Chatsworth

Chatsworth, i.e. Mr. Darcy's House in P&P, we where we visited today. I must say it was pretty awesome inside and out, spectacular! Here's a few pic's for the day:

I decided to venture off on my own today, and it turned out to be a pretty fun experience. I've always been with a group when we split off from our big group as a whole and go our separate ways each day, but I felt like doing my own thing today, so that is just what I did. The gardens were HUGE and since I was by myself, I was able to see basically ALL of it! :) There were so many cool ponds and hidden pathways that most people don't walk on. It was a cool little exploration day.

There was the really cool hut that overlooked one of the ponds.

So I went way out in the boonies and I found the stone wall that marks ( I assume) the edge of their property line. So there was the cool little wooden door in the middle of this solid stone wall (can we say Secret Garden) and I took a picture of the cool lock on the door.

No idea what these were, but I liked them.

In the biggest lake/pond on the grounds there is a natural fountain that sprays up to 200 ft. in the air. It's powered by the water flow coming down the mountain, and I guess they just channeled it into this fountain, pretty awesome!

I was sitting on a bench next to the fountain trying to set up a good shot with my film camera and some ducks came right up to me. Unfortunately I didn't have any food for them, but they still let me get some good pictures of them, haha.

So I toured the gardens before I actually even went into the house, but I still ended up having plenty of time to go through the whole house afterwards so that was good. This sculpture is absolutely incredible... its completely stone... wow.

The "Darcy" perhaps?

I ended up having about an hour until our bus came to get us after I finished touring the house so I decided to attempt a sketch. It was raining outside... but I went under one of the many large trees just outside of the Chatsworth House where the ground was protected and dry and started sketching Chatsworth. It was pretty windy and cold, not the best conditions for sketching, but alas I fought through the wind and cold and re-occuring wet rain drops falling on my paper and penned out most of the building. I even had my animal friends come and join me, I felt like Snow White or something, over came the lambs and ducks! haha (there were lambs/sheep running all over the grounds, it was pretty cool!)