Lyme Park

If you know Helen, then you know why we are here! This is none other than Pemberley from BBC's Pride and Prejudice TV series.

As we drove there, the rain set in, and on arrival it was quite wet. We hoped it would go away, which it never quite did but it wasn't a problem.

The famous view of the building is actually the rear. We enter by the front (as you do) into the central courtyard, then as it was still raining we went up the stairs to get inside.

It is adorned by items collected by The National Trust that need a good home. Every room has an elderly volunteer only to eager to tell you all about it. I hope they send them home at night but by the looks of some of them I think they've been there for years.

The tour was good but now for the main event, outside! The rain had eased to a few spits. We walked around the gardens for a while.

We headed to the back of the lake to get the "money shot". It required a great deal of patience, as there was a man with a tractor mowing the lawns. After perhaps 30 minutes of waiting we got THE photo....

I offered to jump into the lake for Helen. She called my bluff and accepted my offer, at which point I had to let her down. She will just have to settle for Colin Firth I'm afraid.

After that we carried on around the lake. The rain was returning, so we sat in the glasshouse. Helen studied Pride and Prejudice on her iPod to check which shots were taken where, we came to the conclusion there was some trickery used and the continuity isn't true to the layout of the property.

After that we departed, off to Buxton to the B&B we were booked into.