Part two of our Peak District visit finds us checking out the glories of Chatsworth, and rifling through the Duke’s rooms, gardens and restaurant.
As day dawns at the Peacock at Rowsley, last night’s delicious dinner is a memory and the thought of breakfast dominates. A hotelier once told me that no matter how fantastic the hotel, no matter how great the evening meal, if guests didn’t get a good breakfast that would wipe everything else out. If it wasn’t perfect they would leave grumpy.
Of course these days it’s obligatory to lay on a breakfast that contains a lot of terrible things like muesli and fresh fruit. In many places it’s also obligatory to make guests serve themselves everything. Well, the Peacock has a spread of quality yoghurts, fruit juices and other healthy options, which you can gather for yourself, but when it comes to the hot breakfast there is a menu and table service, which is just what I like. All I want is to be allowed to read my crisp, fresh paper in peace occasionally assenting to more coffee in between bites of proper, water-free bacon and bangers that are packed with premium pork. That sunshine is cheerfully bouncing in through the garden doors and off the silverware is an added bonus.
All this means that you often want to stop to take in and photograph yet another fabulous view, but in a car you can’t do that or you’ll be hooted to death by those behind. Best to use the special spots designed for the purpose. Even better take the bus, because not only will you be doing the environment a favour the view’s better. Even a single decker bus gives you a seat higher than the stone walls and you can concentrate on the sights, not the steering. The local bus company has done well to provide services that are reasonably frequent and which go where you want to go.
And of course the walking is wonderful and it’s easy to leave the car in a recommended spot and take a circular route back to it. Miles of walks are clearly signposted for the averagely abled pedestrian, some cleverly using old railway tracks, whilst serious strutters can find challenging hikes to push them that bit farther. Car bound on this brief visit though, we headed for Chatsworth, just twenty minutes away, for some good old fashioned British nosing about in someone else’s house.
The Duke of Devonshire certainly has a nice place. Chatsworth has to be one of England’s most beautiful stately homes. Conceived and created by Sir William Cavendish and his third wife Bess of Hardwick in the mid 16th Century it is of course a long way from Devon. The title comes from the fact that a grateful King – grateful that William Cavendish had been helpful in the dissolution of the monasteries and in generally waving a sword about – wanted to stump up a suitably rewarding title and Devonshire was available.
Chatsworth itself is of course no stranger to crowds of unionised men ambling around dragging cables and eating their specified allowances of doughnuts each day. Chatsworth House appeared in the 2005 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice representing Darcy’s Pemberley and the house was also used in The Duchess (featuring Keira Knightley). Chatsworth will soon be seen in The Wolfman as well. In fact the house has a section devoted to stills pictures and souvenirs of these films and perhaps most remarkable are the pictures of how the house was made to look wintery, destroyed and ravaged for The Wolfman. Very creepy shots they are too, totally at odds with the sun kissed scene I can see in front of me as I peer out of an upstairs bedroom window and pretend that all I can see is mine, all mine.
The great iron framed greenhouse never survived the war, coal to heat it being too expensive. So in typically practical aristocratic fashion it was blown up by the army as a favour. Unfortunately at first not enough explosive was used, so rather like a Top Gear Challenge, they tried again but with a whole lot more. The greenhouse certainly went up satisfactorily that time, but lumps of iron then rained down all over the main house some distance away and smashed roof tiles and windows.
You can spend an age wandering around the house and gardens. It’s all been done very well with a nice balance between the needs of the visitor, the family and the house itself. And you can get a decent lunch in the old stables too as we found out before beetling off to take in the Bakewell festival.