England Adventure #4

I must tell you - today I was reminded why I am here - Mr. Darcy. Today we spent 7 hours at Chatsworth House, Mr. Darcy's home Pemberley in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie. Daughter 1 was ready to have an anxiety attack - she was so excited for the day and wanted to get everything done. Well, it boiled down to - we had to take a picture in front of the house before all the people arrived. We were the first in line to get into the gardens and practically ran the whole way! But we made it! We took the picture and then we had the most delightful day. We toured the stables, the gardens and the house. The stables have been converted into a shopping and eating area. We toured azalea dells, rhododendrons, manicured lawns, wild flower fields, formal gardens, and ponds. Our feet felt every step of the 5 miles of trails. We were lucky to be apart of a three weekend fountains event - they turn 0n the fountains at full capacity to keep them working - they are very old, built in the late 17th century. The Emperor Fountain normally shoots up 50 feet high, but this morning it was 200 feet. The famous pavilion at the top of the Cascade Fountain normally sprays water only through a few statues - today water poured out from all of the statues and even the pavilion roof. It was beautiful - the water cascaded down 100 different sized steps. The house was wonderful - we scouted out sites from Pride and Prejudice, talked with guides and won special favors. They told us the locations at Chatsworth where they filmed the movie The Duchess - soon to be released this September. The highlight of the house tour was the sculpture bust of Matthew Macfadyen as seen in Pride and Prejudice. We had to tear ourselves away from Chatsworth - but the house did close at 5. So off we went to Stanage Edge and Snake Pass. Stanage Edge is the site where they filmed the scene with the sweeping cliffs in Pride and Prejudice 2005. Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) stands on the edge of the rocks overlooking the beautiful valley. We climbed to the top, took pictures and almost got blown away. Then we hiked down, turned on the seat warmers and headed up the road to Snake Pass. The 2007 mini-series Jane Eyre was filmed in a few different areas of Snake Pass. We ate dinner at The Snake Pass Inn and then headed home. Needless to say, we were dragging when we arrived at the B&B at 9! It was a nice day - and I only put 60 miles on the car!

Note: Due to the lack of wireless internet in this part of the country, pictures are not available right now. We will post a few later with corresponding labels.