It is a truth universally acknowledged that, when adapting novels for the screen, TV and filmmakers sometimes indulge in creative licence.
Do you remember the 1995 miniseries of Pride And Prejudice starring Colin Firth? If so, you’ll no doubt recall Firth, as Mr Darcy, going for a swim in a lake before he strides out to encounter his love interest Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle). The scene wasn’t in the original 1813 novel by Jane Austen, but it certainly added spice for late 20th century viewers and more than three decades on, it continues to resonate.
We’re in Lyme Park, a Cheshire estate that doubled as Pemberley — Darcy’s stately home — in that iconic adaptation.
Not far from where Firth stood facing Ehle in his damp white shirt, I spot a middle-aged couple strolling arm in arm by Lyme Hall. They look like characters from an Austen story, the suit, top hat and dress evoking the Regency period that the author wrote so eloquently and humorously about.
Moving into the hall’s inner courtyard, I pass a family of four, also clad in Regency-esque attire. What’s striking is that they’re not speaking the northern-accented English like most of the families visiting Lyme Park today. Mum, dad and the teenage boy and girl are conversing in Spanish.
A huge hit in Britain, the 1995 BBC miniseries was a worldwide sensation (helped, in no small part, by that lake scene added by screenwriter Andrew Davies).
My visit to Lyme comes after watching The Other Bennet Sister, a new BBC period drama inspired by Pride And Prejudice and mostly filmed in Wales and south-west England. Occasional Austen-themed days are still staged on the Lyme estate, which was owned by the aristocratic Legh family from the late 14th century until 1946, when it was donated to the National Trust.
There were several events here last year to mark the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth and I find a variety of Pride And Prejudice-related souvenirs in the courtyard gift store, including mugs portraying a smouldering Colin Firth in his prime.
A ticket is required to explore the ornately-furnished Lyme Hall, which was remodelled in the 1720s by the Venetian-born architect Giacomo Leoni, who added Italian Palladian flair to an earlier Tudor mansion.
British architect Lewis Wyatt further embellished the house the following century. Don’t expect the rooms to look as they did in Pride And Prejudice (while the exterior featured so vividly in the 1995 show, Pemberley’s interior scenes were shot at Sudbury Hall, another National Trust address, just over an hour’s drive south of here in Derbyshire).
A ticket also allows entry to Lyme’s Italianate garden, which is at its best between the northern spring and autumn. We’re here in April, when the daffodils are in bloom on the lawns by the lovely Lyme Hall pond, which is not to be confused with the lake from the show (that’s elsewhere and we hear Firth actually filmed the underwater scenes in a water tank at a London studio).
Rhododendrons are also beginning to sprout by the pond with the sandstone Lyme mansion reflecting nicely into the water.
Taking photographs beside me are a few Japanese and Chinese (dressed like regular 21st century tourists, I must add). We see them later queuing for tea and scones at the Timber Yard Cafe, which is set around a former joiner’s workshop on this 566ha estate bordering the ruggedly scenic Peak District National Park (which has appeared in later adaptations of Pride And Prejudice).
Lyme’s sprawling grounds are free to enjoy if you arrive on foot or on bicycle (those coming by car must pay). There are numerous trails to tread in and around the park. We pass newborn lambs in the grassy rolling fields, hear sweet birdsong in the shaded woodlands and ascend windswept summits for pulse-raising panoramas of the surrounding moors and farmland.
The bulging skyline of Manchester looms to the north (we’d ridden the train for 30 minutes from the city centre to Disley, a village linked by a quiet country lane to the main gates of Lyme Park).
One notable lookout point on the estate is the so-called Cage, a sturdy square tower that served as a poacher’s prison and a gamekeeper’s lodge. It was initially a refuge for Elizabethan ladies to lounge and linger while the gents went hunting. Red deer have resided on the Lyme estate for more than 600 years and we see the current herd sleeping and grazing peacefully.
Sometime around September and October, however, aggression levels will rise and the stags will be bellowing and locking horns as the mating season kicks off. This coincides with Lyme’s foliage starting to take on a handsome autumnal tinge and one day we hope to return here to witness this timeless romance and drama.
fact file
+ Admission to Lyme park, hall and garden is £20.90 ($40) for adults and £10.50 ($20) for children aged five to 17. A park and garden ticket is £9.90 for adults and £5 for children. Family tickets are better value if travelling as a group. Those arriving car-free will enjoy free entry to the park and garden as well as 10 per cent off in the cafes when you show a train ticket with the day’s date on it. For more information, see nationaltrust.org.uk
+ There are usually hourly direct trains from Manchester Piccadilly to Disley. For times and tickets, see northernrailway.co.uk
+ To help plan a trip to Britain, see visitbritain.com
©BBC 1995 Credit: Joss Barratt
©BBC 1995 Credit: AON