Since clever old Bess of Hardwick persuaded her second, much older husband, Sir William Cavendish, to give up his lands in Suffolk and move to Derbyshire, where, in 1549, they spent £600 buying the Manor of Chatsworth (above), the place has never looked back. In his friend Alan Titchmarsh, the present (12th) Duke of Devonshire (he and the Duchess are moving out of the house to make way for their son, the Earl of Burlington, and his family) has found a writer able to tie in the many strands of the story beautifully. From commissioning the best in their field—from Capability Brown and Joseph Paxton to Dan Pearson and Tom Stuart-Smith—the horti-culturally minded Cavendish family has never stinted on that astonishing Peak District landscape. Long may it remain in such safe hands. Chatsworth: The gardens and the by Alan Titchmarsh, with photography by Jonathan Buckley, is published by Ebury Spotlight, £35.