Description: The first thing we planned to look for in the Gardens of Chatsworth House was the maze which Hollie and I had spotted on the website before our visit, this turned out to be about as far as possible as you could get from the House itself so although we went straight there we had plenty of time to look around while we were walking. The garden is very well sign posted so that you can find all the major attractions pretty easily, it covers a huge amount of land though so be prepared for a lot of walking (and maybe a little cursing when you realise you've missed a small but important sign post and ended up far away from your intended target!).
I must discuss the maze first, Hollie wouldn't want it any other way. Absolutely a-MAZE-ing! The walls are so high I was worried my claustrophobia was going to kick in, but after a few minutes I was so determined to get to the middle that I forgot all about being so hemmed in. We made it to the middle in around half an hour, but only because we happened to find a young lad who knows the maze like the back of his hand and was prepared to allow us two simpering females to follow him - unfortunately he disappeared once we actually got to the centre and it took us much longer to get back out again! It was worth it though and Hollie's excitement absolutely thrilled me as she'd been so excited to find there was an actual maze within the grounds of Chatsworth House (and thereby discovering they're not just in fairy tales) that to find her enjoying it so much was an absolute delight.
The Cascade is another point of interest which lies just beyond the House; this is an early 18th century water feature (for want of a better word) which comprises dozens of large steps to create a staircase over which water pumped from the lakes cascades down, it sounds like a waterfall and in my opinion looks much better from a distance than close up. Above the Cascade stands The Cascade Temple, a small but imposing structure which acts as a stunning fountain at the top of the watery steps - we didn't walk to the top as Hollie's legs were just about giving out by this point, but from the base of the Cascade it looked absolutely fabulous and I honestly doubt I'd have been any more impressed had I seen it up close. One last water feature I want to tell you about is the fabulous Willow Tree Fountain, or the 'squirting tree' as Princess Victoria renamed it - this is actually a water 'trick' which was surely highly impressive when it was created centuries ago and is actually just as impressive today! It's a brass-work imitation tree which literally rains water from various points within it's branches, it was stunningly beautiful despite the fact that we visited on a pretty dreary day but a guide told Hollie that sometimes in the summer you can glimpse tiny rainbows dancing around the tree as the sunlight catches the water - and this later proved to be true as a piccie in the guide book actually shows this is the case, I felt mildly cheated after seeing the photograph actually as the girly nymph in me would love to stand next to such a low down rainbow!
Water actually features very heavily in the gardens of Chatsworth House, partly due to the fact that the owners over the centuries have wanted to keep up with their continental neighbours (where water features have historically been used to great decorative effect) but also to make their small part of the world as beautifully spectacular as possible. And they done this, with bells on! I kept having to stop and think because if the various ponds, waterfalls and fountains are so stunning to me in 2012 how amazing must they have looked back in 1812 and earlier? It's superb, really. The craftsmanship that has gone into these features is absolutely stunning and despite being very much a non-nature loving city girl I couldn't help but gasp in delight at some of these incredible creations.
What I love about these gardens is that you're not restricted in the slightest - you're welcome to walk on the grass, picnic wherever you fancy (only a total idiot would litter this beautiful area) and they allow dogs on leads with the obvious proviso that owners must clean up after them. It really is wonderful to be able to wander around without worrying about being somewhere you shouldn't be; I actually found it amazing that despite the fact that Chatsworth was busy Hollie and I still managed to feel secluded and alone in certain parts of the gardens, the gorgeous Rockery being a prime example as the huge rocks (these are seriously nothing like the smashed up teapot rockeries I remember from my grandma's garden) manage to conceal every nuance of noise from other parts of the garden. This is where we decided to linger a while and eat our sandwiches and other goodies as I found it so tranquil, Hollie enjoyed clambering over the rocks and I'm certain it was here she burned off so much energy that she fell asleep within minutes of Mark arriving to pick us up!
Dotted around the garden are large and highly impressive statues, most of which are permanent features with a very few either being on loan from other aristocratic establishments or temporary collections used to showcase either the general area or the work of a specific artist. I was actually quite disappointed when we visited as I'd seen a sculpture of a gigantic baby which I was really looking forward to seeing, unfortunately I'd misread the website and found myself there a couple of years too late! My bad! This didn't stop me enjoying other statues in the garden, but I do recommend you check out what's on before your visit if there's something in particular you desperately want to see. My favourite was a huge (and rather scary looking) rabbit sculpture named 'Drummer' which is near to one of the ponds - I don't know what it is about this particular statue but it really caught my imagination and I found myself casting long and lingering glances at it as we walked around the rest of the garden, but then I suppose that's what art is all about! There are a huge amount of these statues and I'm positive we didn't manage to see them all; if outdoor art is your thing I would certainly recommend getting into all the nooks and crannies of the gardens because they really are everywhere, Hollie's favourite was a tall and very weather beaten stone sculpture of Pan, who she swears is Peter Pan and to date I haven't had the heart to tell her it's another character entirely!
I could literally go on and on about the gems to be found in the gardens of Chatsworth House and I haven't even touched on the Kitchen Garden (where melons are grown!), the visually stunning Pinetum (a treat for Christmas lovers such as myself), the incredible Emperor Fountain where the water jets up to 90 feet high and the amazing greenhouses which are still in use today. Everything, I repeat, EVERYTHING is worth seeing and even if you don't fancy looking around the House I still recommend a trip to the Estate if only to take a leisurely walk around the gardens - in fact we plan to do this as a family early next year as Mark and the older girls have no interest in historical buildings but loved our photographs and tales of the gardens so much that it's now on their bucket list! Next time I definitely want to see the farmyard and adventure playground as they would be fun for Hollie, although a lady I was chatting to in the House told me they're not exactly in keeping with such an otherwise historical and cultural day out!
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