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Our last full day in London started with a short walk over mist-covered moors to the Chatsworth Estate.  There are many many historical houses and estates to visit throughout England but the house and grounds at Chatsworth are said to be some of the finest. 

The day did not disappoint.  Unfortunately the vista of the house is a little marred by scaffolding for extensive renovation work being undertaken on the facade, but that is soon forgotten as you enter the house. It belongs to another time- the house was built and rebuilt and decorated by a lineage of Dukes dating back to the Tudor monarchs, and the splendor of the house draws from all of their history, travels and great wealth. You begin by walking up the  the formal staircase, admiring the celestial ceiling murals as you go.  The staircase terminates at a small exhibit on the many films that have used the estate, including 2005’s Pride and Prejudice, 2008’s The Duchess and the upcoming remake The Wolfman. From then on the house is spectacular to the point of being overwhelming. Unfortunately, the house is very dark to preserve the extensive mural work so pictures were impossible.  We were both impressed by the wood carvings that adorn many of the walls, as well as the extensive design pieces  in the collection: an enormous chandellier of gold stags heads with real horns to commemorate the Dukes’s hunting exploits, the antique Chinese ceramics, the inlaid wood Harpshicord, the Roman-style sculpture gallery (featured in Pride and Prejudice). The collection even includes a sterling silver telephone presented to the Duke of Devonshire by Alexander Graham Bell himself.  The wonders of the house give way to the spectacular gardens, which contain a hedge-maze, spectacular flower beds, and many water features.  Our time at Chatsworth continued with a visit to their acclaimed restaurant “The Cavandish Rooms” built into the stone gallerys of the former stables.  We enjoyed our first traditional English afternoon tea complete with cucumber sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam.  We were picked up at Chastworth by Steven, our knight in shining teenybluebritishcar, who planned our walking routes for us and has been carting our luggage between all of our B&Bs.  He dropped us off at the train station to begin the journey back into London.  After a lengthy train ride we met up with Megs at another of London’s oldest pubs: Ye Old Cheshire Cheese- a dark Labyrinthine place with scurrilous ties to Victorian England’s sex trade and now an after-work stop for Fleet Street bankers.  Then we carried on to The Eagle, London’s original gastropub.  The food was delightful, delicious, unpretentious and accompanied by delicious wine. Although they seem to have some trouble with the menu system, the chalkboard definitely mentioned a dessert with prawns (sadly sold out by the time we got to pudding.) The next few hours are a little fuzzy, there was wine and talk and song and we ended or London stay with the king of all London drunk-foods: a donner kebab from somewhere on Edgeware Road.  Then we drifted home in a black cab and off to bed for the long trip home in the morning.