Burghley House

Designed by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, and built between 1555 and 1587, Burghley House bears witness to the ambition and vision of the most powerful courtier of the early Elizabethan era. Designed by Cecil himself, in collaboration with the Dutch Renaissance architect and painter Hans Vredeman de Vries, Burghley's architecture and interiors reflect a blend of contemporary fashionable influences. Inside, where the state rooms house remarkable collections of furniture, textiles and old master paintings acquired over the centuries, Cecil's former Gothic-style kitchen sits alongside the magnificent Renaissance staircase and Italianate fireplace in the Great Hall.

From Burghley's creation as Cecil's “prodigious house” to its remarkable renovation and landscaping by Capability Brown in the 18th century, and on to the efforts to preserve the estate today, this book offers a rare and detailed insight into one of the jewels of the British landscape. It includes sumptuous photographs taken especially for the book and images from Burghley's private archives.