Description: The path leading east from the northern end of the Canal Pond encircles a pond called the Ring Pond with a small gravity-fed fountain in the middle. The interesting thing about this fountain, which I did not notice at the time, is the fact that the spout of the fountain actually is in a lead duck's beak. This duck originally came from another pond, which according to my guidebook, was "inevitably called the 'Sick Duck Pond.'"
Not content to just follow the path, I wandered off into whatever corner I could find, which in this case, happened to be a hedged walkway to the northeast of the Ring Pond. This quickly opened up into what I later found out was the Strid. And what an idyllic scene the Strid is.
Imagine this: you are walking through hedges, not really sure where you are going to come out. Then, the world seems to widen around you as you spill out of the hedges and onto the banks of a pond, glinting with the occasional sun peeping out of the clouds. Even when the sun is nowhere to be seen, the muddy brown water perfectly reflects the rocks encircling it and the wood-and-stone bridge crossing it. Tall reeds block part of the view across the pond as they sway in the light wind. All around you, foliage blooms in different shades of green with the occasional purply-brown of the copper beech thrown in to catch the eye. Behind the bridge, a waterfall feeds the pond with a trickle of water, and beyond that, the large boulders of the rock garden loom. Now tell me you wouldn't like to visit the Strid.
The Strid struck me as somewhat of an odd name, and the guidebook does not expound upon the meaning, instead pointing out that this part of the garden is named after the Strid at Bolton Abbey. However, the description of this Strid--"a famous section of the river Wharfe...where the water has worn a deep and narrow chasm through the rocks"--pretty much tells you exactly what a strid is ("a narrow passage between precipitous rocks or banks, which looks as if it might be crossed at a stride," according to Dictionary.com). The Chatsworth Strid is not quite a deep raging torrent though--being only five feet deep and full of lazy brown trout--and it certainly didn't look to me that it could be crossed in one stride. Nevertheless, even if it is a bit of a misnomer, the name adds a bit of intrigue.
I wandered all around the banks of the Strid, discovering the rim of the rock gardens in the process before circling back to the pond and crossing over the bridge. From there, a path leads to the east into the heart of the rock gardens.
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