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There's no place like home, but Derbyshire comes a close second.
The landscape forces 'ooh!' out at every turn - breathtakingly beautiful.

Sunday: Chatsworth
I wasn't really expecting much to be honest, and I don't think I appreciated it at the time, but it outshone Monday's visit to Lyme. In a fight, Chatsworth would win; it's bigger and better in every way.
We only went round the house as the H & G's kids were getting restless.

Unlike most stately homes, Chatsworth allows photographs to be taken.
One of TypePad's failings is it's a pain in the arse to put photos in posts, so I'm afraid you'll have to do with links to the pictures.

This is the cascade, viewed from the house.
The fountain only gets switched on to full height for ten minutes or so at 2pm daily, which we missed.
P&P3 fans: It wasn't until we came back through the Painted Hall that I realised why it seemed familiar. The sculpture gallery has Matthew Macfayden's Darcy bust and Keira's Lizzy dress. That sculpture of the veiled lady is absolutely amazing.
And I saw The Steps, but didn't take a picture of them. They're only steps, for goodness sake!

Monday: Lyme Hall
Lyme was disappointing in that nothing was quite as I'd imagined it would be. I was last there aged about ten, and was surprised that I remembered nothing past the entrance gates. In comparison to Chatsworth, it's all a bit shabby. It is in the process of being renovated and is covered in scaffolding - but still, no excuse for peeling paint on the dining room ceiling.
The gardens are very pleasant and compact. Favourite place was the greenhouse / conservatory, with its lovely mossy fountain.
P&P2 fans: Lyme doesn't have the approach view from the road that Lizzy and the Gardiners see; that view can only be gained from a footpath by the lake, which I doubt is a mile round, let alone ten.
However, Lyme has steps worth taking pictures of.
It's a mile from the park gates to the house; the phrase 'shall we reach the house before dark, do you think?' is compulsory.

Both were not cheap to get into; Lyme was £4.50 just for parking, but that cost was reimbursed against the £6.50 price of entry to house and gardens and Chatsworth was £10.75.
Comparable to the cost of a trip to the cinema I suppose.

The Peak District appears to have the highest concentration of speed camera warning signs in the entire country. I don't understand why; being surrounded by stunning views on all sides, the last thing you want to do is rush through it.

Comments

[Teresa]

Beautiful, beautiful, photos!! I think I am IN LOVE with Chatsworth. I wish I could go there next week while on vacation instead of South Carolina, but alas no money and too many liquid products to bring with me on the plane. BTW: The statues all look so awesome and the Landscaping! Stunning!!

I got a little pang of sadness to see Lyme Park covered in tarp and to read your comment about the peeling paint. But I recovered when I rememebered that the Pemberley interiors were shot in another house. As much as I heart Chatsworth, Lyme will always be Pemberley in my eyes.

I hope you have posted a link to this post at DWG, Everyone there would love to see these, I am sure!

[Kirsty]

I had the same feelings about Lyme until I visited. Perhaps it was wrong of me to do Lyme so soon after Chatsworth, as it just seemed puny in comparison.
Anyway, I'm sure I read somewhere (probably Austenblog) that although Darcy was rich, he wasn't rich enough to afford a place the size and quality of Chatsworth.

[Teresa]

Totally agree! He only (snort: only?) had 10,000 a year. I read somewhere that the Duke of Devonshire living in the same period as the ficticous Fitzwilliam Darcy had something like 100,000 a year and that his daughters dowery was 50,000 pounds. But then, the Dukes of Devonshire did/do have property all over England and Ireland.

Andrew Davies made a comment on the P&P2 DVD that to the effect that "Darcy was the richest man in all of Derbyshire." Um? NOT!

The rest of you non-Janeites: Talk amongst yourselves. ;-)

[Mags]

The Duke of Devonshire's income was more like 600,000, I'm pretty sure. Definitely six figures. Darcy could not have supported such a spectacular house. You might have read it in my many rantings on AustenBlog, Kirsty, but the idea did not originate with me. I heard it at the JASNA AGM in 2000 in a talk on visiting great houses, like the Gardiners and Lizzy did, just knocking on the door and asking the housekeeper to show one round. It was a common practice and some housekeepers retired quite comfortably on the "vails" (tips) that they received for their services.

[Missy]

Thanks for sharing your pictures! Seems funny that Chatsworth kept the Darcy bust. According to the Dec. 2005 edition of The English Home magazine: "the Sculpture Gallery ... walls were covered in red velvet drapes." The movie production team convinced the Chatsworth staff to take down the drapes for the movie and the end results looked so good, the drapes were not put back up. It would be interesting to see what the gallery looked liked with the red drapes...the white walls do look great.

[Kirsty]

I watched the Pemberley scenes of both films last night and it was interesting to see that there appears to be an empty room at the end of the sculpture gallery - where the gift shop is now! The scene where Lizzy happens upon Georgiana and Darcy must've been shot in a part of the house the general public aren't allowed in - I don't remember seeing it at all!

At Lyme the viewer is misled by some clever filming - they've used the landscape in a way which would not actually be possible to do in reality. When Lizzy is in a flap to leave after bumping into Darcy, she seems to walk across the front of the house - but coming from where? The whole of that entrance with the circle of grass and the archway is fenced off by railings - she couldn't have actually been coming from anywhere. Then when she leaves in the carriage and turns back to look at Darcy, that 'road' is just a footpath round the garden.

[Kathryn]

Great photos, even for someone who (dare I say it) hasn't seen the movie yet. It's always fun to visit a location used in a film and see how they cheat it in various ways to create an entirely new "space."

BTW, what's with the "LOVE" statue in the middle of the cascade at Chatsworth? Seems a tad out of place.

[Kirsty]

There's a sculpture exhibition on soon, so these huge sculptures were dotted around the grounds in preparation for that.
You can see another sculpture on the right hand side of the Chatsworth fountain picture.

[sandy]

love the pics, I too was a little disappointed with Lymme Park