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Published: March 20th 2005
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Today we actually made it out of the house in time to go exploring. Helen and I sat off for the 450-year-old Chatsworth House (if you look at the map, it's east of Chesterfield and south of the "o" in Hassop) in Derbyshire. The house was recently used in the film
Bride and Prejudice as Mr. Darcy's mansion, Pemberley, so if you see the movie you can say "I know someone who has been there!"
The area where the house (I use this term loosely) sits is in the Peak District National Park, at the south end of the Pennines between Sheffield and Manchester. Helen and I found it with no problems even though she'd never been there and I was the navigator in a foreign country with maps that I wasn't used to deciphering. We took the M1 south and got off at Junction 29 and the roundabout that was there had 6 exits--HUGE! We picked the correct exit and headed about 15 miles into the countryside.
The Chatsworth House is the home of the 12th Duke of Devonshire, and his wife, the Duchess. The grounds are huge (over 1000 acres) and the whole place is just gorgeous.
We toured the house and gardens and I can't even imagine ever living in a place like Chatsworth.
As we entered the house, we went through the Painted Hall. The walls and ceilings were all painted with huge murals by Laguerre and Ricard, French painters. Many of the scenes throughout the home were painted by these artists and depiced scenes from the times of Julius Caesar or mythological scenes. I really wish I'd paid more attention during my 4 years of Latin class and during my college level Mythology class. Oh well, that chance has long since passed.
As we walked through the home, I got to see the bed where King George II reportedly died. How cool is that? I can't believe the bed still exists. The bed was as wide as a typical bed, but it was definitely shorter since the people weren't as tall as people are now.
In the next room, the coronation chairs that they used for members of royalty whose names I don't recall were just sitting there for all to see (if my picture was better, I would have been able to read the giant plaque that said the names).
In a room, formerly known as "Closet," there was a 10-light silver chandelier that was reportedly given by William III to the first Duke of Devonshire. I'm not kidding about the room name by the way...that's what the placard said. I feel that if the room has a fireplace, its status is no longer that of a closet.
The house has its own chapel, sculpture gallery, and many other rooms that don't seem to have a purpose other than to showcase a lot of art or other interesting artifacts that the previous Dukes have collected or been given.
In the Scuplture Gallery, there are many, many sculptures and paintings by Canova, Rembrandt, Hals, Landseer, and Monti. Sitting in the middle of one of the tables was the Chatsworth Tazza which was made of one piece of fluorspar.
The Great Dining Room was first used on Princess Victoria's 13th birthday. Later, she became Queen. That was her first grown-up dinner. All the silver and glassware was incredibly pretty. I can't imagine having to wash it all after dinner because I'm pretty sure (!) that it can't go in the dishwasher. On a side table in the room,
Silver Chandelier
Sorry you're blurry Helen! there was a menu from July 4th, 1933 when George V and Queen Mary stayed at Chatsworth for the Royal Show.
After touring the house, we walked through the 105 acres of gardens. Not only were there spectacular views of the house and estate, there were also some other interesting features in the gardens. There was a traditional maze which Helen and I decided not to go into so we wouldn't get lost, a 300-year-old squirting willow tree (metal with water that comes out the branches and leaves), and the Cascade, which is a large waterfall-type structure. The Cascade has 24 steps of varying heights so as to create different sounds as the water "cascades" over each step. Also on the grounds, are various lakes and pools with sculptures and fountains. All the fountains and waterworks on the grounds are gravity fed. The Emperor Fountain is the largest gravity fed fountain with the capability for the water to reach 298 feet.
We also went through the 74-yard-long coal tunnel. Not very exciting, be we did it. The tunnel opened into the rock garden which is very cool and was just "redone" recently.
At this point, Helen and
I were just about ready to starve so we went to the Servery, which was a cafeteria-style restaurant. We both had the Jacket Potato (baked potato) with Chatsworth Filling. The potato was average size and I swear that we got no less than 1 1/2 cups of Chatsworth filling to go with it. The filling was cream cheese, cottage cheese, garlic, and I think chives. Quite tasty, but it was a lot of filling!
As we went through the line, Helen pointed out some Bakewell Tart in the dessert area of the line. She said that instead of paying the almost 3 pounds for 1 slice, we should just go to Bakewell and get a whole one for probably less. She was right! We went into the little town of Bakewell and were able to get an entire Bakewell Tart for only 2 pounds. Then we set off for home. We didn't get lost at all even though I think we came back a bit differently than we went.
Oh, on the way, we had to go through Chesterfield and I saw a church with a bent steeple. It almost looked as though it was twisted and bent.
Helen said that she thought that Chesterfield was almost famous for its church with a bent steeple.
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anonymous
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looks amazing
what a beautiful place with loads of history. your pics look great. you who have been to pemberley! - Donna