A lively personal and horticultural tour of the magnificent 400-year-old gardens at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. The Duchess of Devonshire's text takes the reader on a stroll through a garden that includes parterres and vistas water in all its forms, from formal cascades and fountains to natural streams and ponds rockeries and trees a working kitchen garden and statuary and planted borders. The history of the garden is described, incorporating the creation, the changes and the restorations both the Duke and Duchess have made, "in the spirit of the place".