E-L-E-G-A-N-T Chatsworth! Over the Top!!!!

So we left the serene Newstead Abbey and moved on to an entirely different kind of house.  BIG BUCKS!! 

Chatsworth is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and some home it is!!!  You may have seen it in the movies.  Keira Knightley played the Duchess of Devonshire and it was Pemberley, home of Mr. Darcy, in Pride and Prejudice.

It would have also been the home of Kathleen Kennedy, JFK's sister, had her husband survived the war.  He was the heir to Chatsworth but was killed in Belgium making Kathleen the dowager duchess.  However, she was killed in a plane crash in 1948.

The house has a long history dating back to Elizabeth I.  It has been expanded and grown ever more elegant throughout the centuries.

Set on thousands of acres in Derbyshire, it is a beautiful place.  Just the drive to the house is gorgeous.

Note the sign warning you to watch out for the lambs!

They weren't kidding!

So here is Chatsworth....it is HUGE

This building houses the stables!!

So in we went.  This is wealth on a GRAND scale.  Check out the art in this main room that goes up two stories.

This is the chapel!!

This is one of the doorways located THROUGHOUT the house!

Of couse every wealthy aristocratic family has it's share of scandal.  This Duke engaged in a menage a trois with his mistress (picture upper right) and his wife (lower right).  The movie Duchess of Devonshire with Keira Knightley was based on this famous arrangement.

I was especially taken with the gorgeous bedrooms and would take any one of them, any day!!!

Okay, enough of the bedrooms, let's eat!!!

Or perhaps some after dinner reading in the library!

Chatsworth also has some magnificent art, gorgeous sculptures of which this veiled figure is my favorite (you may have seen it in Pride and Prejudice), it is much more beautiful in person as is the Chatsworth lion.

Check out one of their chandeliers!!

And more gorgeous sculpture....

Had enough splendor, now let's go outside!

That was Chatsworth!!!

Now as an aside I will tell you an interesting story.  The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, mother of the duke of Chatsworth was one of the Mitford sisters who lived in the Cotswolds.  Her sister was in love with Hitler and bore his love child!!  He is in his 70's and has been located in South America.  He was stunned to find out who is father was, never knew.

Surprised?????  Me, too!  I'm going to check it out online when I get home!