Escape to Derbyshire
There’s one thing China doesn’t have and that’s proper countryside. What China does have is debatable, but certainly there aren’t rolling hills of dry stone walls, bleating sheep and lung-fulls of fresh country air.
England, on the other hand is full of it. Having taken that for granted all these years we got back on track with a few days in the middle of the Peak District next to a little town called Bakewell in a country home called Harthill Hall. It’s beautiful – 3 of Derbyshire’s highlights:
The village of Eyam , where infected Northerners went head to head against the plague by isolating themselves and sitting it out. One fierce women caught it, went delirious, drank a pint of pig fat and was cured.
The Devils Arse or Peak Cavern where Northerners used to live underground, the tour guide still seems to and with an evening or two spare you can travel the underground path to Matlock!
Chatsworth House set in about 10 square kilometers of the Duke of Devonshire’s estate. Climbing to the Hunting tower at the top of the hill behind the House one can soak in Landed Gentry owned terrain as far as the eye can see.
