Chatsworth The House.

Great Houses of Britain

by Deborah Mitford, Simon Upton (Illustrator)

Lavishly illustrated guide to the history, architecture etc of Chatsworth House. Colour and b&w illustrations throughout.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Architecture, Travel, British Literature, Biography, Art

Hardcover

First published July 29, 1982

About the author

Deborah Vivien Freeman-Mitford Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, who published under the name of Deborah Mitford, was brought up in Oxfordshire, England. In 1950 her husband, Andrew, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, inherited extensive estates in Yorkshire and Ireland as well as Chatsworth, the family seat in Derbyshire, and Deborah became chatelaine of one of England’s great houses. She is the author of All in One Basket, Wait for Me!, Counting My Chickens and Home to Roost, among other books, and her letters have been collected in The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters and In Tearing Haste: The Correspondence of the Duchess of Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor. Following her husband’s death in 2004, she moved to a village on the Chatsworth estate.

Note: The author's name on her books varies from Duchess of Devonshire (most common), to Deborah Devonshire, Deborah Cavendish and Deborah Mitford.

Reviews

[Gretchen]

I was inspired to read this by reading How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brandt (if memory serves). I started with the original, but preferred the coffee table version. Much better pictures and better integration of the Duchess' and the Bachelor Duke's descriptions. Now I shall have to read about Georgiana Spencer and one of Nancy Mitford's novels.

[Barbara]

Lovely photographs and a room by room commentary by the Duchess (1920 to 2014). She was the youngest of the Mitford sisters and you can see the Mitford wit come out in her descriptions. They needed to auction off many items to pay the "death taxes" from 1950 to 1974. Cost of running in 2010 around 4 million pounds. They opened the house to the pubic as a way to keep this lovely estate afloat. The 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice was filmed here. I have only seen the house and grounds on tv. Did get to visit Bolton Abbey estate in 2019. They managed the Covid closures by having a winter wonderland on the grounds. There are episodes on Brit Box.

[Jen]

After reading Wait for Me, I had to read the book she wrote about the house. The photos and stories about each room, yes even the private family rooms not on the tours...I loved the details of each piece. Now I really need to go to England.

[Lucy]

Fascinating English country house that belongs to the Duke of Devonshire. Book written by then-current duchess, who was born Deborah Mitford, youngest of the six Mitford sisters. The book details the history of the house and the nobility who owned and occupied it. Excellent pictures, both current and historical, of various parts of the house, though of course never enough. Details room by room of the public tour, and shows some of the private parts of the house as well. Especially interesting are quotes from the Bachelor Duke (the sixth duke, early 19th century) about the house, with updates by the Duchess on what has changed and what hasn't. Then still lived in, I don’t know about now. Book published in 2002. That duke, the 11th, died in 2004.
Chapters are The Story of the House (early history, the first ten dukes, Chatsworth since 1950); Touring the House (the public route, the private rooms); Behind the Scenes (household, areas including the kitchen, cellars, laundry, attics, theatre, roof). The end papers show the family genealogy and a plan of the house covering the public route, including the ground floor, second floor, and north wing.
Highly recommended for people who like English history, architecture, English country houses, especially if you have toured the house or plan to someday.

[DocNora]

4 stars because this is so short!!! Have been to Chatsworth and nearby Haddon Hall... unforgettable but I just wish this was longer ...there is so much more that could be written about the paintings, furniture, architecture and history of the house and it's inhabitants!

[Krista]

A personal tour of Chatsworth, beautifully photographed, conducted by Deborah Duchess of Devonshire.

[Sandy]

This is a huge coffee table book. I did not read every word. I really just wanted to look at the wonderful pictures.

[Maura]

Another Mitford sister link - their family fascinates me for some reason. This book also interested me because it was mentioned in the last couple of books I read relating to architecture.

The author is one of the Mitford sisters; she married Andrew Cavendish who later inherited the title of Duke of Devonshire. They live in one of the premier old house in England, Chatsworth. She begins the book with a brief history of the house and family before launching into descriptions of the house itself. A previous Duke known as the Bachelor Duke had written a booklet describing the house in some detail; excerpts from this booklet are followed by comments from the Duchess to update the reader on changes made since the Bachelor Duke's writing. She mentions "visual indigestion" to describe the dulling of the senses that occurs after seeing too many ornate rooms stuffed with too many old treasures; the same thing happens after reading too many descriptions of the aforementioned rooms and so I skimmed through some of them. Every so often she includes a personal tidbit - an amusing incident that happened in this room, or the comfort she feels in that room with the dogs and papers all around her, and these are the best parts of the book to me. Every so often one of these items or a description of some detail would seem familiar, and then I'd realize that it was very likely something that Nancy Mitford had used in her books "Love in a Cold Climate" and "The Pursuit of Love". Most hilarious to me: the book titles that the family chose for the false book spines that filled in a section of wall made to blend into the bookshelves around it. One example: "Studies in Sentiment" by E. Motion.

Her descriptions of all the various staff and their responsibilities were informative; long ago big estates were an important part of the economy of an area with the number of job opportunities they provided. But work was hard for the lowly - long hours with physically demanding work for the maids, footmen, etc. Probably the saving grace was that many of the estate owners were only there for a few weeks or months at a time; the rest of the time the staff could relax a bit.

[Rhonda]

Since I love "house museums" and am fascinated with the Mitford sisters, this book was a pleasure. The Mitford wit is evident in the writing. The needs of a house like this (roof=1.3 acres)boggle my mind -- I am now convinced that I would enjoy another trip to Great Britain just to tour a number of these great houses, beginning with this one! Although our local library had a copy of this book, I was able to also purchase one reasonably to add to my own library!

[Jan Polep]

House goes way, way back and when they instituted "death taxes", what did they sell off between 1950-74...books! Fascinating what they kept, how they opened the house to the public, great pictures. House recently in the news for auctioning off more items for upkeep. Cost 4million pounds a year to run.

[Herb]

This is a very interesting account of the history of a British estate that has been in one family for centuries. Part two of this book is a room-by-room tour hosted by the Duchess of Devonshire herself, a running commentary that is also assisted by the handbook of a former duke who lived some centuries ago.

[Linnea]

An interesting overview of the history of Chatsworth, one of the great homes of England, still lived in by the Devonshire family (written by Deborah Mitford Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire). It would be more interesting in conjunction with an actual visit to the house.

[Michael Heath-Caldwell]

Interesting book on Chatsworth House in England.

[Karleen Koen]

This was for fun and research. I'm intrigued with the Mitford sisters. This one is the Dowdger Duchess of Devonshire and helped make Chatsworth one of the estates to visit in England.

[Lezley]

An enchanting book. I felt as though I was transported to Chatsworth and give a personal walking tour by the Duchess of Devonshire. A trip to Chatsworth is now on my bucket list.

[Avis Black]

Basically an advanced tour guide. It's okay for what it is, but I'm more interested in the people and how they lived rather than rooms.