England Adventure #5

Well, I definitely feel like I am in England. It is grey, overcast, rainy and windy. Our day started heading 25 miles northwest to Lyme Park, the exterior of Mr. Darcy's home in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. We arrived on the grounds early and had to wait to get into the gardens and house. The grounds were less extensive than at the other houses we have visited. We hiked through the deer park, seeing various king of deer grazing in the unspoiled meadows. Daughter 1 didn#t have any interest in seeing the inside of Lyme Park, but once we arrived we decided to take a tour of the house. We loved the house even though no filming took place inside. While it was smaller than some of the other houses we have toured so far, it had a wonderful atmosphere, very comfortable and warm. We headed back through the countryside towards Haddon Hall. The countryside was green and lush, full of sheep and cattle. Nestled in a valley, the hills were rolling with stone walls. Haddon Hall is the home to films including, Pride and Prejudice 2005, Jane Eyre 2007 and The Other Boleyn Girl. Haddon Hall is the oldest house we have seen so far - it looked more like a castle and was a bit run down. Pride and Prejudice used two rooms for filming - the banqueting hall and the dining parlor. The hall acts as the dining room at the inn in Lambton - where Elizabeth hides from Mr. Darcy behind a curtain. The parlor is Elizabeth's bedroom at the inn - where Mr. Darcy paces when Elizabeth finds out her sister has run off. I can understand why they used so little of the house; it is not as grand as other houses. Next we headed south to the Carriage Museum in Darley Dale, which owns all of the carriages used in both Pride and Prejudice films as well as Jane Eyre 2007. We had to sweet talk them into opening the doors for us - they had closed early because they had not had any visitors all afternoon! After a long conversation about how boring it was to wait around movie sets all day and drive horses over and over again re-filming scenes, we headed out in the rain with laundry on our minds. We made our way to Matlock only to find that the laundromat closes at 2 on Sundays. We headed the 10 miles back to Bakewell for dinner at The Castle Inn. Food so far? We have had great chicken dishes, beef pies, fish and chips, soups, one bad sandwhich, and we have forced ourselves to try many different sweets! So now, we are quite at our leisure and not sure what to do. But the greater concern is where and when will we have time to do laundry!

Note: picture postings still postponed!