"What are men to rocks and mountains?"

I'm sure I've said the above quote at least 10 times in the last three months, and certainly mentioned it in a previous post somewhere, but now I can say it with complete accuracy to its context as I traveled to the Peak District of county Derbyshire where Elizabeth Bennet goes with her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice and this line is said. (Phew, was that a run-on sentence or what!) It was my last trip and my last literary pilgrimage across England, and it was a most wonderful three days indeed!

However, before I get to that, there were a few highlights amidst the last two hell weeks of paper writing and final exams.  I had 2 papers, 2 exams, and a group project that I was trying to finish up before my trip to the Peaks.  This proved to be awful but I got it done and that's what matters. My friend Sarah from Muhlenberg had finished her abroad studies in Italy and came to visit for a few days.  Although I was bogged down with work, we enjoyed dinner together every night which was quite a nice relief from the stress of papers.  When I at last finished my work, to celebrate and have a last get together with some of my Queen Mary friends, I threw a fried food party in hopes of clearing out all our unwanted food products and to blow off some steam.  We made beer batter and fried up onion rings, red peppers, chicken, brussel sprouts, oreos, snickers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cheese balls and made a barley and peas dish, to have something green. :)  At the end we had excess batter, so we created a massive pancake and stuck snickers in it and topped it with chocolate ganache. That wasn't very good, but otherwise it was quite a delicious and successful evening!!

I was blessed with the company of one of my best friends, Emily, for the last week of my time in England.  It was quite a welcome gift after suffering through paper writing and finals the previous week.  Emily, too, is a fanatic Jane Austen lover, so we planned three days in London, 3 days in the Peaks, then one day to return and pack, and then we were traveling back home together on Wednesday.  We milked London for all its Christmastime worth, which was absolutely fabulous.  The first night we strolled around seeing all the Christmas lights strung on all the streets.  London knows how to do Christmas.  It was beautiful, festive, and authentic - everything actually said "Merry Christmas"!  We went to see a one-man show of A Christmas Carol, my favorite Christmas story, starring Simon Callow, which ended up being incredible, although when we bought the tickets we did not know it was a one-man show!  The program said that this staging is how Dickens wanted the story staged, which I found interesting.  It was a really touching performance and very well done.  Thursday we saw The Hobbit - not Christmas related but hey, it was the premiere IN LONDON.  We actually stumbled across the actual premiere Wednesday night and saw all the attendees in ball gowns and tuxedos and even saw the actor who played Thorin drive up and then be interviewed on the big screen!! Benefits of living in London, for sure.

 Thursday evening we went to A Celebration of Christmas at St. Paul's Cathedral.  We were one of the last few people to get in and originally had pretty bad seats, but then they promoted our whole section to a roped off area in the front so we had a great view of the choir, orchestra, readers, and the dome of the cathedral itself! It was awesome! The service consisted of readings and carols intermingled, performed by St. Paul's Men's choir, which had boys as the soprano and alto parts, who had the most beautiful voices I've ever heard.  It was a wonderful performance.  Afterward, we walked along South Bank and went to a Christmas market along the Thames by the London Eye and saw an ice skating rink, a great place for people watching.

At 10:30 pm we, along with Elly and Carolyn, had a reservation at the restaurant Duck and Waffle which is on the 40th floor of Heron Tower.  Unfortunately it was a foggy night and the awesome view of London it promises was completely obstructed, but the food was out of this world!! It's a sharing plate restaurant, much like St. John Bread and Wine, where you order a bunch of dishes for everyone to try.  We got the house bread, roasted root vegetable salad, roasted essex beetroot, octopus, duck and waffle (obviously), bacon wrapped dates, and jerusalem artichoke ravioli.  Then for dessert we had a brownie, torrejas, and macarons.  Everything was absolutely incredibly delicious.  I was particularly excited for the duck and waffle, as chicken and waffles is my favorite food as of this summer.  It was a winner combo.  I also had my first julep! (Okay, so the picture might not make it look appetizing, but seriously, best meal I've ever eaten.)

Friday I took Emily to Fleet Street and we went to the Twinings Tea Factory, who gave us paper bags for our purchases, which became soaked in the pouring rain as we walked and mine fell apart in the middle of the sidewalk! It was so embarassing and awful!  We ducked into the Courtauld Art Gallery's gift shop to get plastic bags, and I ended up purchasing a print of one of my favorite paintings from my Impressionism class, Manet's 'Bar at the Folies-Bergere'.  I'm excited to hang it on my wall at home! We then wandered down The Strand, went in a few shops, and eventually made it to the London Coliseum where we were seeing The Nutcracker!! Our seats were the very last row of the highest balcony, but were quite satisfactory and it was a great performance, although they cut out Mother Ginger, who is my favorite!  After the show we went down to Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. James's Park, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and finally ended up at a little Italian restaurant for dinner.  The food was yummy but the waiter was really awkward and wouldn't come over to the table but just linger near it waiting for me to force eye contact. Twas strange.

 Saturday saw us off to Derbyshire and the most perfect weekend ever, in all its imperfections. We took the train from St. Pancras - my first time actually making it on time to that station (recall Scotland and York) - and arrived in Matlock where we then had to navigate the bus system to get ourselves to Rowsley, where our Bed and Breakfast was. That's right - the bed and breakfast - pulling out all the stops, no hostels anymore.  Best. Decision. Ever.  We dumped our bags and then made our way on foot to Haddon Hall which is in the neighboring town of Bakewell. Of the Bakewell Tart. (Read the post about my trip to Brighton to learn about that!) 

We were going to Haddon Hall because it was featured as Thornfield in the movie Jane Eyre but we discovered it was actually in several (like, 30) various movies and BBC films.  It is still a private home, owned by Edward Manners.  The Christmas decorations inside were lovely - everything was covered in evergreens and holly as well as dried oranges.  We discovered that oranges were used as a sign of wealth because only the rich could afford them in the dead of winter.  That explains why in Little Women Amy is so excited about the orange on Christmas morning! Oh, epiphanies!  There were also carolers and musicians in the Great Room and a roaring fire in each fireplace which created a cozy atmosphere. It was really neat to enter the rooms and try to figure out how they were used in the movies.  For example, the great hall is the same as in this clip and we figured out which spire was used as Bertha's tower (the one in the picture!).  I only wish Mr. Rochester would have showed himself, or at least Pilot! After the tour we headed back down the road home to eat dinner at the one restaurant in town (or at least the only one in our price range) The Grouse and Claret.  It was a yummy meal, and we were knackered from the long day, so we turned in rather early, and by 9:45 were tucked into the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in. 

Sunday we woke up early to eat breakfast and grab the bus to Matlock to the nearest church for mass.  We got there a half hour early so we wandered around town, hiking up the steep streets.  When we finally went to church, we were greeted by the priest who immediately asked "Are you Polish?"  I'm not really sure why that was his first assumption, but I'm taking it as a compliment and yet another connection to my heritage.  He was very friendly and insisted we stay after mass for tea and biscuits, which we did.  The parishioners were incredibly friendly but just couldn't understand why two American girls were here in Matlock! We informed them of our Jane Austen pilgrimage, to which one woman responded "What did she write?"  We were SHOCKED. I mean, I thought everyone knew Jane Austen, especially British women! That just seems unfathomable.  But she proved me wrong. She was wonderful though, and drove us to nearby Matlock Bath, which to quote the bus advertisement, is on Sundays "a gathering place for friendly bikers" - the motorcycle variety.  Boy, was that an understatement! They were everywhere, and stores selling biker gear dotted the main street.  It was so random! We took a walk by the lake and then hiked up the hill, on the other side of which when we reached the top we laid eyes on beautiful farmland.  It was a delightfully pastoral and bucolic moment.  Emily and I both agreed that we are country folk at heart.  There is nothing as beautiful as land and nature.  Romantics, Transcendentalists, whatever you want to call us.  That's the truth. The trip was worth it, if only for that moment. 

We wandered back down the hillside and walked along the street and stopped in for some Fish n' Chips, for which they are well known. 
We stopped into the right place for sure because these fish and chips and mushy peas were the best I've ever had!! The fish was hardly breaded and the perfect level of fried.  The chips sopped up the vinegar well and the mushy peas were delectable (if such a word can be applied to them).  After the satisfying meal, we walked back to Matlock and were honked at and given the thumbs up on the way.  It was rather humorous.  We grabbed the bus from Matlock and were in for an early night once again, after watching a Hugh Grant film, of course.  We'd been watching one every night. :)

Monday we indulged and slept until 7:45 - whoa! - then had a lovely breakfast.  I formed a taste for Alpen cereal - fiber full and delicious!  Then we headed on a 3 mile walk to Chatsworth, the house used as Pemberley in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice.   It had rained the previous night and was still sprinkling when we embarked so it was a very, VERY muddy path through pastures which seemed like they should be private property, but it was a public footpath.  Not to worry, I didn't break any laws in my desperation to be Elizabeth Bennet.  We were right in with the sheep at one point, who decided to run across our path right as we were about to walk forward.  Sheep are quite adorable, I must say. I just wanted to snuggle with them.  I had sneakers with mesh top so my feet were not enjoying this walk.  I kept hitting mud puddles that didn't look like they'd be deep but in fact were and I was soaked right through.  It was quite gross, not to mention cold.



Eventually we were onto Chatsworth Park where we must have been walking right in the valley area of the grass because we were literally walking through water and my shoes and feet were just getting worse.  But all this did not deter from the incredible joy upon laying eyes on Chatsworth House.  If you've seen the movie, you will recall Keira Knightley's reaction of tears and laughter when she first saw the house.  Well, that's incredibly accurate and exactly what Emily's and my reactions were.  It is a stunning house and perfectly situated on the land.  In my architecture class we discussed the idea of the picturesque - an indirect path that induces surprise and anticipation.  Chatsworth park and house is an excellent example of this.  You walk along the yard and suddenly turn a corner and lay eyes on the house in the distance, with sheep grazing in front of it.  It was a lovely sight indeed.  I took pictures at every angle and just couldn't get enough looking at it.  Before heading in, I had to make a pitstop to wring out my wet socks and brush off some mud.  I didn't want to offend Mr. Darcy after all!




Inside the house was decorated in the theme of Christmas Pantos.  You'll recall the Jack and the Beanstalk one I saw in Harrogate.  Here every room was a different story, such as Peter Pan featured in this photo.  I never thought I'd enter Pemberley to "Heigh Ho" from Snow White but I did! It was cute. The house has some incredibly painted ceilings and a private sculpture gallery, as seen in the movie!  I gazed just as Elizabeth Bennet did at Achilles's butt. ;)  In the gift shop was the bust of Mr. Darcy (aka Matthew MacFadyen) and it completed the experience. 

Outside we wandered the grounds, which included a cascade in which every step is a different size in order to create various sounds of flowing water.  It was really neat.  There was also an impressive rock garden.  I wondered if it was loved by the grandchildren or thought a hazard by the parents.  (The house is still owned and used by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.)  I'm sure probably both :)  We ended the outing by purchasing some Mulled Wine (at last!) to warm us on our long journey back.  It was a beyond wonderful time, and like Lizzie, we fell deeper in love with Darcy because of his house.

 

We took a slightly different path back, which led us along the road instead of through pastures.  This was a little scary as the path was rather narrow and we were really close to the cars speeding by, in the dark.  But we survived and had practically dried out at last as we approached the Grouse and Claret for dinner, just when a truck drove by and hit a puddle in a pothole which sprayed all over us!!!! It was awful!! We stood there, soaked and stunned at what occurred.  We were in hysterics at the absurdity of the situation but felt like we should cry at the tragedy of it.  I even had tar pebbles stuck to my hood!  We sat through a 3 hour dinner quite wet, but at least we satisfied our hunger.  Afterward we turned in and finally put dry clothes on.  My feet were in disgusting condition so I cleaned them and then we settled in for one last Hugh Grant movie (About a Boy) and went to sleep. 

We awoke early the next morning to head home to London, sad to be leaving the Peaks but happy with the prospect of being home in America in a little over 24 hours!  I spent the afternoon packing and then went with a few friends to The Greedy Cow for the last time, feasting on a reindeer burger, which was quite delicious!  I am really going to miss that place.  The next morning saw a 6 am wake up call, 7:30 tube call, a 12:00 flight, and a 3:20 arrival in Dulles Airport.  I have to say it was one of the happiest moments ever, flying home.  I was ready and excited.  Sitting next to a Swedish family on the plane who were heading to Florida, I was all too enthusiastic to discuss America with them. I couldn't help but sing patriotic songs to myself as we flew in.  I was greeted by my family at the airport and headed off to a delicious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  It was a long night - by the time I went to bed I'd been up 22.5 hours - but it was nice to be settled in and looking at a decorated Christmas tree. Truly, there's no place like home, and God bless America.