Short description
Chatsworth is one of England's ten most visited great houses. In this tour of the house, Deborah the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire takes the reader into the private as well as the public rooms, and goes behind the scenes to explain the management of the household and the work of the staff needed to keep it going.
Long description
Chatsworth is one of England's ten most visited great houses. It is also one of its best loved ones because, although it is a palace in size and grandeur, it is obviously a family home. Fourteen generations of Cavendishes have lived here; each has added to the collections, and each has stamped its own personality on the place. In this tour of the house, the Duchess takes the reader into the private as well as the public rooms, and goes behind the scenes to explain the management of the household and the work of the staff needed to keep it going. She describes the events after 1950 when her husband inherited the Dukedom and together embarked on the tasks of conserving, revitalizing, redecorating and running Chatsworth. The tasks, and the pleasures they bring, continue to this day.
Review
The end-papers of this gorgeous book show the family tree of the Cavendish family from 1505 and the Public Route of Chatsworth House (27 rooms), and both these aspects of Chatsworth, which is 'a conglomeration of styles and periods, furniture and decoration', are admirably expanded within this lively, personal and thoroughly researched book by the Duchess of Devonshire. Another large section of the book is given over to her vivid and anecdotal account of over 30 of the private rooms, which form a stately home within a stately home, with the addition of family clutter, plastic lamps and overflowing cardboard boxes. Public curiosity about how Chatsworth works led to a 'Behind the Scenes' tour in 1996, and the last few pages describe the work of the household. The full-time staff numbered 72 in 1938, down to 59 in 2001, as well as 83 seasonal and 26 part-time workers. One would expect a large book about one of England's grandest houses to contain fine illustrations, but Simon Upton has not only produced 200 photographs of breathtaking beauty and clarity, but also many of original charm, such as one of the Duchess serene in the jumble of the North Attics, the ornate 18th-century theatre, now used as a textile restoration room, and contrasting views of the library, by day and by night. An excellent full-page photograph of the sculpture library is followed by the near-tactile delights of eight smaller ones of individual sculptures. Many similar detailed shots, such as the passementerie on a Regency sofa cushion, and Grinling Gibbons's carved cravat on the Oak Stairs, are as magnificent as the near-panoramic views of the Painted Hall, or the cunning double-spread of the view over the gardens to the River Derwent from the Duchess's bedroom. Many black-and-white archive photos and early paintings, skilfully juxtaposed, lend historical perspective to the magnificent present-day room settings. The Duchess of Devonshire has an intimate and wide-ranging knowledge of every aspect of this palatial house about which endless decisions have to be made. She concludes by describing herself as 'a housewife'. Some housewife! Some house! (Kirkus UK)