Holiday memories no. 2 - Giant crochet lions at Chatsworth

Before I left on holiday I'd seen a link (I think it was on one of the Ravelry forums) about a exhibition of giant crochet lions that was travelling around the country before landing in London in time for the Olympics. So I clicked on this link, and discovered that the first part of the lions' journey would be at Chatsworth. Chatsworth is a gorgeous English stately home in the Peak District in the north of England. And it is not far from where my family lives. So of course, we arranged a trip to Chatsworth. We chose the first very sunny day, and enjoyed the drive among the green rolling hills, spotted with little white fluffly lambs. So cute!

Chatsworth House

Chatsworth has been the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire since the 17th Century. It is a huge estate, and the house and its gardens are only a part of it. I must say that it is extremely well run, very beautiful and a great day out!

We started by visiting the house itself. We missed the guided tour but in fact it was fine. The house had plenty of staff to answer questions and each room contained printed sheets with all the information and history. Sorry I didn't take any photos!  After lunch, we also visited the gardens.

The fountains

The waterfall

Bluebells

And then we went to find the lions. They were in a big glass case, just in front of the house but as we'd accessed it from the side we'd almost missed them. Because of the glass case it was a bit difficult to take decent photos... these are the best I could do!

The BBC very recently made a three-part documentary about Chatsworth (but filmed before the lions moved in). If you can see it, it's really worth watching.