My husband K got up at 7:10 and I got up 8 minutes later. It was 59° and partly sunny.
As planned we met our daughter J at 8 for breakfast. Being a Holiday Inn Express meant that the hotel had a full buffet breakfast. I decided to be a bit healthy and have granola, yogurt, and fruit compote with 2 bananas on the side. I did treat myself with a chocolate muffin. I was fighting acid reflux, or I would have gotten the full English breakfast like K.
After breakfast, we went back up to the rooms to wash up and finish packing. I took a moment to appreciate the view from our window. If you look in the distance, you can see one of the peaks that gives the area its name.
At 9:10, we checked out and put our luggage in the luggage store room. We then left for our day's excursion.
Since we'd be starting out by bus, we headed to the nearby bus stop that J had already planned for. On the way, we got to see a bit of Stockport. Near the hotel, all was clean and nice. We came to a parking lot with a really nice mural for the town. Up the street, we had a view of the impressive town hall.
When we came out of this nice area onto Wellington Road South, it was a different story. We could see that they'd made an effort to make the area around the train station nicer and more visitor friendly.
At 9:15, we were waiting for the 199 at your basic everyday bus stop. At 9:29, we boarded and paid Ł2 for each ticket again. I took a moment to go into the booking.com app to message the next hotel that J's bag could show up. They wrote back that this has been happening a lot lately.
At 10:08, we got off the bus and walked a minute to the entrance of Lyme Park. Here we found a fancy gate and two charming buildings with lovely flowers. As we walked down the walkway separated from the road by a fence, we looked into woods brimming with flowers. We were overtaken by an older guy jogging.
When J had looked this place up online and found she couldn't buy
tickets, she did see that there was a shuttle from the entrance to the
gate and vice versa. The walk was 1 mile and we'd agreed that since the
shuttle didn't run this early, it really wouldn't be a problem. What we
didn't realize until we'd walked in a bit that the walk would be uphill. But there was nothing for it, but to trudge on and try to enjoy the views. We saw folks go up to an upper higher path, but that did not seem like something we would do. That's the hunting lode farther up the hill from them.
To add insult to injury, the older guy came back in our direction, heading for the gate. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty. But, we were walking on a dirt/ grass path and it was a hike.
At 10:57, we got our view of the house, or at least the outer building.
As we passed through the archway, we saw this sign. It was a terribly polite way of saying he couldn't pay the taxes on the place after the coal mines were nationalized.
Inside the courtyard, we found these stairs to the house. The seriously cool thing about them is that they are the stairs Darcy is flying down, finishing buttoning his top button in his haste to properly greet Elizabeth and the Gardiners in the 1995 BBC mini series of Pride and Prejudice. That is my favorite adaptation and Colin Firth is my Darcy. Yes, we were at the site of another PandP adaptation.
We crossed the courtyard to the room that had been converted into the ticket and shop area. I paid Ł15 for each of the 3 tickets and paid Ł3 each for 4 charity pins. The lady said she had three more spots on the Behind the Scenes Tour at 12:30 and asked if we would like them. Since it was free, we agreed and were given lanyards.
This gave us some time to explore the environs and tour the house. On our way to the restroom, we saw a chapel with Saxon Crossheads on display outside and a book sale further along the corridor.
The house tour was self-guiding. Each room had laminated pages about things in the room and uses. There were binders with plastic-covered pages with even more info. There were docents, but I think they were mostly there to keep you on the designated path.
The Entrance Hall, which was immediately inside the door, was a lot bigger than expected. In fact, it was one of the largest rooms in the house. Besides greeting guests here, the Legh family would bring them back to this room for after dinner entertainment. On New Year's Eve, it was the site of the servants party. That was pretty interesting. Mrs. Legh would dance with the senior-most staff member whose religion allowed dancing and Mr. Legh with the senior-most female. They'd then retire and the party would go on so long that some of the maids just had time to change before they started working.
To the left, you might notice a portrait of the Black Prince, which sticks out from the wall. In 1346, at the Battle of Crecy, Thomas Danyers did the prince a great service. It eventually led to the granting of land to the Legh family to create Lyme as a large hunting estate. In the 19th century, an architect made it so that it would stick out from the wall and someone in the Drawing Room above could look down into the hall.
We made our way to the Grand Stairs. Here, we found not only beautiful stairs and huge paintings, but also another of those incredible ceilings that grand houses all seem to have had.
Upstairs, we found probably our favorite room in any house, the Library. Oh, and was this one nice with its magnificent ceiling! Let's pause here and note those arms holding flags up there. Evidently, having your flag or standard captured during a battle is so awful that you'll do anything to get it back. That standard was the Black Prince's. A French nobleman captured it and Thomas Danyers heroically retrieved it and possibly the nobleman's arm. So, you put it on the ceiling in your house (or your granddaughter who married a Legh did in 1398).
Back to the room. There are really two sections to it. The first is the area that leads to a fantastic seating area in the window. Man, I want that! The other is where the fireplace, chairs, bookcases, print portfolio, etc. are.
Next up was the Dining Room, big enough to hold quite the crowd.
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The next room was the Stag Parlour. I have a feeling that the women never hung out here. Hunting and fishing details were on the wall with the fireplace. On the adjacent wall hung the Cadmus Tapestry. In the condition it was in, it looked like the real thing that dated to the 17th century and hung on the wall in 1814. However, a card talked about the preservation that was need for it, starting with a washing in Belgium in 2023, then hundreds of hours of relining, ending with its return in 2026. So, it doesn't look like they got started on that.
This room led to that quintessential grand manor room- The Drawing Room. They have to have those, don't they? Isn't it a rule? This one was quite large and relatively dark, but there was another lovely white ceiling and some stained glass windows in an alcove. There were musical instruments, too. Oh, and we could see the Entrance Hall from behind that portrait of the Black Prince. I'm not sure how comfortable the room would have been, but in watching Pride and Prejudice, I've never felt they were meant to be "comfortable".
We moved on to the Morning Room. It did seem to get some nice light. There was a weaving project on the floor for young tourists. I could see the lady of the house hanging out here in the morning doing correspondence or a bit of needlework. The picture on the wall was unusual and I thought it might be made of wood. The design didn't work for a lady's room, but I'm not letting that interfere with my vision.
The next room was the Yellow Bedroom, which underwent a costly renovation in 1676 for James, Duke of York and future King James II. I didn't see anything about how long the visit was.
We came upon a closet that showed how small a closet could be, when you owned few clothes. I did like the natural light provided by the small window.
On the landing was a nice display of Regency-era clothing.
We passed through a rather nice hallway on the way to the next room. It had sections of a huge frieze, because where else would you hang one of those?
The next room was referred to as the Dressing Room, although I am not sure that that was its original purpose. Nonetheless, it was full of Regency clothing, hats, etc. that had been made by volunteers. They were encouraging folks to try them on. We declined.
This was followed by a bedroom called Oak and Acorn, but I have no idea why. It was a relatively dark room.
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There was a small room that might have served as a sitting room. It was too small for much of anything else. Neat fireplace, though.
Evidence that folks had lived here in modern times was provided by a glimpse of the bathroom.
More of that frieze showed up in what was labeled Bright Gallery. That wall was a vivid color, but I bed it was dark at night.
We entered a room with nice clocks in a display case as well as some case clocks. The sign explained who had this collection. What I found interesting was that a princess had a treasurer.
When you are rich, you can buy yourself an incredibly fancy headboard for your bed.
We were now near the Grand Staircase again and found out that it is actually cantilevered.
The next room must be easy to miss, because there was a sign saying "Don't miss the Saloon". It is not our Old West Saloon, but more of what I'd think of when I hear "Salon" in relation to a grand house. Another gorgeous ceiling, of course. But, unsurprisingly, my musician husband was more interested in the handsome harpsichord. The view from here was quite nice and rather classic. The family would receive visitors here.
Remember Sir Francis and his clock collection? We were able to be on hand for the chiming of his eight-day clock, which had a whole scene that opened at the top. Several of us filmed it.
Going up the Grand Staircase, it was surprising to see a copy of "Las Meninas" by Velázquez. But the sign below said that it was "showing a Lyme Mastiff, descended from a pair presented by James I of England to Philip I of Spain in 1605". Now, if you look up that dog, it will say it was a Spanish mastiff. I suppose that, overtime, the name had changed.
The Long Gallery was just that. It seemed to run the length or width of the house. There was a pool table in there, but it is unclear if that was standard equipment. There were ancient chairs along the wall that made you question why anyone would want to sit in them. The fireplace was great, though.
Just off the Long Gallery was the nursery. I was excited to see a dollhouse on the floor for children to play with, but I quickly realized it was a modern piece.
On our way to the steeper, decidedly less fancy stairs, we passed the giant mechanism operating the gate over the front archway.
We finished with enough time to make a restroom stop before meeting the group for the Behind the Scenes Tour by the front steps just before 12:30. It was a fast-paced tour with a lot of information and a lot of stairs.
The house was built so that the servants could do practically all their coming and going behind the walls. There had been some service rooms out around the courtyard, which could lead to seeing them scurrying across. By the 1600's the courtyard was enclosed and the Tudor style entered the look of the place. There are 104 rooms and each has a fireplace.
In a relatively large area, we saw some of the work and storage spaces. I found the storage drawer with its section quite fascinating.
There were shelves with holes for holding decanters upside down to drain out. Several kinds of vacuums and a broom the likes of which I'd never seen before.
I do like information signs.
We saw the brewery and where supplies were delivered. The tour deposited us at 1:20 out near the Wyatt Garden and had a nice view of that side of the house.
We went back in to eat at the Ale Collar Cafe under the main house. I held a table, while K and J grabbed food. They got 2 pasties, one Cornish and one cheese and onion. They also got a Ham and Cheese Toastie. They picked up two bags of crisps (chips). K had his Americano coffee and J had a Pepsi. I tried an Elderflower Sparkling Water that was quite tasty. After our very good meal we split chocolate cake and lemon and raspberry cake, also good.
Since it was right across the courtyard, we stopped in the shop. They had some Pride and Prejudice merchandise, centering on the BBC version, of course. But, they didn't have as much in the way of postcards, and other souvenirs, and just much less than Chatsworth. We did buy a few things before going out to the gardens.
We went out to the West Terrace, where we were surprised to see people playing in the grass and reclining in chairs that seemed to belong there. The Italian Garden was just south of the terrace and down. I mean really down. The architect seemed to have taken a natural depression and bent it to his will with a wall on the north and east sides. The ground had been leveled to a lovely, very formal garden. Unfortunately, the fountain in the center was empty. The car park (parking lot) was to the west of it. When we were coming in, we'd seen the folks parking down there and heading up the hill to the entrance. We were really glad that we hadn't had to do that.
We proceeded to the walkway along the South Lawn and took a selfie, of course. We felt that front looked pretty familiar from the BBC's P and P.
The lake itself looked even worse that it did when Colin Firth's stunt double dove in. It was mucky and retreated from its banks. We kept trying to figure out what view represented Lizzie Bennett's first view of Pemberley. This view was later rejected for lack of a tree to hide it until the last moment. We did still do a selfie, though, when we were just to the left of a tree.
We continued along the Lakeside Walk path and came upon the stairs to the Top Lawn. We agreed to not climb and instead headed for the Terraces. Later, I was glad we had spent time on the Terraces, because they show up in the series as the place Lizzie and Darcy walk with her aunt and uncle following. In fact, they were on the walkway at the front of the second shot. Plus, they were lovely with interesting little beds in depressions in the ground.
Just to the east and a bit north of the Orangery was the Rose Garden. Admittedly, if the roses are in bloom, I've never met a rose garden I didn't like. This one had some petals on the ground, but also some stunners.
We then backtracked to go in the Orangery. It's always fun to go in those and see the exotic plants that wouldn't grow in this climate otherwise. The tree fern surprised me because it really looked like a palm. The lilies were lovely. Bartletinna was a new plant for me. The hardy fuchsia and hybrid fuchsia were amazing and reminded me once again that it is spelled nothing like sounds. To make matters worse, I look at "fuchs" and think, oh, German for fox. In fact, the flower was named for Dr. Leonhart Fuchs, a Bavarian who chaired the department of medicine at the University of Tübingen and studied plants. But, I digress. The small purple flowers are flowering tobacco (who knew?). The last flower is the least dahlia-looking dahlia I've ever seen and is called "Moonfire".
In the center of the Orangery was a fountain lending a nice tinkling sound to the place. When we saw it, we were pretty shocked by just how much moss was on the thing.
The ride out to the admission gate was far faster than the walk in- just 5 minutes. It took us another 10 to reach the bus stop. It was 65° and mostly cloudy. The road had an incredible amount of traffic.
At 3:50, the #199 arrived and I paid Ł2 each on my credit card for K and me. The bus arrived in Stockport at 4:25 and it was an easy 3-minute walk to the Holiday Inn. We made one more pit stop before getting our bags and leaving at 4:39.
At 4:45, we were waiting for the 16:46 to Manchester Piccadilly, which was right on time. We arrived at 4:55. The station was very busy and large.
We got sandwiches at Upper Krust. A chicken and avocado baguette cost Ł5.99, as did the Bhaji Turmeric Hoummus. Chips were Ł1.69 and 2 Diet Cokes were Ł 2.79 each. J bought her own meal.
Then, we headed to track 14 for the 17:50 to Windermere. But, we couldn't actually go to the track at 5:15. We had to wait in a lounge for the track until a sign said we could go to the track. We boarded the train at 5:46. As we left, I had a bit of a view of the city out my window and could see the Salford Quays lift bridge.
We ate our dinner, but were not too impressed with the sandwiches. Dessert came from our stash.
I thought I might fall asleep, but I was enjoying the view. Around 6:19, in the area of Bolton, I could see an upland in the distance. I wondered if it might be the last of the Peaks District.
I liked what little I saw of Nether Stavely.
Although I'd booked our two nights at The Cottage through booking.com, J played navigator. She tried to find the least uphill passage and got us there at 7:55. It was sunny and a chilly 61°.
The hotel had no front desk, but they'd sent me a code to retrieve the keys for rooms 1 and 2. To my disappointment, they were up the stairs, with ours, #1, over a living room, and J's across the hall. Stairs just aren't my friends. K and J hauled the luggage up and, once again, there was no sign of J's bag. I'd messaged the the inn the night before:
It might have been a good thing, because her room was really small. Ours was a bit bigger, with a more comfortable chair. But, such a small bath!
A helpful paper told us about the inn.
Although it was later than they were due, we quickly filled out our breakfast choices and J took them to the basket downstairs. Then, we had a confab to lay out our plans for tomorrow before J headed over to call British Airways again.
My phone showed 11,857 steps for 3.6 miles and that I'd only climbed 2 floors. Baloney!
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