Lyme Park

We left Castleton this morning to travel back to Leeds and stopped in at Lyme Park in Cheshire.  It's one of the major houses that the family passed on to the National Trust to preserve and maintain.  The house is well-known as a setting for historical dramas, most famously the 1995 BBC version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  Visitors are allowed to tour the house and grounds, although all of my pictures are of the exterior since pictures indoors are prohibited.  Lyme is also the original home of the Lyme Caxton Missal, published in 1487.

The two different sides of the building appear quite different--the front has a more Edwardian appearance, with the back and gardens designed in an Italian style.  The family Legh owned the property and built the buildings over many years.  At left is the side in which we entered the building.

This is the courtyard in the center--we entered the house through the door at the top of the stairs and wove through the building to view tapestries, paintings, and antique furniture.

The opposite side shows the Italian style, with columns and a long rambling lawn that leads to a reflecting pool and Italian garden.

The reflecting pond was quiet and peaceful.

This is the ornate Italian sunken garden adjacent to the lawn.

This is the view from across the reflecting pond, showing a full view of the building and the orangery on the righthand side.

This fountain stood in the center of the orangery surrounded by tropical plants.

Altogether the entire tour allowed a glimpse into a life distant from a typical experience but rich with history preserved as part of a national program to protect it.