We’re still working the last of summer for all it’s worth. This week we went to Burghley to see the house started in 1555 by William Cecil, the Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth. He was the most important politician in the country and built Burghley as his legacy, something that would be handed down through his family, a constant reminder of his power and influence. Not that he had much time to spend there as it is buried away near Peterborough, 90-odd miles from the court in London.
It worked out pretty much as he had planned.
Although the exterior would be recognisable to William Cecil, inside it has been substantially gutted and rebuilt. Only the splendid Tudor kitchens remain largely unchanged.
The rest of the house was remodelled by the 5th Earl of Exeter in the 17th century and then again by the 9th Earl in the 18th. The great long galleries were broken up into smaller (but still enormous) rooms, mainly, it seems, to provide extra wall space to display a ridiculous number of paintings. The family still lives in the house, which must at times feel like camping out in an art gallery.
The 9th Earl commissioned Capability Brown to landscape his grounds. Brown also made changes to the house, including demolishing an entire wing that was obstructing the view!
The design of the rooms features a lot of dark wood and vast paintings of wars and ancestors. Perhaps surprisingly for the English aristocracy, there is little overlap between the two. The Cecils were not a particularly martial family but were better known as collectors. Besides their paintings, they bought porcelain (especially from Japan) and fine furniture. (There are some wonderful marquetry cabinets.) The overall effect is rather overwhelming and surprisingly unphotogenic, hence the absence of photos on this blog. The design works by just being so very, very big. It’s too large to capture well in a picture. It’s also notable for a distinct absence of lightness of touch or humour. It’s about impressing you guests (there have been visits from Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II) not about welcoming them with tea and cake.
We were there for hours and I know of a lot more about Japanese porcelain than I did when we arrived. It’s arguably the finest Elizabethan House in England and well worth a visit, but I definitely wouldn’t want to live there.
The grounds are beautiful. There’s an ice house for regular readers of this blog who have seen photos of the others I’ve collected. It’s the first one I’ve visited outside West London, although there are examples all round the country.
There’s a sculpture garden too, which displays some interesting works. I was relieved to discover that the 21st century family have exactly the lightness of touch in their choice of sculptures that seems to have escaped previous generations of collectors. It’s not every sculpture collection that includes a mouse on a surfboard.
If you’re visiting, make sure you leave time to look round the nearby town of Stamford, which is lovely.
