within a beautiful wall akin to the yellow-hued stonework throughout Oxford. Seen from outside the garden, this wall and its large arched gate suggest that the garden is valued with the same sophistication and respect as the rest of the University. After visiting, I believe this regal entrance suits the Oxford Botanic Garden well. Its extraordinary quantity of plant life both indoors and outdoors, combined with its park-like atmosphere make it a sight to be seen during a visit to Oxford.

Although the Botanic Garden seems to be the perfect recipe for a “stuffy” atmosphere, the pamphlet visitors receive as their ticket upon entering the garden suggests otherwise. While I call it a pamphlet, this enormous piece of paper is rather like a large amusement park map. It is nearly three times the size of an ordinary pamphlet, and has all the colors of the rainbow. Furthermore, its title does not focus on the uninteresting name of the Botanic Garden, but instead it centers on the experience that the garden tourism folk want the visitors to have on what they call “The Healing Power of Plants Trail.” Beside this red, blue, and green colored title is a small map of the garden with sectional labels, and below it are fun and colorful facts and images about the variety of medicinal plant life in the garden. Upon observing this pamphlet, it is clear that the garden planner’s goal was: make this visit exciting.

In addition to educating its visitors and providing a small respite of peace in a stressful academic environment, the Oxford Botanic Garden successfully leaves its visitors with a fun experience. This garden does it all: it relaxes the student while making learning fun! The organized, yet open layout of the garden almost inspires its visitors to skip down its orthogonally planned paths through a world class variety of trees and plants, past an idyllic fountain, out the garden walls to a second garden, and along the river to the glasshouses. The fantastic variety of plants – many of which are kept in the glasshouses – make the visitor feel like she is traveling around the world through everything from desert to rainforest. Also, rather than using lawns as decoration, the garden encourages people to walk on lawns on their way to observe plants. Each plant variety, in fact, has its own label with scientific name, colloquial name, and geographic origin. Thus, the style of learning in the Oxford Botanic Garden is extremely interactive, and encourages students to become personal with what they are learning. Moreover, in addition to encouraging a hands-on educational experience, these lawns encourage relaxation. Numerous people, myself included, used the lawns for studying, drawing, and even napping among the plant life.

The University of Oxford Botanic Garden seems to boast an educational experience that, from my experience thus far, is hard to find at the University. The first thing that stood out to me (as you may have already noticed) is the idea that people can walk on the lawns. In Magdalen alone, most lawns are present for decoration, and few are present for student use. Between the lawns, the walls, the doors, and tradition-based rules, I have the impression that the University of Oxford is a very restricted environment. However, this Botanic Garden, which itself is part of the University, seems to contrast this restrictiveness by allowing visitors to freely engage with everything it has to offer. Essentially, nothing is off limits. Aside from the two people collecting money at the entrance, there is no supervision in the garden or the glasshouses. Visitors of any age or status are left to their own devices within this educational arena, whether they choose to use it for educational purposes or not. What’s more, by giving people this freedom, the Garden does a remarkable job of making people feel relaxed and comfortable in a way that other educational setting (ex. the library, the classroom, etc.) do not.

The University of Oxford Botanic Garden represents what is, in my opinion, the ideal learning experience. It combines education with freedom, makes its visitors feel comfortable, and most of all, it is fun. This “learning is fun” philosophy is something I think is extremely undervalued in education, and I commend the Botanic Garden for taking it to heart and making it a reality.

The Secular and the Sacred: ‘Phantasm’ Concert in Magdalen Chapel

The stillness of a church is often associated with whispered conversations; off-hand comments that can float from one pew to its opposite amidst the reverence of a religious service. On Sunday afternoon in Magdalen College Chapel, this sort of dialogue was not hushed to the side but rather honoured with undivided attention. It was not a conversation between people, but a conversation between musical instruments.

Magdalen’s resident viol consort “Phantasm” performed a selection of secular baroque pieces on Sunday in Magdalen Chapel in participation with the undergraduate-organized arts week. The concert featured works by William Byrd, William Lawes, John Ward, and Orlando Gibbons, sometimes accompanied by organ played by Magdalen music director Daniel Hyde. The organ provided a consistent bass for the string instruments but never presumed to rival the star voices of the concert, the viols.

A majority of the pieces performed were in the fantasia, or fantasy, form. The fantasy is well known for incorporating numerous voices that diverge and come together, thus creating an analogy of conversation. This analogy was even more apparent in Phantasm’s rendition of the genre. The six viol performers were seated in the middle of the church aisle in circular formation, as if huddled around a bonfire. They engaged with one another not only musically but also physically, through shared smiles in moments of musical resolution and the succinct choreography of their bows at the end of each piece. Laurence Dreyfus, the director of Phantasm, was the most animated in his interaction with the group. Even so, his gestures were outstandingly subtle. With as little as a glance or even a breath Dreyfus was able to guide the ensemble through each beginning, ending, and emotional swell with remarkable precision.

Phantasm’s rendition of the fantasy emphasizes communication and collaboration over counterpoint and discord. This is not surprising for a group that has been together for over a decade, relishing mutual passion for an instrument that has largely been out of fashion since the Renaissance. The sound of their instruments registers their familiarity. The way in which the ensemble lingers on concluding harmonies transcends mere compositional resolution.

Phantasm in concert offers a rare, almost voyeuristic, glimpse of musical intimacy. This emphasis on intimacy is at once reinforced and thwarted by the venue. The stone chapel and lofty stain glass windows hardly evoke the comfort and familiarity that the group generates. However, the location of the concert helped to recognize the strong tradition of religious sacred music while claiming a space for humanity in the realm of the sacred. The performers did not take the traditional place of the clergy at the head of the chapel but nevertheless assumed a position of importance at the centre of the aisle. This organization had the fortunate effect of incorporating the audience as a broader shell of the musicians’ circle, strengthening the symbolic connection between the voice of the instrument and the human voice. Audience members were never more than thirty feet away from the performers.

Despite the unexpected intimacy of alley seating, the audience still had to deal with the uncomfortable and unwieldy chapel pews. At best, the audience had unimpeded front row views of the consort. At worst, the audience had to stand to see the performers over the tall, secluding podiums used for worship services. While this situation created clear inequalities of seating, it reaffirmed the eminence of sound over sight. Audience members in these secluded seats were privy to the most intimate experience of all, devoid of any pretence to performance and entirely reliant on their ability to ‘eavesdrop’ on the musical conversation.

In or outside of the chapel setting, the music of Phantasm confounds divisions of the secular and the sacred through its internal harmonies and expressivity. Each musical voice in the consort assumes an anthropomorphism that elevates humanity itself to the level of the sacred.

Live Comedy at the Glee Club Oxford

Situated across the street from Upper Fisher Row and just a ten-minute walk from the Stanford House, The Glee Club Oxford is a charming venue for a night of live comedy. Tickets are £13 for adults, but at just £5 for students the Glee Club is hard to beat on a budget.

Though the performers were obviously the highlight of the show, the venue was a character in and of itself. The orange and yellow theme not only dictated the wall color, but the color of the seats, tables, and the front of stage as well. The large white letters spelling ‘glee’ at the front of the club were bathed in a warm, oozing yellow light that evoked a psychedelic lava lamp. The whole venue feels like a tongue-in-cheek 70s throwback, and encourages jokes and prods even before the comedy begins. The bartenders were friendly (and apologized profusely when they couldn’t get any pressure to the Amstel tap), as were the waitstaff.

Maff Brown was the first comedian onstage and served as our host throughout the night. The frizzy-haired comic had an easy way about him, joking at both the audience’s expense and at his own, though always more kind than malicious. His jokes were good but it was his delivery made him one of the standouts of the night; he was completely comfortable onstage, working in and out of jokes like a professional. As a host he was upbeat and lively, getting the audience warmed and riled up for each act that came after him.

The second comic, Dave Twentyman, is hard to have an opinion on. He was charming and endearing, but his Scottish accent was so thick that neither I nor my date could understand him. Granted, his last joke we did get (if only because it had to do with phalluses, and those are the kinds of jokes that are easiest to understand), but much of his humor was aimed at the local crowd and, as Americans, it went mostly over our heads. It went over well with the audience, which didn’t seem to have any problem understanding him, but unless you were a local most of his jokes were not applicable.

The third comic, however, was a revelation. Nick Helm’s brand of comedy was abrasive, fear inducing, crass, punchy, and gut splitting. He stormed on the stage and announced in his raspy, deep, self-deprecating, angry yell, “Good news! It’s me!” He then started berating a man he picked from the audience. “Do you like jokes?” he yelled, “Do you like jokes? Do you like jokes? Do you like jokes?” Everyone in the audience was roaring as the poor man finally said “Yes, I like jokes,” to which Helm responded, “Good! I’ve got six of the cunts!” It’s hard to describe the delicate mix between offensive, frightening and hilarious Helm managed to achieve. He angrily yelled a song that’s lyrics went, “I love you, you love me, we love each other, we’re family.” The disparity between what Helm was saying and how he was saying it was the source of his comedy—it was like watching someone occupy two personalities at once. Helm did not break character once, and at the end the audience was left wondering whether or not the depressed, angry man who just screamed at them for 20 minutes was the real Helm or not. Either way, his act broke through the barriers of the safe, storytelling comedy we are all familiar with, and created for Helm a space which he can wholly call his own.

Seann Walsh had the unfortunate task of following Helm’s act. He did an admirable job and was a good, if conventional, comic, but after having been brought to tears by Helm the audience did not respond nearly as well to Walsh’s familiar brand of comedy.

The Glee Club has locations in Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham and Oxford, and has live shows every Saturday night.

Ghost Forest - Global Preservation from an Artist’s Perspective

For my second art experience project at Oxford, I chose to see the Ghost Forest exhibition at Oxford’s Natural Science Museum. The Ghost Forest art project is a major art installation of 10 primary rainforest tree stumps which were brought to Europe from a commercially logged forest in Western Africa by artist Angela Palmer. The purpose of Palmer’s work is to call to attention the rapid rate of deforestation in today’s world and the rapid depletion of the world’s natural resources in general. The tree stumps in Palmer’s piece represent the rainforest trees of the world.

This work of art, which took up a substantial amount of space, was both original and effective. It is the first time that I have seen an artist use raw materials from nature, of such an enormous scale, to express her concern for the environment and make a powerful statement about the effects of human consumption on planet Earth’s resources and environment. First, the work maximized its use of space and relative size in an extremely effective, contrasting method. The tree stumps that Palmer chose are enormous in size, and when set on display in front of the museum they are stunning to the audience of this work. The viewers are reminded that these are only the stumps of the trees, only a glimmer of their prior glory and grandeur. This then prompts us to imagine what the rest of the tree looked like before it was cut down for commercial use. The trees are arranged in a circular layout. If we stand in the middle, we can imagine the trees upright, in their full splendor, and gradually, our imagination enables us to feel that we are in the middle of the rainforest in Western Africa. This is the purpose of bringing in several tree stumps and explains why Palmer chose this specific special arrangement when preparing this piece. Finally, a typical Wellingtonia tree, common and prevalent in the United Kingdom, continues to grow in the middle of the exhibition. The purpose of the Wellingtonia is to compare the size of the African trees with the size of a typical tree in the UK. In using this technique to illustrate the relative size of the dead tress to the living one, we realize just how enormous these trees are. To think that there was an entire forest filled with these trees, now gone only for the purpose of human consumption, is a powerful effect of Palmer’s art.

Another jarring observation that rises when viewing this piece is the idea of a living organism forcibly uprooted from its home and its source of life, Earth. The tree stumps that surround this living tree are uprooted from their homes, but the Wellingtonia remains rooted and connected to nature, its source of life. The Wellingtonia contrasts with the tree stumps, which heightens our awareness that these African trees are indeed dead. In the exhibit, we can see the tree’s roots. Once connected to the ground, they are now exposed in the air. The cause of their deaths is right in front of us. This is the purpose of the art – to place the issue of deforestation and natural preservation so close to us that we, the viewers, cannot possibly ignore the effects of the human race on the other living organisms and the environment on the whole. Bringing the tree stumps, from a sparsely populated region of Africa to a bustling, populated city area like Oxford does this very effectively. Overall, I thought that this art project was original, and though ambitious, it is effective and successful in its purpose and its message.

Blenheim Palace

It is only in retrospect that I realize we missed much of what our visit to Blenheim Palace had to offer. Blenheim was built in 1724, and is the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Blenheim Palace boasts a collection of award-winning gardens, a butterfly house, a giant hedge maze, 2,000 acres of beautiful countryside, and is the birthplace of Winston Churchill. All this, however, I only learned after having left Blenheim. It could have been the fact that we only had a limited time to explore, or that I simply did not pay close enough attention to the map, but there seemed to be little guidance for such an enormous estate.

Our attention was immediately caught by the miniature train taking guests to the Pleasure Gardens. The train, which stopped at the aptly named “Palace Station,” was an attractive and fitting addition to the Palace grounds. It traveled between the main entrance to the Palace through a small portion of the countryside, and dropped visitors off at what was known as the Pleasure Gardens. The train was a perhaps superfluous show of wealth, yet so too is entire estate, and it was on the whole charming.

If we had looked at the Blenheim Palace website (or indeed taken more careful heed of our maps) we would have known that the Pleasure Gardens was a place for “family fun” (quoted from www.blenheimpalace.com). Imagine our surprise when, having arrived at the “gardens,” we found a small patch of (albeit beautiful) hedges and a trellis. “I thought their gardens were supposed to be famous,” I remember saying to my companion, “Where are all the flowers?” Though the garden’s name was slightly misleading, the garden itself was still a visual feast. The butterfly house had an anteroom, which held large, transparent boxes filled with dozens of both cocooned and hatchling butterflies, leading to the main house. It was warm and humid to simulate the butterflies’ home environment—a pleasant surprise considering the relatively bleak English weather outside the house. The house was relatively small, but the plant life inside was well-maintained and had a variety of color. At first glance the house seemed void of its titular inhabitants, but with a sharp eye one could spot large, colorful, and exotic butterflies perched discreetly around the exhibit.

The main area of the Pleasure Gardens delivered on its stated purpose: to entertain a family. There were model houses recreating an 18th-century Woodstock (the town Blenheim calls home), a sun dial where your own shadow tells you the time, an oversized chess set, a playground, and an enormous hedge maze. The hedge maze was something to behold: hundreds and hundreds of yards of perfectly-manicured shrubs twisted in on themselves, playfully inviting the visitor to dead ends and false escape routes, but never being so sinister as to actually get him lost. An elevated structure in the middle of the maze afforded a stunning view of the pleasure gardens (see Heidi’s post for the panorama), and, I couldn’t help thinking, the perfect vantage point for parents to find their wandering children.


Though the Pleasure Gardens were great fun, it was a shame there wasn’t enough time to see the award-winning Italian- or Rose Gardens Blenheim is known for. This, however, ended up being not as much of a travesty as one might imagine, for the best part of our visit to Blenheim was to come at the end, and quite by accident. On our way out we decided to take one last look at the grounds, and in doing so discovered the Queen’s Pond. Though called a pond, it appeared more like a lake, and stretched far in both directions. Trees with lush green leaves lined the edges of the pond, and in the middle a small island looked like a scene from Narnia or Wonderland with its purple-leaved trees shooting into the air. Though it was obvious that the grounds were manicured, there was a natural, other-worldly beauty to them. This, it turns out, is a good way to summarize Blenheim Palace as a whole: though the estate has been designed down to the last rose petal, its beauty is both undeniable and enchanting.