A Tour of Chatsworth House - V

A quartz crystal

Moving into the Grotto from the Painted Hall, during my tour of Chatsworth House, a large bas-relief depicts the Roman Goddess Diana bathing, with her servants in attendance. The Grotto was at the heart of the 1st Duke's very modern plumbing system, which provided both hot and cold running water and flowed into a large Ashford Black Marble basin. 

The bas-relief of Diana in The Grotto

I didn’t get close enough to examine the stone but, in The Geology of Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, it is described as Roche Abbey stone – a Permian dolomitic limestone from South Yorkshire, which here is elaborately decorated with carved crabs, lobsters and shellfish. 

A view along Chapel Passage

Having a passion for stone in its many forms, the adjoining Chapel Passage formed the highlight of my tour and it is this section that also stands out in memories of my first visit to Chatsworth House, more than 35 years ago. 

A giallo antico marble pedestal

Immediately on the left, there are various white marble busts and statues of cherubs but I was more interested in the pedestals, which include a pink/yellow marble that looks like the giallo antico of the North Corridor and another that I can’t identify. There are two table tops, however, which have the distinctive brick red and olive green colours of diaspro tenero di Sicilia. 

A diaspro tenero di Sicilia table top with marble busts and minerals

Beneath the tables, there are several large geological specimens, including slices of petrified wood, various crystalline minerals, brain coral and, facing each other across the passage, a large freestanding amethyst geode and an enormous quartz crystal. 

Polished marbles and geological specimens

Further along, there is another table with a grey granite top, beneath which there are further examples of large geological specimens, with a slab covered in ammonites, a Carboniferous fossil fern and an aggregate of massive oyster shells being immediately recognisable. 

Various geological specimens beneath a grey granite topped table

Several more white marble busts are found along this side of the Chapel Passage, with other stones that I can’t identify forming the pedestals, which I am assuming are further examples of Italian marbles that the 6th Duke of Devonshire discovered on his travels.

Various statues and pedestals