Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Just before we leave Chatsworth [there were so many more fabulous pictures but I had to be selective and not bore you!] I wanted to point out that they used to have the biggest green house conservatory in the empire. Queen Victoria loved to come for the day and just glory in the greenhouse but it took 3 coal mines going 24 hrs. to keep the greenhouse toasty warm in all seasons and during WWI when coal had to be used for the war effort and labour began to be expensive and just wasn't available the plants died and the greenhouse had to be demolished so they used the stone bases to define a maze which you can go through at Chatsworth now and befuddle yourself. The maze is in the background in the picture to the bottom left.