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| The Duke of Devonshire's Chatsworth House |
Editor's Note: Each
month Cheryl Bolen will be highlighting one of England's 10 Treasure Houses,
selected for their grandeur of architecture, furnishings, landscape and
historical significance.
©Cheryl Bolen
Bess of Hardwick (1527-1608) built the original
home on the site in 1552. The house passed to her son William Cavendish, who
became the first Earl of Devonshire in 1618. The 4th Earl of Devonshire,
William Cavendish (1640-1707), became the 1st Duke of Devonshire for his part
in bringing William of Orange to the English throne. The first duke is
responsible for the house visitors see today. He pulled down Bess’s house in
1686, and with architect William Talman, started construction on the palatial
house that stands today. It took more than 20 years to build and was completed
the year of his death.
The 4th Duke, by marrying the heiress daughter
of Lord Burlington (Palladian prophet, builder of Chiswick), brought even
greater wealth and properties into the family.
Among the most famous occupants of the house
were the 5th Duke and his glamorous duchess, Georgiana, daughter of the 1st
Earl Spencer. (A biography of Georgiana was the number one bestselling book of
1999 and was the basis of the popular 2008 move. It chronicled her husband’s
affair with her best friend and the two illegitimate children born of that
affair, making for one of the most interesting menage a trois in
history.)
Since the time of its completion, Chatsworth has
had “open days” for public viewing. It is said to be the inspiration for Mr.
Darcy’s estate in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and actually serves
as Darcy’s Pemberley in the 2005 movie.
The home’s five original state apartments were
never visited by William and Mary, for whom they were intended, but Queen
Victoria visited Chatsworth during the reign of the 6th, or Bachelor Duke
(1790-1858), who was the first to make substantial changes to Chatsworth. In addition
to adding a new wing, his most substantial changes were brought about by
landscape designer Joseph Paxton, who also built the Crystal Palace in Hyde
Park. Like the Crystal Palace, his great conservatory at Chatsworth is now
gone, but his rockeries and fountains remain.
During World War II Chatsworth was occupied by a
girls’ school. The rooms and corridors were dormitories, and the drawing rooms
and larger bedrooms were classrooms.
The 11th Duke inherited Chatsworth in 1950
following the sudden death of his father. (His elder brother, who had married
President Kennedy’s sister Kathleen, had been killed in the war.) It would take
him 17 years to pay off the 80 percent death duties and would require selling
off some of the estate’s art collection and deeding Hardwick Hall to the
National Trust. Chatsworth, too, needed substantial repairs and modernization.
By opening Chatsworth to the public and establishing the Chatsworth House
Trust, the 11th Duke was able to preserve Chatsworth for future generations.
When he died in 2004, the Guardian said the 11th Duke was able to turn
his magnificent stately home in Derbyshire “into a public resource without
compromising its dignity or losing it as a family home.” His son, the 12th
Duke, continues living at Chatsworth.
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| Chatsworth's Painted Hall |
HOUSE
The baroque palace of Chatsworth with its
surrounding 12,000-acre estate in the Derbyshire hills has repeatedly been
selected as England’s favorite country house. Despite its fairly remote
location, it draws 300,000 visitors a year. The colonnaded, pedimented view of
the house that is most photographed is not the entrance through which visitors
enter.
The portion of the house built before the
addition of the 1820s wing is constructed around a central courtyard. Only a
portion of the home’s 297 rooms are open to the public. Perhaps the most
recognizable of these is the painted hall, so named for the 17th-century
paintings of Julius Caesar that adorn the ceiling and walls. Floors here are of
black and white checkered marble, and the hall’s focal point is a broad central
staircase balustered in gilt iron and carpeted in red.
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| Chatsworth's library |
After climbing stairs in the painted hall and
the great stairs, visitors come to the five original state apartments: the great
chamber, the state drawing room, the state music room, the bedchamber and the state
closet. Each features ceilings painted in the 17th century, as well as fine
woodworking craftsmanship on the walls. It is thought the state bed which
retains its 1700 coverings belonged to George II.
The library is roped off but can be viewed by
visitors before they stroll into the ante library and its adjacent dome room,
which features a windowed alcove flanked by polished marble columns.
The 1820s wing houses the crimson dining room
where Queen Victoria was feted while she was still a princess. Other rooms on
the public tour include the 6th Duke’s oak room, a grotto, sculpture gallery,
and the chapel.
Treasures (paintings, sculpture, and
furnishings) from London’s Devonshire House, sold in the 1920s, and from Lord Burlington’s
Chiswick House melded with those already at Chatsworth to give Chatsworth what
is said to be the finest art collection of any English country home.
Chatsworth has been selected as one of England’s
10 Treasure Houses.
GROUNDS
It is difficult to separate the palatial house
of Chatsworth from the stunning grounds in which it is set. The 35,000-acre
agriculture estate offers a 1,000-acre park that is open free to the public.
Wooded hills with footpaths rise above the house, and the River Derwent rushes
alongside the property’s pastoral sheep pasture. One day is really not long
enough to explore all this property has to offer.
In earliest times, the house, which sits at the
foot of the Derbyshire hills of the Peak District, was surrounded by formal
gardens. The 4th Duke, however, demolished the 1st Duke’s formal gardens when
he chose Capability Brown to landscape the parkland around the house in 1756.
Fortunately, the 1st Duke’s cascade and the temple above it, voted Best Water
Feature in England, has survived, along with his Willow Fountain, canal pond,
and Flora’s Temple.
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| The Cascade at Chatsworth |
Capability Brown’s scheme to make the grounds
around Chatsworth look natural included the planting of broad lawns and a
variety of American trees.
Landscape architect Joseph Paxton’s (1803-1865)
mark on Chatsworth is the most distinct today. Trained at Kew Gardens, Paxton
is responsible for the huge rockeries, the pond their water flows into, the
Azalea Dale and ravine, and the Bamboo Walk.
In modern times a maze constructed of 1,209 yew
trees, flower gardens, and a serpentine hedge have been added. The original
stable block, constructed to house 80 horses, is now used for the farmyard
demonstrations, and the 6th Duke’s carriage house now serves as a restaurant.
For children, there is an Adventure Playground.
One thing remains from Bess of Hardwick: the 16th
century hunting tower, nestled in the verdant foothills.
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