English Sunshine

A lovely day in the English sunshine... Also known as rain. :) As a native Bellinghamster, a little rain never scared me... The plan for today? Chatsworth...

Chatsworth is an amazing, enormous old stately home. It is one of the biggest in Britain I believe. It has been the setting of many novels and movies, as well as some real life adventures...

So this morning we all had a nice slow start. Once we were up we had a traditional full English breakfast... SO tasty!!!!! We, Ben, Steve, Mairi and I, set off through the rain... The drive to Chatsworth was beautiful. When we got onto the estate, there were sheep grazing inches from the road and wandering all about. There was a huge herd of deer as well. The grounds around the house are worth the trip, not even factoring in the house. There are rolling hills dotted with sheep. A gently meandering river. Stands of trees stretching their arms to the sky. Breathtaking. But the house itself... Beyond description...

Never have I seen such grandeur. The opulence. And most of it quite tasteful. The outstanding opulence is not over done... That may seem contradictory, but it's true! The pictures I took, don't do it justice... When once we had finished touring the house, we exited out onto the back lawn. We strolled up to the magnificent fountain on the hill, then made our way through to the car, past the place where Mary Queen of Scots used to go for her exercise when she was being held prisoner at the house...

Next we headed to Bakewell. It's a town connected to the estate. What I could see of it from under my hood was lovely. We went to a tea shop. The afternoon tea was amazing! So good and so filling. We finished with Bakewell Pudding. Absolutely delicious! We went to the farm shop next, the headed home... It was a tiring, but fantastic day...

Looking back over this post, I see it is rather short, but the day was so full... But Chatsworth isn't something that can be understood by reading it in type... You have to see it to understand. So be sure to travel to Derbyshire and visit Chatsworth and Bakewell!