The house was surprisingly light for an old place – it certainly wasn’t lacking in big windows.
Even though we didn’t venture out into the formal gardens (it was much too cold for that) we did get a sneak peak at them.
All posts by Sandra Graham
Inside Chatsworth House – Part 1
We entered Chatsworth House, and what an entrance it was.
The original house was Elizabethan but was added to over the years. The facade of the northern wing that we saw was an 18th Century creation, but in the entrance hall one could see the original Elizabethan vision, with its wonderful Italian fresco ceiling.
The grand staircase contained portraits of inhabitants past and present. The main painting of the horseman with sabre drawn was of the 1st Duke of Devonshire, who lived in the 17th Century.
Walk to Chatsworth House – Part 4
It was getting colder by the minute.
We hoped that the house would appear soon. And it did.
Chatsworth is a grand old house, and very popular with visitors. There were quite a few in the house and in the grounds, and it was a weekday in the dreads of March. I imagine that there would be twenty times that amount on a nice July weekend.
We passed through the golden gates.
And into the inner garden, where there were lots of little things of interest.
Next, we enter the house proper.
Walk to Chatsworth House – Part 3
We passed yet more sheep grazing in snowy pastures.
But some of these sheep were definitely on the move to (not quite) greener pastures.
The grass near the river seemed to be a bit more inviting.
Although the water looked very forbidding in the cold weather.
Walk to Chatsworth House – Part 2
The landscape opened up the further into the park we went.
We were greeted by open parkland with grazing herds of sheep and deer. The latter might have been kept exclusively for sport in the old days, but now they are also farmed, like the sheep. The produce is sold at the estate’s impressive farmyard shop.
We didn’t have too much time to get used to the sun before it disappeared again.
Luckily, the sheep were there to show us the way to the house so we really couldn’t get lost.
Walk to Chatsworth House – Part 1
I’m back home, and I certainly have had a few adventures as well as taken a few photos. I probably have enough for posts for the rest of the year!
When we left off, we had just ventured through snowy Matlock and Bakewell in Derbyshire, but our destination for the day was Chatsworth. It’s the country home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, and has been since Tudor times, but as a 19th Century literature and drama fan, Chatsworth is one of those places that come up regularly. It is mentioned by Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice, and appears regularly in TV and film as either somewhere very grand, e.g. Mr Darcy’s house, Pemberley, or as itself (as in the film, The Duchess). I particularly visited Derbyshire to see it, and the day was a very big adventure indeed.
After walking to Matlock and catching a local bus to Bakewell, we took yet another bus that dropped us off at Baslow, on the northern edge of the estate – in the middle of a blizzard.
We crossed a bridge and ventured along the country lane to the entrance of the Chatsworth Park.
It really was as cold as it looks, especially with an icy wind blowing. But as we passed through the gates, the sun miraculously appeared, and what did we see? Sheep!
Lovely, black-faced, heritage sheep, grazing in the snow.
They didn’t seem to feel the cold at all. And the parkland with its old trees and pastures were so glittering in the sunlight and beautiful. As far away from dusty Australian paddocks as could be.
Snowy Matlock and Bakewell
We walked through the snow to the nearby town of Matlock. The cottages looked so pretty in the snow.
We took a bus to the town of Bakewell, home of the Bakewell tart and pudding. A market was in full-swing in the square, despite the snow.
The town’s architecture was quaint, with no power lines in sight. It was like being in a period drama.
But the weather got to us, and soon we were in a tearoom, drinking tea and eating the famous pudding. Incidently, the tart and pudding don’t really resemble each other at all, aside from the smattering of jam at the bottom of the case. The tart has a short pastry crust and an almond filling, while the pudding had a puff crust and a custard filling.
Snowy Derwent River
From our window, everything was white – the front yard, the stone fence, the footpath, the park…
I went out straight away to explore. Luckily the fresh snow wasn’t slippery, yet. The B&B and the hillside behind looked like a classic Christmas scene.
The River Derwent flowed in the gully below. On a summer’s day, it would be a nice place to sit, but not on a frozen, snowy day.
Still, there were many details to savour – snow on the branches and trunks, for example.
Snow on the leaves and ground cover.
It was all so fascinating for me, even if it was freezing cold, so it won’t surprise you that I have plenty more snow scenes to share.
Matlock Bath… and a Morning Surprise
We stayed at The Cables B&B, with homely cottage rooms, great breakfasts, and even greater dinners. It is half-way between the towns of Matlock Bath and Matlock. Matlock Bath is a tourist town that was quite forlorn out of season, while Matlock is a working town.
The B&B sits under High Tor, a granite cliff that towers over the river Derwent. This was our view in the afternoon upon arriving.
But we got a shock the next morning… snow!
More snowy adventures soon.
Across the Pennines
We are heading now to the north of England, where it was distinctly colder than the south! After visiting some relatives in Lancashire, we took the train across the Pennines, the ridge of hills and mountains between the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire.
The ride took us from the old Lancashire town of Accrington, to the Yorkshire city of Leeds. Along the way, we passed through many villages.
Many were built from local stone and dated back to the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century, when many were mill towns.
And we passed many pastures, moors, and snow-covered hill-tops. Spring-time snow, that’s a novelty for a Sydney-sider!
Static and Silence 