BURGHLEY HOUSE
Grand Elizabethan Manor of Lincolnshire
It is billed at the “Largest and Grandest House of the Elizabethan
Age” and Burghley House in Stamford, Lincolnshire is certainly
an impressive edifice, with cupolas and chimneys prickling from its golden
limestone, set in a vast parkland estate, where on a weekend you may
be as likely to find a forest of Ferraris parked on the lawn from a car
club outing and families at play as of natural flocks of swans.
William Cecil, the
first Lord Burghley, angled his way from a modest noble family to become
Queen Elizabeth I’s chief financial Minister
and Lord High Treasurer. One of the most influential politicians of a
turbulent age of religious conflict, epic expansion, and court intrigue,
Lord Burghley was a clever and apparently Machiavellian figure, who may
have played as significant role in the shape of the intrigues of Elizabethan
Theater as well as its court politics. Cecil gained his title in advance
of his daughter Anne marrying Edward DeVere the 17th Earl of Oxford of
Shakespearian authorship controversy (see Hedingham Castle).
The Cecil
family seems to have come from Wales and established themselves in
East Midlands of England. William Cecil’s grandfather was a Sergeant-at-Arms
for Henry VIII acquiring significant land holdings, and his father, Richard,
Yeoman of the Wardrobe, but it was in the court of Queen Elizabeth that
Cecil rose to the top of the heap. As the reign of Elizabeth settled
into an era of prosperity, the great lords of the time took to building
themselves great houses to equal their status. William Cecil’s
early career was in the service of the Duke of Somerset and seemed
to be inspired by the great mansion Somerset had to built. William
Cecil
set about design the house mostly himself and had it built between
1555 and 1587.
The great manor of
Burghley House consists of 35 major rooms and 80 smaller rooms, hallways
and corridors. The exterior of the house is essentially
as it was in Elizabethan times, while much of the interior has undergone
changes of later ages as the home of the Earls and Marquesses of Exeter.
The original long Tudor Galleries of the early design were transformed
into suites of rooms in the 17th Century, in a “modernization” under
the 5th Earl of Exeter with the addition of a vast collection of Baroque
painting and art work from his travels around Europe. Many of the paintings
remain, including paintings by Gainsborough and Veronese. The ceilings
and walls frescoes were painted by Italian artists Antonio Verrio creating
his famous masterpiece murals of the Heaven and Hell. In the 18th Century,
the gardens and park of the estate were re-landscaped under the eye of
architect of the day Lancelot “Capability” Brown. The last
major renovation of the house was undertaken in the 19th Century for
a visit by Queen Victoria, with parquet flooring in the Great Hall and
stained glass among the improvements.
Burghley
House is still lived in by descendents of the Cecils, managed by a
preservation trust with 30 of the great staterooms
available to be seen on a self-guided tour
of the house. The entrance to the mansion is through the former Brewhouse
with an changing exhibit of artifacts from the house’s history.
The tour proper begins across the courtyard in the soaring Gothic arched
Tudor kitchens with turtle skulls on the walls left from the turtle soup
which was all the rage in the 1700’s. Famed rooms in the house
include Queen Elizabeth's Bedroom, with its State Bed, the Pagoda Room
with royal portraits - including William Cecil in his robes as master
of the Order of the Garter - the George Rooms created as royalty guest
apartments, and the companion Heaven Room with a mythological heaven
of cavorting Gods and Goddesses, and Hell Staircase with the entrance
to hell depicted curiously as a cats mouth. The end of the tour is through
the Great Hall with its double hammer beam ceiling and great Tudor fireplace,
and lastly the Olympic Corridor where the athletic 6th Marquess of Exeter’s
Olympic Gold and Silver medals are on display.
The Gardens of Burghley House require a separate entrance but include both the Historical Garden of Surprises with water fountain tricks popular in the baroque age (see Trick Fountains Hellbrunn Salzburg), sundials, obelisks and mirror mazes, and the neighboring Sculpture Garden where modern art meets natural beauty with unique contemporary sculptures in the green setting of the reclaimed lost formal gardens.
Visiting Burghley House
The mansion
at Burghley House is open daily except Fridays from 11am to 5pm from
the end of
March to the end of October. Entrance to the house
is £13.50 for adults, £12 seniors and £6.70 for children 3-15. Tickets
of the Gardens are £8.00 for adults. Family tickets and groups
discounts are available. Various events are held throughout the season,
from Easter Egg Hunts, Craft Fairs and car clubs gathering. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Burghley House
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See Also:
NEWSTEAD
ABBEY - LORD BYRON'S HOME
MORTIMER'S
HOLE -
NOTTINGHAM CASTLE
BLENHEIM
PALACE - DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH MANOR
CRICH TRAMWAY VILLAGE - MATLOCK
