I’m not sure you will be able to open this link unless you have a subscription to the FT.

It’s an article by Charles Spencer on Vanbrugh, concentrating to an extent, as implied by its headline, on the owners of his houses, one of whom, the current Duke of Marlborough, is, I assume, his cousin.

Spencer has written a book about the Battle of Blenheim and clearly has a good understanding of Vanbrugh’s personality and cultural milieu.

Not so sure about the fuzzy photographs.

They should maybe have illustrated it with Nick Howard’s amazingly beautiful and atmospheric aerial photographs of Castle Howard in all weathers which you can find on Instagram.

What it’s like to live in one of Sir John Vanbrugh’s masterpieces –

https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/f6a38386-a57a-4c89-916d-dec1e3fad15b via @FT