Chatsworth House
This morning we left the Cambridge for Chatsworth House. The house is located in Derbyshire, England. England is divided into several districts based on geographical regions. Derbyshire is in the Peak District, which includes the southern end of the Pennies mountain range.
The drive to Chatsworth House was one of the highlights of the trip for us. The fields are full of sheep and cows and are divided by hedge rows. It is some of the most picturesque landscapes we have ever seen.
My pictures don’t do the scenery justice. We drove in a single “carriage” lane from the “carriage way” (“highway”) to the great house. It was such a rural road, that I had to verify the way several times with Tiff to make sure I was still heading in the right direction.
Crossing over a one way cobble stone bridge and heading down a long lane surrounded by trees, sheep, and fields we glimpsed the house from the road. The building is simply magnificent to behold.
Interior
The home has been owned exclusively by the Cavendish Family (the Dukes and Duchess of Devonshire for over 400 years. The house is mentioned in the book Pride and Prejudice, as one of the estates Elizabeth Bennet visits while traveling with her aunt and uncle before arriving at Pemberley. Ironically almost two hundred years later, the 2005 movie of the book used Chatsworth House as Pemberley. The house was also used as Pemberley in the recent BBC mini series “Death Comes to Pemberley.”
Only 26 of the 126 rooms are on show for the public and the home is still used as a residence for the Cavendish family. Each room we visited is impressively adorned. The house was one of the earliest with indoor plumbing and running water, in the 1600s. Most rooms have lavishly painted ceilings depicting various historical scenes. In the sitting room, the artist depicted the house maid at the time as one of the three fates. Apparently they didn’t get along very well.
The house is full of artwork, with original sketches from Divinci, Van Dyke, and other great artists. In fact, the house has the largest collection of sketches in the United Kingdom outside the National Gallery in London.
One piece that caught my attention is a marble sculpture entitled the “Veiled Lady” by the artist Raffaele Monti.
Exterior
In addition to the gorgeous interiors, are the extensive grounds. I think this visit is my favorite of all of the things we have done in the United Kingdom. The grounds include fountains, tree lined boulevards, coal tunnels, hunting lodges, ponds, waterfalls, greenhouses, and an interactive farm.
We spent almost two hours walking in the gardens and grounds. Simply amazing. Stories have it that bananas were introduced to the sixth Duke of Devonshire in the 1830s. With the help of his greenhouse several trees were planted to produce the Cavendish banana. The Duke gave five banana trees to missionaries, including Robert Hardie, who were traveling to the pacific islands. Only one partial plant survived the voyage, but this was rooted, and became the introduction of bananas to the Polynesian islands.
Another cool discovery was the coal tunnel, built to allow employees of the house to gather coal while avoiding the elements, and the hedge maze. The Coal Tunnel was pretty dark and damp, and a little low.
I had to crouch down in several places to avoid hitting my head. I also saw some of the biggest Black Widows down there. But it was really neat. The tunnel is not very well lighted, so at night it would be extremely dark.
The other major feature which brought Tiff and I a lot of amusement was the Hedge Maze. The maze is located several hundred yards away from the house, in a garden like area. The area is not visible from the main house. The entrance to the maze area is an archway. It is a truly romantic area. The arch itself is dedicated to the fallen soldiers of World War I. During the first World War, the House was used as a training facility for soldiers. Individuals who worked on the estate lost their lives. (As a side note, during World War II, the house was conscripted and several teenage girls were sent to live there while they received their education).
I hate to admit this but it took us almost 30 minutes to manage our way through the maze. Going through it I couldn’t help imagining the maze scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
In this picture, Tiff and I are standing on a center pedestal overlooking the maze itself. It was quite entertaining. (It didn’t take us nearly as long to get out of the maze). I did almost ruin it for a young father letting his 3 year old daughter lead him through the maze. I told them which way to go. :-(. My bad.
While I wouldn’t say the House is on a mountain, the grounds certainly had a mountainous feel to them. The way back to the house was just as romantic and luxurious as the way to the maze and water areas.
Concluding our tour we quickly viewed the old stables which have been renovated into gift shops and a restaurant. We did not stay to take advantage of ether amenity, but we did share a good meat pie at the entrance gift shop.
On our way out of the Estate, after we exited what I would call the driveway, we came up upon a lone sheep in the middle of the road. I drove as near to the sheep as I felt comfortable, and then I honked the horn. This sheep, was a Honey Badger. He didn’t care. He just kept walking forward until I couldn’t see him in front of the car. I honked some more but to no avail. Eventually, Tiff had to get out of the car and try to shoo the sheep.
When that didn’t work, I rolled down my window and started snapping my fingers and yelling at the sheep, until he eventually left our side of the road to block the car coming down the other side of the road. Then the sheep proceeded to lick the front fender of their car. I eventually scared the sheep by yelling at him. I must be good at that (you can ask my children) because the sheep ran off into the field.
York
From Chatsworth House we drove the 2 hours to York where we were to stay that night. We arrived at the Monksbar Hotel around 4:00 pm. Since it was later in the afternoon we decided to do a little shopping in the old part of York before bedtime.
Constantine & York
York is an interesting town. Originally built by the Romans. In 306 AD Constantine (oh, Istanbul was Constantinople . . . puttin’ on the ritz) was appointed, by his father and his father’s legions, in York (Eboracum) Augustus, or Roman leader of France (Gaul) and Britain. Constantine is an important figure in Christianity, as he the first Roman Emperor who stopped persecuting the Christians and adopted the religion as the empire’s official faith. In 325 AD he summoned the scholars of the time to Nicaea to set doctrine forth for Christianity. It is from this counsel that many principles such as the “Holy Trinity” were set forth. You can still see the remnants of the roman roads below York Minster.
Derby Day
Unbeknownst to us, that day was derby day, and the ladies were all out in full force in their dresses and hats to celebrate the horse races from that day. I admit they were dressed with quite a bit less clothing than Eliza Doolittle.
Most had on elegant hats, but a lot were pretty scantily clad. We did spot one or two ladies which were dressed very elegantly. But those ladies were few and far between. A lot were intoxicated. Not very becoming.
The Shambles & Ghost Tours
To end our night we walked down the Shambles, one of the worlds oldest medieval streets. The street derives its name from the term “Fleshammels” which is literally translated to mean Flesh Shelves. Basically these were shelves which butchers would put their cut meat on. Some of the buildings date back to the early 1300s.
When they were built, however, the engineers did not use a foundation. As such a lot of the buildings have a leaning look, or a sagging look. Now they all house stores and restaurants. Some restaurants have been there since the early 1600s like the Golden Fleece which is still in use today. (Its also the most haunted pub in England, which gets its reputation from a hangman who used to do his duty while drunk).
Across from the Golden Fleece Pub we met our guild for the Ghost Walk Tour. I did a lot of research on this one. York is known as the most haunted city in the United Kingdom. There are dozens of ghost walks there. The one you want to use has been rated the best tour for years.
It is called “the Ghost Hunt” of York. You can find information on it at www.ghosthunt.co.uk. Our guide “Dan” did a great job intermixing humor, magic (watch out for the water), and horror in his little over an hour walk. The tour costs £ 5, so its not very expensive. Dan told some impressive stories. One included a story about a little girl who fell down several flights of stairs to her untimely demise, while her doctor father held a party.
Another one included a tale about a children’s workhouse supervisor who went insane and murdered all of his boys, after one who he thought was dead and in the basement with the other bodies of the rotting dead children, awoke and begged him to release him. Unfortunately, the wicked old man snapped when awoken (I know people you really shouldn’t wake when they are asleep or even in the morning for that matter) and killed the remaining children. They hung him for it.
Dan also told about a man and woman whose daughter contracted the plague and they locked her in the house and just left her. Tiff and I read a book on this and this was not uncommon. I probably would have died with my child, because I couldn’t have just left them there. Anyway he told more stories, but these were just some highlights. He was very good and super funny. He reminded me a little of Matt Meese from Studio C.
Day 6 was pretty busy. I’m exhausted.
Christiansen Travel 