A Derbyshire Christmas Author:Robert Innes-Smith (Compiler) Here is a celebration of Christmas in the diverse county of Derbyshire with its matchless scenery and romantic old houses. In this beautiful setting we can read Sir Osbert Sitwell's poignantly evocative account of his childhood Christmases in Yorkshire and at his Derbyshire ancestral home, Renishaw Hall, and we can escape to eavesdrop on Eli... more »zabethan festivities with the Vernons in the Banqueting Hall of that most romantic of all houses, Haddon Hall. We are privy, too, to the festive goings-on at the ducal 'Palace of the Peak', Chatsworth, both above and below stairs.
Christmas in a Victorian workhouse in Ashbourne shows the other side of the coin, and we also read of the mummers and carol singers performing age-old customs around the county, and in particular at the plague village of Eyam. Christmas revolves very much around children, illustrated here by an entertaining assortment of children's seasonal verse. Hunting escapades and even ghosts also play their part at Christmas.
D.H. Lawrence, Lord Chesterfield, Dame Edith Sitwell, Alison Uttley and other well-known writers associated with Derbyshire, are all represented here in the rich county anthology, providing the reader with a delightful and seasonal assortment of prose and verse.« less