Chatsworth

After walking for the last two days, we had a change of pace today as we visited Chatsworth House, the ancestral pile of the Duke of Devonshire...... and what a pile.  It is now run as a Trust, although the Duke and Duchess still live there, and it quite an amazing visitor experience.  

The house is as you would imagine full of treasures of every kind, priceless antique silverware, paintings by all the old masters, wonderful antique furniture...... it is mind boggling to see how the rich lived in years gone by...... and rather sobering to realise how the poor lived at the same time.

We enjoyed the house, but actually we enjoyed the grounds even more.  Fascinating water features, a cascade, wonderful sculpture, including an exhibition during this year of sculptures by Barry Flanagan, called 'Beyond Limits'...... most of his sculptures were of hares, varying sizes and all in different poses.   You can see one of his sculptures in my picture, called Nijinski Hare, in front of the house.

We had an amazing time, and then hit the road for the return journey, with a stop half way to allow Arthur, our coach driver, to have a break and for us all to have a bite to eat.  Arrived home around 9.30pm, tired but happy.