Chipping Campden, 2022

We had a couple days left on the rental car before our London apartment rental commenced, and Vicki wanted to spend them seeing more bits of the Cotswolds. From our last visit we learned that there is far more to the Costwolds than the precious/pretty little towns touted in the guidebooks and the tour buses they attract. We'd visited Chipping Campden in 2013, and were impressed and decided to revisit it as well as the National Trust's Snowshill property nearby, before heading on to a cottage we had rented near Cirencester. The next day we would take in Cirencester, then Fairford and Bibury, and then lastly see Burford on the way to London. In each case, a four or five star parish church was the main attraction. But first, Chipping Campden, just a beautiful unpretentious Cotswold town...

Market hall, middle of main drag

Main drag

Typical

One of the more famous parish churches, four stars
according to Sir Simon Jenkins, author of the Best
1000 Parish Churches in England 

South porch, 13th century

Inside: note the arch over the chancel...typical of
Cotswold "wool" churches (the late medieval wool
trade was England's main export and source of 
wealth then; financed many of these churches)

Windows in the arch

Now in the 14th century tower

15th century altar hangings; read the note...

17th century clock

The Chipping Campden Cope, c. 1380

Again, read the note...only surviving cope from
the period around 1400...

Someone sewed over the Popist imagery, thereby allowing
the cope to survive the Reformation...

Dovecote...garage...now what?

Thatched roofs here and there

Everyone loves Cotswold color

Gearing up for the big party

Chatsworth Gardens, 2022

The gardens were pretty much as we remembered them, though somewhat less impressive. Perhaps we were gardened-out. Or maybe it was too much rock. Anyhow, the most impressive part this visit was the model and display on Paxton's Great Conservatory, constructed at Chatsworth in the 1830s, demolished in the 1920s, the direct predecessor to the Crystal Palace, an engineering marvel for 1850.

Attempted improvement on a shot
I did in 2009, of Paxton's Emperor's
Fountain from the house

Viewing a bit of the lawn and Grillet's Cascade, also from the 
house

The Cascade; somehow we just couldn't face climbing
the hill this time

Looking back to the house

The Weeping Willow fountain

In Paxton's extensive rock garden; goes on for acres; the rocks

all hauled from elsewhere and placed carefully, piece by piece

More rock garden

Not all that many rhododendra

Flower gardens and maze where...

Paxton's Great Conservatory was located (helpful model)

The larger site of the Great Conservatory; 227 x 123 x 67 feet;
called The Great Stove because of its 8 boilers

About...and photo

Victorian photo from Wikipedia; a visiting Charles Darwin wrote
that in the Great Conservatory's gardens, "art beats nature..." 

Among the tree-lined boulevards

Me shutting off the Emperor Fountain

But I turned it back on

Parthian shot of the Elizabethan deer hunting tower
from the foot of the Cascade

Chatsworth House, 2022

We visited Chatsworth in 2009 and 2013, and came away thinking of it as our favorite house and garden combination. The estate has been with the Cavendish family for many generations, has much great art, and the interiors, furniture and furnishings are all real, not a collection of "period" pieces on display. The long and distinguished history of the place is well conveyed. It can be a superb visit. And no other garden has the pedigree of designers that Chatsworth has: Grillet (Versailles), Capability Brown (many great British landscapes), and Joseph Paxton (Crystal Palace) among others. 

Our visit to Chatsworth this year was different. The current duke and duchess are connoisseurs and supporters of contemporary art (good on 'em), and have revised the tour to display some of their contemporary collection. This has come (not so good on 'em) at the expense of Chatsworth's older and more distinguished collections, many of which have been relegated, obscured, or even removed from view. Thus, if you want to see Chatsworth here, have a look at the previous posts: 

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2009/10/chatsworth-house.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2009/10/chatsworth-gardens.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/08/chatsworth-house-2013.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/08/chatsworth-gardens-2013.html.

In the pix that follow some of the older collection is visible, as is some of the contemporary collection. Some of the contemporary collection is interesting, even striking. But it is not what one comes to Chatsworth to see. Alas, it seemed more like an exercise in cognitive dissonance than a tour of an historic great house.

You have been warned...

Cute

A hall-long wall of an art work called North Sketch Sequence,
consisting largely of a representation of the Duke's and Duchess'
"DNA portraits" as well as those of their son and daughter-
in-law, Lord and Lady Burlington; bring back the death taxes,
some would say...

At least the library appeared undisturbed

Contemporary sculpture

Formal dining, where then-princess Victoria had her first dinner
with the grown-ups; note the new chairs

In the impressive sculpture hall, Canova's Endymion
at least gets to sleep through it all