Nothing embodies the spirit of a traditional English Christmas more than a winter break in the countryside at a luxury coaching inn amid the picturesque Derbyshire countryside. “You can still see the groove in the steps worn by generations of gentlemen and country squires stepping down from their carriages,” said hotel manager Steve Daly on a tour of The Cavendish Hotel.
The hotel's sense of luxury and its history – the coaching inn was apparently won at the card table in 1830 by the Sixth Duke of Devonshire – have been enhanced in a recent multi-year renovation led by designer Nicola Harding, and carried out under the direction of Laura Cavendish, the daughter-in-law of the current duke.
Of the Cavendish’s two restaurants, the Garden Room has the more relaxed atmosphere, which is ideal for young families and casual diners. I enjoyed the crunchy English broccoli in a bed of garlic and parmesan, followed by a juicy Moss Valley pork schnitzel with black-truffle fries.
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As for the more formal The Gallery, it is in a class of its own. On the recommendation of one of the guests, I plumped for a tender and flavoursome lamb dish that fully justified the restaurant’s three rosettes. The Cavendish also offers afternoon tea, as well as the opportunity to enjoy dinner at the chef’s table.
The Garden Room restaurant is ideal for families
The hotel’s 28 rooms are equally impressive, including those in the adjoining Coach House, which are pet friendly. My room, named after the Dowager Countess Spencer (mother of the 18th-century icon of the age, Georgiana Cavendish) was large, luxurious, with excellent views of the sweeping countryside.
The combination of luxury, soothing pastel greens and the general ambience of the place, caused me to follow the example of guests “who arrive with a laptop and devices, but end up just sinking into an armchair with a good book or a paper, soaking up the atmosphere,” as Daly put it.
The hotel bar is the perfect, cosy spot for a drink
A festive affair at Chatsworth House
There’s much to explore in the surrounding area, and the Cavendish provides a list of nearby walks for guests. However, the biggest attraction is the Chatsworth estate itself, as the 1,000-acre park is just a five-minute walk from the hotel's reception. About half-an-hour’s brisk jaunt away lies Chatsworth House, one of the grandest and most famous stately homes in England.
The house, which has stayed with the Cavendish family ever since Wiliam Cavendish and Bess of Hardwick started building it in 1553, would later be overhauled at the end of the 17th century, turning it into the baroque masterpiece that it is today.
Over centuries successive generations would fill it with a wide-ranging collection of art and antiquities, including pieces from ancient Egypt and contemporary work by Damian Hirst.
Chatsworth really comes alive in the run-up to Christmas, where the house is specially decorated to reflect the festive season. This year’s theme is based around the story Henry and the Lion's Christmas Feast, written for Chatsworth by former children's laureate Joseph Coelho.
I’m not going to spoil the plot, but it involves the young Henry Cavendish (famous for later discovering hydrogen and methane), some mice and a lion. Watching the crowds admiring the Christmas trees and miniature mice, it’s easy to see why “many families make visiting Chatsworth at Christmas part of their annual tradition”, as my guide pointed out.
The Christmas festivities also include a large, free-to-enter Christmas market held outside the house. This consists of stalls selling a range of locally produced Christmas goods, as well as seasonal foods, including a raclette-cheese-and-beef-brisket-in-a bun combo that helped to keep the cold at bay.
However, the highlight for me was the winter light show. During the day the gardens, which were developed over five centuries by a series of gardeners, most notably Sir Joseph Paxton (who also designed the Crystal Palace and cultivated the Cavendish banana), are worth viewing for their own sake.
But in the evening they really come alive, with the scarlet sunset providing a perfect backdrop for the sound and light projections.
Matthew was a guest of The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow. From £200 a night, cavendishhotelbaslow.co.uk. Christmas at Chatsworth runs until 5 January. Tickets can be booked at chatsworth.org.
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