Mr. Darcy = Robin Hood

July 14-16, 2007

What a wonderful weekend! With the exception of seeing Harry Potter at the Odeon Theatre, this was my favorite activity of the whole trip. On Friday Bekah and I packed our bags and headed to Chesterfield, to the northeast of London. We missed our first train by one minute because of delays on the Circle Line, and I ran so hard to make the train that I actually stopped breathing--wheezing was the method of choice for air intake for about twenty minutes after that, and several people stopped and asked if I was alright. The ticket woman was very concerned about me and gave us free tickets onto the next train, so we hopped that one when my lungs returned to their normal size and arrived in a very rainy Chesterfield station. A very kind taxi driver of the Duckmanton services picked us up and drove us to the small village of Beeley, about thirty minutes or so from the station. He didn't even charge us the full price of the ride, and he stayed to make sure we found our home safely.

We stayed the weekend in a deconsecrated Methodist church just down from the pub with old friends of the Meredith Abroad program, John and Janet. We had a whole section of the church to ourselves, and they made us tea and stocked the fridge for us. Bekah and I relaxed the first night, grabbing dinner at the Devonshire Arms pub before watching Pride and Prejudice. Maggie, Meredith, and Hillary arrived the next day, and then we all set out for Chatsworth.

We walked from Beeley to the Chatsworth house, a bit over an hour's walk through pastures and fields and, apparently, the western edge of Sherwood Forest! I wanted Robin Hood to hop out of the forest, though I would definitely have taken Mr. Darcy. The house itself was absolutely amazing, 1.3 acres of just roof sitting on a 35,000 acre estate. Could you imagine growing up with that much?! The house has been with the family for over four hundred years, and it's full of amazing art--they have statues of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet and a Grecian foot from 1 AD! We ended up finally in the hall of portraits seen in the new Pride and Prejudice movie (by the way, Chatsworth = Pemberly), and we turned the corner and were face to face with Mr. Darcy's bust! It was amazing! A tour of the grounds followed, and then we walked back home, had some delicious pub food again, and ended the day.

Sunday was spent coming home, and our taxi driver was tons of fun. He asked us questions about the US and told us anecdotes about Chesterfield, and I was sorry to see him go. It took us a while to get home on the train because there was a fatality on the tracks in Luton, but we eventually made it and did homework until our eyes fell out.

I toured the National Gallery on Monday and saw paintings from Piero della Francesca (yeah, Sansepolcro!), Jan Van Eyck, Rembrandt (by the way, the owners of Chatsworth have a Rembrandt in their foyer!), da Vinci, Raphael, and everything. It was amazing! I also went by the Duke of York's Theatre and got tickets to see In Celebration, a play starring ORLANDO BLOOM!!!!!!! I'm seeing it tonight, and I'll definitely keep you posted. I saw the play Betrayal last night, by Harold Pinter, and the acting was amazing! We stood in the back for only 7 pounds and watched, and the theatre was small and intimate and wonderful.