Chatsworth House in the Peak District

The first weekend after Fresher's Week and before classes, I went home with Matt. His family lives in Newton Burgoland, a small village in Leicestershire. The main town near it is Ashby de la Zouch, which is where he went to school. We left Saturday afternoon and arrived in the early evening. I went with his family to a nearby pub for dinner, which was the first good meal I had since getting to England! The picture below shows the atmosphere of the pub and how cultured the inside of the restaurant was.

While trying to figure out where we should go the next day, we saw that Chatsworth House, where a large portion of the movie "The Duchess" was filmed, was within driving distance. Matt and I decided to go there because we had just seen the movie and I really wanted to be able to go to the same place it was filmed!
The weather forecast said it was suppose to rain all weekend, but after driving for 15-30 minutes- the skies cleared up and it was warm and sunny for the rest of the day! It was a wonderful day!!
Chatsworth House is located in the Peak District, which is once of England's National Parks. The drive there was beautiful and green, with open fields lining the roads. When we approached the house, sheep were crossing the road in front of us just like in movies! The trees opened up and we drove up the road through a wide-spread green, valley surrounding the estate.
After parking, we walked through the gardens behind the house. Fountains, Small waterfalls, bush mazes, and flower gardens were beautiful and we had a really peaceful afternoon exploring. Afterwards, we had a small picnic in the meadow in front of the stately home and before heading toward the house itself.
I can't describe the house well enough, as it is much larger than any house I have ever encountered. It was HUGE!! We walked through story after story of the house, realizing just how much rooms there were!
Chatsworth House was a wonderful start to my traveling for the year and pictures can do it better justice than I can!!

















Back outside, we walked along one of the paths leading away from the estate to get some good pictures of the front of the house.