Chatsworth~ a day at a country house in Derbyshire

My very favorite thing to do in England is to take a train ride to an historic spot in the English countryside.  Last September, ten of us left St. Pancras train station very early one morning and travelled to the small town of Chesterfield, which is a short taxi ride away from the manor home of Chatsworth.  Chatsworth is a beautiful property in Derbyshire about a two hour train ride from  London.

photo: Rob Bendall

The Chatsworth house history dates back to the 16th century when Bess of Hardwick married her second husband, Sir William Cavendish.  The Cavendish line continues today.  Sir William Cavendish was one of King Henry VIII's commissioners for the dissolution of the monasteries.  When he married Bess in 1547 she persuaded him to move to her home county.  In 1552 they began to build the first house on the site.  The house was passed down through generations and the 12th Duke of Devonshire acquired the house in 2004.
The house has 126 rooms, with almost 100 of them closed to visitors.  This allows the family to live privately in their apartments while it is open to visitors.  We walked through room after room of beautiful paintings, sculptures and furnishings.

This was the main hall where we first entered

painted ceiling on the staircase going to the second floor

There are over 30,000 books in the Chatsworth library, collected over 400 years

the Great Dining Room

an example of an ornately decorated room at Chatsworth

Although our day at Chatsworth was rainy, we were lucky to be there for the annual Florabundance festival. The house was decorated with modern and traditional displays of beautiful flower arrangements.  All the rooms had floral displays that complemented the rooms.  I didn't even begin to take pictures of all the displays, but here are some of my favorites.

No tour of an English Country home is complete without a proper English tea.  We enjoyed a traditional afternoon tea of sandwiches, scones and clotted cream which were served in the Cavendish rooms, formerly the 18th century stable courtyard.

Even though our day was rainy, we were able to see some of the surrounding gardens and grounds of the estate.  The Chatsworth Estate is 35,000 acres, and the Garden alone has 105 acres~  There are fountains, waterworks and over five miles of walks with rare trees, shrubs, streams and ponds.  Today the Garden is managed by 18 gardeners and trainees.

No picture of the English countryside is complete without a few sheep (the white dots)

Barb and Marty enjoying the gardens

On our way back to the train station, our taxi driver gave us a side tour to see St. Peter's Church in the small town of Edensor, near Chatsworth. In the church yard is a cemetery where Kathleen Kennedy (President Kennedy's sister) the fourth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, is buried. She married William Cavendish, the eldest son and heir apparent of the 10th Duke of Devonshire. Four months after her marriage in 1944, her husband was killed while serving in WWII.  She was killed in 1948 in an airplane crash in Southern France. She is buried in the Cavendish family plot.

It is thought that Jane Austen visited Chatsworth in 1811 and used it as the background for Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice.   Parts of the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice were filmed at Chatsworth. 

from Chapter 43, Pride and Prejudice:

It was a large, handsome, stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills; --and in front, a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance.

On the train ride back to London, we all agreed that Chatsworth truly was exactly how Jane Austen described it.