Burghley House

Burghley House stands in open parkland just south of Stamford, its red-brick walls rising from a landscape shaped by Capability Brown. Built between 1555 and 1587 for William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Elizabeth I, it is one of England’s finest Elizabethan prodigy houses. The house still belongs to the Cecil family, now through a preservation trust, and retains much of its original exterior. Inside, most rooms were remodelled before 1800, creating grand state apartments filled with art and furniture. Brown’s sweeping park includes a twenty-six-acre lake and the Lion Bridge, while the gardens include a modern sculpture trail and a garden of surprises. The interiors show the wealth of the Cecil family and their taste for Italian art. The chapel holds a Veronese altarpiece and works by Johann Carl Loth, while the Pagoda Room displays portraits of monarchs and family members. The Billiard Room features oval portraits of the 5th Earl’s drinking club. Antonio Verrio painted ceilings and walls, and Grinling Gibbons carved woodwork in the baroque rooms. The house also holds one of Europe’s earliest documented collections of Japanese export porcelain, inventoried in 1688. Visitors walk through thirty-five major rooms on two floors, passing lesser chambers and service areas. The so-called Hell Staircase and Heaven Room show Verrio’s ceiling paintings and later work by Thomas Stothard. Outside, the avenues, lake and bridge follow Brown’s 1750s designs, with recent planting restoring the landscape. The park hosts events such as the Burghley Horse Trials and hosts contemporary sculptures alongside historic features.