"From a frightful height and a comfortless, barren moor you look down into the most delightful valley, with the most pleasant garden, and the most beautiful palace in the world." - Daniel Defoe


The Garden at Chatsworth






The garden at Chatsworth covers 105 acres, the size of a good farm. The wall around its perimeter is nearly two miles long. It is maintained by a staff of over 20 gardeners. Entrance is through Flora's Temple at the north end.

There are vast expanses of lawn near the house while the farther reaches are heavily wooded.


the maze the maze grotto pond


The location of the garden on the hillside of the Derwent Valley makes possible the many gravity-driven waterworks.  The water is supplied by four huge reservoir lakes on the uplands above the valley:

4 Reservoir Lakes above garden

The moor here is not so comfortless and barren as Daniel Defoe observed in the early 18th century.  Capability Brown forested the land here later that century.  The valley is even more delightful after Brown's work on the Park.  The garden is at least as pleasant after Joseph Paxton's improvements in the Victorian era.  (And the palace is even more impressive with the addition of the north wing in the 1820s.)





The Cascade was built in 1695 for the 1st Duke. The Cascade House at the top was added in 1703.
Cascade
The water goes underground at the foot of the Cascade and runs the Sea-horse fountain on the South Lawn, fifty feet lower.
Cascade
Looking down the Cascade toward the house and the Derwent valley beyond




Canal pond
Looking north from south end of Canal Pond.
Emperor Fountain in distance.

The Canal Pond was dug in 1702. It is 314 yards long and 2 feet deep.

The Emperor Fountain was constructed in 1844 by Joseph Paxton, Chatsworth's head gardener who made a hobby of impressive engineering feats. Like all the waterworks in the garden, it runs simply on gravity. Paxton created a nine acre lake on the uplands above the garden to collect water for the fountain, reached by a half mile pipe dropping 381 feet. The fountain jet can attain a height of nearly 300 feet.




Some of England's garden mazes are quite old, like the famous one at Hampton Court, laid out in the latter 17th century.  The one at Longleat House is quite complicated, with clues at intervals to help the panicky venturer escape.  For some garden designers, the Maze had spiritual significance, representing the search for truth.

The yew maze at Chatsworth was planted in 1962 on the site of Joseph Paxton's Great Conservatory, demolished in 1920.  It was an engineering marvel and the prototype for the Crystal Palace he later built in London.  During World War I, coal restrictions and a shortage of manpower caused all the exotic plants to die and the Conservatory was deemed too much of a luxury. 

Two lovers are about....
The Maze

Someone has been in swimming....
Grotto Pond

It's a long walk, uphill, from the house to the grotto pond.  The garden becomes increasingly wooded along the way.  Seen from the air, the trees merge with the forest beyond the garden wall.

The pond was the most remote point of the garden until 1829 when the 6th Duke enclosed eight acres of the park to form the Pinetum, an area where coniferous trees have been transplanted from around the world.  These include impressive specimens of giant sequoia, coast redwood, Douglas fir, and ponderosa pine.  Some garden.

The grotto overlooking the pond was the inspiration of the 6th Duke's mother, Lady Georgiana Spencer, and was built in 1798.

A quiet, secluded place, wild pheasants are common here among the trees and several kinds of waterfowl find the pond a haven.

to Jane Austen's Pemberley

Jane Austen's Pemberley

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