Vanbrugh at last withdrew from the disastrous speculation; Congreve had already withdrawn. But a man to whom Fortune had been so kind as she had been to Vanbrugh could hardly be depressed by any of her passing frowns. Queen Anne at once sent him abroad on an important state errand, and afterwards he was commissioned to build Blenheim. Upon the merits and demerits of this famous "hollowed quarry" there has been much conflict of opinion. Blenheim Palace is probably the largest domestic building in England, and consists of three blocks, the centre con taining the private living rooms, one wing the stables, and the other the kitchens and storehouses. It is planned on a colossal scale. Vanbrugh considered a building and the parts of a building as simply so much material for effect, without regard to their reasonable use and the necessary limitations of design. Personal comfort was sacrificed to perspective. Windows were to adorn the elevation, not to light the interior; and, as Voltaire said, if the rooms had only been as wide as the walls were thick, the château would have been convenient enough. After Blenheim and Castle Howard, his next largest palace was probably Fleurs, near Kelso. Blenheim, however, was a source of great sorrow to the kindly dramatist. Though parliament had voted for the building of it, no provision had been made for the supplies. The queen while she lived paid them, and then Vanbrugh was left to the meanness of the duke of Marlborough, and afterwards to the insolence of the "wicked woman," who did her best to embitter his life. Besides Castle Howard and Blenheim, he built many
other country mansions, such as Grimsthorpe and Duncombe Hall in Yorkshire, Eastbury in Dorsetshire.
In January 1719 Vanbrugh married Henrietta Maria, daughter of Colonel Yarborough of Heslington, and four years afterwards, at the accession of George I., he was knighted. He afterwards wrote again for the stage, and the unfinished fragment of the Journey to London (completed by Cibber as The Provok'd Hus band in 1728) shows that his powers remained to the last as fine as ever. His married life was mostly spent at Blackheath, very probably in "Bastile House" on Maze Hill, repaired in 1904 and now known as Vanbrugh Castle. His wife died there at a great age in 1776, but "Van" himself died on March 26, 1726 in his modest town house in Whitehall. The site is occupied to-day by the War Office. The famous epitaph, "Lie heavy on him, earth," is attributed to Abel Evans.
Vanbrugh's works were edited in 2 vols., 5893, by W. C. Ward (portraits). Select Plays were issued in the Mermaid Series (ed.
A. E. H. Swaen) in 1896. See G. H. Lovegrove's Life, Works and Influence of Sir John Vanbrugh (1902), Max Dametz's Vanbrughs Leben and Werke (1898), and Swift's Works (Bohn), xii. 80 sq. The Complete Works of Sir John Vanbrugh (Plays and Letters) edited by B. Dobree and G. Webb (Nonesuch Press, 1928), with introduction by B. Dobree.