In any given year, Chatsworth house would welcome some 600,000 visitors through its doors. Now, due to the outbreak of Covid-19, the house is empty aside from the Devonshires who are isolating there.
The 12th Duke of Devonshire, Peregrine Cavendish, is one of the few who remains in Chatsworth. “At the beginning, it was beautiful,” he says, “It was completely empty, like a series of Christmas Day mornings, which is the only other time of the year when there is nobody in the park. Everything was suspended, almost like being underwater.”
The economic impact of the pandemic on Chatsworth, could, according to the Duke, be “completely disastrous”. The flower show, due to open on Thursday has been axed, similarly the annual horse show. It is unclear where income will come from next.
Houses such as Chatsworth consume money at an alarming rate. The 18th century cascade, in dire need of repair, will be ignored for the foreseeable, or at least until the full financial impact of the pandemic is known.
The Duke compares Covid-19 to the foot and mouth pandemic of 2001. “That was bad enough,” he notes, “but, then, Chatsworth was only shut for two weeks, and we were able to bounce back. This is much longer, deeper, and more serious.
“We are not sure yet if we will open the house again this year.”
At his present estimation, the Duke believes that Chatsworth will survive, even if his conservative estimate that the house will reach 25 per cent of its capacity on their busiest days.
He concludes: “We’re beginning to see, that we will get through this.”
