After leaving Lyme Park we drove through the Peak District toward Chatsworth.
The roads were pretty good and the scenery was some of the prettiest I have ever seen in my life.
I drove right past the entrance to the big house so we had to turn around but not before going over a cool one lane stone bridge. As I drove back up the hill we were able to get a better view of Chatsworth house.
There are the deer too!
We turned down the drive and made our way toward the house.
They have a really big parking area so we were able to quickly and easily find a place to park.
We were still in our church style clothes and were quite cold and our dress shoes were really muddy and wet. So we took a minute in the car to change into jeans, socks, and our Converse.
So glad we did that as it was still cold and damp outside.
Chatsworth, as I said before, is the location used for the 2005 Pride and Prejudice Pemberley. It has also been the setting for a lot of other movies, including The Duchess which also starred Keira Knightley.
We were pretty excited as we walked through the gate and up the lane to the entrance.
Then we started our tour of the house.
This place is massive and there wasn't one inch of it that wasn't ornately decorated.
The grounds were massive as well. They say the estate is the size of Washington D.C.
You could spend days exploring this place.
We had a few hours.
The Painted Hall:
The Oak Room:
A small model of Chatsworth inside the Oak Room...
The Chapel:
The 17th century chairs in the chapel ...
Every ceiling was painted. It was quite incredible.
The Great Stairs....
The State Drawing Room:
Looking out the window....
The State Music Room:
The above picture shows something I thought was quite cool..
It looked like a door was open into a hallway showing a violin hung on another door.
But it is actually a painting of a door with a violin on it.
The State Bedroom:
The hallways were lined with sculptures, furniture, and artwork.
This house felt more like a museum than a house.
Some of the many bedrooms...
The Queen of Scots' dressing Room:
The Leicester Bedroom:
The multiple roomed library (my favorite part of the house of course):
We found my mom's favorite statue from Pride and Prejudice in here...
The Great Dining Room:
It was here that Queen Victoria had her very first formal adult dinner when she was thirteen years old.
The Sculpture Gallery:
The two lions are exact copies of the sleeping lions at St. Peter's in Rome.
They were commissioned by the 6th Duke in 1823.
After exploring the house, we went into the Orangery where they have the gift shop.
Amazingly I didn't get anything there.
Then we walked the grounds for a while.
"Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy, Mrs. Darcy..."
The house was under construction while we were there so you can see the scaffolding.
This house was truly amazing to see.
I told my mom that it didn't feel like a home, though.
It really did feel like a museum. You can tell that the family, through the years, have really loved art in all of its forms. I found it hard to believe that they still live there. But they do.
After exploring the grounds, we stopped in at one of the little cafe's and got chicken pasty's and chips.
They were really good.
We sat in the car and ate while looking at the surrounding scenery and then drove off taking a few more pictures as we went.
Next up: Arriving at our cottage in the Cotswolds
