There are certain things I just have to do at Christmas and one of these is my little annual jaunt to Chatsworth House, home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Chatsworth House is a Grade I listed property built in the 17th century and it is just in the most gorgeous setting with the grounds landscaped by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. It is often voted Britain’s favourite stately home and it’s easy to understand why. On a sunny day like yesterday there is no-where else quite like it to get you into the Christmas spirit and it’s only 50 minutes away from my home, which is not quite as grand! It’s been used as the film location for films such as Pride and Prejudice and The Duchess and you can see why.
I even managed to drag a student along. It was a 9am set off but he’s easily bribed with the promise of an English breakfast in the café on arrival.
We parked up in the delightful little village of Edensor on the Chatsworth Estate where the Edensor Tea Rooms are located because firstly, they do a good English Breakfast, and secondly, the walk over the estate from Edensor to Chatsworth House is lovely on a sunny day and you get the most glorious view of the house. Even my little companion, the architecture student, said it looked impressive, and being 19 he does not get excited about many things!
After breakfast we had our walk over to the house itself and into the stable courtyard where they have a lovely little Christmas market every year. The smell was gorgeous, mulled wine, German sausages a fire pit to toast marshmallows. I was allowed to look around the gift shop and guess what I found?!………..Baubles!!!………and lots of them! All gold, shiny and sparkly, and then some delightful little felt ones of little garden birds. Did one find its way home with me? Of course it did! The student does not like looking around shops so the, “I’ll wait outside for you Mum”, was all I needed to choose a bauble, pay for it, sneak it into my handbag, get it home and hang it on the tree without anyone being any the wiser. Where there is a will there is a way!
Anyway, the main reason for my visit at Christmas is not the breakfast, the baubles, the market or the house itself………….it is the Chatsworth Farm Shop. A large part of my Christmas revolves around food and traditions. I’ll do a separate post on my ‘odd’ Yorkshire Christmas food traditions later this week. They are not ‘odd’ to me but to anyone not from Yorkshire I have been told they are quite amusing and mark me out as Yorkshire through and through. For one of these traditions, I need Wensleydale cheese……no other cheese will do, I’ll explain in another post. Chatsworth has the most amazing Farm Shop and a cheese counter with over 100 varieties of cheese. It is like cheese heaven and is one of my pre-Christmas shopping trips. It was a successful trip…..I found the Wensleydale……..and also bought some Devonshire Gold (blue cheese) and Snowdonia Black Bomber, a very very mature white cheddar from Wales, it’s so mature it makes your toes curl but I love really strong cheese. I love Stinking Bishop too, which they had, but I’m banned from buying that as the smell has the ability to permeate the kitchen even when it’s shut in the fridge in an airtight container!
They also have the most fantastic vegetables and another staple of the British Christmas dinner are Brussels Sprouts! It’s not a Christmas dinner if it does not have Brussels Sprouts on it. So, I bought my sprouts on a stick all ready for Christmas day much to the disgust of my youngest who absolutely hates them. They are a bit of a love them or hate them vegetable and it still infuriates my sons that I insist they have one sprout on their plate otherwise it’s not a Christmas dinner. I’m not that cruel that I make them eat it but I just can’t serve a Christmas dinner minus the Brussels Sprout!
It was a lovely Mum and son day, the apocalypse in his bedroom was not mentioned once, I am so chilled about it. I am determined he will get fed up of it before I do.