Chatsworth House is the manor where The Duchess and Pride & Prejudice (2005 version), both starring Keira Knightley, was filmed. Angel really wanted to see this grand house, as she enjoyed both films. This is also the actual house that The Duchess lived in, Georgiana... Keira Knightley's character in the film. She was the trendsetter in her days and it was her that made the top-heavy powdery wigs fashionable in England. She is also a direct ancestor of Diana, the late Princess of Wales.
It is a 40 minute drive from our hotel to Chatsworth, much of it on narrow lanes winding along the countryside. In fact, we looked at Google maps last night to get a gist of where we were driving to and 95% of the map showed green! It's all farmland!
We planned to get there right when it opened, which is a late 11AM. But when we got there around 10:50AM, we discovered a lot of people already beat us to the punch! On a raining Wednesday! There is a free tour of the history of the manor in front of the house at 11:05Am that we wanted to catch. Fortunately, a tour guide saw us standing near the tour sign, and either nobody knew of the tour or were too excited to get into the house, but we were the only guests the tour guide took in to the "servant wing." There, she gave an overview of the long history of the manor. It was built by Bess of Harwick and her 2nd husband (out of 4!), William Cavendish, in Elizabethan times. Bess of Harwick rose from gentry to become the 2nd richest woman in England in her days... most of her wealth was acquired through marriage ^.^ That gives us gals some ideas what to look for ~_^ hehe j/k
The original building that Bess and William built was demolished and in its place, the present main building was built. Later on, in the 19th century, a gigantic wing was built to accommodate the many servants needed to run the huge estate (over 105 acres). The 1st Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish (a descendant of Bess and the original William), was awarded the seat for helping overthrow King James II and putting James' daughter Queen Mary on the throne. The 5th Duke is the one made famous by the movie The Duchess, for having a 20-year-long menage a trois with his wife and her best friend, Elizabeth Foster. Georgiana also had many affairs, her most infamous being with Charles Grey, the 2nd Earl Grey (after whom the tea was named!).
The famous Gainsborough painting of Georgiana, with her plumed hat (another of her trends) and poofed hair:
The tour guide talked about the many paintings in the manor, as well as how the present-day Dukes make a living now off their estates. There are 13-14 Dukes in all of England now and after WWII, heavy taxes were levied for the first time in history on their properties. Nearing 80% tax on all property owned, it took the 11th Duke & Duchess of Devonshire about 25 years to pay off all the taxes on his properties through selling off various properties and works of art. They made the decision to place Chatsworth house in a Trust, which is why the public can view the house today and how the house derives its income to pay for upkeep and restoration.
Here is the Veiled Vestel Virgin marble statue that was shown in Pride & Prejudice (2005 version):
The staircase:
This is what the English call a "buffet" (It's a symbol of wealth because the fruits are exotic and the display is usually ostentatious):
Another symbol of wealth is having porcelain in your home (Dutch was favored as the 2nd best after Chinese, and was at the time, more accessible to Europeans than Chinese porcelain):
One thing we've noticed about all the estates we've been to in Europe is that Chinese craftsmanship was highly valued and regarded and a symbol of wealth. We've seen rice wallpaper painted with Chinese designs, Chinese porcelain, Chinese wall screens and much more decorating the lavish European mansions.
The dining room:
Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, has an exhibit devoted to her in honor of her 90th birthday. She is the 11th Duchess, and was integral to how Chatsworth became beloved and accessible to the public. She is still actively involved and lives (based on the exhibit) a very full life!
A diary excerpt from when she was a young girl, where she describes dancing with JFK ("rather boring though nice"):
She also talks about her London season, and meeting Andrew, her future husband. At the time, Andrew was 2nd son, but his older brother, the heir, died in combat. His wife, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy (sister to John & Bobby), died in a plane crash not much later.
We also learned that Henry Cavendish (grandson to the 2nd Duke of Devonshire) is the first man to accurately weigh the earth by the Cavendish experiment. He was a shy and reclusive man, and spent his life doing many scientific experiments.
Angel asked earlier in the day if "Cavendish is a type of dish or just a last name" and the answer, based on our outing today, is just a last name. :P
The Sculpture Room, also featured in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice:
Also in the Sculpture Room are 2 large lions, which are not even the original sculptures but look like they could be! The originals are in Italy but the 6th Duke liked them so much that he wanted exact replicas made. All the sculptures in the room are by his friend, Canova, and are breathtakingly beautiful and delicate, given that it's marble! But in the 1950s when classical statues were not in vogue, the whole room's worth of statues was valued at less than 1000 pounds!
Chatsworth historically used to make all the beers on site, but sometime in the last century, they sectioned the brewery off and named it Peak Ales. They discovered that local gardeners were tapping into the beer supply and named one of their beers after this, the "Gardener's Tap":
Flora's Garden (LOVE the name!):
where they had tulip bulbs on the ground, free for the picking (and a LOT of people were picking! Too bad we can't bring bulbs back into the States!):
The Chatsworth estate is huge, and you can get lost in the gardens (we almost did). The Cascade is in the middle, and the water is pumped in from a source 400 feet higher up than the house. Grillet, the engineer who designed this, made each cascade step a different height, to vary the sound of falling water. Brilliant!
The Rock Garden:
Sculpture Pathway:
The largest gravity-fed fountain in the world:
Our first encounter ever with a pheasant! He was quite nice and stopped to pose for the camera:
The 1st Duke of Devonshire's greenhouse:
By the time we were done with the House and Gardens, it was already 4pm! The day flew by so quickly, especially since I thought we'd be done in 2 hours! We drove up to Chatsworth's Farm Shop:
where we bought Cappuccino truffles from the House of Dorchester:
We also bought Pork Pie (we loved the Pork & Stilton one we bought yesterday) for 97 pence! They had a large Pork & Stilton Pie for 1.97 so we got that one too ^.^ They add gelatin to the ground pork, and the gelatin is made from a very flavorful broth. The pie crust is flaky.
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