On day 10 we visited Chatsworth House (which was Mr. Darcy's house in the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice), toured the house, gardens, and took our first taxi ride in the UK.
Oh Chatsworth. This may sound cliche, but Chatsworth really does take your breath away when you first see it. Riding through the wooded estate grounds, then turning a corner, and there it sits on a hill surrounded by rolling green hills and grazing sheep. It's magnificent. Apparently others thought so as well because Chatsworth has appeared on film in Pride & Prejudice (the 2005 version), The Duchess, Death Comes to Pemberley, etc. etc.
We rode the train from London to Chesterfield (2 1/2 - 3 hour ride) and took a cab to Chatsworth. I highly recommend taking a cab from the station to the estate. It was much easier and quicker than figuring out how to walk into town and then discover which bus route to take. Plus the ride was about 30 minutes and only £21 so not a bad deal.
There were several cabs waiting outside of the train station (we didn't even have to call for one) and our driver was really fun! He gave us a commentary about the estate and the current duke on our way to Chatsworth. He also offered to schedule a time to pick us up from the estate and take us back to the train station that evening. He was so sweet and made our transportation incredibly easy.
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| All aboard to Chesterfield! |
Overall Chatsworth was amazing! Only a portion of the home is open to the public because the Duke and Duchess still live in the home. The first few public rooms were a little odd to me. They were not super period specific, had strange arrangements of furniture, a few rooms were staged as they would have been when the house was used as a girls school, and there were piles of giant amethysts and other minerals under random tables.
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| Grand entry hall |
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| Look at that ceiling!! |
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| Hand carved wood details |
However, if you can get past these first few strange rooms you will be pleased with the rest of the house. It felt more preserved from previous times. Similar to the Newport Mansions, there were sections of original wallpaper exposed in certain rooms, personal grooming items on vanity tables, shoes and dresses on exhibit in the bedrooms, etc.
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| That's not a hidden door with a violin hanging on it...it's a trompe l'oeil painting!! |
AND the art collection is fantastic!! The pieces are not labeled, but if you know what to look for you will notice a Rembrandt amongst other paintings in a side room, multiple Lucien Freud's in a corner hallways, the biggest John Singer Sargent I have ever seen at the top of stairs, as well as other masterpieces scattered throughout the house. It was so cool!
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| Rembrandt van Rijn, Man in Oriental Costume |
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| Thomas Gainsborough, Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire |
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| Just a few family portraits |
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| John Singer Sargent, Portrait of the Acheson Sisters |
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| Portrait of the Acheson Sisters detail |
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| A bedroom |
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| Ladies vanity table |
When we went into the library, part of the room was roped off. While I was taking a picture of the room I realized the Duke was in the library being interviewed!
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| Library |
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| The Duke in his library |
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| Dining room |
The last public space before the gift shop is the gallery of marble sculptures. It is light and open and they have some fantastic pieces. The details work is exquisite!
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| Filippo Albacini, The Wounded Achilles |
An added bonus is that the bust of Mr. Darcy from the Pride & Prejudice film is on display in the gift shop. It has a sign on it that reads, "Please do not kiss," which made me laugh because you know there had to have been an incident for the sign to be necessary.
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| Mr. Darcy!! |
After we finished exploring the house we walked to the former stables, which are enormous, and had lunch at one the three restaurants. We tried to have high tea at the super nice restaurant but it was booked for an event that day (do you research if you have your heart set on eating at a particular venue). Our lunch was tasty but a little overpriced.
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| The former stables |
Next we took a "buggy tour" of the gardens (apparently buggy means golf cart in the UK). Our tour guide was knowledgable and fun. It was an in-depth tour. We went everywhere you could go on a golf cart in the cultivated gardens and our tour guide explained the history behind each spot.
Chatsworth has 20 gardens covering 105 acres. Most of the gardens are "natural" but some are cultivated. The large fountain in front of the house typically sprouts at 80 feet but it can reach 200 feet. The estate includes thousands of acres with tenant farmers and other business on its land.
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| One of several water features on the estate, but people can play in this one :) |
They were cleaning the outside of the main house (an 8 year process) and were halfway done when we visited. You can really tell which sides are clean and which sides are dirty. The dirty sides look black due to pollution and age.
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| Clean side on the left, dirty side on the right, and yes the windows are trimmed in real gold. |
After our tour we explored the gardens on our own. They are beautiful, full of walking paths, and extremely large! We hardly made a dent. Then we went back to the cafe for a pot of tea and a scone with jam and clotted cream. Delicious!
After our leisurely tea we explored the second gift shop (there are several on the grounds) and the field in front of the house. It had been cloudy, windy, and cool all day but the sun finally decided to come out. Also, the sheep were in front of the house so I went to work taking pictures.
Then we met our cab driver, he took us back to the train station, and we went back to our temporary home in London. My only regret while visiting Chatsworth is that we did not purchase an audio tour guide. At the time I was annoyed that they charged £21.90 for a ticket plus there was an additional fee for an audio guide, not even a guided tour by a person. However, I think I would have enjoyed the house more if I had spent the money on the guide.
Overall, Chatsworth was a delight to visit and I would definitely recommend taking a day trip there if you are a Jane Austen fan, love historic estates, and/or are a horticulture enthusiast.
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