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Our tour began and ended in London with two eight-day
travel periods, each joining together on the evening
of Saturday, May 19th when Soane Museum Director
Tim Knox will host a private candlelight reception
at the Museum with a private viewing of its collections.
We will all then go on to dinner at the elegant
private club, The Travellers Club designed by
Charles Barry and completed in 1832.
We departed London by our own luxurious motor-coach
and were greeted in Derbyshire with a daily rush
of private tours, luncheons and dinners. Our overnight
accommodations are the Breadsall Priory Manor
Marriot Hotel and Country Club (the priory dates
from 1260) and the Cavendish Hotel located on
the Chatsworth estate, the ancestral home of the
Devonshires. The Dowanger Duchess of Devonshire,
herself, selected the décor and furnishings
for the Cavendish, many items coming from her
home.
Leading our tour was David Brown who has been
with the British National Trust for over 25 years
and is based now in the West Midlands Region.
The following pages contain some of the many highlights
we’ll be experiencing. We’ll also have
the opportunity of stopping in Bedfordshire on
the way to Derbyshire to see the magnificent Moggerhanger
House, designed by Humphry Repton and Sir John
Soane. Originally started in 1790, and completed
in 1812, the house has just now undergone an $11
million restoration.
Quoting Simon Jenkin’s new book, England’s
Thousand Best Houses. “Derbyshire is a prince
among counties. ..(It includes) a phalanx of stately
houses which, in their day, might have rivaled
the châteaux of the Loire.” Derbyshire
is the only English county Jenkin’s has
assigned 3 five-star houses; Chatsworth House,
Haddon Hall and Hardwick Hall. It has first-rate
buildings of all periods and includes Bolsover
Castle (not really a castle), Kedleston Hall (mostly
Robert Adam), Melbourne Hall, Calke Abbey (not
an abbey at all but a fascinating time-warp house),
Renishaw Hall (home of the Sitwell’s) and
Sudbury Hall among its great houses as well as
charming manor houses, fascinating ancient ruins,
a Georgian spa and Assembly Rooms in Buxton, Arkwright’s
Silk Mill, (now restored as an early example of
the industrial revolution), spectacular blue john
caves (one of Derbyshire’s most distinctive,
precious marbles), and much more. |
Classical Excursions
