Friday, 5 September 2014

Chatsworth House





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There are the Orangery Gift Shop - which sells beautiful Chatsworth inspired gifts, including favourites chosen by the Duke, Duchess and Lady Burlington.

The awe-inspiring gardens with the nature colours catching the light.

What a perfect day out from noisy and dirty city.



My favourite bit of any large garden is the Kitchen walled Garden. I would love to work in here.  The walled garden is on a very sunny slope and they even had watercress growing in a pond fed by a man made stream, which then went on to water the greenhouses.
The green houses were growing all manner of items including melons and banana, an apples and pears were growing in an old orchard as well as over the arches. They use every inch of space.

They grow everything organically here and they run courses throughout the year in the gardens.
One of the problems with Chatsworth is that there really is too much to see and do in a day. We spent all day in the gardens and didn't see all of them.


There was so much to see and do, it would have been better to spend a couple of days there and after seeing just a fraction of the property I wished I could have stayed overnight at the Cavandish Hotel within the grounds of Chatsworth House.


It is a beautiful walk from this hotel to the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. I love to feel apart of a bygone era. The whole place comes alive when you are told all the stories and history of the place. We were especially interested in the paintings and tales of Georgiana, the relative of Diana.


The garden glass house has many exotic plants, they grow their own bananas and pineapples. There is the wonderful cascading water falls and fabulous watering tree. For the lovers of fine art and sculpture it is a must do as the collection in the home is exquisite.

Pride and Prejudice and the Duchess was filmed here. Queen Mary was imprisoned there and you can see the exercise yard that was built for her. The young Princess Victoria ( later Queen Victoria) aged 13 years stayed here and had her first adult dinner party in her honor.

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The gardens held the charming elegance and beauty but the house is not to my taste - too overblown for me as I prefer the simple lived-in quality of but it is definitely classic art and modern splendour to be admired and it absolutely worth a visit even on a cold and rainy day.














































That door has a violin hanging on it.
Except that it isn't actually a violin at all.
It's a painting of a violin - Trompe L'Oeil by William Harnett.








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