It was an incredible treat to stop off on the journey south at Hardwick, such a wonderful house on its hill overlooking the M1.

The approach:-

Not surprisingly, I liked the Muniment Room:-

But I was totally ill prepared for what lay upstairs:-

The glories of the Long Gallery.

The state bed which I have discovered is a nineteenth-century fake (aka a reconstruction):-

The mantelpiece which is not a fake:-

But most magical is the ensemble, the way it envelops one:-

A beautiful place !