My view as I arrived. The green and picturesque countryside is utterly breathtaking. I was left pretty much speechless.
I’ve decided my trip yesterday to one of my “bucket-list-places” was worthy of a blog post. I know I’ve been mostly absent on here for a while, and I do apologize, but circumstances have pretty much taken my wishes out of the equation.
The important thing to take from this is how I made my way over to London for a slew of book signings plus The London Book Fair this month, and I think the trip will go down in history as one of the best I’ve ever had in jolly ole England. First off, I hit the super lottery on weather when I experienced warm-and-sunny for 14 out of the 17 days I was there. *this never happens* For April it’s an anomaly to experience anything other than cold-and-wet per the Brits who live there. Global warming anyone?
So, on one of those beautiful and rare sunshine-filled April days of my trip, I made my way to a place I’ve dreamed of visiting for more than a decade–> Chatsworth. The ancestral country estate of the Dukes and Duchesses of Devonshire situated in the Derbyshire countryside. But Chatsworth is more than just an estate though, much, much more. In fact, if you’re a fan of my books and a lover of romance, you’ve probably SEEN this famous house in a movie before…because Mr. Darcy lives there.
I’m not kidding!
Marble bust of Mr. Darcy made for the movie and now on display in the gift shop. It has a cute sign below asking that visitors “Do not kiss”
In the film Pride and Prejudice, 2005, Elizabeth Bennett travels with her aunt and uncle to the Peak District of England on a sightseeing holiday and runs into Mr. Darcy when they take a tour of “Pemberly” as played magnificently by Chatsworth House.
Mister. Darcy.
Yes, people, I love him. I fully planned on seeing him coming out of the fountain with a soaking wet shirt. Ahhh, the joys of an active imagination, true?
The walls are filled with gorgeous paintings like this one. One of the Dukes had this portrait done of his three granddaughters in the garden. Le sigh…
I took some pictures of my experience but they will never be able to do justice to what is there…house and gardens left me speechless for the most part. I just stared wide eyed and sighed a lot. This huge estate has just about everything from stunning paintings, to soulful sculpture, to country vistas of rolling hills of green, to flowers blooming beside a koi pond with friendly fat fishes in it. I just can’t even…
Let’s just leave it right here: I’m very confident you’ll see aspects of Chatsworth appear on the pages of my future books, both those set in the past as well as the present.
Happy trails,
