Chatsworth House

Our first stop of the day was to Chatsworth House, a 16^th century manor house that belonged to the Cavendish family. It’s been the seat of the Duke of Devenshire since that time. The House is now a museum, but this day our group came to talk about Chatsworth of a symbol of the power of nobility. Not only were the manor lands themselves set aside for hunting (deer, mostly), but the mere fact that so much prime farmland could be set aside for non-agricultural pursuits was itself a symbol of just how much wealth the Cavendish family had.

In addition, most of the local farmers were eventually moved to the planned post-medieval village of Edensor, just over the rise from Chatsworth. This village was attached to the manor and provided an area for post-medieval farming and was eventually safe from the later large-scale enclosures that occurred across England.

Interestingly enough, the eldest Kennedy sister, Kathleen Kennedy, married the heir to the Devenshire dukedom and was buried at the church in Edensor among the rest of the Cavendish family. The House itself has been in numerous films, including 2005's Pride and Prejudice and 2008’s The Duchess.