The first national park in UK – Peak District – lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, attracts 10 million visitors per year. Despite its name, the landscape is generally characterized by rounded hills and grit stone cliffs. The highest point is 636 meters on Kinder Scout.
With the majority of area being in excess of 300 meters above sea level, and being situated to the west of the country with a latitude of 53 degrees, the Peak District experiences a relatively high amount of rainfall (>1000mm each year) compared to the rest of England. There are approximately 2,700 farms in the National Park with numerous sheep wandering around valleys and pastures.
The Peak District provides opportunities for many types of outdoor activity such as hill walking, hiking, mountain cycling, horse riding, rock climbing, caving, sailing, fishing, paragliding, etc. Other visitors are attracted by resorts and historical buildings. Among those buildings, Chatsworth House which stands on the east bank of the River Derwent has always been the favorite country house in UK.
Chatsworth House was built by Duke of Devonshire as his family’s home since 1549. The house was rebuilt and estate was expanded continuously. In 1950, when the 10th Duke transferred the assets to his son, the inheritance tax was as high as ￡7 million (￡179 million as of 2012). They had to sell more than half of its land and even some major works of art from Chatsworth to pay the tax. Today, the Chatsworth Estate is about 140 square kilometers and it costs around ￡4 million a year to run the house.
In the 2005 film of Jane Austen’s
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