We Brits love a country house. There’s something deeply ingrained about the idea of escaping to the countryside, trotting around a stately home, cooing over bric-a-brac owned by some Lord or Duke, and – preferably – collapsing into a four-poster bed at the end of it. 

But Derbyshire has, so far, escaped the public clamour. It’s a shame, really, because Derbyshire has the Peak District – aka some of the UK’s most attractive hiking territory – and it has Chatsworth. 

As anyone with a literature degree will tell you, Chatsworth House is the inspiration for Pemberley in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. But it has also been the seat of the Duke of Devonshire for more than 500 years and, with its gold-rimmed windows and Capability Brown-designed parkland, appears almost like the Versailles of Derbyshire, swaddled in dark green trees and surrounded by smooth, sloping hills. 

While you can’t stay at Chatsworth but you can stay near it. About 25 minutes’ ramble across its deer-dotted parkland sits The Cavendish, a brilliant boutique hotel that wears its stately lineage with style.

There’s been a hotel, of sorts, on this spot since before anyone can remember. Positioned on the juncture between Chesterfield and Buxton in the (now well-heeled) village of Baslow, the inn, then called The Peacock, primarily served weary travellers trudging between the two towns. It was acquired by the Chatsworth Estate in the 1830s and opened as The Cavendish in the 1970s.

But a simple travellers’ reprieve this is not. The Cavendish is a stylish, design-led hotel that sits somewhere between Georgian country house and modern boutique hotel – which is evident from the moment you crunch up the gravel drive and see a collection of chic-looking people gathered on the honey-stoned garden terrace. You wouldn’t go wrong in ordering a glass of rosé and joining them in admiring the storybook sprawl of a view.

Inside, it’s a rambling sort of place. Once you’ve passed the lobby and appreciated the bunches of local flowers and piles of chic art books, you don’t move upwards, but along; corridors thread through the building like veins, the colours shifting from pale green to purple as you reach the hotel’s heart. Art from the Cavendish family is hung on practically every wall – including, for some reason, a Pop-Art style print of Elizabeth II.

We’re staying in a superior double, and “superior” is an apt adjective to describe how it feels to kick off your shoes, wriggle your toes in a carpet so plush there’s no point unpacking your slippers and fling yourself onto the tall, four-poster bed to plot your circumnavigation of Chatsworth, perhaps using the handy guide left on the coffee table.

The entire hotel has been revamped by designer Nicola Harding (she also designed Beaverbrook and stylish Deal pub The Rose), and she’s worked to preserve the original Georgian character of the room while showcasing local artisans. The Pooky-style lamp on the bedside table was made by the Chatsworth Potter, all boldly patterned textiles are woven in Derbyshire and even the chic lotions and potions in the bathroom were made on-site.

There are novels to flick through. A retro-cool Bakelite telephone on the bedside table. Views over the estate, and a deep bath to soak in after stomping through them – guests of The Cavendish have unlimited access to Chatsworth and the grounds.

There are a couple of nice places to eat in Baslow but the best restaurants by far are in The Cavendish itself. The Garden Room is its more casual eatery, offering produce from Chatsworth whipped up into dishes like squidgy gnocchi with garden-grown asparagus, and steak with peppercorn sauce. (We say casual, but its glass ceiling and rattan chairs still attracted an elderly couple in matching Manolo slippers who drank a glass of rosé each before zooming off in their Maserati). 

The Gallery is the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, the name coming from the chic art collection scattered across the walls. Its tasting menu acts as a journey through the Chatsworth Estate, showing how simple, locally grown produce can really shine. The asparagus dish was excellent; the soundtrack of acoustic 2010s cover songs, less so.

There’s magic here, too. As we sat in The Gallery Restaurant, toying with a particularly superb piece of hogget, the sun began to set and clouds of swallows began to swoop and swirl in the peach-tinted air. Beyond, Chatsworth’s Hunting Tower glimmered in the last light of the day, enticing you to come closer, explore further… 

The Cavendish might not be Chatsworth House, but it channels all the good bits – the grandeur, the heritage, the family art collection. So yes, we Brits do love a country house. But what we really love is one with artsy grandeur, comfy beds and a roll-top bath waiting at the end of a walk. The Cavendish is that place.

cavendishhotelbaslow.co.uk