Did I mention it was wet?

[ellarien]

DSC09668
Originally uploaded by ellarien.

The rain on the day we went to Chatsworth was very gentle, like a thick mist that left the flowers bedewed but not battered. (There were some very sad looking peonies, though. They're gorgeous things, but this is not a good part of the world for them.)

This is a detail of one of the delphiniums in the kitchen garden.

Comments

[ceelee.livejournal.com]

Wow!...just Wow!
What color!

[ellarien]

Thanks! My camera seems to like blues ....

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I went to Chatsworth one time and walked into the Duchess of Devonshire. In, um, a very literal sense. I had a baby (not mine!) in a sling, and was addressing myself to her dazzling blue eyes, and completely not looking where I was going; and came round a corner and walked plum into this little old lady and did the apologetic grovelling thing, and she did the baby-cooing thing, and we were both very pleased with each other for being so utterly English, and then a troop of schoolgirls came round the corner and stood themselves in a neat line and dropped a neat curtsey and said "Good afternoon, your grace," and I looked again at the little old lady and realised that yes, indeed, this was Debo of the Mitford gels (which maybe you have to be utterly English to understand its import, but, well, this was the social history of a generation I was barging into...).

[ellarien]

My sister and nephews once had a brief conversation with the Duchess while feeding the chickens in the park -- I think it was the same kind of thing, where they didn't realize who she was until afterwards.

A couple of years ago I was on an after-hours tour of the House, and the group immediately behind us reported that the current Duke (the one who is heavily into Modern Art) popped out of a door and scurried across the corridor.

I've never quite met any of the family myself, though Chatsworth is a fairly short bus-ride from my mother's house and we visit the gardens nearly every summer.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mmm, my father and stepmum used to live in Buxton, and a visit to them tended to include a visit to the Chatsworth gardens (tho' the time I was there with baby, I was just holidaying with friends. And baby. Who is now eighteen and off doing Camp America before university. Eek!).