Wednesday I drove north through Sherwood Forest to the Peak District.

There are many reasons I wanted to come here. The Duchess (now she's the Dowager Duchess), when faced with hard times and high taxes to the estate, figured it out. She said, time to start over. It's not a National Trust property. The Cavendishes live in 75% of this gorgeous, opulent, practical-and-paying-for-itself testimony to exactly what money can buy.

It's gorgeous beyond everything else. And smart people have always lived here. The gorgeous cascade behind the house has been supplying clean running water for over 300 years. When the fountain was built, it was the tallest in Europe. It runs on gravity. No. Not electricity. Gravity.

Dukes of Devonshire have served as Exchequer. Which means you'll find odds and ends they've picked up over the years here. Like the throne of George III. And a room full of Rembrandt sketches.

I'm dividing this visit into multiple posts with the same date. Yes. It all happened the same day. I didn't come to England to watch tv.