Here, for your delight is an extract from Pride and Prejudice with accompanying photos of Chatsworth! The weather was lovely up until the time I got the camera out - wouldn't you know. My sister and I visited Derbyshire last year all in pursuit of research - Mr Darcy's Secret is my next book which Sourcebooks are publishing next spring. We visited Bakewell and the surrounding area - I absolutely fell in love with Haddon Hall which became my inspiration for the house the Darcy's stay in on holiday in the Lake District. Oh, yes - Elizabeth had to see the Lakes at last! Anyway, here is Jane Austen's wonderful Pride and Prejudice - Lizzy is travelling with her aunt and uncle and sees Pemberley for the first time.
Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high flutter.
The park was very large, and contained great variety of ground. They entered it in one of its lowest points, and drove for some time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent.
Elizabeth's mind was too full for conversation, but she saw and admired every remarkable spot and point of view. They gradually ascended for half a mile, and then found themselves at the top of a considerable eminence, where the wood ceased, and the eye was instantly caught by Pemberley House, situated on the opposite side of a valley, into which the road with some abruptness wound. It was a large, handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills; and in front a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater, but without any artificial appearance. Its banks were neither formal nor falsely adorned. Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!
