42 outandaboutlive.co.ukSeptember 2019
ABOVEChatsworth House
has a magnificent
parkland setting
ABOVE FAR RIGHTViewup
Ladybower Reservoirhighest gravity-fed fountain.
Further up I visit the m aze on the site
of the Great Conservatory, which wasthe
largest glasshouse in the world andhad an
elaborate syst em of rails, tunnels andflues
to bring in 300tons of coal ea ch winter
in or der to heat it invisibly. I amsimply
amazedby the extravagance of the garden
features; ea ch one must havecost a fo rtune
to build.
Late r I bump into ‘Joseph Paxton’ and his
wife – actually, costumed characters playing
the parts. As head gardenerfor the sixth
duke, he built the Great Conservatory an d
many other featur es, including agiant rock
garden and a cascade,which is fed by ponds
and anaqueduct inStand Wood. ‘Jose ph’
tells me that he was later commissioned to
build Crysta l Palace.
With another sc orching d ay in prospect,
we make an early start for awalk along
Baslow and Curbar Edges. The route climbs
steeply thr ough the old stone houses of
Curbar villa ge and past the graves of the
Cundy fami ly, who died of plague in 1632.
Gaining higher groun d, we pause at a
bench for a drink while enjoyin g the view
south to Chatsworth. Nearby we visit the
Wellington monument, erected in 1866to
commemorate the duke’s heroic exploits
and the Eag le stone, a large tor sitting on
the moorland.
Then we take the path t hat runs alon g
the edge of the millstone grit escarpment,
with excellent views over Curbar and Calver
and up Stoney Middleton Dale to Eyam.
The roc k face below us has been quarried
in pl aces and we spot a half -cut millstone
below the crags. A viewpoint indicator
names the peaks on the skyline, with distant
Kinder Scout ju st visible. After we go for
cooling dri nks in the dog-friendly bar of the
Derwentwater Arms in nearby Calver, where
we hada lovely meal the previousevening.
Our afternoon is spent in Eyam, where we
browse interesting displays in the Market
Hall about the villa ge’s plague history and
lead mining heritage.
When the pl ague was raging in London
in 1665,it was accidental ly carriedhere in
some flea-ridden cloth delivered to a tail or.
In the outbreak that fo llowed a third of the
parish’s population died, but a self-imposed
villa ge quarantine prevented it spreading to
neighbouring places.
It is such a pictur esque pl ace now that it
is hard to imagine the sufferingthat must
have happened.At one farm amother had
to buryher husband andsix children bu t
remained uninfectedhersel f.